Victoria Gasparyan – Personnel Manager | Corinthia Hotel
St Petersburg

Victoria Gasparyan – Personnel Manager | Corinthia Hotel
St Petersburg

First and foremost, let me thank you for this interview and congratulate you on your interesting and important project.
I will celebrate my 10th anniversary in the field of human resource management in a month. It’s been an honor for me to work in such leading organizations in various spheres as Gold’s Gym, Public Television Company of Armenia, Radisson Blu companies.
At the beginning of 2018, I had the great opportunity to join the Corinthia Hotel Chain located in the heart of St. Petersburg as an HR manager. I should note that the hotel that has 388 rooms and 17 conference halls for business meetings was recognized as Russia’s leading conference hotel by the World Travel Awards in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and I am sure this year too. Of course, this experience can’t be compared to any other experience considering the business volume of the hotel. We were also one of the few hotels that had the opportunity to host teams from different countries during the FIFA World Cup. It was a very busy, responsible and at the same time fun period.
Every market has its own peculiarities, but the thing that is repeated almost everywhere is the lack of professionals in the market. Despite the multimillion workforces, hotels are “struggling” for every professional. As an advantage of the Russian market, I will mention the abundance of work (if there is a wish to work you can’t stay without work even for one day) and the employee protection by the law, which unfortunately is still not in a satisfactory condition in Armenia.
The advantage of the Armenian market is the natural hospitality and tremendous potential – the cuisine, nature, the history that surely will soon make us one of the most popular travel destinations. The working day passes in one moment. In addition that I am responsible for the staff recruitment (running the process of recruitment for at least 20 vacancies), we also deal with a variety of tasks/requests/ inquiries related to the employees, state institutions and so on with our HR team during the day. We also organize various events to make daily life of our employees more enjoyable, for example, an evening with the theme of the Venice carnival night, with the participation of professional actors and TV hosts, summer bbq-party, New Year performance for children with the participation of Santa Claus and Snow Maiden and many other events that require enough time and effort. However, being in a company that carries the best values and is surrounded by devotees of their work, it only remains to enjoy every moment, which I have been doing for already 10 years.
As I mentioned, the lack of staff is typical both for the Armenian and Russian hotel industry, but this fact should remain unnoticed for the guests. On the one hand, it is certainly very convenient to take advantage of such an opportunity when there is a weak spot in the service field, but don’t forget that such employee does not carry the hotel’s value system and history. The employee can work here today, tomorrow at another restaurant, and in this case, a great responsibility lies on the shoulders of the managers, who must prepare the worker in advance, before releasing into the “field”. On the other hand, taking into consideration, for example, the seasonality of the Armenian market, outstaffing is a good tool in terms of effectively managing the salary fund. The problem is that such companies also have a lack of staff, and during the high season they can’t provide the continuity of services as well.
I think that from the perspective of profitability outstaffing is one of the spheres that have a future in Armenia.

