Radisson Blu Sofia Manager Deborah Haines: Don't Wait for Business to Come to You, You Need to Go to Business

Novinite Insider » INTERVIEW | Author: Ivan Dikov |November 18, 2010, Thursday // 16:00
Bulgaria: Radisson Blu Sofia Manager Deborah Haines: Don't Wait for Business to Come to You, You Need to Go to Business

Interview of Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) with Deborah Haines, General Manager of the Radisson Blu Grand Hotel in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

 

Deborah Haines has been part of the management of a Radisson Blu Hotel in Durham, the United Kingdom. She assumed her position at the Radission Blu Grand Hotel in Sofia effective February 16, 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

You have been in Bulgaria for 9 months now in your capacity as the General Manager of the Radisson Blu Grand Hotel in Sofia. How do you feel in Bulgaria, in Sofia, doing what you do?

I feel challenged and still coming to terms with the cultural changes from the UK to Southeastern Europe. I think this will probably remain with till the day I leave.

The business itself has changed considerably in the time since my arrival. I think Sofia has changed in that period of time in the sense that there is real competitiveness among the five-star hotels now that wasn't there before. My hotel has changed considerably to look at.

What are the cultural differences that are striking for you in Bulgaria ?

Things don't move quickly enough for me. What's important for us now is not necessarily important for somebody else but people don't always see the long-term objective, they only see here and now, and that's one of the biggest challenges.

It's about having this ability to really look ahead to this time next year – because that's what we should be looking at now – and we are not just looking here and now, we are looking long-term.

Why and how has the competitiveness in your sector – the five-star hotels in Sofia – evolved in the past year?

I think it's changed in past six months – as recent as that. Why has it changed? Because the market that's coming in, the inbound traffic are very rate-related so it is very rate-focused. We are all very competitive about rates now.

Even though you have the known five-star hotels, the five-star hotels are actually taking business from the four-star market now.

So in order to have the occupancy that we need, we are taking business from the four-star market, which is bringing the rate down to increase the occupancy.

There is business here in Sofia but it is very price-sensitive even for the businessmen. It is not just the leisure market but the businessmen as well. 

How is the Radisson under your leadership tacking that? What are you competitive advantages?

Our competitive advantages are the brand values that we have as an international hotel chain: 100% guest satisfaction, meeting room promise, having super breakfast – which what we have become known for – having one of the best breakfasts here in Sofia. We have our business class rooms.

These are the concepts available in every Radisson which makes it stand apart.

Then comes our responsible business – a focus which we did an awful lot on the last nine months – both on the local level and with an organization we are in conjunction here in Bulgaria – which is a children's home a long way form the city. I myself went there in the summer and we donated many things.

These things are what makes us different very much. It's the brand values that we stand behind and stand in front of from a company point of view. And it is bringing those brand values here to the local market. 

How has the Radisson Blu contributed to the social life of the Bulgarian capital in these past nine months that you've been in Sofia?

If you ask about the social life, I think that the thing we want to share with everybody now is our Glass Bar. It was called a glass bar here a number of years ago, and we have brought the name back. Not for any particular reason – it happened through a situation of circumstance, rather than pre-planned.

We renovated through the summer the area previously known as the lobby bar – it didn't have a clear identity.

That's what I found in a lot of ways – we didn't have a clear message going out to our customers in the local market. So what we did is give a lot of our facilitiest a clear definition. We have created a pre-event area for anybody who has events here at in Alexander Ball Room.

We have a clear, defined area there, and we have a glass bar, which is very contemporary now. We still have an element of tradition there – there's lots of glass, lot's of black, and we've introduced majority of our foods being home-made here at the hotel: the breads, the ice-cream, the cupcakes, all the cakes are made at the hotel and we are just introducing what's going to become our specialty dish, which is the rich Red Velvet Cake. It's a chocolate cake. It's absolutely beautiful but is bright red.

We have also done partnership now with Elite Coffee, and with their support we've now introduced designer Evian Water. We are now the only place outside the Elite headquarters to sell their designer limited collection – that's available in our Glass Bar.

