About the complex, concept and target audience

Mandra Morion is a complex of 20 modern double cottages located in one of the most picturesque places in the Carpathians at an altitude of more than 900 meters in the village of Mykulychyn (Ivano-Frankivsk region). This is a great place for having a romantic vacation, practicing yoga, refreshing from the hustle and bustle of the city, and experiencing new emotions. The complex offers its guests a one of a kind opportunity to enjoy the natural beauty of the mountains and the comfort of modern cottages. The place welcomed its first guests in June. The project was developed by MBA Development Group.

The main concepts of the complex are:

Guests aged 25-40 are the most frequent visitors to the complex. These are individuals, young families/ couples and married couples. It can be a group of friends. These can be a group of friends.Most often, this type of vacation is not considered as a long-term option. People come here for a few days to spend time in an unusual way, take cool photos and enjoy the view, the nature around them, and do yoga. People mostly come here on purpose, rather than while traveling (passing through).

Launching the complex and involving the company’s departments

Launching a hotel is one of the crucial and most complex stages in the operation of a hotel complex. The key is not to overlook any aspect at this stage to ensure the prosperous and long-term operation of the hotel complex.

The hotel’s launch is held in several stages and involves all the departments of our company:

Each of these departments handles a significant amount of work. The marketing department deals with everything from developing a concept, defining positioning and competitive advantages to creating a website, navigation options and printed materials, arranging photo shoots, and setting up the SMM department.

The recruiting department is charged with recruiting, training, and coaching staff. This is a challenging task, particularly considering the current difficulties in finding employees in a short time. After hiring employees, we do not let them start working straight away, but first we conduct intensive workshops, training and team-building activities.

All of our departments work in parallel to fulfill their duties and responsibilities. For example, the booking department sets up booking systems and creates room categories.

Challenges encountered while launching the complex

We faced the most difficulties during the technical audit, which consumed much of our work and involved testing the entire complex. We always test the complex under full occupancy by simulating various potential situations such as sewage blockages, power supply problems, sensor malfunctions, generator failures, water supply shortages and more. In this way, we can estimate how the complex will function in different situations and whether guests will experience any inconvenience.

We thoroughly checked all the equipment in the rooms, ranging from the tightness of the holders and door handles to the quality of the silicone seams in the showers and the proper operation of the toilet installations. Our goal is to ensure the reliability of all components so that none of them causes a problem for our guests.

We conducted multiple and thorough tests based on our many years of experience. We sought to make sure that everything was functioning correctly and that guests would not face any technical inconveniences.

The key aspect for us is the safety of our guests. We thoroughly check the proper operation of fire protection systems and train our staff to respond in a coordinated manner in emergency situations. This is one of the major points when launching a hotel — to ensure that staff is able to handle potentially dangerous situations for guests. Given the priority of safety, we have put most of our time and focus on this aspect.

Project launch timing

The time required to launch a hotel can vary from 2 to 6 months. It depends on the type of facility, the number of rooms, and its category. For a cottage town project such as Mandra Morion with 20 cottages, we usually schedule a launch period of 2-3 months. As the number of rooms increases, the launch process goes on. This is primarily due to the duration of the technical audit, which is usually a rather lengthy process.

How the full-scale invasion affected the hotel’s launch

The full-scale invasion first and foremost affected the speed of commissioning of facilities, as this process requires additional technical audits. Specialized professionals such as electricians, plumbers, pool builders and generator installers are usually male. Given the number of roadblocks and extensive mobilization, we often faced difficulties in finding qualified specialists to address specific issues during the technical audit.

To conduct technical audits, we always engage third-party independent companies to inspect equipment and issue relevant certificates or statements. This considerably delayed the process, as we could arrange with an electrician or contractor about installing a generator on a specific date, estimate the time required to complete the job, but at the very last minute we found out that the contractor would not be able to come because they had been drafted into the army or stopped at a roadblock or had not come for personal reasons. Those cases accounted for about 80% of the total number of delays.

There were also some difficulties with recruiting staff, particularly technicians, compared to the pre-war period.

Challenges encountered while recruiting staff

There is a department in our company that deals with staff training, and we have plenty of cases and platforms for training. At the moment, we are not focusing on finding people with experience to fill a particular position. We prefer to move staff within the company, giving our employees the opportunity to develop and grow, especially when it comes to management positions.

In most cases, managers, heads of areas, divisions or departments are people who grow up in our company. They work for a certain period of time and take training courses and workshops. We always create opportunities to develop, learn and achieve new things for those employees who want to succeed. We motivate and inspire our team and do everything we can to help them prove themselves.

As you cannot always quickly identify the talents of your employees, and sometimes they are shy about proving themselves, we have regular conversations between managers and subordinates, training workshops, in-house sessions within the company, and daily or weekly meetings within specific facilities.

As for external recruitment, we are experiencing a shortage of quality staff on the market. In general, the number of available staff has decreased because of the internal displacement and departure of so many people abroad, including our valued employees.

We can offer career growth and development opportunities, and we are always flexible with our candidates and employees.Our first priority is to find out what will be best for them, rather than for us. Some find it essential to have a separate place to live, others to have an extra parking space, and still others to have convenient working hours for family reasons.

With our solid reputation on the market, competitive salary and excellent attitude toward all staff, we often find new employees through referrals. Our employees give positive feedback about the company, and so we look for candidates among their friends and relatives.

The hotel complex's performance and occupancy rates

Mandra Morion has exceeded all expectations. When setting the budget, we are always optimistic about the future. We do not underestimate ourselves, but strive for the best and set the bar high for ourselves to reach and be pleased to see the results. This is crucial both for us, the managing company, and for our investors who have bought housing.

We have set a fairly ambitious target, which we are already exceeding at this stage. We have a very good occupancy rate, over 70% per month. We have bookings for August and even September. Given the current market trends, where the depth of booking usually does not exceed one week, the availability of bookings for September is a very good indicator. This is almost a recovery to the situation in the hotel industry prior to the full-scale invasion. We have not seen such good figures in terms of the depth of booking over the past two years.

We can already clearly recognize that everyone liked this complex. Our guests are extremely enthusiastic, which is evident from the reviews, ratings and occupancy rates. The demand for this complex will only grow. We will definitely not slow down. This is a very cool, modern and distinctive place.

A huge advantage of the complex is its privacy. These are 20 cottages that create a wonderful atmosphere where you can stay alone with yourself and nature, feel real zen, peace and relaxation, which is so much needed.

You can book your vacation here.

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