Catalina Susan – General Manager of Armenia Marriott Hotel, Yerevan

Catalina Susan – General Manager of Armenia Marriott Hotel, Yerevan

What, in your opinion, are the main skills needed to run a successful hotel?
First of all, you need to be knowledgeable of all the hotel activities, and this you can get with experience. So, I strongly believe that a general manager should have experience working in different departments of a hotel. So, in my case, I worked most of my career, about 16 years in the hotel finance department, but the last two years I was involved with the work of other departments as well, in order to get more experience and more exposure.
Concerning the skills, I’d say you need to be strong, as there are always various challenges, life in a hotel is not easy, and something inevitably pops up and it needs to be solved.
You also need to be hardworking, as you need to dedicate all of yourself to the life in a hotel because when you try to split it in another direction as well, it gets extremely difficult.
And last but not least, you need to be very flexible to adapt quickly to new environments, people, culture, and if you’re not open to something new, you probably will fail as a manager.
What are the biggest challenges a hotel owner/general manager can expect to face?
To be honest, here in Armenia I face more challenges then I did in the previous hotels I worked in, for example in the European Union conditions, even the legislation is totally different from further east. This Marriott is not an easy property. The biggest challenge, I would say, right now is finding suppliers in the current market, as there aren’t that many options here, and surprisingly for me, some supplier does not want to work with Marriott.
It is also difficult to find outsource companies, which is one of the options for running the property with higher profit. And it’s much easier to work with outsourcing companies and hire them during the high season, and the other seasons you just base your work on your regular staff. Also, it is difficult to work in unfair conditions, for example, AirB&B is doing an unfair competition, I’d say, and a lot of customers prefer to go there instead of the hotels, despite the fact that they have different conditions. A lot of people do get disappointed, that whatever is shown in the picture isn’t a reality most of the time, but still, for the first experience they prefer something other than a hotel.
In Armenia it is difficult to find employees because bright minds and good professionals have chosen to leave Armenia, most of them work in Russia. So, whenever we have an opening, it gets really difficult. Turnover is not so big, but for some departments, like front office, it is indeed very high, and we face the issue of hiring people, training them, and consecutively they do not stay long with us, and instead move to another hotel with a higher position, or maybe another Marriott property. The majority of them say that it is a difficult job, but it really is not, and if you really want to grow in that company you need to start from the bottom.
Sure thing, as a General Manager you will most definitely be stressed out most of the time, but it is important not to show it because you will stress the others as well. And so, I try to keep calm all the time, and you will hardly see me upset.
Please describe a typical day of a general manager of a large chain hotel.
The typical day is very busy, usually, I plan my week at the weekend, but it never goes as planned, I only manage to get some 40% done.
I start my morning in the gym at 6.30, I go there 3-4 times a week, this refreshes me to have a long and busy day. Then I do a touring of the hotel, starting with the breakfast area, talking to the customers, I also come to the executive lounge, where we have our repetitive guests and VIPs, and sometimes I spend a lot of time here chatting with them. Next, I check the conference area to see what the events for the day are, whether everything is prepared, then I go through the lobby area and afterward I spend some time talking to the staff.
One or two times a week I pass by all the departments, I greet the employees, find out how they feel, whether they need something. Whenever we have a difficult or busy day I find it especially useful talking to the staff as they may feel overwhelmed, and while talking to them I try to encourage them and make them feel a little bit better.
During the day I do have a lot of meetings, internal meetings with my staff, like selling strategy meetings, I try to catch up with my emails, but I usually end up doing this after my working hours when I am at home, and twice a week I take Russian lessons, I want to learn Russian, I think it will help me in my future career.
What advice would you give to prospective hotel owners/general managers?
