Tuvatova V.E.,
candidate of technical sciences, associate professor of the department
management of the branch of Sochi State
University of Tourism and Resort Business, Nizhny Novgorod

The article is devoted to the problem of quality of services in the hotel business. The main aspects of the quality of hospitality services are considered and ways to improve the quality of services at Nizhny Novgorod enterprises are proposed.

Today, the tourism and hospitality industry is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the economy. The pace of this development is clearly demonstrated by statistics according to which today every thirteenth worker is directly or indirectly employed in this field. Such a large number of people employed in the hospitality industry is directly related to its colossal scale of infrastructure (services of travel companies, accommodation, catering, recreation and entertainment enterprises, transport enterprises, etc.).

The topic of quality of hotel services is very relevant today. This is especially true for the financial side of the activities of hospitality enterprises, since a huge share of profits here depends precisely on the quality of services. Quality in the service sector is primarily the client’s feeling of satisfaction with the service, and a quality service is a service that meets the needs of the guest. The level of quality, in turn, depends on the degree of coincidence of the client’s ideas about the actual and desired service in the hotel.

It is necessary to provide services in such a way that the properties of the services exclude the possibility of causing harm and do not pose a threat to the life and health of clients. Recently, hotel managers have turned their attention to the benefits of creating an environmentally friendly environment for their customers.

For example, they strive to use natural materials instead of synthetics when decorating interiors, bedding fabrics made from natural silk and cotton, reduce the use of strong and harmful cleaning products, etc.

The entire hotel industry, from the creation of the optimal organizational structure of an individual hotel enterprise to the development of professional standards and job descriptions, is based on the standardization of operational processes and is subordinated to the tasks of quality service.

In this context, the importance of effective management of operational processes to achieve a certain quality of services provided is increasing in all areas of the hospitality industry, especially in the hotel business. Quality management as a process implies:
– precise formulation of the meaning of the term in the application to each specific enterprise;
– understanding by management personnel of the difference between the concepts of “quality” and “value”;
– the perception of quality as a process that implies continuous efforts to satisfy customer needs;
– understanding the connections between quality and corporate culture.

These four aspects are decisive, as they influence the setting of enterprise goals and the work of each individual employee. This approach should be part of the corporate culture and shared by all staff.

Quality management in hotel enterprises is a very important and complex activity. Quality management activities are aimed at maintaining quality indicators at a certain (high) level; to encourage staff to provide exceptionally high quality services; to increase the volume of services provided to a larger number of consumers; to win the competition with other hotels.

The current state of the hotel business in Russia is characterized by a lag in the quality of service provided by domestic enterprises compared to foreign ones.

However, today there are processes of active development of franchising in the field of hotel business. Domestic enterprises eagerly join such titans of the hotel industry as Marriott, Holiday Inn, Sheraton, etc. These hotels, which are part of well-known European hotel chains, are distinguished by a higher quality of service in comparison with enterprises of domestic owners.

One of the main reasons for the lag in the quality of services offered by Russian hotels is the lack of clearly defined and formulated standards in this area.

The fundamental feature of the activities of hotels operating in Russia on a franchise basis is that they are managed in strict compliance with the corporate standard used in a particular hotel chain. They maintain European (higher) service quality standards. For hotel owners going for a franchise, there is no choice whether to apply or not apply the service standard. They can choose a hotel corporation that will agree to manage their hotel property or transfer service technology based on its corporate standard. The service standard, as well as the description of the technological processes for providing service, is the know-how of each hotel operator, providing it with a competitive advantage in the international market of hotel services.

Factors influencing the formation of the quality of service in a hotel can be seen in Fig. 1 .

Service quality management is carried out through a system of measures, including selection and training of personnel, support and satisfaction of employees, socio-economic incentives for personnel, quality control and standardization of the process of providing services, monitoring labor productivity, monitoring the degree of customer satisfaction with service using a system for analyzing complaints and suggestions. , studying the clientele, comparing the quality of competitors’ services with the quality of their own services.

Thus, the quality of services is the basis for the functioning of both any enterprise in the hospitality industry and the entire industry as a whole.

Quality determines the policy of a particular enterprise, the prices of services, their composition and nature, the popularity of the enterprise, its competitive position and policy, its share in the hotel services market, profit and many other factors and indicators.

