ABT-ACTE Russia educational session: working with hotels — from the general to the particular
The educational session of the Russian Association of Business Travel entitled «Cooperation with hotels. New perspective» was held in Baltschug Kempinski on April 10th, 2014. Event participants were heads of travel departments, travel managers, administrative directors of the largest Russian and international companies: Kaspersky Lab, Shell, Bayer, BBDO Group, KPMG, Sberbank Cib, McKinsey, VTB, PepsiCo, Afisha-Rambler-SUP, ABB, Beeline, Blackwood, Rusal and others.
General sponsor of the Educational session is The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), world’s largest hotel business association that includes more than 430 luxury hotels, resorts and SPAs in 80 countries.
«Cooperation with ABT is a unique opportunity for LHW to establish a direct dialogue with Russian corporate buyers. An additional advantage of educational sessions we have participated in for many times is their right format that combines the informative part and unofficial atmosphere, which creates excellent conditions for business communication», Anastasiya Belyakova, regional director of The Leading Hotels of the World in Russia and the CIS notes.
Reports were presented by Alisia Leus, creative director of MICE&Event department of UTS Group, Anastasiya Belyakova, regional director of The Leading Hotels of the World in Russia and the CIS, Irina Kuznetsova, general director of Jupiter+ JSC and Taurus JSC, ACTE Country Champion, and Angela Starkova, Lead Corporate Event Specialist in Beeline.
Every travel manager would like to be understood without words by the staff of hotels, restaurants and transport companies. The situation is often different: the restaurant forgets to offer vegetarian menu, the transfer is 2 hours late and hotel managers can not quickly accommodate guests. Mistakes like that can spoil the impression even of the greatest event. The educational session of ABT-ACTE Russia was devoted to the ways for corporate buyers and service providers to start working without mutual claims.
Alisia Leus told participants about the right ways to control emotions of corporate event participants. The WOW-effect can help achieve the desired result. According to the speaker, vivid emotions like that are like a good dessert: there should not be much of them, such impressions should be prepared beforehand and served in due time. Besides, a good WOW-effect can improve relations between employees and encourage the staff for further actions.
Besides, Ms Leus offered practical advice on how to arrange a MICE event. «A properly organized event is an event to remember, but if you want it to work out very well, you should choose the right venue and take into account all the technical aspects» Ms Leus said.
The speaker stressed that dialogue was important in every situation: «Each party should understand the aim of the event. The key to success is obvious: you should listen to and hear each other».
Anastasiya Belyakova who offered her presentation «Particular aspects of corporate agreement policy of hotels in different countries» shared the experience of The Leading Hotels of the World and presented their Leaders Club loyalty program as an alternative to contractual relationship for business travellers whose trip geography varies greatly.
«Every travel manager would like to make work with a hotel as simple and standardized as possible. The Leading Hotels offers various types of efficient work — from export of corporate prices to GDS to provision of access to corporate rates through LHW`s call centre in Moscow. As for MICE-event arrangement, in order to ensure efficient communication, hoteliers should be aware of all the requirements and requests, the concept and the aim of the event from the very start of cooperation. It is important to understand who event participants are (the staff of the company or its customers), and not only the required quantity of rooms and the dates. Only trust-based relations between the customer and the provider can lead to efficient communication», Ms Belyakova said.
The speaker stressed that even if it sometimes seems that the hotel does not make concessions deliberately, the impossibility to fulfill some requirements of the corporate customer may be caused by the legislation or the tax system of the country where the hotel is located. Nevertheless, compromises or solutions that will satisfy both parties are quite possible.
Irina Kuznetsova gave practical advice that would help providers understand corporate clients better and travel experts work out a strategy that will prove efficient both at the stage of the tender and during cooperation.
«What are the ways to avoid problems? The answer is simple: you should communicate, talk and keep in touch all the time. Partner relations really help solve a lot of problems», Ms Kuznetsova said.
The speaker stressed, that when travel managers are busy arranging a MICE-event, most of them would like to have a kind of a one stop shop, i.e. to work with one coordinator and settle all the questions with him. Besides, a safe stay in various hotels, attentive and helpful hotel staff, Wi-Fi, a diverse menu, clean rooms and quick service are very important for every travel expert. If the hotel offers extra services, it is always an additional advantage.
Angela Starkova told participants how to arrange a trip for VIP guests who are difficult to surprise.
«If a hotel is going to accommodate a VIP group, its staff must understand that guests may have unusual requests. Nevertheless, they may be fulfilled by any hotel if the staff has enough time to prepare. In order for both parties to be satisfied with the results, it is enough to provide as much information as possible», Ms Starkova stressed.
During the panel discussion the participants of the educational session had an opportunity to ask questions and to share their professional experience with the audience.
At the end of the event prizes from ABT partners and sponsors were raffled off: SPA treatment in the Garden Ring hotel, insurance with a $ 50000 coverage by ERV, a stay in Mistral hotel, annual subscription to the Business Traveller magazine and a €300 certificate from Weekends Travel.
«Despite the fact that I deal with business trips and I am rather far from MICE-arrangement, reports presented by the experts were very interesting. Everyone is speaking about the WOW-effect now, but few really understand what this notion really means. It seems to me that the educational session has let every participant make some important discoveries, both in their and in providers` work», Dmitry Kabanov, senior business trip expert in Sberbank Cib stressed.
«It has been my first educational session, but I can say that I will try to attend all ABT-ACTE Russia events. All the topics are very interesting, but the main thing is that here you can ask questions to industry experts and communicate with your colleagues» Olga Sinitsina from ABB notes.
The next educational session will be held by ABT-ACTE Russia on June 2nd, 2014.
The photo report of the event is available on ABT’s page in Facebook in Photos section, Albums subsection. (facebook.com/ABT.Russia/photos_albums).
Sofiya Dukorskaya