First, they need to pay attention to the staff they are hiring, because it is important to hire the right people, and not to be very “cheap”, because some people choose to go for young and inexperienced staff, of course, it is very important to hire young people to give them the chance to build their career, but it is very important to have experienced and skilled staff as well. Marriott is very good at it, because they bring people from other hotels for key positions, as these people know all the rules and procedures. Also, they need to be patient, in the beginning especially, as it might be difficult to teach all the procedures, rules and standards (if it is a branded hotel), if it is not, you set out your own procedures and rules. They need to pay attention to how they choose their suppliers and be very meticulous about everything, even the smallest detail because if you compromise quality and as a result, the customer isn’t satisfied and their impression of your hotel isn’t good, they are not going to come back. So, I can say that the suppliers directly impact the hotel’s guest satisfaction. And last but not least, be dedicated to your work and be aware of everything going on in each area/department of your hotel, you don’t have to show that you know everything, but it is good to be aware of it. And one bonus advice, try to always learn something new, I constantly learn, I also learn from other hotel’s experiences as well, because we meet occasionally with other general managers of hotels in Armenia and share experiences.
You have experience working in several countries. Could you tell us what is unique about working in Marriott in Armenia?
In Armenia the people are different than in other countries, I worked in. They are very warm, and they have hospitality in their blood, they like to talk to other people. The people made me feel home right away, despite the fact that my friends who learned I was coming to work in Armenia would exclaim, “Where are you going? It’s the end of the world’.
I actually knew a lot about Armenia before even coming here, because I am also orthodox and I knew Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as their official religion. So, I always wanted to come here for a vacation, but I never really had the time. So, I got very excited when I learned I am coming here to work.
Another unique thing is the Marriott property itself it is landmark itself, everybody knows it, it is in a very central position, all the diaspora knows about this property, and this keeps our customers loyal. When you think of a hotel in Yerevan, you think at Armenia Marriott Hotel.
Please tell us when and how your journey in hospitality began.
It started in June 2000, in JW Marriott in Bucharest, Romania (I am Romanian), I started as an assistant of the director of finance after other 6 years experience in other two companies, as I was graduating from university with a major in Finance, bookkeeping, so this is my main field. I worked for almost 16 years in finance. In 2006 I moved to Marriott Warsaw, and it is the biggest Marriott property in Europe with 523 rooms. I was Assistant Director of Finance for only one year, then I came back to Bucharest to take the position of Director of Finance, and for almost 9 years I stayed in that position. The latest 4 years of my career in Finance I was again in Warsaw Marriott, and that hotel is kind of a “ramp”, so who starts working there, they usually continue working as a General Manager, because you learn a lot working in that hotel. In 2016 February I started my first position as a General Manager in Courtyard by Marriott in Budapest, it’s an upscale Courtyard, not a standard one. I stayed only one year and four months there and was later asked to move to my current position in Armenia. And I’ve been here since July 2017.
Please tell us what it is like to be a female general manager in such a heavily male-dominated sphere.
It is actually very good being a female General Manager, and Marriott, in general, is trying to empower and promote women, as they are more attentive to details, they are watching differently than men, and they keep better relationships with guests/customer. But in general, it is a bit different, and especially in branded hotels, there are very few female general managers there.
I myself try to always support not only women, but also man, and wherever I work, I try to push my staff to get higher positions, to inspire them. And I think when the general manager is a woman it always inspires others in the company to raise their ambitions. Becoming a general manager was always my desire, I had the option of choosing to go work for the Marriott headquarters Finance department, but I decided to follow my dream of becoming a General Manager.