At the moment, there are 78 hotels in Nizhny Novgorod, including departmental ones, with a total of 2,979 rooms. About 60% of the market is shared by five major players: Hotel Central (450 rooms), Hotel Oka (281 rooms), Volna (198 rooms), Nizhegorodskaya (170 rooms) and Oktyabrskaya (79 rooms) .

There are no large professional management companies - hotel business operators - in the city yet; there are no hotels belonging to national and international chains. Large hotel business facilities are just being built; the mini-hotel sector is actively developing in Nizhny Novgorod - having appeared in the city about four years ago, they occupy 15% of the market, and new players appear here every year.

Experts state that the demand for five-star hotels in the Nizhny Novgorod market is not satisfied. Meanwhile, according to a study conducted by the Finsmart consulting group, the potential volume of this market sector is about 350 million rubles. in year. Only two hotels have four-star status: “Alexandrovsky Garden” (49 rooms, 98 beds) and “Volna” (198 rooms). The vast majority of Nizhny Novgorod hotels have not passed the “star” certification, but they also do not lack clients. According to experts, hotels of all formats are in demand: the average annual occupancy of large hotels is more than 60%. During the week its level approaches 80–90%, on weekends it drops to 35–40%, mini-hotels show similar indicators.

Market participants note that in terms of the number of rooms per 1,000 residents, the city seriously lags behind not only Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also such cities as Perm, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk. At the same time, the pace of development of the hotel services market in Nizhny Novgorod is inferior to the growth rate in the retail or office real estate sector.

An analysis of the quality management of hotel enterprises in the city of Nizhny Novgorod showed that, in general, of all enterprises in the hotel industry in the city, no more than 10% of hotels have a quality service.

Hotels in Nizhny Novgorod can be offered the use of a service quality model, commonly known as conceptual. This model was proposed in 1985 by American marketing scientist Berry Leonard. It defines service quality in terms of meeting customer expectations.

The model includes the following stages.

On first stage: consumer expectations and the reaction of hotel management.

Hotels need to conduct preliminary consumer research to understand market requirements and then reorient their operations according to those requirements. To let customers know that the hotel cares about the quality of service, surveys can be conducted.

Second phase: management’s perception of the specifics of service quality.

Goals must be supported by hotel employees. Management must show its support to subordinates through proper evaluation of their performance, communication between management and employees, and rewarding especially good performers.

Third stage: Management's perception of service quality.

This stage occurs when management understands the needs of customers and knows what requirements have been developed for the provision of quality services, but employees are not capable of or are unwilling to provide this level of service.

Errors at this stage occur at the “moment of truth” when the enterprise employee and the client interact.

Errors at this stage can be reduced through an internal marketing program. The main ways to prevent errors at this stage are training, monitoring working conditions and developing a system of employee incentives.

Fourth stage: service delivery and commitment.

Maintaining consistency is of particular importance in the provision of services. A luxury hotel must provide service even if there is only one client staying there. One must be prepared to pay the price of risk and remain an upscale hotel. It should also be borne in mind that the provision of services and the service policy are the same. There can be no double standards here. For example, a hotel cashier refused to accept payment from a client by credit card without motivating her actions. She offered to pay in cash, although a month ago she accepted payment from the same guest using the same card.

Failure to comply with these rules results in errors at this stage.

Fifth stage: Expected service and perception of service provided. This stage is derivative from the others. Since any of the preceding stages can grow in size, the fifth stage also has growth opportunities that arise from the difference between the quality of service expected and the quality actually delivered.

Expected quality is what a guest expects to receive from a hotel.

The service provided is what the guest feels he received from the hotel. If a guest receives less than he expected, he remains dissatisfied and will never return to that hotel.

Hotels in Nizhny Novgorod can be offered the following system for managing the quality of hospitality services (Fig. 2).

In a hotel enterprise, it is necessary to establish control and coordination of quality management work, which should be performed by the quality manager service.

Quality Manager will carry out daily monitoring of the quality of service and its compliance with technological standards and sanitary standards. He will carry out his activities in close contact with the heads of other departments of the hotel. The comments of the quality manager to department heads and employees are binding.

The quality manager, together with the HR department and heads of other departments of the hotel, organizes training and retraining of personnel, and together with marketing managers monitors and recommends new hotel and restaurant services and technologies for implementation, and participates in the development of the strategy of the hotel enterprise. Independent experts, consulting and training firms are involved in this work.

The quality manager, together with other departments of the hotel, participates in the development of a quality improvement program, as well as systems that control the organization and provision of services.

