CEO and founder of the Ribas Hotels Group hotel chain Artur Lupashko told Big Money founder Yevgeny Chernyak, what they don’t write about in specialized magazines, don’t talk about in motivational videos and don’t write about it in public posts on social media.
The conversation took place in the new hotel of the Ribas Hotels group - Ribas Karpaty and touched on many acute aspects of the hospitality industry and work with guests within the hotel chain.
Where did it all begin?
Artur Lupashko, the founder of the Ribas Hotels Group hotel chain, began the first step towards the creation of the Ribas Hotels Group company by promoting the recreation center in Zatoka (Odessa region) with over 50 rooms in 2013. So, he got engaged in its marketing and increased the income of the property by 3 times - for the first time in 10 years it showed a profit.
In 2014, he took the post of head of this recreation center and additionally took other hotel facilities in the neighborhood for promotion. That period happened during the global financial crisis, there were few tourists, but the hotels under his management were completely full. “My commission was 25% of the income, but all the costs of attracting a guest were mine,” Artur Lupashko said.
In 2015, he rented an office and hired several people to help him. From that moment, the path to a serious business began, which has now led the company to success. Thus, Ribas Hotels Group can safely be called the fastest growing chain in Ukraine.
Who is an effective managing partner?
Now the Ribas Hotels Group company has big experience in working with hotel projects and offers a wide range of services, which includes hotel management. Some neglect this fact and try to implement and run a business on their own, but this does not always end with high profitability.
When implementing a hotel project, the involvement of a professional managing partner guarantees the profitability of the property. The fact is that the management company has experience and clear knowledge of all the components of the hotel, so it can improve its financial performance even at the stage of project development.
“I am a supporter of the fact that at first it is necessary to “sit” on the project for a long time, and then quickly implement it. The owners, our partners, usually do not want to work on a project for a long time, and want to quickly build a hotel. Such a rush in most cases leads to the implementation of a low-quality result,” said Artur Lupashko. To avoid this, the owner needs to contact the managing partner, who will analyze the project and offer the most cost-effective option. In addition, having a well-formed project, after transferring all the drawings to the builders and in the absence of remarks, they will be able to quickly implement the object and the budget will be as accurate as possible.
Ribas Karpaty hotel case:
At first, the investor of this property wanted to build a hotel in Gribovka (Odessa region), on the beach. Seasonality there is 2.5 months. “I dissuaded him for six months, for another year we were looking for a better place. And so, we found the only location in Bukovel resort (Ivano-Frankivsk region), which was not yet a part of it, but was located very close,” Artur Lupashko shared. So, trusting Ribas Hotels Group, investors have invested $5.5 million in the Ribas Karpaty hotel and at the moment it's payback is going according to plan.
Why choose Ribas Hotels Group?
The answer is simple: given its professional experience, Ribas Hotels Group always guarantees profitability and assumes financial responsibility. So, if you contact the company at the initial stage of the project, it will select a location with the customer and modulate the financial model, where it will clearly indicate the required budget before the start of work. For example, $5 million and 10 years payback. This is an understandable project in which the investor has 10% per annum and a managing partner who assumes financial and reputational responsibility.
Ribas Hotels Group is usually approached by owners who already manage the hotel, because they no longer want to do it, or do not understand the point of profitability. The fact is that the owner basically reinvests, constantly completing something, updating and as a result does not understand when his invested money will return. Ribas Hotels Group approaches projects purely from a business point of view and controls the emotional actions of the owners.
What innovative solutions does Ribas Hotels Group offer?
Setting trends in the market is one of the goals of Ribas Hotels Group. The company is constantly working on the relevance of the service and marketing of the objects under its management. Among the latest topical solutions that were applied by her in the hotel market of Ukraine for the first time, we can highlight:
- Partnership with Fishka. Fishka is a loyalty program that allows you to accumulate points for purchases made with program partners and use them for an additional discount and valuable rewards. Ribas Hotels Group became part of it. “All our hotels are already equipped with scanners. Upon check-in, guests are asked if they have a Fishka card. If it is available, employees scan a barcode and customers earn points which they can spend on services, including the hotel,” said Artur Lupashko.
- Cooperation with bloggers. In honor of the opening of the Ribas Karpaty hotel, the management company threw a party and invited the top 20 bloggers (with an audience of 500,000 to 1.5 million readers). Their selection took place according to the coincidence of the interests of the audience with the guests of the Ribas Hotels Group hotels. So, bloggers gave the hotel a good promotion and got complimentary accommodation and entertainment for 2-3 days in return. And it paid off: occupancy was higher than expected.
- Dіya-document acceptance for check-in.
Ribas Hotels Group has become the first hotel chain in Ukraine to introduce the technology of data transfer through the Diya application barcode into the hotel system. So, in the hotels of the Ribas Hotels Group network administrators can scan the barcode of a document in the Diya app for registration. The guest only needs to confirm the request in the application to transfer a copy of the digital document. Digital copies of documents are transferred to the information system of the hotel Servio HMS.
Read more about who Artur Lupashko sees as his competitor, about Evgeny Chernyak’s main claims against hotels and how they were successfully resolved at the new Ribas Hotels Group in the Big Money episode:
New video: https://youtu.be/ximCgsAombY