The key things are the traditional values that the hotel is known for but we are introducing something new and exciting. The menu is new and exciting – you pick your own bread, and its freshly baked here, you pick your filling, and you do everything yourself – we are not preempting what you want as a customer, we are giving you that flexibility.

That is probably where we are appealing more to the social aspects here in Bulgaria in terms of what we can offer on the local level.

We are doing a lot more business going forward that will appeal to the local market to encourage local people to come and stay at a five-star hotel on the weekend – whether it's one night or two nights. 

We are going through Valentine's next year, we've already done our package. That's very focused on the local market. So instead of just going out for dinner, come and have something special here and stay at a five-star hotel at an affordable price.

That has to be the message. We are going very much for the social activities here at the local market – not just here in Sofia but at the outskirts of Sofia as well.

We are doing the obvious New Year's Eve and the Christmas focus as well. One thing that's very much for the local market and the hotel residence as well – we are doing what's called "Festive Flavors". We are having a choir here in the Glass Bar – so for three afternoons each week in the month of December we are going to have a choir from the local music academy, and they are going to come here and sing some festive hymns for a period of an hour.

We will have special Festive offerings to go with this. This is being done in conjunction with Elite, with special Christmas coffee blends that are key for the Festive and the season.

That's when people will be able to try our special red velvet cake, that will be the initial launch for that. You can either have the teas or coffees, or the specialty hot chocolate. Festive offerings – turkey and cranberry with brie cheese – it is this kind of thing, really having a festive flavor – not too heavy but something different.

When the choir is not here, the harpist will be. We have a harpist four nights a week, also in the Glass Bar, which I understand they used to have – we've brought that back, and it's been very well-received. So through the month of December you have a mixture of the choir and the harpist.

Again, it's going to be affordable, and it is going to include a glass of champagne as well. But the key is everything we are doing is affordable. Even the New Year's Eve package – totally affordable for everybody. We've also changed the company policy for children so that everybody under the age of 12 eats free. So that means mom and dad can come here for New Year's Eve, and they can bring their child with them, and there are special room rates for children as well. 

So that's how we're appealing to the social. Social from my side very much has been getting involved with the embassies.

A lot of time in the first few months has been spent here setting up the hotel in a place to do business with. There is no point going out there PR-ing and networking if you are not in a place to do business. So some people may think they haven't seen me around much, some people may think that they have.

The key for me is: I had to have the business in the right place so that when I did start PR-ing it, I wanted people to come and see the hotel the right way. There is a mixed message out there with respect to how much PR we've done but there is a reason for it. I feel quite comfortable now with the majority of where we are and where we will be. You can see that at the moment all shop rentals are empty but they are all about to be occupied by the first week of December. They have all been renegotiated.

You can see what's going on outside the hotel – we've got huge construction going on. This is to replace all the facade of the hotel with complete new marble. The west wing is now being completed, and we are working quickly along the front facade of the hotel. It is might not be very nice at the moment but when it is finished, it will look fantastic.

We've started construction of eight new bedrooms on the sixth floor. This is where the panoramic restaurant and the presidential suite used to be. There will be two suites up there and six bedrooms. They will be with a complete new d?cor and that will be the prototype for the refurbishing of the hotel.

What's the underlying philosophy behind all these changes at the Radisson Blu that you have initiated?

Never stand still. Adapt to change, react to the market that's out there. Don't wait for business to come to you, you need to go to business. That's one of the biggest challenges I've had here. The Radisson Blu Grand Hotel sat here and waited for business to come to it. Not just because of what has happened with the economy – but because of the ever-changing world, we need to be ever-changing with it. That remains a challenge because you are changing people's work processes.

This takes time, and that's very much what I've been driving over the nine months. We have to go out there and catch the business. We have to go out there and do something that makes us different.

Just because everybody else is staying the same, we need to be the market leader. We need to be innovative. So this is the relationship with Elite to drive the designer brands. We all like designer, we can't deny it. So it's pushing that into the market and making it affordable – that has to be the key thing.