The quality manager participates in the work of the culinary council, which develops new menus, wine lists and service technology for the catering establishments of the hotel complex.

The position of quality manager is introduced in a hotel to carry out systematic and planned work aimed at improving the quality and organization of service.

The quality manager will be entrusted with the task of contacting the certification bodies of hotel services, sanitary and trade inspections, with whose representatives he participates in the inspections. Most often, the most effective communication with customers is carried out through employees directly involved in servicing them.

Quality management is a complex and very important process in an enterprise.

There are many systems and methods for managing the quality of hotel services, programs for improving it and ways to control it. A set of correctly selected systems and methods for managing the quality of services makes it possible to structure work at the enterprise in such a way that all three entities of the hotel industry will benefit: a guest satisfied with the service, a satisfied hotel staff, and a hotelier who makes a profit from it.

Quality improvement programs, as well as methods for monitoring it, should be an integral part of the hotel's operation.

To summarize, we can say that, despite all the difficulties, the growth of the hotel industry in Russia is gradually gaining momentum. The quality of hotel services will improve as the hospitality industry in the country as a whole develops.

Sources used
1. Berestova L. Quality services: how to provide them // State Service. – 2009. – No. 6. – P. 23–27.
2. Bulakhov V.A. Professional approach to the creation of quality management systems // Management today. – 2008. – No. 5. – P. 278–289.
3. Lanskov D.P. Analysis of service quality as a necessary condition for increasing the competitiveness of service organizations // Economic Sciences. – 2011. – No. 1 (74). – pp. 138–140.
4. Smirnov S.A. Modern approaches to quality management in the service sector // Bulletin of St. Petersburg University. – Series 5: Economics. – 2008. – Issue. 4. – pp. 136–140.
5. Taver E.I. Quality as an object of management // Management today. – 2008. – No. 5. – P. 258–276.
6. All information about the hotel business. [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: prohotel.ru/
7. Official website of the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region. [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: government.nnov.ru

Also on this topic.

The main problems of the hotel services market and ways to solve them

Kareva Nadezhda Vladimirovna

Samara State Technical University

Zaberzhinsky Borislav Eduardovich, candidate of technical sciences, associate professor

Annotation:

Based on the practice of both domestic and foreign experience, we can state the fact that the hotel industry is a fast-growing, highly profitable sector of the state economy, part of the tourism business, which has significant potential for further development. It is this reason that determines the fact that the rapid development of the service sector taking place in the current conditions more than ever requires consideration of the problem of the hotel services market and ways to solve them.

Based on the practice of both domestic and foreign experience, we can state the fact that the hotel industry is a fast-growing, highly profitable sector of the economy of the state, part of the tourism business, which has significant potential for further development. It is this reason leads to the fact that what is happening in the current circumstances the priority development of services like never requires consideration of the problem of the hotel services and solutions.

Keywords:

hotel business; problems of the hotel industry; solutions.

Keywords: hotel business; challenges the hotel industry; solutions

UDC 33

The hotel industry is one of the most attractive sectors of the economy for investment due to low initial capital investments, constantly growing public demand for hotel services, high levels of profitability and an average payback period for projects.

The hotel business stimulates the development of related sectors of the national economy, primarily construction and trade, and contributes to the creation of new jobs. It has been established that to serve 10 people living in a hotel, it is necessary to create an additional five jobs, three of which are directly related to the provision of hotel services, two - indirectly.

The hotel industry is characterized by fierce competition in the market, which is caused by the rapid development of hotel services. In this regard, consideration of the main problems of the hotel services market and ways to solve them is relevant at the present stage of economic development.

The purpose of writing this article is to characterize the main problems in the provision of hotel services and ways to solve them. According to the stated goal, the following tasks are considered in the work:

Characteristics of the main problems in the provision of hotel services;

Finding ways to solve identified problems.

When writing this article, the works of such scientists as: Bondarenko G.A., Kabushkin N.I., Lyapina I.Yu., Shmatko L.P. were used. , as well as electronic resources.

Among the most pressing problems of the hotel industry as a sector of the national economy, the following can be identified.

Lack of qualified personnel. The hotel business is a new sector of the economy of modern Russia, therefore there are no reserves of qualified workers, the preparation and training of which requires the creation of a network of specialized educational institutions and a significant investment of time. The industry is developing so rapidly and dynamically, expanding the range of services provided, improving the labor organization system, that there is a constant shortage of personnel. The involvement of unskilled workers in the industry, according to many experts, leads to business losses due to unprofessionalism, such as material damage, loss of customer trust, etc.