Armin Eberhard, General Manager of Renaissance Moscow Monarch Centre Hotel.

Armin Eberhard, General Manager of Renaissance Moscow Monarch Centre Hotel.

Please tell us about your journey to the hotel and hospitality industry.

I was born in the northwest of Germany and started my career in Berlin in one of the major international brands. I had a great opportunity to train in various disciplines as part of the vocational program including rooms division, food & beverage, housekeeping, accounting, sales and marketing, and others. My initial training gave me a great overview of how large operations are structured and together with the brand I could progress my career in diverse destinations such as London and New York. Later, outside the big brand, I had an opportunity to gain experience in the resort market in the Caribbean. Prior to coming to Moscow, I worked in Prague, the Czech Republic, and Budapest, Hungary for a European operator with large conference hotels.
What are the specifications and characteristics of a business hotel?
The needs and requirements of an individual business traveler or a corporate conference attendee are always the centers of our activities. Most important to this community is comfort and ease of access to facilities with timely and efficient customer service. Often tight schedules and meeting agendas do not allow these guests much time for discoveries on their own. That is why our Navigators lead the way, so our guests can make the most of their visit on and off work.

Could you please tell us about Renaissance Moscow Monarch Centre Hotel’s uniqueness?
Besides being one of Moscow latest additions to the conference travel hospitality sector, the hotel distinguishes itself with several unique selling points. Let me start with the accommodation; spacious rooms of a minimum of 35 square meters arranged for comfort, with Marriott standard bedding quality and modern bathrooms, including bathtubs and walk-in showers. With its inventory of 366 units, the Renaissance Monarch Moscow hotel offers different accommodation levels to suit all travel needs next to the deluxe king or twin bedrooms. We offer 45 suites from junior or 1-bedroom corner suites of 55sq. m. up to presidential suites of 160sq. m., all with separation between bedroom and living room.
For guests on project work, the Renaissance offers 40 apartments at 75sq. m, including kitchenettes and excellent full service, stay solutions with many services included. The second highlight is our Duplex Executive lounge offering private breakfast, sweeping views over the city and a relaxation space throughout the day with pre-dinner cocktail food and drinks in the evening. Another excellent attribute for the business traveler is our spacious and impressive Health Club. Located on almost 1,600 square meters, it has a workout and wellness space with a large, fully equipped gym, pool, jacuzzi, sauna, spa and a group training room hosting a wide variety of trainer-led activities. The core of the hotel is formed of our 2,500sq. m. of banqueting and catering floor with 12 modern and flexible meeting rooms surrounding 1,000sq. m. exhibition space and a welcoming lobby.

Do you agree with the opinion of “20% of the success of the hotel depends on location and the building with its interior and exterior and 80% depends on people who manage the hotel”?
Location is often a paramount decision for a frequent individual traveler. The sheer size of the city demands the planning ahead of travel requirements within the city during the stay. Residing on one side of the city and commuting to the other side during a short stay period puts enormous pressure on schedules and extends travel time. However, the frequent individual business traveler is an expert customer in service evaluation and possesses a great experience to compare hotel products and services worldwide. To stand out and gain the loyalty of these valuable customers means we must train and focus the associates to recognize, welcome and serve the community with utter professionalism and courtesy. Especially here in Moscow travelers have great choices and only the unique, friendly and efficient approach of all team members will make a stay memorable and convince the customers to return.

What values or characteristics should a person have to join your team?
When we hire associates, we look for that special talent with a genuine interest in meeting and engaging with international travelers from all over the globe. The desire to communicate with and host these guests without any prejudice is the most important skill to fit into our team. We can teach you many technical skills, but we cannot create desire and natural curiosity. You need to be a good Navigator for our Discoverers and our guests.

What are your plans going forward?
Currently, we are in the process of introducing new banqueting facilities, adding 400sq. m. to our existing space. Following Marriott standard updates, we are renewing facilities and technical amenities, including a new TV system and WIFI infrastructure, keeping up with the digital development. Additionally, as the hotel celebrates its first decade in 2020, we are preparing a year of surprises and want to share this milestone event with our associates, clients, partners, and guests.

Salvatore Casarrubia – General Manager of Opera Suite Hotel, Yerevan

Salvatore Casarrubia – General Manager of Opera Suite Hotel, Yerevan

Mr. Casarrubia, taking into consideration your experience can you share some advice for managing a successful hotel.
First, to become a successful hotel, it is very important to have a motivated and professional staff. As an example, for an inspiring and motivating manager, we can take Jose Mourinho, a famous football coach. Maybe, he is not the best tactical coach in the world, but in my opinion, he is the best at motivating and making his players feel valued and appreciated. Following the same logic, I demand from myself to motivate my employees and put them in the position where they can do their best every day, and that is the way to help and empower them to grow professionally, to have new experiences every day, of course by providing the necessary conditions.
It is very important to understand that it is bilaterally effective both for the company and the employee. As a hotel, you can have the worst facilities, but if you have a motivated staff, you will have an advantage over your competitors with the quality of service your staff can provide.
Today I am more than happy to share my experience with my employees and colleagues, I am not jealous. I understand that sometimes it can be a little bit challenging, like in any other industry, working in the hotel has its ups and downs, but I am not talking from my side as Salvatore Casarrubia, I am telling it as a person with all this experience. I am asking my employees to trust my experience and when I tell them to do things in a certain way, I ensure that it will run very good.
Let me tell you also another thing. The position of a general manager is very delicate, you have to say when something is wrong and it is not personal. My goal is not to please everyone, that’s why from time to time I have to make decisions that some people will not like, but again as they say “nothing personal, just business”. My goal is to make sure that the company is running as it is supposed to run, also, of course, take care of my staff. But I must be sure that they are giving all the maximum for the company. You must be sure they are doing what you require.

