Interview with Arman – Head of Picnic

Arman Hovhannisyan is the head of Picnic chain of hotels and apartments. He graduated from Yerevan State University with a degree in Oriental Studies and is now working in hospitality business with two of his friends who are founders of Picnic.

“Everything started in 2013. We had two apartments for rent and decided to register both on online booking platforms where they could be available to tourists and travellers. People started to respond and we had guests from all over the world in a very short time. It was a success and as a result, soon we doubled the number of the apartments”, says Arman.

“In February of 2015 we opened our first hotel on Koghbatsi Street – City Centre Hotel by Picnic which was proceeded by the opening of City Hotel by Picnic on Saryan Street in June of the same year. The design of the rooms and the whole hotel was done by us”.

“We opened newly renovated City Centre Apartments by Picnic on 13/1 Mashtots street in 2017”.

“Picnic is also organizing tours to different destinations in the territory of Armenia and Georgia. Our guests have opportunity to visit all the historical places and they usually go back being completely in love with Armenia”.

Our guests are always back

“We have numerous loyal guests who know exactly where they are going to stay while visiting Armenia. This is a very important fact for anyone in hospitality business. If a person keeps staying at the same hotel every time then it speaks only about high quality services, professional approach and positive atmosphere that always exists at our hotels and apartments.

Many of them are already our friends and we are always in touch with them whether they are in Armenia or not”.

New projects

“There are already some ongoing projects by Picnic. We are planning on opening a large chain of hotel-apartments in Batumi, Georgia. They are already under construction”.

Hard work is the key to success

According to Arman, one needs to be educated, have wide views and work hard for success. The last one is the most important. Whatever you do, keep doing it till the end. If you are doing something and fail along the way, then by all means keep doing it until you succeed. Just keep doing your thing, never give up and success will follow.

“The most important thing in our business is team work and mutual understanding. All the important decisions are made together during meetings and discussions. It is very important that both the administration and the employees did their job perfectly. Every single employee needs to do their job with high responsibility. It’s like a big chain where every employee is a ring, and even if a single one breaks the whole system will break too.” – says the director.