Experts analyzed vacancies and resumes in the hotel business and concluded that 57% of job candidates are looking for vacancies in three or four companies at once. 43% believe that they will be able to receive wages 40-50% more than before. However, in reality, wages increased by 27% instead of 50%.

Lack of middle class hotels. The activities of domestic and international chains are concentrated mainly in the field of 4*, 5* hotels, the owners of which are joint ventures with the participation of private investors and local authorities. Such hotels are characterized by a high level of service at a high cost of services provided, available for payment, and therefore use, only by wealthy people (representatives of large businesses, famous artists, political figures). As for hotels with a good level of service, accessible to representatives of the middle class, the industry is experiencing a shortage of them in all major cities of the country, including the capital. According to marketing research, the most popular hotels today are 3* hotels, most of which do not meet their level of quality of service and staff training.

The majority of hotel business owners in Russia are foreign companies. Their share is 66% of the entire hotel market. There are 4 international companies ahead of all: The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Accor Hotels, Marriott International, InterContinental Hotels Group. These, as well as other hotel chains, plan to have about 220 operating hotels by 2018, when the World Cup will take place in Russia.

The imperfection of legislation in the field of hotel business is expressed in the complex and lengthy procedure for an entrepreneur to obtain a license, a certificate for carrying out hotel activities, registration acts and other legal documents. This, in turn, restrains the desire of investors to invest in the construction of hotels, expansion of their network and range of services provided. This problem arises especially acutely in densely populated cities with a population of millions, where land for development has a very high cost.

In addition, the hotel classification system is legislatively imperfect. The system approved in the order of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation dated June 21, 2003 No. 197 “On approval of the Regulations on the state system of classification of hotels and other accommodation facilities” is voluntary, therefore many hotels, having received their category from the outdated system, according to the quality of hotel services do not correspond to any of the categories. These account for more than 50% of the total number of hotels in the country.

The new hotel classification was adopted on December 29. 2014 by Order of RosMinKultura dated July 11, 2014 “On approval of the procedure for classifying temporary accommodation facilities, including hotels, ski slopes, beaches.” The new classification of hotels in Russia provides for 6 categories, from 1 to 5 stars, as well as a “no stars” category, which will be used for further certifications. The “no stars” category means the minimum requirements for the volume and quality of hotel services.

The lack of stable financing for the industry is due, first of all, to the unstable economic situation in the state. The crises of 2008 and 2014, associated with the general economic and political situation in the world and the region, lead to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, a decrease in demand for hotel services, the curtailment of the activities of individual companies, and the financial bankruptcy of entrepreneurs. The unstable situation does not allow us to develop and implement programs for sustainable development of the industry for years to come.

On the other hand, the predicted increase in competition in a couple of years will force hotel business owners to reduce prices and improve the quality of services. Experts estimate the financial volume of the Russian hotel market at 1.7-2 billion US dollars, and the growth rate of the industry is about 20-25% per year.

Low efficiency of reconstruction of existing hotels. As most experts note, the reconstruction and replacement of outdated hotel stock is accompanied by failures, since during the period of such work, city authorities, as a rule, do not have an alternative fund capable of replenishing the missing number of hotel rooms. Therefore, either the reconstruction of the hotel occurs in stages without stopping its operation, which worsens the quality of services, or the demolition of outdated buildings is postponed, which leads to even greater deterioration of the number of rooms. A decrease in the number of hotel rooms due to the reconstruction or demolition of individual hotels inevitably leads to an increase in the cost of services in other operating hotels.

Interaction between hotel and tourism businesses. These industries interact most closely with each other and have accumulated many claims against each other, mainly regarding contractual discipline. For example, hotels often suffer losses due to the fact that tour operators who pre-book places for tourist groups do not always buy such hotel places. Cancellation occurs too late for rooms to be relisted. This situation is typical for the hotel industry in general; it is one of the risk factors, and to prevent it, special provisions on prepayment, deposits, and additional guarantees are included in contracts, which helps reduce financial losses if the transaction fails. In turn, tour operators do not always receive timely confirmation of their request for room reservations, since hotels often take a wait-and-see approach, especially on the eve of public holidays and events, when the demand for hotel rooms is high.

One of the solutions is to regulate the hotel business by the state on the basis of a developed unified concept for the development of the hotel services market in Russia, which would provide for possible problem situations and ways to solve them.

