October started with medium occupancy for Holiday Inn Telavi and was going steadily, until the worsening of pandemic situation in Georgia. The hotel ended July and August with over 35% occupancy. Promotional activity - What to See in Telavi – proved to be successful and engaged many visitors.
“During summer 2020, precisely in July and August, the average occupancy was between 30-35%. Telavi is only 1. 5 hr. driving from Tbilisi, which is acceptable for the MICE market for organizing team buildings, conferences, workshops and our conference spaces gave us the opportunity to meet the demand,” Ana Muradashvili, General Manager at Holiday Inn Telavi, told BM.GE.
Today's hotel bookings of Holiday Inn Telavi are mostly related to business-regional meetings, small conferences that are taking place in Kakheti.
“In 2020 the world has seen the unprecedented deterioration of the business environment globally as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the travel industry,” said Muradashvili.
Due to global pandemic, Holiday Inn Telavi was closed in March 2020. After the lockdown period, the Hotel was reopened on the 1st of July, with all the safety and health regulations required by the Georgian Government and Intercontinental Hotels Group LLC.
Regarding the performance of the hotel, as the GM says, their guests, of course mainly domestic tourists, started traveling for both segments: leisure and business.
In Muradashvili’s words, in the beginning, the hotel focused on the local MICE market, who still were interested to book the hotel for their business requirements. “Holiday Inn Telavi has 3 meeting spaces in compliance with all the regulations to ensure our guests' and team members safety and wellbeing”.
For the leisure segment, Holiday Inn Telavi created a number of special promotions.
“We have created a special packages for fall period for Solo and TBC Concept members with the very special conditions. We also promoted “what to see in Telavi” in social media, and it engaged many visitors willing to explore ancient and historical sightseeing such as Erekle II palace; monasteries Shua Mta, Ikalto; the iconic architecture of the Cholokhashvili street, the beautiful Nadikvari park,” said the GM.
As the world adjusts to new travel norms and expectations, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), owning Holiday Inn among other hotel brands, enhanced the experience for the hotel guests by redefining cleanliness and supporting wellbeing throughout their stay. “IHG has a long-standing commitment to rigorous cleaning procedures and launched the IHG Way of Clean program in 2020 in response to the pandemic,” Muradashvili told BM.GE.
