The capital's Mercure Kyiv Congress hotel hosted one of the top events for hoteliers and restaurateurs in the country. Participants and business coaches of the hotel forum shared their knowledge, experience, and contacts in two lecture halls, spacious coworking spaces, and cozy areas for communication.

Olga Vanina, organizer of the III all-Ukrainian hotel forum, head of the "Academy of hospitality» magazine:

— I note that the forum is growing. This year we hosted representatives of Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kryvyi Rih, and Zaporizhia regions. We are in the middle of the business season and we will only know the results of our event at the beginning of next year.

However, for us, the organizers, it gave an understanding of what team strength and cohesion are. It is surprisingly pleasant when you see that every member of the team can help a participant, speaker, or guest at any time. We had 8 charismatic moderators working in our lecture halls. At other forum sites, the team also acted as a well-established mechanism.

I note that we took into account the feedback of participants from previous years and their feedback helped us a lot. In particular, this year our partners’ workplaces have turned into bright photo zones.

"BKP trading house" offered guests to "lie down" on the best bed linen in the breaks between lectures.

Representatives of our company communicated with guests at an improvised reception desk.

Representatives of NEWBY London treated participants to delicious tea, organizing a kind of buffet line with various types of aromatic drink.

The photo zone of the ice partner looked like this.

Of course, this had a positive effect on the forum itself: people took a lot of photos, accompanied their posts with hashtags, and left compliments. Within two days after the forum, Facebook and instagram were bursting with thanks and feedback from our guests.

Nevertheless, the forum showed us and the participants how much business can and should be developed in Ukraine. Therefore, we plan to make the IV all-Ukrainian hotel forum more large-scale, interesting, bright and unforgettable. We want as many companies as possible to join us, whose products or services would be useful to hoteliers and develop the hotel business in a high-quality way.

The topics covered by the speakers are extensive. During the two lecture days, they talked about the brand as the basis of the service strategy (Valentin Panyuta, brand leader of the creative company FEDORIV), service intellectualization (Elena Shamrina, partner of Pakharenko & partners), delegation as part of the implementation of the service strategy (Yulia Boyko, senior business coach, BogushTime time management Studio), complex solutions for generating and converting leads into effective transactions (Natalia Protsyuk, practicing Internet marketer in the tour industry) , and other important aspects of HoReCa.

We won’t publish all the speeches of business coaches. We’ll share with you the theses of some speakers.

Vitaly Shvaltsvalder, architect, CEO of IMLA arhitects, exclusive partner of Ribas Hotels Group management company.

Topic: Emotional architecture of the hotel as a way to attract guests. What tools can help you make your hotel emotional?

— The emotional architecture of the hotel is a sense of the spirit of the place, a concept that permeates every detail, from the front door to the pillows on the bed in the room. These are impressions that guests receive during their stay at the hotel, memories that remain for a lifetime.

An emotional hotel brings people together. It has places where you want to meet, and new acquaintances give you a new experience.

Taking to an example the Pompano Beach Hotel of the Ribas Hotels Group. This beach hotel is designed to evoke a sense of style and a reference to the 50s. This idea permeates everything and can be traced in the theme music, design, and overall style. Guests will definitely remember this and want to come back again. Visitors will recommend this hotel to friends, leave reviews, not to mention photos in social networks, which will give it excellent advertising. Thus, an emotional hotel will leave its mark on the guest's soul.

By the way, at the moment, most of all, culture and lifestyle are influenced by two directions: a look into the past and into the future. Respect for the history of the place with the use of new technologies, or a combination of antique furniture and ultra-modern furnishings.

Lala Tarapakina, author of the book "A little magic journey" and the projects "Found in Ukraine", "Big hotel census", an expert on domestic tourism. As well as the heroine of the first issue of the corporate media Ribas. vol. 1. you can read The full text of the interview published in the magazine in our blog.

Topic: Non-obvious features of an ideal service with a limited budget: how to make people tell their friends about you.

