ABT-ACTE Russia sent a mystery guest to certified hotels and summarized achievements of the year
This November the department of business and conference hotel attestation of ABT-ACTE Russia held a random inspection of Moscow hotels that received their certificates more than a year ago. They included hotels run by international hotel chains like Marriott, IHG, Hilton, Rezidor, as well as independent accommodation facilities, such as the Savoy, The Garden Ring Hotel and Aminevskaya, Proton Business Hotel, Iris Congress Hotel and others.
The employee of the department contacted hotel managers as an ordinary customer and inspected hotels allegedly trying to find accommodation for his foreign friend or a group of colleagues from other cities. During this mystery express audit the expert assessed hotels` correspondence to the most essential criteria of ABT-ACTE Russia standard that are especially important for corporate buyers: Internet speed and its reliability, staff competence, room equipment and hotel facilities in general, presence of emergency signs, neatness, comfortable navigation around the hotel, etc. The inspector checked whether privacy policy was observed: reception managers should not pronounce the guest’s room number when he checks in. ABT-ACTE Russia experts recommend saying the floor number and putting down the room number on the room key envelope.
The expert paid attention to the fact whether the staff had badges and fresh press was available — it was good that Holiday Inn hotels offered it in four languages. He checked whether the announced free transfer from metro was really provided in more remote hotels like Proton and Aminevskaya, whether its current schedule was available in the hotel.
ABT-ACTE Russia experts were glad to see that after hotels received their certificates they did not violate the standard of the Association and continued observing it carefully. Despite high occupancy rates of the hotels, managers were understanding and attentive to guests. What is more important, hotel staff reacted quickly to the requests of the mystery inspector regardless of the fact whether he was interested in a single room for one day or in accommodating a group for a month. He would like to point out Radisson Blu Belorusskaya and its manager Natalia Udaltsova. Ms Udaltsova carried out the excursion around the hotel according to all the rules of business etiquette and put life into her work at the same time.
Nevertheless, some small shortcomings were revealed during the inspection. As the result of the inspection every hotel will receive two documents: a list of non-conformities revealed by the inspector and the recommendations protocol aimed at their elimination. Thus, ABT-ACTE Russia experts insist on an information sign in the lift showing the floors of the main hotel zones. Clear navigation should be available in the corridors, especially in large hotels. Some inspected hotels lacked navigation signs. Besides, in some hotels Wi-Fi worked with cut-offs.
Other individual drawbacks included lack of foreign press or emergency exit backlights. In one of the hotels the manager did not knock on the door before entering the room he wanted to show to the mystery guest. And although the hotel employee chose a room which he knew was free, it is still necessary to knock for the sake of good order.
The geography of certified hotels has increased considerably this year. Now the attestation program includes accommodation facilities in more than 40 cities of Russia and the CIS. Participants of ABT-ACTE Russia Attestation program are not only large hotels in big cities run by famous brands, but also independent hotels in remote, but rapidly growing regions — Grand Hotel Vostok in Sterlitamak, Mira Hotel in Sakhalin, Cava di Pietra in Rostov region, Hermitage Hotel in Brest (Republic of Belarus) and many others. This year active cooperation with hotels in Kazakhstan, Armenia and Azerbaijan has started.
In 2014 the department of business and conference hotel attestation started its cooperation with Nokia HERE cartographic department. In the nearest time navigation application HERE will provide information on hotels certified by ABT-ACTE Russia, which will considerably simplify the process of hotel choice and let its users study the list of its services in more detail.