Ashot Parsyan – Thai Penthouse, Thai SPA, Thai Atmosphere

Please tell us about your success story. How did you come up with this idea, how long have you been working on Thai SPA?
Well, the idea came to me and my friend Vardan Asryan when we were traveling to Thailand. To be honest, I had never visited any type of SPA center, have never had a massage therapy before going to Thailand, and there I had my very first massage experience. The attractive thing for me in Thai massage is that it’s was very different from what we can call the “classic massage”, I’d say it’s more athletic, it uses a lot more stretching, more pressure, etc.
We opened our first Thai Massage center in 2012. Our idea was to make Thai massage a type of entertainment, rather than healing/medical, so we wanted to make it different from what people traditionally associate the word massage with.
And we put a lot of effort for making a very special place which has nice and cozy atmosphere, where you can come with a friend or with your partner. Actually the whole concept is built on the idea that massage can be something enjoyable rather than medical, especially for people who think about massage as a boring activity, and having it together with your partner will fill in all the necessary gaps here. Of course, I personally know a lot of people who say they prefer a solo massage where they can just relax and enjoy themselves, which is also totally fine.
Talking about success, I’d say the key point here was that we were doing everything ourselves – me and my friend Vardan Asryan were the co-founders, we were the drivers, marketing and sales representatives, when needed we were also the janitors, the builders, designers etc., we did everything ourselves, except massage, for which we hired and invited experienced and certified Thai therapists. This helped us save a lot of money in the beginning, and after we were already successful and not buried in financial issues, we opened the second SPA. Soon after that, we got invitations from different hotels. The first one was Opera Suite hotel. They asked us to develop a SPA concept for them, and we went for the same concept we already had, but this time we opted for a more luxurious version, and we had a chance to improve some of the problems we already had in our SPAs, such as locations in the city, small working space, etc. The Thai spa in Opera Suit hotel was a huge success and it brought us new partnerships with other hotels such as DoubleTree by Hilton, Messier 53, Hyatt.

Can you tell us what advantages or perhaps disadvantages there are when cooperating with hotels?
With independent hotels it’s quite easy, we have full freedom of decisions, and we want to do something or maybe change something, we just do it, that’s exactly the case with Opera Suit hotel. But, for example, with Hilton or Hyatt, it’s a different story, because the brand representative should confirm everything. In general, even any type of promotion should be discussed and approved by the brand and in that case, you lose a lot of flexibility and it becomes a bit harder to move forward with your business in the same way you used to. But there is a good side to it too, because the brand actually gives some kind of a guarantee for quality to our customers even before they enter your SPA, also the number of visitors is affected, as the hotel guests can use your services as well, of course this depends greatly, there are hotels where majority of the customers are from the outside, and in other hotels majority are from inside the hotel. One very big disadvantage of having a spa center in a hotel is that the price goes up, and it’s not just a random rise in the price, but in that price range you are able to fit in additional services as well, like jacuzzi, tea session, pool or a hot tub, so that the guest doesn’t get a sense of wasting their money, but they do feel it was worth it because of the additional services they can use.

Маргарита Геворгян – ивент менеджер в “DoubleTree by Hilton Yerevan City Centre”

Мы знаем, что помимо 176-и очень свежих и комфортабельных номеров, прекрасного бара и ресторана, великолепного СПА-центра, вы располагаете также залами для конференций и заседаний. Не могли бы вы рассказать об их возможностях и какие мероприятия могут проводиться в отеле “DoubleTree by Hilton”?
Фактически мы имеем 8 залов для заседаний разных размеров. Они вмещают от 10 до 300 человек. Обычно мы проводим различные конференции, семинары, трейнинги, вебинары (благодаря нашему быстрому интернет-соединению), гала-ужины (до 80 человек), свадьбы, дни рождения и т. д.
Наша команда всегда рада предоставить отличный сервис и сделать день нашего клиента особенным во всех значениях этого слова.

