Caspian Energy (CE): Mr. Eratay, what do you think about the work of the hotel and how do you see its future development? 

Kemal Eratay, General Manager, Grand Hotel Europe: First of all, considering the development of the Grand Hotel Europe through the prism of the past years, I may say that the hotel gained big success indeed and left a worthy mark in history of Azerbaijan. The Eurovision song contest held in Baku revealed that the hotel is still following certain ideas of the past.  Hotels must meet modern requirements in order to provide the guests of our city high-quality services. Therefore, employees of hotels must shape their views, their approach to guests and things happening around us in accordance with international norms. Nevertheless, lots of wonderful people who worked at Grand Hotel Europe for a long period, made many efforts in order to bring the hotel to the present level. 

I hope that in future, by using new vision, views and wise solutions, we will bring Grand Hotel Europe to other new achievements which it deserves at modern period of development of the history. 

CE: Which top-priority objectives do you set up for the hotel?

Kemal Eratay: The first objective will be to improve the level and quality of service. This is because such indicator as Guest Satisfaction is very important in the modern hotel service. To improve the Guest Satisfaction indicator we will make all efforts to reach the highest level of service through meeting all demands of our guests. This is what our main activities are now focused on.

CE: Which innovations do you plan to introduce in the hotel?

Kemal Eratay: Of course, there will be innovations. Moreover, we now think that the hotel needs some renovation. Since the hotel was opened almost twenty years ago, speaking in the language of the hotel business we plan some works on renovation and repair to be performed within a short time in the hotel in the nearest future. These works have been planned to open a new page in the concept of our hospitality.

At the same time, we intend to introduce international hotel standards here together with the hotel staff.   

CE: How do you evaluate the potential of hosting of business events?

Kemal Eratay: The potential of conduction of business-events is very high. But it is also true that people who hold such events give more preference to the brand. I.e. they find the brand to be an advantage when choosing a hotel. Indeed, there are lots of hotels in the capital which are capable to host big business events. Considering this issue from the other side, hotels which do not represent popular brands can provide a much higher service level and create more comfort conditions. It involves so called boutique-hotels. As the years go by, the level of their service will make clients abstain to make a choice in favor of big brands of hotel business when conducting such events. High level of service and location of the hotel will in due course be a basic factor when choosing a hotel for conducting business-events. In this way, people will stop staking on the popularity of the hotel brand. 

I think that the quality of provided services is the most important issue in this aspect. 

Going back to your question, I would like to note that we have modernized and carried out full renovation work in all our conference rooms. We can organize any business event designed approx for 200 people. It can be a conference, a business meeting, a business supper, gala-dinner, etc. We work with the best suppliers of technical equipment in Azerbaijan that enables to fully demonstrate our professionalism on the business market.