You spoke about how you need to treat your employees and colleagues, tell us more about your views on how to treat customers.
As for the customers, my thought is following; never say no to the customer. I used to say to my employees, don’t reason with your pocket, because you never know who is standing in front of you. For sure when a customer asks for something very special, they know that they must pay. That is self-understanding. We should ensure that whatever is customer demanding, of course within the law, we are doing our best to provide it at the highest level possible.
When I came here, I introduced the Latin expression to my staff. “Vademecum” which means “Come with me”. That gives them guideline how I wish they treat each other and how they treat our guests. I don’t like to use the words customer or client; I prefer using Guest. In the past, there were no clients or customer, everybody was called GUEST. You must treat them as a friend, as someone you are hosting at your house. Hospitality is not only a job, but it is also a culture.
I understand that it is not easy, working as a waiter, barista or receptionist, for example, as you are serving people. But you don’t have to be embarrassed because you are serving someone, you need to understand that you are providing service, which is a different approach and different mentality. I can see some differences comparing Armenia and Italy in that sense. Waiter understands that he or she is not just serving, but they are providing professional service.
Speaking about professionalism and different approaches, what do you think about professional education in this industry in our country?
Taking to account the problems mentioned above I think It should be very interesting to have a hospitality school in Armenia. For example, if we discuss the case of Switzerland (the country where I was born) they have mountains, beautiful nature, agriculture, banks but very little tourism (compared to other industries). But they have the best tourism and hospitality education in the world, they have the best private schools for our industry. In those schools they provide education for general managers, financial managers, revenue managers, restaurant managers, housekeeping managers, chefs. They are to pay for that, and when they finish school, they already have work. Young Armenians should understand and give importance to professional education. They have a lot of opportunities and chances to build their career in your country.
What do you think about new opening hotels in the country and their management and pricing strategies?
Yerevan is a very beautiful and welcoming city, and I am very happy with the new opening hotels, but in the same time, I am worried that new hotels are making damping, not all I mean. Damping is very dangerous and could be damage the market, it needs a long time and it will be very hard to recover that. I am not scared about the opening of new 5-star hotels, I am glad about it. Normally, they should sell higher than me 4-star hotel (smiling). My position in the market could be a little bit less comparing 5-star hotel. I took many challenges in my life. I had some losses and wins of course. Here I have a very beautiful 4-star hotel and very motivated, professional staff. I feel very confident that we will make a difference not with our walls but with our staff and service that we can offer.
Tell us a little bit more about one day at work as a general manager.
As a general manager, I can come even at 10:00 am. But I am I usually arrive around 08:30, I am not here just to sit at my office and check numbers from the previous day. I go up to the breakfast room. I am checking if everything is fine and I am having a walk in the hotel to ensure that everyone is doing their job at the right time. It doesn’t mean that I am some kind of policeman or I am checking on someone. The message is that I am here and I give example to everyone by doing that.
Can you share your work experience?
My previous work was a big hotel with 140 rooms and spacious meeting rooms, we had 1500 sqm ballroom, it was situated close to Bologna. It was old, like many Italian hotels. I understood that this 1500 sqm ballroom, can and must be our advantage. In the case of that hotel, if meeting rooms work, all the services will work as well.
Also, I worked in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in Florence for 3 years and Toscana as well. And I had a different kind of experience. I managed a business hotel, a thermal hotel with a big spa that operates mainly for the leisure segment.
I have started my career in this field in 1993 with a very important chain: Accor. I worked for many years in this chain and it is a very important background. I grew up as a professional with Novotel. I worked for Novotel Bologna for several years starting from the reception. I had a very good General Manager Mr. Paolo Rier, He was the General Manager of Novotel Hotels in Italy at that time. He gave me the opportunity to grow up until Front Office Manager. I decided to leave the Accor chain and continue my experience by myself.