Как долго вы работаете в гостиничном бизнесе и индустрии Гостеприимства?
Я работаю в гостиничном бизнесе уже 3,5 года. Все началось с “Hilton”, что является для меня отличным опытом.

Чтобы работать ивент-менеджером в отеле, нужно быть очень гибким по времени и быть доступным 24 часа в сутки. Вы придерживаетесь этому правилу?
Вы абсолютно правы в плане гибкости, и, конечно же, требуется также быть стрессоустойчивым, так как часто приходится менять сроки, некоторые пункты в меню в последнюю минуту. Что касается доступности в течение 24 часов, то так как я работаю в гостиничном бизнесе, то люди уже считают, что мы доступны круглые сутки. Благодаря моей работе, вся деятельность по организации мероприятий проводится вечером, иногда и ночью, так как мне лучше узнать о всех деталях и любых вопросах заранее ночью и попытаться устранить их, чем прийти утром и столкнуться с проблемами, которые будет труднее решить за пару часов. Это помогает легче организовать работу.

Отель также имеет удобную крышу, балкон на 4-м этаже и красивый вестибюль. Интересно узнать, организуете ли вы там мероприятия или нет?
Да, мы действительно организовали и продолжаем организовывать действительно хорошие фестивали в обоих пространствах. Поскольку на 4-ом этаже расположена открытая терраса, мы обычно устраиваем концерты с приемом около 100 человек. На террасе 4-ого этажа удобно посидеть, так как там расположены диваны и стулья, к тому же там есть наши синие окна с красивым дизайном, где люди всегда фотографируются (наверняка для соц. сетей).
Также в вестибюле мы организуем приемы, гала-ужины с круглыми столами, концерты (зависит от количества гостей). Зимой мы украшаем наш вестибюль, как в этом году, и с радостью приглашаем людей провести свою корпоративную вечеринку вместе с нами.

Margarita Gevorgyan – Event Manager at DoubleTree by Hilton Yerevan City Centre

Besides having 176 very fresh and comfortable rooms, wonderful bar and restaurant, glorious SPA center we know that you have also conference and meeting rooms. Could you please describe the capabilities of the meeting rooms and what type of event DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel can host?
Actually, we have 8 meeting rooms; each of them has different sizes. We can accommodate from 10 to 300 people in our meeting halls. Usually we host various conferences, seminars, trainings, webinars (due to our fast Internet connection), gala dinners (up to 80 people), weddings, birthdays, etc. Our team is always excited to provide excellent service and make our client’s day special by all means.

How long you have been already working in hospitality and hotel industry?
I’ve been working in hotel industry more than 3 years now and it has started with Hilton, which is great experience for me.

To work as an Event Manager at a hotel one should be very flexible in timing and be ready to be available 24 hours. Do you follow the rule?
You are completely right about being flexible and for sure one should be stress-resistant, because many times it happens that we need to change timing, some menu items on the last minute. About being available for 24 hours, as I work in a hotel industry, people already think that we’re available for 24 hours. Due to my work, event set ups are done during evening, sometimes nighttime too, so I better know the details of any issues in the night and try to fix it, rather than to arrive in the morning and have the problem which would be difficult to solve after some hours. That helps organize the work easily.

The hotel also has a comfortable roof, balcony in 4th floor and beautiful lobby. Interesting to know whether you also organize event there or not?
Yes, we do so, we organized and we continue organizing really nice fests in both spaces. Since 4th floor terrace is open air, we usually organize concerts, receptions in there for around 100 people. The 4th floor terrace is comfortable to sit, because we have sofas and chairs out there and also, we have our beautifully designed blue windows, where people always take photos (for sure for social media :).
Likewise in the Lobby, we organize receptions, gala dinners with round tables, concerts as well (depends on the number of people). in winter we decorate our Lobby, as this year, and people are welcome to organize their corporate party with us.