Hotel business in the Odessa region: weak spots, features, development

How to improve the brand of Odessa and the region: promote little-known routes? How can you increase room sales in winter? What checks are coming in connection with the updated tax system? How to properly conduct staff policy and not suffer from staff turnover during the season?

The event was moderated by the founder of the ADVANCE project, business coach Nikolay Latushkin.

The round table discussed such vectors of interests as: tourist tax — 2019, increasing seasonality in the Odessa region, tax optimization, features of the formation of the Odessa brand, non-material motivation of personnel, cruise business in Odessa, low-cost airlines.

The head of the company “World of accounting” Oksana Tishchenko spoke about taxation. The legal aspects of preparing the documentation were highlighted by the Manager of the Palyanichko & partners law office, Vitaly Palyanichko.

Artur lupashko, CEO of Ribas Hotels Group, spoke about the development of the city’s brand with the help of hotels:

— Hotels accommodate people who came to the event. In its marketing strategy, our company does not promote its hotels in the city. We promote the city, events in it and draw an association line with the hotel. This is why all of our sites have an “events” menu. So we create a powerful associative series of resort-hotels. For example, if we talk about Gribovka, we associate it with the Richard beach hotel, Koblevo is associated with the Kiparis Park hotel, and Odessa with the Wall Street business hotel.

By the way, at a large scale investment event called “5T”, where one of the “t” is for tourism, there is a clear position, which is expressed in the fact that entrepreneurs of all industries should unite to create an occasion for a visit to the country or one of the cities. Occasions like this may include professional forums, exhibitions, and conferences attended by corporate employees.

To date, the vast majority of exhibitions are held in the capital. I, my employees, and our partners go there for training of various levels more than ten times a year. If we return our exhibition sites to work, the situation will change in a positive way.

Development of gastro tourism. Lviv is partly moving along this path of development. They began selling the culture of the city in its establishments. We also need to do this work with restaurateurs. In Odessa, establishments like that can be counted on the fingers. Collaboration of all branches of business and government will help us a lot.

As a result of the meeting, the regional representative of the SUP in Odessa and the Odessa region, the founder of the SmileFood and SmileCars group of companies Alexander Sokolov announced plans to create a Committee on the hotel industry in Odessa.

— After the procedure of creating the Committee, the top 10 most pressing issues will be determined and together with the city authorities we will go step by step to solve them: organize specialized events, establish a dialogue between the Prosecutor’s office, the SBU, local government and the hotel business.

At the end of the official part of the meeting, the participants continued to communicate informally. Many of them shared their impressions of the meeting:

Dmitry Cherny, “De Ribas”, Odessa:

— I liked the meeting. Questions were raised that are of great interest to business representatives. The program has been broader than has been stated. During the event, we went far beyond the discussion of taxation and accounting in the hotel sector.

It was interesting to find out what the Union of Ukrainian entrepreneurs is, what they do and what they can do for hoteliers. I was glad to see my friends and colleagues. It was also a pleasure to meet representatives of the HoReCA industry, with whom I have not yet had a chance to meet and cooperate.

Sergey Pakin, Cityincity, Odessa:

— I take meetings like this for expanding my horizons and social circle. I am interested in such events, as I manage my small complex and receive guests from different parts of the world. For example, last year we had tourists from America, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Zimbabwe. Today, very topical issues of the hotel segment were raised in real time. It is important. I think that in the future, this experience of holding such events will be continued in the context of more detailed cases on how to apply certain aspects in taxation, how to better market hotels, how to attract guests all year round, how to interact with the authorities in order to jointly improve the infrastructure and conduct large-scale events that will attract tourists to us.

Tatiana Filkina, Odessa hostel Association:

— Of course, one of the main benefits is the opportunity to get acquainted.

During the roundtable, questions were raised that are of concern to all hoteliers and of the hoteliers. It was useful to hear how colleagues feel about these issues and how they solve problems. Getting the coordinates of specialists who can help is already a great benefit. And at this meeting, we still had the opportunity to address the experts directly and get valuable comments. As a Manager, I build my work in the information and consulting vector. That is why I consider today’s communication very valuable.

Olga Suslova, recreation complex “Three Carps”.

— I work in this environment and it is useful for me to meet hoteliers. We offer our location for holidays and other events. In addition, I organize an excursion tour, which is designed for tourists who come to our region for a few days. I am impressed by companies that sell not only phone numbers, but also their region and the services that are provided in it. Regarding today’s event, I would like to note the usefulness of the information received. One of the participants of the round table, Vitaly Palyanichko, shared many useful cases that can already be applied in practice directly at the facilities.