The hotel is flexible. It has moved forward an awful lot. People appreciate the value of history – the fact this hotel comes with a lot of local history. This hotel now has changed, and it has changed its attitude, the way it wants to do business with people. We are flexible, we are adaptable, we are not fixed.

This hotel was fixed before – you either took this rate, or you didn't. We are not like that now. We want to do business with everybody, that has to be the key message. And the brand values that we have – I wear them on my sleeve. I test people on a regular basis to make sure that they know our brand values. Because if we don't know them, how can we deliver them to our customers. 

Speaking about making prices affordable, based on your observations, how much potential is there in the local market in Sofia and Bulgaria, i.e. to have Bulgarians stay at the Radisson?

I think there is potential. What frustrates me is that people perceive five-star as unaffordable. We are all the same. I am not five-star. I am a regular girl that goes through life exactly the same way you do. What makes the difference? I sit in an office in a five-star hotel but I am actually exactly the same as you. So I actually need to make sure that what I am selling to you – I will be prepared to pay. It is very much about making a personal offering. 

Why can't people go to five-star hotels? It's just words. We are all exactly the same. We are in the hospitality industry – we want to give people what we believe we are very good at – and the service at this hotel is very good. Yes, you might get the odd one. It has to be said that when you are dealing with human beings, you are going to get mistakes.

But then it is about how you make it right, and that is why we have 100% guest satisfaction philosophy. So it is for me to say – especially now that the scaffolding is gone – come to the Radisson Blu – we are affordable. The prices that people used to see before don't exist any more.

We did this very much with the prom ball campaign. We were sold out. It is the highest demand from prom balls that this hotel has ever done because we made it affordable. Wwhy wouldn't you want your prom on the yellow cobbles here in the very heart of Sofia? People do want it but we have to make it affordable to them. Don't rip people off. It is not fair. That's very much the philosophy that has come to this hotel now. We don't want to rip anybody off. We want it fair and transparent. 

How is the opening of a Park Inn Hotel in Sofia, another Rezidor brand, going to fit with the Radisson Blu – in terms of target customers, development philosophy?

The property known previously as the Greenville is now the Park Inn by Radisson. How do the two work? We complement each other. You have the Radisson Blu, which is the upmarket brand, and you have the Park Inn by Radisson, which is the mid-market brand. This means that if we have a piece of business that we bring in from outside the region that wants high-level accommodation, we can support our colleagues at the Park Inn.

It's two brands working together for the same destination but appealing to two separate markets – upscale and mid-scale. What this will do is it will drive more business into Sofia through brand recognition. With Rezidor now we have the two brands – and that way the whole Sofia experience could become more obvious to people from outside the region.

The two brands are very different. Radisson Blu offers you upscale, and what people here see as five-star service. Park Inn by Radisson gives value for money, it doesn't have all the extra service aspects but it aims at the pockets. They still have the same attitude the "Yes, I Can" philosophy, making it right, 100% guest satisfaction. These values are espoused by all Rezidor brands. But it is just the offering within the property that determines the actual representation to the market that it is appealing to. We sit here to complement each other. 

With everything you mentioned so far – when you came to Sofia to manage the Radisson, it was pretty much in the midst of the crisis. Have you seen the market recover?

The market is definitely improving. I think that people's perception of Sofia for the inbound person is definitely changing. We are seeing an upturn in the demand coming into Sofia but we are not seeing it at the benefit of the rates, which I've already mentioned. So demand is there but the rates are not growing,

Demand is definitely coming back. Not on a huge level but on a gradual level – which I think I would rather see gradual rather than high upturn because that only means it's going to crash again. It's like anything – let's get the foundation growing.

I've seen a lot of different markets coming in, a lot of different countries – from the business cards that we capture from our guests at the reception desk, the welcome guest rounds that we do two-three times in our lobby each evening – we talk to our guests to find out who the new ones are, and how we can become their preferred hotel. That way you can get a feel for what new markets are coming in.

