The anniversary annual hoteliers forum Hotel Business Forum was held in November. This year it was held under the name “Clan of hoteliers: create a strong environment” and gathered not only expert practitioners from various fields of the hotel business, but also presented a non-trivial and exciting creative concept. For 10 years now, the forum team has been continuing to create a unique space for the exchange of ideas and practices, the search for partners and the expansion of a professional network and the creation of effective collaborations that contribute to the development of the hospitality industry as a whole.
According to the organizers, one of the main tasks of the forum is the formation of a professional and creative environment. As a result, each participant of the event receives a new strong environment. The idea of a clan was considered from the point of view of the formative and formative force of such a community. The concept of the “hotelier clan” is based on the same values that are broadcast in the popular film directed by Guy Ritchie “Gentlemen”: self-confidence and your team, goal setting and maximizing talent. The entire visual embodiment of the event was also done in aesthetics and was based on the patterns of the film. The forum participants actively supported the new concept: for example, Bnovo held a thematic photo shoot in the same style.
Liana Antonova, the author of the creative concept of the Hotel Business Forum 2023 and CEO of the Clave communication agency, told how to create creative strategies from idea to implementation in a hotel:
— How to develop the first ideas, and how to turn them into concepts? Where can I get inspiration to implement visual images of creative strategies? We will answer these questions using practical examples of how the creative concept of this year’s hoteliers forum was created. It’s worth starting with the fact that creativity is the search for the optimal solution to a given task, and not getting creative pleasure. While the goal of traditional marketing is to attract customers, among the goals of creative marketing is to identify the meanings, values and culture of the brand, evoke an emotional response, be remembered and transfer customers to a new level of trust.
The creative marketing strategy determines how the brand will position itself in the market, what it will broadcast and in what language to communicate with the audience. We show how creative marketing actually works using the example of a forum concept inspired by the idea of cronyism and the aesthetics of Guy Ritchie’s film “Gentlemen”.
Further, Alina Nikolaeva, a leading business development manager for a cloud service to increase the income of Bnovo hoteliers, shared her opinion on the unique concept of the forum:
— The Hotel Business Forum is one of the most exciting events in the field of hospitality, a unique space for the exchange of experience, ideas and knowledge. The forum remains in the memory due to a non-trivial program of speeches and master classes from expert practitioners, new useful acquaintances and a friendly atmosphere of development and support.
The forum was held in one go, and visitors had the opportunity to get acquainted with the Bnovo clan and our latest developments in the field of automation of accommodation facilities, analytics and revenue growth. We were glad to meet with existing partners, discuss industry trends and share experiences with colleagues and, of course, get new useful contacts. A pleasant addition to the event on our part was a raffle of gifts and the main prize — a Marshall column, which went to one of the most persistent representatives of the hotelier clan.
The key to a successful business is the synergy of a creative and analytical approach. Marina Goncharenko, Executive Director, spoke about the tourism trends of 2023, confirmed on the basis of Big Data Bronevik.com (included in MTS Travel):
— The trend for the growth of domestic tourism, which began in the second half of 2020, continues this year. According to Big Data MTC, the number of trips in 10 months of 2023 in Russia increased by 8.5% compared to the same period last year. The most active travelers in 2023 were residents of Moscow and the Moscow region, who account for 23% of trips. The second and third places in the ranking are occupied by St. Petersburg and Krasnodar Territory.
The interest of tourists in traveling within the country has led to an increased demand for online bookings in the regions.
According to the data Bronevik.com The number of hotels and other facilities that have started selling rooms online through aggregators has increased by 37% compared to the beginning of 2023. The TOP 3 regions with the largest increase in hotels that tourists can choose and pay for online include the Republic of Altai, the Republic of Dagestan and the Chuvash Republic.
Travelers have become more attracted to active tourism, which involves visiting natural attractions, immersing themselves in a new cultural environment. MTS Travel research has shown that the popularity of adventure tourism in Russia has increased by 30% in the number of trips over the year. In the business tourism segment, we are seeing an increase in bleisure trips. According to the data Bronevik.com In 2023, 35% of business trips cover weekends.
According to Bnovo, according to the results of the 3rd quarter of 2023 Ostrovok.ru (Emerging Travel Group) is the leader in the online booking market with a 29% share (based on data from more than 16,000 accommodation facilities. Daria Kochetkova, Managing Director Ostrovok.ru , told about the new products developed in the Extranet Ostrovok.ru for different categories of users:
— For small accommodation facilities, our company has launched solutions for insuring the property of apartments and apartments and ensuring data security. The functionality of responses to guest reviews is relevant for absolutely all hoteliers — with its help, property owners can manage their business reputation and work on their online image. Special attention should be paid to new marketing programs: not so long ago we introduced the Top Stays program, which allows you to significantly increase the number of impressions of an object. In addition, we are preparing to launch a new Guru loyalty program — with this tool, facilities will be able to attract more bookings from active travelers.
Sergey Danilchenko, co-founder and head of the consulting company Hotel Advisors, continued the topic of the importance of proper use of analytics. The expert argued that today it is analytics that is a must have for a successful hotel business:
— Currently, thanks to the work of the “Hotel Market Analytics” tool, which is trusted by hoteliers, the most representative sample of hotels has been collected, and as a result, data on hotel operating indicators for the entire existence of the market hotel analytics direction in Of Russia. This allows you to assess in detail the ongoing changes in the markets and use this data to make management decisions.
For example, it is noticeable how Moscow is increasingly breaking away from St. Petersburg and increasing the loading of facilities. At the same time, there is a possibility that by the end of the year the gap will be greater, since Moscow is currently in an active business season, and St. Petersburg is in the off—season.
Cities such as Kazan, the Sochi mountain cluster, and Yaroslavl attract attention in terms of changes in demand. There is a slowdown here after the intensive growth of downloads in the past years. The same can be expected for those locations that have shown high growth rates this season. But it is important to assess these changes correctly: in some cities, this increase is nothing more than a recovery after a decline last year, in others, growth due to a shift in demand from other locations and market estimates from low values of indicators that were usually characteristic of these regions.
This year, as in the past, 3* hotels have been adding more actively to the price. They also feel more confident in different periods of market changes.
And an important point that we must not forget is, of course, inflation, which significantly affects the business economy. Since the beginning of 2022, the official accumulated inflation has been more than 17%. This is important in the overall assessment of the business economy. In fact, for some hotel companies in some cities, hoteliers, taking into account inflation, have not yet managed to reach the indicators of the beginning of 2022. And if we compare it with the pre-pandemic period, then inflation over the past 4 years has far exceeded the growth in operating indicators of hotels. And this is a very negative trend for the industry.
The concept of a “strong environment” suggests that the team should have a strong leader. Alexander Friedman, managing partner of the AMADEUS consulting company, spoke about the systemic management problems he sees in the market:
— It is worth admitting that many managers, alas, work in chaos. As a result, we see, for example, poor quality of business solutions, constant time constraints, fast and furious, burnout and falling results. A leader who works in chaos destroys the effective work of his employees himself. Contrary to popular belief, the growing turbulence of the business environment requires precision rather than speed. Accuracy implies both quality and timeliness. This is provided by such managerial competencies as “self-organization” and “planning”.
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