H&RT met with HOTREC President Alexandros Vassilikos to discuss rising costs, resilience and the future of European hospitality
The 92nd HOTREC General Assembly took place recently in Cork and was co-hosted by the Irish Hotels Federation and the Restaurants Association of Ireland
The current president of HOTREC is Greek national Alexandros Vassilikos. Himself head of the family-owned Airotel chain of hotels in Greece, he is as aware as any hotelier and restaurateur in the industry of the unquantifiable challenges facing it across the continent.
Rising costs threaten the season ahead
“Costs are affecting us in many different ways,” says Alexandros at the Kingsley Hotel in Cork City, where HOTREC’s bi-annual General Assembly took place.The 92nd HOTREC General Assembly was co-hosted by the Irish Hotels Federation and the Restaurants Association of Ireland “The cost of doing business is increasing; starting with heating, lighting, supplies… The other part is that the rising costs and the inflation will, at some point, affect demand as well.”
The slow-down in demand is, he says, already evident in a reduction in the number of reservations being made compared to the same period last year. It is, he says, still reversible if things were to “calm down within the next few weeks” with regard to the continuing Middle East crisis.
“I think that it would be still possible to contemplate a good season, still with very small margins because of the rise in costs of doing business.
Resilience, recovery and the right tools
“What we do a lot, such as when we meet as we are in Cork, is that we exchange a lot about our different experiences in each country – what best practices are, what we can do to increase resilience… what we have seen in the past is to see that resilience is in our DNA but resilience alone is not enough.
“We need to have the proper tools in order to go through crises. We have a fairly recent example with that of Covid where it was a total destruction scenario that nobody could have imagined. With the proper tools, we pulled through, coming back stronger than before. So we’re a fragile industry but we have shown that with the right tools, we might be the first ones to suffer, but we’re the first to rebound.
“We discuss at European level what can be done (in challenging situations) but obviously everything starts at a national level.”
Why European co-operation matters
Alexandros insists that pressure comes on both national and European-level government but, once again, the current American-instigated violence in the Middle East is creating a situation of continuing chaos without measurable consequence.
“This is something that we’re aiming to do at European level and national level; to try to start discussing measures to help our members get through this difficult season but this is still ongoing and the common denominator with all of this is the question of what is going to happen with the war in the Middle East. If this doesn’t settle, we don’t know the extent of what we’re facing.”
Alexandros has been HOTREC president for almost 4 years now. How does he see the organisation’s role evolving over the coming years?
“I think that there’s a growing role for getting together and finding common solutions; especially in a world that’s evolving that way. In a market that’s controlled by platforms and controlled by global monopolies, we’re increasingly controlled by global trends. So if we’re not all together to face trends like this, it’s very difficult to stand alone as a national organisation or as an individual hotelier or restaurateur to face challenges like AI or a short-term booking platform.
“For something like the short-term rental platform, it’s not the same challenge as that experienced by a hotel in Cork as for a holiday rental on a Greek Island or in the French Alps, but on the other hand, you also need European regulation and a European toolbox to help local societies and organisations to make their choices.”
Family businesses at the heart of hospitality
But what impact can a European ‘toolbox’ hope to make in an industry with so much influence from American-owned giant hotel chains?
“First of all, we collaborate with the big hotel chains. But our organisation represents 20 million companies, the vast majority of which are small-to-medium enterprises. These are mainly family-owned hotels and restaurants and they form the backbone of European culture.
“In most European countries, we still have a fairly low penetration of chains and the vast majority of our member businesses are family-run. This is very important to preserve. Obviously, you need the chains as well – their brands and their know-how, but you need an equilibrium between the two and I believe that this is something that we have maintained in Europe… I don’t see this is a threat as long as you maintain the equilibrium… there is room for both.
“And this is not just true for the hotels and restaurants but for all the local businesses. You need the local farmers and the local singers and all the other support industries that go with it. We are hospitality – we’re the gatekeepers of local traditions, of local recipes, of local products. And this is, for me, what constitutes the identity of the European hospitality.”
