Moscow Moves On

REVIEWS:
MaMaison Povkrova
Ritz-Carlton
Hilton Leningradskaya

Moscow’s in-bound tourism industry is barely 15 years old, having existed as little more than an uncomfortable anomaly for most of the Soviet era. Foreigner entry access, and all internal travel thereafter, was closely governed by the Stalinist uber-organisation Intourist; the same organisation that ran many of the country’s tourist-friendly hotels and bureaux des changes. Since Intourist’s privatisation in 1992 and the concurrent softening of a previously draconian stance, Russian overseas visitor numbers had grown to over 20 million by the end of 2007.

A recent Executive Report by Deloitte (Autumn 2008) describes how Moscow’s emerging role as a global business hub brought it 20%, or 4 million, of the country’s total visitors, with the number of 5 million being confidently projected for 2009.

Supply of room stock has failed to keep pace with the rise in demand however, allowing Average Room Rates to grow 4% to €236 for the year-to-September 2008, the highest ADR for a Central or Eastern European city, despite declining occupancies, according to STR Global Benchmarking.

Barriers to entry into the Moscow market are, if no longer made of iron, certainly less permeable than in Western Europe for example. Global hotel groups have had to be patient, waiting for the right opportunity with the right local partner and the right site to come along to avoid being stung.

Aside from the Ararat Park Hyatt in 2005, the top end of the market had been characterised by general stagnation and a conspicuous lack of new openings, despite Moscow’s increasingly prominent association with billionaire residents and nouveaux riches. The launch of five-star Ritz-Carlton, MaMaison and Hilton offerings in 2007-8 has helped bring renewed vitality to an otherwise tired luxury segment however. And that’s only the beginning.

Four Seasons will manage a hotel in a new mixed-use development on the site of the former three-star Hotel Moskva, just off Red Square. Slated for an early 2010 opening, the Four Seasons Hotel Moscow will have 175 guestrooms and 97 serviced residences with Richmond International responsible for the interior design.

A year later, Mandarin Oriental will launch just around the corner on Tverskaya Street with 237 guestrooms, a signature spa and 6000m2 of luxury retail space on the ground floor.

Liam Lambert, the group’s Director of Operations EMEA, admits delivering on-brand service standards will be one of the biggest challenges he’ll face before opening this particular site, necessitating “heavy investment in customer service training” in the pre-opening period. Mandarin set themselves the challenge of marrying “a strong sense of place” with “the mystique of Asia” in each of their properties, an intriguing hybrid in this particular instance given Moscow’s location somewhere between Eastern and Western cultures.

Raffles will make its Russian debut in 2011 with a 130-room hotel in a heritage building in the capital’s Kitay-Girod district, again part of a larger development that will incorporate apartments, galleries and elements of listed 18th century architecture.

The only Russian-managed, high-end offering on the horizon is the Antonio Citterio-designed Barvikha Hotel & Spa, located in the recently constructed Barvikha Luxury Village, a suburban shopping precinct notorious for its associations with the local ‘elitny’.

A traffic-dependent 45-minute drive outside the city centre, Barvikha is a prime example of the Muscovite obsession with luxury brand consumption. An entire ‘village’ has been created to cater to the High Net Worth Individuals, such as Mr Putin, with security-heavy mansions nearby who would prefer not to have to go into town for their retail therapy if they can avoid it.

Given the generous number of bedrooms in all of these private residences, and the relative lack of tourist-friendly attractions nearby, other than the shops, one could be forgiven for wondering who the Barvikha Hotel & Spa will be targeting with its 65 “exceptionally spacious rooms and suites”.

The promotional literature’s emphasis on beds that are “good enough for even a short nap“ and the “additional confidentiality” offered by “enclosed terraces and soundproof doors” suggests even oligarchs may need alternative venues for their amorous liaisons.

Within a few years then, Moscow looks set to have a flourishing luxury hotel scene to match its status as a global hub of personal wealth. The question remains however, whether international hotel groups will be able to spark a similar revolution in the mid-market to keep up with Russia’s emergent middle-class...