Obviously, HP are doing the new call center – all of this is growth at an early stage so we can see going into two-three years' time what investment is going to come here in Bulgaria.

There are a number of new projects which are beginning to materialize here in Sofia and on the outskirts which has to be a plus. I think if you look at the Sofia Business Park near the Holiday Inn, most of those rentals are now occupied, which shows that the confidence is coming back. And it means the Holiday Inn is busy as well.

Which are some of these new projects that you are talking about?

It's mainly IT, it's very much IT-focused, no doubt about that. And it is quite interesting – there are a lot more business cards coming from the UK – whether it's just coincidence, I don't know. But you can see that the markets that are coming in are different markets. It's the UK, Germany, Holland is now starting to appear. America has always been relatively strong.

But you can see there is a growth pattern now coming from different countries – and it's all first visits – you capture them at first visit, and you monitor to see whether you get them for a second visit. But it is very interesting, it is definitely taking a path at the moment.

What is there to do for an expat manager in Sofia, other than work?

It's what we choose to do, also. The hard thing is when you are a general manager moving around, and you know you are not going to be here for years and years, you are very focus to why you are here, which is the hotel.

That can be a good thing, and it can also be a bad thing. So your family become very focused on the hotel as well. Because this is the reason you are here. It sounds harsh but it is true. It becomes your life, and that sounds very sad but because we are only here for a snapshot, you want to make the most of that snapshot.

You want to make the most of any opportunity you see at the hotel to elevate it as much as you can. A social life does stem from that – but I am not a particularly – sounds terrible working in the hotel industry – a social person. I am social to what I need to be but I like peace and quiet at the end of a hectic day.

So for us, it is being a family, and we've had more quality time as a family here than we had in the UK. I now have quality time with my daughter, who is now competing here in Bulgaria at international level.

I am not a social butterfly, and I think this just comes with moving around quite a lot. We are very private but I think the main thing is this is why we are here so this becomes our life. But I do like the fact that I can have dinner every night with my family – I never used to have that in the UK.

How do you see the public life in Bulgaria – to say the least, every other day there is some protest rally right outside the Radisson, on the square before the Bulgarian Parliament?

You're not kidding! I've seen a lot in the last few weeks, it's terrible. This is new to me. We had it in the UK many years ago when I was little, and I remember seeing such things on TV. But now it is all of a sudden – the square is closed. Why is the square closed? Because there is a protest. What is the protest about?...

For me – I will be careful how I say this because I don't have a direct connection so I can't have the passion of the local people who have seen changes they agree or don't agree with. I've seen those changes in the UK over the years as I've grown up. Everybody has the right to be heard. At the end of the day – do I have a problem with the square being closed ? I can't influence it in any way. People have the right to be heard.

Does that have an impact on people getting to the hotel?

We are quite fortunate because the authorities usually advise us the day before sometimes they don't but that is probably in cases they don't know themselves. So we have advance notification and we can manage it. Most of our guests don't react negatively.

I get more negative comments because the central heating wasn't turned on in the city when it got very cold in October. That was a huge issue. When people come in to another EU country, and something like that happens, they think you are lying.

I had a face-to-face conversation with one of the guests, he happened to be UK so he did believe me at the end but he couldn't understand what I was saying about how it works here in Sofia, and that the hotel depends on the central heating. That worries me going forward from a retention of business coming in. I know it only happens for a few days but you can make maximum impact, negative or positive in a short period of time. And we got a lot of negative comments.

We can look at it as a hotel, how to deal with it in the future, but we can't resolve it overnight, it takes time to resolve it. It has the reverse effects as we are coming out of the winter because I got the tale end of that when I came – because we will have the warmer weather and the heating might be still on.

Try explaining that to the international traveler that's coming to an EU country. They do not understand. That's a challenge for us as a hotel representing Sofia but also representing a brand. Because one guest said to me, "It's the Radisson Blu – you should be able to provide me with central heating." They didn't look at Sofia, they look at the brand – so it's about finding the harmony between the local area where we are and the brand we represent.

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Tags: Radisson Blu, Deborah Haines, five-star hotel

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