Hayk Sahakyan – Director of Sales and Marketing at The Alexander, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Yerevan

Hayk Sahakyan – Director of Sales and Marketing at The Alexander, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Yerevan

In the Armenian market, we can see that there is not a straight and right segmentation of hotels as products and nowadays there are hotels which consider themselves as luxury ones. How would you describe the real meaning of a luxury hotel?
Each hotel aims to be considered as the best one, it is the obvious desire. The luxury segment is the new-born definition in Armenia in general and in the hospitality industry in particular. As the first and only international luxury hotel in the country, we represent standards, approach, and vision that the luxury hotels are to have. In my opinion, luxury is the best, limited, sophisticated and meaningful attitude to the regular services and goods, similar to the reason to separate classical music from the rest. Numerous stories behind each detail, exceeding and anticipating the needs and feelings of our guests, highest standards of quality and service combined with exceptional design, location and features make the hotel luxury. The hospitality in Armenia has been developing for more than two decades. Travelers exploring our country represent various segments and there is no need to aim every each of them. Because of the low volume of the market, properties are trying to adapt and make the best out of acting as affordable, MICE, family, business, group and luxury hotels at the same time. Which in return damages country image, destabilizes competition, destroys segmentation. I believe there is room for each segment in the hospitality industry. We just need to clearly understand which one do we represent, who do we target and which properties do we compete with.
During the low season, we can see that some hotels are going into price damping. What do you think about it? Why is it happening?
I would think of three main, simple reasons. First, from November to February the market suffers from the lack of business in every segment, properties need to operate, pay salaries, costs and fees. That is why they target everything they are able to get some business. Second, is that properties are not confident of what to expect in terms of economic, political and social development of the country. In these conditions, business always aims at a short-term income strategy. Finally, some strategy decision makers of the hotels do not always realize the structure of the market and drop the rates lower than their below-tier colleagues. It brings to the domino-effect rate drops, Armenia presents its product in a tender with the daily price difference of 10-25 USD between 3 and 5-star hotels. You may guess the perception of the country as the tourism destination yourself. Moreover, it creates issues with future pricing strategy as you may have hard times explaining to your partners why increased the rate twice in May or September. Consolidated market strategy, a clear understanding of the segments, respect towards each other and hospitality community creation will bring us to much better results, I believe.
What advice would you give to the young generation who are going to work in the hotel and hospitality industry? What are the main criteria someone should follow?
There is no precise criteria, nor key for success. I have one advice for the people who have decided to join the hospitality. You need to love what you are doing, love to make people happy, to make their special day unforgettable. You simply need to love to host guests in your apartment. Each of you represents our country and only after the place you work. If it is all about you, welcome aboard! When you are aboard, the hard work time will come. Every single day you will need to learn something new, to become better and to pass your expertise to the team you are working with. I truly hope to see a proper hospitality school in Armenia in the nearest future, where young people would become professionals supported by the restaurant, hotel and tour business specialists for the better hospitality in Armenia.

The Hotelier LLC presented the second issue of its “Hotelier Magazine” which is devoted to covering the ever-growing hospitality industry in Armenia and not only. The event took place at Armenia Marriott Hotel and it brought together over 130 hotel industry executives, representatives of adjacent spheres both governmental and private.

Catalina Susan, the general manager of Armenia Marriott Hotel, Yerevan as well as Susanna Safaryan, Chairperson of State Tourism Committee, RA spoke of the importance of having such an initiative which would bring together the whole industry and would contribute to its development.

Donara Harutyunyan – HR Consultant at HOTELIER LLC

Donara has been working in the industry since 2015 and has some very interesting insights to share with us. Today we are curious about HR tendencies in Armenian hotels that she observed during the past few years.

As a professional in the sphere of Human Resources will you please describe the benefits of working in hotel industry?
Hotel industry is very different from others. I believe a good hotel’s main and most important goal is to make its guests feel home away from their own home. And the hotel staff can also be considered as guests of the hotel, so they can also feel at home at a vacation, at a party, at a special event and at work at the same time. And sometimes the work-life life balance is kept even without leaving one’s workplace.
Trust me, it’s very easy to fall in love with the hotel business and “falling in love” is exactly the word for it.
Of course, all those advantages have also their side effects, because it can sometimes become tricky to draw a clear line between work and personal life. Here is where the HR manager should come to help the staff with that tricky task.