Simplification of legislative procedures for registration and registration of hotels should attract capital from foreign investors into the industry and further expand the network of hotel rooms and expand the range of services provided.

The development of the hotel industry should gradually shift from the megacities of Moscow and St. Petersburg to large regional cities (regional and regional centers, cities with a population of millions), primarily to industrial, commercial, cultural, and tourist centers.

In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg in the Russian hotel industry, the first places are occupied by such cities as Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Kaliningrad, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk and Yaroslavl. In other cities there is a shortage of hotels. Most of the objects have long been outdated, morally and physically. Their wear is more than 60%. This can be solved administratively, through investments, or by combining both. In particular, in the south of Russia and Siberia there is a lack of hotel service, and now, as expected, its active development is underway there.

Entrepreneurs in the hotel business also need to actively participate in resolving issues of improving the quality of services, qualifications of working personnel, and transparency of activities. It is important to attract young specialists to work and increase employee motivation.

Thus, the hotel industry is a complex, complex field of professional activity aimed at meeting the needs of clients (tourists, business people).

The main problems of the hotel industry at the current stage of development include a shortage of qualified personnel, a lack of middle-class hotel stock (3*), and imperfect legislation regarding the regulation of the hotel services market. To solve these problems, it is necessary to interact between the state and business on the principles of simplifying the procedure for registering hotel facilities, supporting investment projects, and carrying out legal, transparent activities.

Bibliography:

1. Kabushkin N.I., Bondarenko G.A. Management of hotels and restaurants. – Minsk: New edition, 2002. – 368 p.
2. Lyapina I.Yu. Organization and technology of hotel services. – M.: “Academy”, 2005. – 208 p.
3. Shmatko L.P. Tourism and hotel management - M.: March, 2005. - 346 p.
4. Foreign companies dominate the Russian hotel market [Electronic resource]. - URL: http://prohotel.ru/review-218706/0/
5. The occupancy of economy class hotels in the capital has increased by 17.5% over the past four years [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://www.hotelline.ru/analitic_article.php?news_cid=536&news_id=1791
6. New rules for the classification of hotel facilities include six categories [Electronic resource]. – URL: http://prohotel.ru/news-217736/0

Reviews:

3.11.2015, 17:18 Kolomiets Anna Ivanovna
Review: Statistics should be added to the article, as well as specific examples of regions with a shortage of hotel services.

The problem of providing quality service in a hotel can be solved in several ways.

The first direction is the American model of hotel internationalization. In the modern tourism industry, the traveler has the opportunity to choose from a variety of businesses, receiving high-quality and varied service where he sees fit. The choice is often influenced by the possibility of obtaining a guaranteed level of service without “any surprises.” Today, the leaders of such a guaranteed international quality system are hotel chains.

This system was the beginning of one of the directions in the creation of international quality systems for hotel products, based on a rigid centralized scheme for the creation and quality control from the USA through instructions, a detailed description of technologies and the necessary actions to carry out procedures for the provision of services and their management. Time has shown the viability of such a system, built on the export of a standardized hotel product, guaranteeing customers fulfillment of obligations regarding the quality of services provided and consistency within the limits of strict quality assurance controls.

The second direction for creating quality services is used mainly by independent tourism enterprises. It is based on strict adherence to comfort parameters, which have been developed by the practice of the tourism industry and are universal both for a hotel and for the operation of a catering establishment or travel agency. The complex of components includes the following elements of the concept of “comfort”: informational; economic; aesthetic; domestic; psychological.

Information comfort. Creating information comfort begins with how complete information a guest can receive about a hotel, catering establishment and other hotel facilities even before visiting them. Here, photographs with views of the interior design of the premises, information about prices, the range of basic and additional services provided, the availability of a certificate for the safety of services, etc. are very important. It is important that such information is absolutely accessible to the guest; moreover, it must be submitted in such a form that which would satisfy his needs.

The concept of information comfort also includes two other main parameters: awareness of the staff, ready to answer any question from the guest not only about the hotel, but also about the country of residence; a system of pictograms designed to help guests navigate the hotel walls without knowing the language. It is important that the pictograms are clearly recognizable and comply with the international HOTREC system, recognized throughout the world.

Economic comfort. Economic comfort refers to the convenience of payment for the guest, a system of discounts, bonuses, club cards and other measures designed to motivate the guest to re-choose an accommodation facility or catering establishment, travel agency or excursion bureau, which is the main goal of the quality system. In this regard, special attention should be paid to the club card system, which has recently become especially relevant. First of all, the reason for this was the creation of technologies that allow for centralized accounting, instant order processing, automatic credit card servicing, and on-line monitoring of order fulfillment.

