INTERVIEW
Tourism is booming in Georgia, and so is hotel construction. S&L, opened on Svanidze Street in Tbilisi near Vake Park and Turtle Lake (Kus Tba) last year, aiming to offer a number of high-end services to its clientele. It has 17 rooms complete with standard, comfort, or luxury balconies; a swimming pool and sauna; and a well equipped gym.
We met with the hotel owner, Mr. Gaioz Kardava, a Russia-based Georgian businessman, and Levan Matsiashvili, the hotel manager, to find out about the concept behind S&L Hotel and their ambition to make it one of the best hotels in the city.
Why did you decide to open a hotel in Tbilisi, and what segment of clients do you plan to target?
Gaioz: I built this house some nine or ten years ago, and rented it out. My family and I have been living in Russia for 32 years; but I decided to transform my Georgian property into a hotel. Although I’ve never worked in the hospitality and tourism business before, I can’t say it was something unplanned or something I didn’t think through carefully. However, there were number of challenges I encountered on the way. It was difficult to find the right employees for the hotel. Luckily, I found Levan Matsiashvili who has 12 years’ experience in the field.
From your experience of opening the hotel, what are the major issues that need to be worked on in the sector?
Gaioz: First and foremost, I’d say service. You can’t imagine how hard it can be to find a professional housekeeper or cleaner. The quality of service in Georgia is, unfortunately, very low, and the reason for that is unprofessionalism, which I think comes from the lack of vocational training for people who want to work in a hotel. It’s a specific job and needs to be learned just like any other. The quality of service is the most essential thing. In order for a small, family-type hotel to succeed, the owners should not be oriented solely towards profit; the focus should be on gaining clients and serving their needs. We’ve been taking feedback from our guests, and using their suggestions, concerns and comments to help us improve the service we offer.
Levan: Although tourism a priority for our country’s development, there are still too many problems in the sphere. Hotel management, guide services, transportation; these are the sectors that definitely need to be improved. There are hundreds of fantastic resorts and places in Georgia that still have no infrastructure to enable visitors to reach them by car. As for the hotel industry itself, in my opinion, the State needs to create better conditions both for businessmen investing in the industry and for the people working and employed in it. Often, taxes are so high that for a person owning or renting a property, or willing to open a hotel, it’s just not profitable. Perhaps interest in the industry would be stimulated by a tax break even for a short period.
What distinguishes S&L Hotel from others?
Gaioz: We try to treat each and every client as our personal guest by providing them with a family-friendly atmosphere, and offering an individual approach to anyone who decides to stay with us. To be competitive we need to offer top quality service. The price and the service the hotel provides need to complement each other. In my opinion, family-type hotels are more in demand today. We try to offer a relatively low price but a top quality service to our potential customers. In smaller hotels like this one, it’s easier to constantly improve your service, pay attention to each of your guests and to supervise the work of your employees. At our hotel, we can plan sightseeing tours, which we organize through our own tourism agency, for visitors. I would like this hotel to be the place I’ve always imagined- the kind I’d want to stay in myself. We’re now in the process of negotiations with an insurance company and will soon be offering insurance to our guests. I hope this will be taken as an indication of how much we care about our clients.
Levan: We have standard rooms and luxury rooms. We have family suites and a winter garden and terraces, a sauna, swimming pool and a gym. We have concierge service and a 24-hour desk, and staff members who can help to carry luggage, if necessary. We’re proud to have had very good reviews so far.
Why do you think the tourist numbers are up for Georgia?
Gaioz: If we take the Russian tourist segment as an example, many of the tourists who were previously traveling to Egypt or Turkey now consider Georgia as a holiday destination, and that’s probably one of the reasons.
By Nino Gugunishvili