What are the top departments people apply for in hotels in Armenia?
It’s mostly front office, sales, and curiously enough any position that has the word “manager” in the title. Frankly speaking, I have noticed that there is a huge misconception in our society concerning the word manager. People associate it with higher then mid-range salary and less responsibilities, while the reality is different.

Which department of the hotel is the most difficult hire people for even if the offered salary is good?
I’d say the hardest are Food and Beverage and Housekeeping. Good confectioners, cooks, waiters, maidens and cleansers, and particularly managers who have experience in F&B and HKS. I believe the matter is that we do not have specialized schools who would prepare these specialists. I do think this is a big issue we need to start tackling now.

What characteristics do you pay attention as a Human Resource professional during the interview?
For me the most important trait is punctuality, which firstly means not being late for an interview, and secondly means not coming to the interview half an hour earlier than the arranged time. Lately punctually has acquired another, third, meaning which is to at least show up for the interview.
The rest obviously depends on the position I am interviewing for and the HR strategy the company is implementing. For example, if I am interviewing a sales specialist, I value communication skills above all, and for an accountant I won’t value those skills as much. And if the company HR strategy is people oriented, then I would hire promising young people, who do not have much experience, but are very talented, and putting some resources on teaching and training them will get us the results we want for the business.
But if the HR strategy is profit oriented, then more aggressive recruiting is required, which basically means finding the best professionals in the field to get desired results in a short period of time. And it is important to highlight, that the HR strategy is directly linked to the overall business strategy of the company.

How you keep balance between the management of the hotel and the staff?
Now I will be talking about a very unpleasant topic for most employers. Certainly, one of the main purposes of an HR manager is to make and maintain the balance between the management and the staff by acting as the communication channel between them and trying to make them both feel good, or at least not to disappoint both parties. I would say this is the most difficult aspect of our job, considering the attitudes of most of the employers nowadays.
And the balance is maintained by listening to your employee, the keyword here is “LISTENING”. If you as an employer hire an HR specialist to discover and solve the issues in the company, and at the end of the day you reject whatever has been discovered and the possible solutions suggested, means you didn’t really need that specialist, but then you have much deeper problems as a business owner which you don’t even realize yet. It is important that this culture is changed in our society.

What tactics should be implemented to solve problems?
If we are considering the HoReCa industry at large, I already talked about the problem we have with the lack of professionals, and I’d say the ultimate solution would be to have some kind of an institution, school, whatever you want to call it, which will make professionals, and not just teach them, but put them to practice in the field. This also means that the teachers shouldn’t be just people who have read a lot of books about HoReCa but are practicing specialists in that field who can share their experience with the new generation of HoReCa professionals.
If we take the hotel business separately then we also see issues with the salaries as well. The salaries in hotels are not competitive with those in the HoReCa sphere in general. A simple example, if a waiter in hotel can earn maximum say 170,000 AMD (net) salary, in other restaurants they can earn 300,000-450,000 AMD (net) salary, and plus do less work. And it is very rare that a candidate chooses the first scenario, even though there are more career perspectives working in a hotel.
In sum, I would add that even though there are too many problems in these field, which we can talk about for ever, I think that because we have very talented and promising youth here, the problems will get solved one by one. I very much hope so.

The Hotelier LLC presented the first issue of its “Hotelier Magazine” which is devoted to covering the ever-growing hospitality sphere in Armenia and not only. The event took place at The Alexander, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Yerevan and it brought together over 100 hotel industry executives, representatives of adjacent spheres both governmental and private.

