It has never been a handicap having no formal hotel training, says Valeri Chekheria, wearing his hat as general manager of the Holiday Inn Tbilisi in the capital of Georgia.
“I slipped into it naturally,” Chekheria recalled. “I was working in New York, researching a Russian hotel portfolio for an investment client and, simultaneously, finishing my Master of Public Administration at Columbia.”
One day another Georgian expat, Teimuraz Ugulava, for whom he had been translating in New York, revealed that, to go with his Adjara casino back in Tbilisi, he had bought the neighboring Adjara Hotel, a relic from Soviet times.
“Teimuraz Ugulava lives partly in Tbilisi and partly in Manhattan, near a Holiday Inn Express. He liked the Holiday Inn brand, and asked if I would help him,” Chekheria said.
So, in 2011 Chekheria traveled back to his homeland to take charge, with no prior experience, of a hotel that had only 85 of what would eventually be 270 rooms. He did a lightning self-tutored course in project management, alongside getting the market to realize that his hotel was a superbly run, highly profitable machine. As it turns out, looking after the details, and his people, were in his DNA.
Helped by an HR director who came from Georgia’s civil service, Chekheria built up his employee team to its current strength of 269. “We have only 1% turnover a year,” he declared.
Georgians speak their own language and the first of three hiring interviews is about language skills with a requirement for absolute fluency in English and Russian. After a second interview, Chekheria personally does the final assessment.
Management skills come naturally to him. As well as his Masters in public administration, Chekheria gained certification in the politics of Eastern Europe, which certainly required leadership comprehension. He also learned patience heading a division for Georgia’s Ministry of Finance, and later by consulting at the UN.
“I have changed workplaces so often I have to be a chameleon, and feel instantly at home,” Chekheria said as he greeted a Holiday Inn staff member who calls him by his first name.
But Chekheria has not changed the industry status quo completely. He has standard departments and daily morning meetings. But thinking as a consumer, he has added many frills not always associated with mid-level hotels: room service and his outstanding fitness center, both operate 24/7. “Fortunately I need little sleep so, as I have always done, I can continue to wear multi-hats,” Chekheria added.
Adjara gave its name to Adjara Group Hospitality, which will open an InterContinental Tbilisi in 2017, giving Georgia its first true international brand at luxury level. “We have also built up our own brand, Rooms Hotels. I still cannot believe no one was already using that name,” Chekheria smiled, speaking at his trademark lightning speed.
He is overseeing the InterContinental but will not use the GM title there, and Chekheria has almost his clone, a fellow Columbia graduate, running the Rooms brands. He also set up and supervises Limitless Hospitality for event management, which handled all aspects of the 1,200-strong gathering of Europe’s football governing body, UEFA, in 2015. “I am really enjoying the hotel world as there are endless possibilities,” Chekheria said.
He brought Adjara Group Hospitality in as a major business partner to help fund the recent US$40 million renovation of Tbilisi’s famous 1851-vintage opera house, which means the group has access to scarce tickets – and the principals of St Petersburg’s trend-setting Boris Eifman ballet company stayed at Rooms Tbilisi when they did two performances last month.
As a little boy, Chekheria told his architect parents he wanted to be a cosmonaut when he grew up. “I never thought of hotels but I have always considered opportunities,” he admitted.