On December 9-10th the General Manager of Crowne Plaza Moscow WTC hotel Elena Belashova attended the European InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) General Managers’ Conference in Amsterdam.

During these two days General Managers of European IHG properties took part in workshops and plenary sessions devoted to economic recession in Europe and major trends of hospitality industry in tough market conditions.

During the evening gala dinner concluding the first day winners of annual IHG Europe Awards were announced. Crowne Plaza Moscow WTC hotel was recognized among more than 800 hotels of European region as a winner for the nomination «Best Marketing Contribution and outstanding achievements in the service of InterContinental Hotels Group». This remarkable award highlights the title of Russia’s Leading Business Hotel as well as the leading Crowne Plaza property in Europe.

Yesterday the Vice President Hotel Performance Support, Europe Mr. Casey McDermott emphasized the fact that now customers are paying much more attention to controlling expenditures of their business trips, preferring hotels that offer the most comprehensive range of services combined with impeccable quality of hotel product and service level. A vital role goes to functional room equipment taking into account the ease of mobile devices usage, including high-speed internet access and availability of universal doc-stations that allow both to connect a useful keyboard and use room’s TV to demonstrate charts and presentations and perform video conferences.

Mr. Matthew Luscombe SVP, Sales & Marketing Europe added that in the current economic situation online reservation systems are becoming a key sales channel and that hotels need to pay particular attention to the policy of parity of different systems together with providing best rates on own websites.

Plenary session were scheduled during which discussions of main areas of work in 2014 will take place including the issues of crisis management, renovations, security and increasing of Revenue Generation Index (index of profitability relative to competitors).