Co-founder and CEO Vrezh Madoyan launched the event with his opening speech. He particularly said, “The hotel and hospitality sphere is growing with incredible speed in our country and that’s what sparked the idea of having a magazine which would cover the news, tendencies, the biggest events and what’s important the people that work in this industry”. Hayk Voskanyan, the co-founder of Hotelier, highlighted that their vision is that Hotelier would enable the connection between the companies in the hospitality sphere, which would help them solve issues that the sphere faces more efficiently. Jean Cadars, the general manager of The Alexander, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Yerevan as well as Gevorg Orbelyan of Yerevan Municipality Tourism department spoke of the importance of having such an initiative which would bring together the whole industry and would contribute to its development.

ARTUR VOSKANYAN – Hospitality Expert

How do you evaluate the dynamics of the development of the hospitality industry in Armenia in recent years?

The development of the hospitality industry in our country can conditionally be divided into two stages.
The first stage can be considered the period from the end of the nineties to 2001, when the government of Armenia began to independently develop the field of inbound tourism after obtaining independence. According to the data of 2001, the main amount of accommodation facilities was concentrated in the capital, and according to the experts, the number of beds in Yerevan hardly exceeded 2,000. The circumstances in the regions of Armenia were much worse. It was practically impossible to find a hotel or a guesthouse in any regional center or city that will meet the expectations of foreign tourists and will be on the level of international standards.
The second stage is closely connected to the increased flow of inbound tourism, including from European countries and from Russia. In response to the growing demand for Armenia, leading hotel tour operators started to enter the market of accommodation facilities in Armenia. In parallel with the increased number of hotels in Yerevan, hotels and guest houses began to be opened in the regions of Armenia. In this regard, such cities of our country as Gyumri, Dilijan, Vayk, Tsaghkadzor, Goris, as well as Stepanakert and Shushi can offer their guests accommodation services that will meet the expectations of the tourists.

Tell us, please, what kind of problems exist in the hospitality industry, as well as in the hotel business, particularly in our country.

Hospitality industry is a service driven field where properly selected and well-trained staff counts for a lot. This is determined by the fact that the main object of sales is considered to be the impressions of our guests. Tourists who visit Armenia and stay overnight in hotels should firstly get impressions exceeding their expectations. In this respect, the employees, and primarily the line staff of the hotels who communicate with the guests directly, are a kind of “ambassadors of hospitality in Armenia. The way our guests are welcomed, served and escorted, how professionally and competently are solved the inescapable problems in the service sector the more our guests share their positive and negative experiences and impressions of their stay in our country when they return to their countries. This directly affects the choice not only of the country, but also of a specific hotel for new guests. That is why I give a very significant role to the employee trainings.

How are held the employee trainings for hotels in Armenia?

A number of universities in Armenia have faculties preparing recruits for the field of tourism and service. Nevertheless, unfortunately, there is yet no specialization in hotel business. Trainings of specialists for hotels is also held at the level of specialized secondary education in appropriate schools and colleges. As I know, here they train middle and lower-level staff: maids, waiters and cooks. However, both for university education and for the secondary special, the problem that remains is the issue of the skills and practice of graduates. Unfortunately, graduates who come to work in a hotel do not have sufficient experience and practical skills of communicating with guests, as well as working with appropriate computer programs of managing and booking rooms. Different organizations are now engaged in solving this issue, for instance, the German GIZ foundation together with the Ministry of Science and Education. However, the complete solution of this issue is possible only in a systematic, productive cooperation between educational institutions and hotels.
In spite of the existing problems, I still assess the situation in this industry as positive and tending to develop. In order to assert my opinion with facts, I can note an increasing number of tourists visiting Armenia that according to various assessment is approximately 10-15% annually.
In addition to the undeniable merits of the national tour operators and agents, we need to understand that no efforts of the private sector alone can achieve results if the tourist is dissatisfied with the level of service in hotels. However, we know that tourists who come to Armenia for the most part share their good impressions about the warm-hearted and qualified service of the staff. When tourists from various countries are asked numerous questions about their impressions of Armenia, they reply that they are taking with them warm, bright impressions of this magnificent country and wonderful Armenian hospitality.