“A criminal’s most valuable weapon is kindness” — 5th day.
Getting some sleep after a long Wednesday, we got up around 11 to grab a coffee on the go. At noon, our business meeting with the Black Sea Hotels chain started. After an interesting interview, we went for a snack lunch in a café and were picked up at the Opera for a catacombs tour. We spent two hours in the impressive underground world, hearing stories about the history of Odessa and its catacombs. Many criminal organisations used the catacomb as a training camp for their “assassins”, and the saying in the title was painted to a wall. Before we met the business partner Bernardazzi, we had a short working session for our report. Finally, we had a delicious dinner and finished the day satisfied.
Business Meeting Black Sea Hotels
We met with Matthew from Black Sea Hotels. He showed us one of the six hotels, which is their head quarter in Park Shevchenko. The hotel opened in 2013, partly due to the European Football Championships. The hotel is integrated into a stadium and designed in an universal style, with small balconies to match the look of the stadium. The stadium and the hotel are privately owned and the relationship with the government is on a very communicative basis.
Just a year after opening, the Crimean War started. As sales manager, Matthew explained us that the occupancy at the hotel remained almost stable due to their main strategic focus on national business tourism. While many other touristic service providers suffered from the decrease of individual visitors, national business kept going and so Black Sea Hotel Park Shevchenko balanced the loss of travellers with business people. Matthew sees an economic rebound for the coming years and is confident that tourists will come in masses to explore the heart of the East.
Regarding vocational training for staff, he mentioned a program within the hotel chain to train unexperienced employees to teach the standard of good service. Matthew himself started as a Front Desk employee in different hotels and after being Front Desk Manager, he started one and a half year ago as Sales Manager at Black Sea Hotels chain. He feels a responsibility to stay in his country and do his best to bring the hotel forward in the future, mostly in terms of service delivery. Concerning the connection with the football club of Odessa, Matthew described a positive impact that the fans and the club have on the hotel. The club is famous nationwide and attracts a lot of football lovers.
Concluding our main learnings, the interview showed that a close connection with the government and establishment leads to a kind of “safe haven” for the hotel chain, as it seems that they don’t have to be very competitive. Regarding his personal view of responsibility for the city, the reason is very vague. The way he talked about the pain of further work and education needed for going abroad, it seems that the personal feelings for his home country are only secondary.
Business Meeting Bernardazzi
Alexei is the manager of the beautiful Restaurant Bernardazzi, a lovely romantic spot in the city of Odessa. Alexei almost went another way, studying accountancy. Reflecting, he realized that his gastronomic core brought him onto the right path. After he started working in the first Hyatt within the Ukraine in 2007 and learned a lot from the global five-star standards in the hotel business, he became the manager of the restaurant in 2013. In the coming years, also through his influence, the restaurant flourished thanks to his passionate focus on quality and local tradition. It became an almost hidden precious in the gastronomic variety of Odessa. As a sommelier, he explored the world of wine for 15 years and meanwhile improved his English and French speaking skills. With the global influence and his curiosity to learn about every part of the gastronomic world, he returned to his home country. Asking why, Alexei highlights the difference from Ukraine to Western Europe in competitive surroundings, meaning that he has more freedom to improve in quality and financial revenue is not first priority.
Considering marketing, Alexei sees Bernardazzi living off mouth-to-mouth propaganda and fascinated retaining guests. He showed us around his place and remarked that there is no special physical advertising happening within the restaurant, as he feels that the whole experience is “marketing enough”. A central role in the experience has the staff. In the case of Bernardazzi, staff is trained and educated in a modern way. They are continually learning English, as he sees this skill as a key element in the modern world. Furthermore, he uses head hunting as a strategy to employ skilled waiters, cooks and barkeepers. He sees his big financial investments paying off — which we remarked as well.
During the study week, we experienced the incredibly diverse gastronomy and food scene of Odessa. When asked about this, Alexei responded that he himself investigated in the matter himself. He found that he could go to the best 15 Odessian restaurant within 30 minutes of walking. This dense network of restaurants is a big strength of Odessa, while on the other hand the politics and lack of investment in infrastructure leads to a kind of desperate situation concerning the future of his daughter and son. He would not hinder his kids, if they would want to leave the country one day, and is glad that they have the choice.
Ukrainians love to cook, and, in Alexei’s perception, they are hardworking people. Odessa is the best place for food in the country. He sees lots of potential for Odessa to become Ukraine’s Tel Aviv. Where does Alexei get his power and will for creating the best experience for everyone in and around his restaurant every day? “Passion is the only way to survive.” Passion is encouraging creativity and embracing the exchange with people. In the end, passion creates much more than survival.
One more day, and the main part of this study week is already over! See you tomorrow…
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Kevin S.
Studyweek Odessa — A project from nine students of HTW Chur
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