You're reading: It’s survival time for hotels in Kyiv, says Bulte of Radisson Blu

Foreign hotels are finding it difficult to survive in Ukraine at the moment. Radisson Blu's Donetsk Park Inn (part of the same company but a different brand) is surrounded by shelling, for example.

Though it has not been hit, the explosions come close. Finding supplies and  electricity shortages are becoming major issues. The hotel’s branch in Alushta, Crimea, closed down on Jan. 31 because it had no customers, but plenty of sanctions to contend with.

In addition, Radisson Blu has two hotels in Kyiv and a Spa Resort hotel in Bukovel, the Carpathian mountains. Depending on the economic situation, Radisson Blu is trying to open the Kyiv Park Inn near the Olympic Stadium at the end of this year. The chain has 700 workers in Ukraine.

Claude Bulte, district director of Radisson Blu hotels in Ukraine, Georgia and China, says 2015 is going to be an extremely difficult year for his company.

“The main challenge is the geopolitical situation we are facing now,” says 40-year-old Bulte.

Though Radisson Blu is an international brand, its origins are from Denmark. It started in 1960 as a part of Carlson Rezidor group. Rezidor is based in Brussels, but its first hotel was purchased in Denmark. Carlson is from Minnetonka, Minnesota, and named after its late founder, Curtis Carlson. The group is comprised of more than 430 hotels in 70 countries.

The hotel’s 4-5-star segment in Kyiv alone lost about 45 percent of occupancy in 2014. Overall, the hotel chain lost about 35 percent throughout the country’s branches. That is down from 64 percent occupancy of an average 300-room building. Foreign customers make up 70 percent of the hotel’s clientele.

“We had plans for Odesa, Yalta, Dnipropetrovsk,” says Bulte, noting that the incoming traffic of foreigners in Ukraine is much less than it used to be. He says the situation won’t ease up until 2017.

There was a slight improvement in business in December, when both Ukrainian and Russian sides were not fighting as much and when talks were ongoing, says Bulte. “At the moment I think there’s no talking, there’s only fighting.”

“A lot of the expenses are going into the war. And it’s not helping anybody.”

Bulte studied in Holland’s Hoge Hotel Management School Maastricht and moved to China afterwards. Throughout his Radisson Blu career Bulte worked in Germany, Iceland and Turkey. His first visit to Ukraine took place in 2008. In mid-2009 he managed Radisson Blu in China and eventually came back to Ukraine in 2014.

Compared to the Chinese consumer, Bulte finds the Ukrainian one to be straightforward and easier to communicate with in English, yet less polite and less assured about their cultural identity.

When it comes to food, Bulte noticed strong cultural similarities such as small food portions, and multiple dishes served all at once.

Despite the losses, Radisson Blu is not giving up on Ukraine. Bulte sees potential here and wants to expand more once the conditions are appropriate. Until then, the hotel chain will wait in order to get out of the unwanted “hibernation” business mode.

Kyiv Post staff writer Ilya Timtchenko can be reached at [email protected]