Aesthetic comfort. One of the reasons why a guest chooses a particular hotel is its aesthetically designed interior, which creates an atmosphere of comfort and homely warmth. When decorating premises in order to increase the competitiveness of an enterprise, it is necessary to be guided by the following general provisions:

All premises must be made in the same style and correspond to the focus of the enterprise;
. the color scheme should not irritate the guest;
. materials used for decoration must meet safety and hygiene standards and have appropriate certificates;
. materials must also be durable in use and resistant to high temperatures and chemicals.

Household comfort. It implies the creation of normal conditions for the guest’s stay (optimal temperature, air humidity, atmospheric pressure, comfortable furniture). To achieve everyday comfort, air conditioners, air purifiers, and comfortable furniture are used.

Psychological comfort. The concept of psychological comfort covers all of the comfort parameters listed above, since in the absence of at least one of the listed components, the guest’s mood will be spoiled. However, there are also specific requirements, the fulfillment of which guarantees the normal psychological state of the guest. The fulfillment of these requirements depends entirely on the staff - this is respect and hospitality towards the guest.

All hotels are divided into two segments - hotel chains and non-chain hotels. Labor productivity in hotel chains (consisting of 6 hotels or more) is approximately 50% higher than in non-chain hotels, which is associated with the use of standard forms of labor organization by the chains, with cost savings due to the scale of activities in such areas as brand promotion, acquisition of necessary resources and professional training of personnel (due to greater opportunities for career advancement).

The low labor productivity of staff at non-chain Russian hotels is explained by a drop in demand, low income levels and failure to comply with tax discipline, as well as the fact that a significant part of them are state-owned. In Russia, 47% of hotel rooms belong to municipal, regional or federal authorities. Another 36% of the room stock is partly owned by local or federal authorities, and partly by enterprises (mainly heavy industry enterprises). While management contracts that tie managers' remuneration to hotel profitability are widespread in the United States, in Russia contracts (essentially with the state) do not provide sufficient incentives for managers of non-chain hotels to get rid of excess staff and improve labor organization. In addition, some hotels of this kind are run directly by government officials, and they are usually required to hold rooms in reserve for officials, and, of course, these rooms do not generate profit.

A very serious problem in the development of the hotel industry in Russia is the lack of qualified personnel, which, in particular, explains the ineffective organization of labor. U.S. hotel chains cope with seasonal labor demands by tapping into an existing pool of trained workers. In countries such as Russia, there are no such reserves, and it takes a lot of time to properly train an inexperienced employee. The losses from using untrained workers are obvious. Thus, a qualified housekeeper can clean 60% more rooms per day than an inexperienced trainee. To no less an extent, the increased need for workers is due to the cumbersome and imperfect accounting procedures and the great need for security services.

Almost all major international chains are present in Russia, but their activities are concentrated in the four- and five-star hotel segment and are usually managed by international companies, and their owners are joint ventures with the participation of private investors and local authorities. Here, the high quality of service dictates high prices, affordable for large businessmen, business tourists, famous artists, and athletes. But there are almost no tourist-class hotels with a good level of service for a middle-income person who comes to see our country.

The most popular segment remains three-star hotels, the shortage of which is felt in all major cities of Russia. Formally, there are such hotels, but in reality most of them do not correspond to this category either in terms of staff training or quality of service, and they received this category under the old systems.

Today, for the development of the Russian hotel industry, the problem of interaction between hotels and tour operators is relevant. Often these partners make claims against each other. The complaints relate mainly to violations of contractual discipline.

Hotels suffer losses due to the fact that tour operators who make advance reservations for their groups do not always buy the reserved rooms. Late cancellations (i.e. cancellation of previous reservations at extremely short notice, preventing rooms from being relisted) is a risk factor in the hotel industry as a whole. To counteract such unfavorable factors, hotels include various provisions in contracts regarding advance payment and deposits, i.e. a standard set of measures used by all hotels, regardless of the country of origin, to reduce losses from failures in preliminary financial plans.

