The Iris Congress Hotel: «Certification has helped us understand that we are moving in the right direction»

Another Moscow hotel has passed certification and deservedly received the distinctive mark of the Association of Business Tourism. «Iris Congress Hotel» is located in a quiet area of Moscow, in a convenient transport access to the airport «Sheremetyevo». The hotel is presented by its sales director, Elena Nerez, and manager Julia Shornikova.

— Please, describe your hotel’s guests. Whomis «Iris» meant for?

— E.N: We are weaving between business travelers and groups; otherwise we won’t cope because of our distal location. We undertake the organization of trainings and other meetings for business travelers. We also meet newlyweds, hold a lot of one-time eventsand invite tourist groups. Europeans like the city center, and there are plenty of competitors. We meet guests from the south-eastern countries: from Japan, Korea,the Philippines etc.

— J. S: But, of course, as a Congress Hotel, we are primarily interested in MICE, i.e., corporate travelers, conferences and seminars.

— E.N: In our hotel possesses 13 conference rooms, and we want to fill them. Corporate clients are the most solvent ones, as they immediately order a full range of services.

— What are the advantages of the hotel that you can highlight?

— E.N: As we have already said, the hotel’s distance from the center of Moscow makes us try to attract visitors with other things. For example, we organize transfers to major exhibitions for groups and offer shuttle bus to the city center to individuals. In addition, our hotel has everything that business customers might need.

— Do you have regular visitors?

— J.S: Of course we do. For example, one businessman had been living in our hotel as inan apartment for 20 years. He left us recently — he returned to France because his company closed its business in Russia. There are people who come for 15 years in a row, stay at same rooms, and we know all about their preferences.

— How did you find out about the program «Business and Conference hotel certification»?

— E.N: We’ve heard about the certification from a few places simultaneously — some information appeared in RATA, then we saw a stand of the Association of Business Tourism at the exhibition. At that time we were just thinking that we must have met all the requirements of our guests, but didn’t pass any certification. After another exhibition we started to discuss this possibility in detail.

— What was the determining factor in the decision to become certified?

— E.N: In the first place it’s the attraction of potential customers that we can predict after passing certification. Due to the cooperation of ABT and HRS.com we are planning to increase the number of business travelers and the number of requests for holding events. We are a conference hotel, that’s why business travelers are of greatest interest to us.

— Have you found out whether your competitors possess such a certificate? How important is it for you to follow trends?

— E.N: In fact, it is important. We see, for example, that the hotels «Holiday Inn Lesnaya» and «Holiday InnSuschevsky» have passed the certification. Obviously, we are competitors — we are about in the same price range, they are also involved in major tenders. And if a network hotel decides to choose certification, for us it is a sign that encourages us to go through the same thing.

— J.S: In the last two years, 2010 −2011, we have won the independent MICE-Award contest —we received the award of «The best four-star congress hotel in Moscow»

— E.N: The MICE-Award is more likely to attractagencies than corporants, at that it became our additional advertising. For example, we obtained the right to hold one major event only owing to this award. So we keep a close watch on all the new offers and opportunities that appear in the market and compare the equivalence of quality and price.

— J.S: When passing the certification we were interested ourselves inmaking sure that we meet all the expectations of our guests.