— Some items are not worth anything in monetary terms. Just start the service BEFORE the guest arrives:

  • respond to reviews and messages in social networks and be sure to make calls;
  • ask the guest if they have figured out how to get to you;
  • if the guest paid with a personal card, to avoid misunderstandings, be sure to send them a confirmation from the hotel's email address.

If you help a guest with things, put a vase with seasonal flowers in the room, warm up the room in advance, take care of food for them, in case of their late arrival, they will remember your hotel and tell their friends about it.

And remember that service is something that continues even after the guest has left the hotel. Give the guest a pastry or water to take with them on the road, specify how they got there.

Remember that service is sometimes just a word.

Anna Medvedeva, HR Director of the Hilton Kyiv hotel.

Subject: Employees of the new generation.

— The world is on the verge of a global crisis in the labor market. The United States, Germany, France, Japan, and Australia will experience a significant shortage of qualified personnel as early as 2020.

That is why you need to be ready for a new generation of employees. To do this, you need to know what request they are guided by when searching for a job.

So, according to the research "Best employer, EY in Ukraine, 2017", the top 5 factors of employer attractiveness include:

  • The size of the salary and the image of the company, of course, on the first place, - said 70% of respondents
  • Personal and professional growth is as important for the next generation that it took an honorable second place. (62% of the vote)
  • Corporate culture is important for 60% of applicants, so this important factor should not be overlooked.
  • Career development is a prerequisite for 59% of respondents. It is worth noting that in the past years, this item was an order of magnitude higher on the scale of professional priorities.
  • 57% of candidates value international experience.

Oksana Marusich, certified business coach, service expert, certified coach (ICF).

Topic: evolution of consciousness in service transformation. Changes in the thinking and response of the modern generation. Formation of the service style and service behavior of the guest. A new perspective on learning and management.

— Understanding the concept of generational theory will help you not only manage your staff correctly, but also better understand the concepts of guests who stay in hotels.

People are tired of the standards of "excellence and success". They are tired of deception, public games, and insincerity. Today, the trend is character, naturalness, diversity, visibility, authenticity, authenticity. Teach your staff to be as human as possible towards your guests. Standards are important, but people who stay in hotels are sensitive to a sincere attitude. And if you leave him out of it, he won't come back to you.

Lyudmila Kalabukha, business coach, coach, writer, media expert, speaker of top business schools, author of the bestseller on negotiations "Start saying No", which was included in the top 10 best books of Ukraine 2017 in the nomination for the best book of Ukraine, entrepreneur.

Topic: how to turn no-customers into deals and purchases. Handling customer objections.

— We used to believe that the client is always right. And many entrepreneurs conduct business based on this opinion. More than twenty years of business activity have given us significant experience in dealing with various types of clients. And the main message that I send to those who I teach to sell correctly is to be guided not by "what people will say", but by understanding their borders, which cannot be allowed to go beyond, and, of course, by common sense. Here is a typical example that everyone who works in sales has encountered. You got a call, or a very fastidious customer came in. As a rule, he takes the soul out of the seller or Manager, he is promised all possible discounts and special conditions, at his request, they call the head office, consult with all senior managers, raise the collective in different parts of the country... and it's not the same for him. However, he calls almost every day with the same questions and leads the staff in a vicious circle again.

I recommend this method from Kalabahi. It's called "simulated failure from the client". Save it in your notes and always respond to similar clients as follows:

"Dear Ivan Ivanovich! We have considered all possible terms of cooperation. But unfortunately, nothing suits you. In order to save your time, we suggest contacting another company. (Pay special attention to the fact that you should only talk about it. Omit information about your effort, time, and nerve cells). They will choose what suits you and the conditions you want."

And advise them of their most ardent competitors.

What usually happens after that? Most customers say, " Why do you send us to others right away? I want you! Where do I sign? Where should I send the money?"

Why does it work like this? Because you made it clear that your customer focus is exhausted. And you will not let it go beyond these borders. Since you do it confidently and politely, it causes at least respect and most often leads to a positive decision on the part of the client.

Soon our blog will contain detailed materials with some of the top speakers of the all-Ukrainian forum. Subscribe to our news and stay tuned.