Tour operators, in turn, also have claims against their partners - accommodation facilities. There are often cases when hotels take a wait-and-see approach and do not confirm booking requests within the time limits specified in the contracts. Hotels do this especially often on the eve of major events and holidays that cause high demand for accommodation services. Since there are not many hotels hosting foreign tourist groups, tour operators do not agree to terminate contracts with violating hotels. Some hotels deliberately cut off group tourism by charging prices higher for tourist groups than for corporate clients, or offering accommodation without discounts. It can be quite difficult for tour operators to protect their positions, especially when demand exceeds supply.

Another problem is related to the imperfection of legislation and the complexity of bureaucratic procedures for licensing, certification, etc. And this, in turn, is the source of other problems. Thus, due to the imperfection of the legislative framework, investors invest money in the construction of new hotels in Russia, especially in Moscow, with some caution. This is mainly due to the fact that in Moscow there are no convenient places for development, and as a result the high cost of land. The capital's government has repeatedly stated its readiness to promote the development of the hotel services market, but bureaucratic obstacles are still strong. In addition, the Moscow authorities, rather unsuccessfully, according to experts, initiate the reconstruction and replacement of the existing hotel stock. Over the past three years, the Moscow market has decreased by 3.5 thousand rooms in demolished hotels alone. And this is almost a quarter of the number of rooms in the middle segment. Meanwhile, the demolition of hotels continues. This reduces competition for existing hotels, which entails higher prices for hotels and a decrease in the quality of services.

Another problem related to the legislative framework is the classification of hotels. Currently, the regulatory document on the basis of which the classification of Russian hotels is carried out is the order of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation dated June 21, 2003 No. 197 “On approval of the Regulations on the state classification system of hotels and other accommodation facilities.” Despite the fact that the document has received state status, this classification system is voluntary and many hotels received their category according to the old systems, so more than 70% of hotels in Russia do not fit into any of the existing categories in terms of quality of service. Information about all enterprises that have received a category in accordance with the requirements of the state system is published on the official website of the federal executive body in the field of tourism, as well as in catalogs and other publications distributed at exhibitions in Russia and abroad.

Of course, speaking about the problems of the hotel business, it is necessary to talk about ways to solve them.

Regulation of the hotel industry should occur “from above”, i.e. by the state. To do this, first of all, it is necessary to develop a unified marketing concept for the development of the hotel business in Russia, which should provide solutions to all problems in a complex. The state must determine the tourism concepts of the regions, the need for additional infrastructure, territorial zoning, a plan to attract investors and much more. Thus, the hotel market in Moscow and St. Petersburg is already quite developed and it is worth reorienting cash flows to regional cities with a population of over a million, important centers of trade and industry. Separately, it is worth considering the prospects of the Golden Ring and resort areas.

Significant work needs to be done in the area of ​​legislation. Registration and registration processes should be simplified and understandable in order to attract foreign investment in the hotel business.

Also, do not forget about the problem of quality of service in hotels. The introduced classification system is an important step towards improving quality, but it is not enough. Firstly, this system has many complaints from hotel owners and requires improvements, and secondly, it is not mandatory and many hotels do not correspond to any category. To improve the situation, the state should invest in these hotel enterprises, as well as stimulate them to improve the level of services.

But solutions to problems require the active participation of hoteliers. They should strive for high-quality provision of services, effective work with clients, and close cooperation with the government. The problem of personnel requires special participation of hotel owners. Many of them can be solved by closer work with universities, compensation policies and non-financial motivation of staff.

Thus, the hotel business in Russia faces many problems and the solution to these problems must be comprehensive, i.e. the state and hotel owners must work together to plan and implement programs to eliminate them.

The development of business tourism in Russia is associated with certain problems, the resolution of which is very important right now.

One of the problems is the lack of business hotels in the regions.

At the moment, almost all hotels with the highest level of comfort are located in Moscow and St. Petersburg. About 20% of hotels in Russia today can meet the level of comfort of at least one star according to the requirements of current standards. The significance of Moscow and St. Petersburg in the economic life of the country is, of course, decisive, but it is not limited to these two centers. Travel by business clients to more and more cities will increase as business activity in Russia grows.

The creation of hotels capable of hosting business tourists seems especially relevant today. Regional hotel enterprises, as a rule, experience serious difficulties in solving the problems of increasing operational efficiency alone. Imperfect quality standards, lack of funds to conduct effective marketing activities alone, lack of opportunity, and sometimes even desire, to adopt foreign and advanced domestic experience of colleagues - all these are problems of regional hotels, which could become the basis for the development of business tourism.

In solving such problems, the role of professional management companies is great, which have accumulated the experience of specialists who know first-hand the specifics of the industry, who are able to apply existing experience in solving the problems of anti-crisis management of hotel enterprises, creating uniform standards, and the possibility of creating mechanisms for monitoring the quality of service, which have been demonstrated by the example of their own hotels the ability to effectively manage hotel enterprises that have sufficient funds to invest in new hotel infrastructure, etc.

The second problem is the low level of service quality, the lack of a professional approach to service quality management.

For many years abroad, the ideology of specialization of hotel enterprises in receiving and servicing clients who make up target market segments has been used. The universality and “omnivorousness” of recreational production should be rejected at the very beginning of defining the mission of a hotel enterprise. Only by specializing the production of hotel services can more complete satisfaction of customer needs be achieved. The specialization of hotel enterprises should be based on target market segments. This principle is very important when creating and managing a range of business hotel services.

It should be noted, however, that despite the comprehensive legal framework designed to facilitate the creation of comfort for a hotel enterprise, in practice there are a lot of different problems associated with this issue, especially in the business hotel segment.

Let's look at some of them.

• 1. The discrete nature of the production of services and the integrity of their consumption, which manifests itself as a certain contradiction in solving problems of product quality management. This is truly a huge problem. Small shortcomings associated with humanitarian technologies, made by at least one employee of a hotel or restaurant, can cause tourist dissatisfaction in general. Travel industry professionals often say: “Hospitality is the art of detail.” The work of each employee in the process of providing hotel services is equally important. In ensuring the quality of service it is impossible to single out a more or less main service.
• 2. The ability to re-produce services at the same high level, or duration of quality. Solving this problem for many services or even entire hotels turns out to be an impossible task, which, in turn, often causes a sharp decrease in the competitiveness of the entire enterprise. There are many reasons for this. This can be either the poor quality of staff’s work equipment, the lack of ergonomic workplaces, or the lack of timely and thoughtful motivation of workers or the lack of organization of the entire system of interaction between employees of the enterprise, which is able to ensure uninterrupted work at an equally high level.
• 3. Relativity (subjectivity) of quality perception. The specificity of the recreation sector is that the product produced is completely or partially intangible, and the effect of the service is assessed by the consumer in a certain emotional state, depending on a huge number of factors, including such subjective characteristics of the tourist as:
  • - features of education;
  • - age;
  • - cultural traditions of the people whose representative the guest is;
  • - the concept of comfort;
  • - habits;
  • - well-being or psychological state at the time of receiving the service;
  • - physiological characteristics of the body and much more.

All this makes the perception of the quality of services of a hotel enterprise largely subjective, depending on the individual characteristics of each tourist, and, consequently, makes the technology of creating psychological comfort for each guest subjective. In addition, there are some other factors specific to the hotel services sector that significantly influence the creation of a quality product that can satisfy the needs of the most demanding business tourist.

The production of hotel services is characterized by the fact that the main emphasis when creating a product quality system is on the quality of service. Quality of service is the key to commercial success. Regional hotels hosting business tourists, often with absolutely identical material base and focus, differ from each other only in the quality of service, which for some is the main trump card in the competition. However, creating an effective system for providing quality service in hospitality is a complex management task, feasible only for professionals.

World practice has developed certain rules for organizing effective service, the observance of which allows a professional manager, without reinventing the wheel, to apply all the accumulated experience in creating an effective service in relation to a specific hotel product.

Another problem in the development of Russian regional business hotels is the lack of a wide range of additional services. Unfortunately, for now, business tourism in Russia only means servicing business trips and business events, forgetting about health services, services that provide the opportunity to make business trips with family, etc.

This problem is aggravated by the fact that in cities remote from the center of Russia there are often no entertainment and health centers where you can get services of acceptable quality.

That is why the versatility of hotels designed for business tourists is one of the most important criteria for competitiveness. It is quite obvious that the role of business hotels in the business infrastructure of Russia, the demand for office space at hotels and high-category business services will constantly increase.

But we must not forget that hotels should fit as harmoniously as possible into the infrastructure of the city where they are located, therefore the importance and relevance of the concept of developing hotels as multifunctional complexes, providing, in addition to traditional services, a variety of entertainment and health services, cannot be overestimated. Hotels for business tourists should be centers of business and cultural life of the city. Should be useful not only to tourists, but also to local residents.

It is important to remember that any business requires a systematic approach based on the experience of professionals and the consolidation of efforts of professional management companies, hotel owners, investors, professional associations and associations, and government bodies.