From veteran hotel designers like Bill Bensley to burgeoning hoteliers like Christine Cunanan, we love to chat with the people making waves in the hospitality industry. Based in his hometown of Odessa, Ukraine, Artur Lupashko is certainly pushing the boundaries of the industry. Since 2014, he and his team at Ribas Hotels Group have been launching a range of properties that offer modern travellers the very best in service and experience. In more recent months, the company has also had a war and a pandemic to contend with, so we sat down to chat about how the business has pivoted to serve local guests in new ways.

An interview with Artur Lupashko from Ribas Hotels Group

A man with a plan

From the moment you meet Artur Lupashko, you recognise that he’s the consummate entrepreneur. He has big dreams; lofty dreams for Ribas Hotels Group – dreams that one day will see the company rivalling the likes of Four Seasons Hotels. And these big dreams have already been coming to fruition with the launch of over 26 hotels in less than 10 years, no mean feat for someone who only recently turned 30.

Lupashko graduated with a Master’s Degree with Honours from Odessa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, he has a thriving YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers, he lectures in hospitality at numerous universities, and he also co-founded the Association of Hotels and Resorts of Ukraine (UHRA). Long story short, he likes to get things done.

staff Ribas Hotels Group
Employees with the group are chosen for their desire to work with people and not based on previous experiences within the industry

Along his journey, he’s always had a vision to do things differently, to break the mould for how a hotel works. One example of this is how the Operations Managers in the properties work day-to-day. Rather than the traditional style of having them work predominantly from offices within the hotel, at Ribas, these employees work on the floor with guests. This has the knock-on effect of creating a warmer hotel environment where guests feel more like family members than clients.

“As we’re a young company, we have a lot of young employees. We don’t hire based on experience. What matters for us is that our employees love people and are willing to open their hearts to the hospitality industry. That’s what makes Ribas Hotels Group different,” Lupashko explains.

This year, the brand started a project that is totally new for Ukraine: aparthotels. While these are already popular across Europe, Ribas was one of the first to use this model in the country.

But what about the war?

The hotel industry took a hit globally thanks to Covid, but for those involved in the business in Ukraine, another blow came when the country was invaded in 2022. For Lupashko, who employs over 500 members of staff across all the properties, a huge driver was to ensure staff had the flexibility to support their families and nation while still having a job to come back to.

Ribas Hotels Group guestroom
A comfortable stay in stylish surroundings is always on offer at Ribas Hotels Group

“Some of our employees have left Ukraine. Others have left and come back. Still more have joined the army. The situation is constantly changing,” he says.

While Ribas Hotels Group has its headquarters in Odessa, a region in the south of the country, a number of its properties are located in areas at the heart of the conflict. Unable to host international tourists and faced with a humanitarian crisis on his front door, he has turned a number of his properties in the likes of Odessa into places of respite for Ukranians still in the cities.

“We take corporate social responsibility very seriously. We have currently reduced the prices at some of our hotels to where we’re almost making zero income.,” Lupashko explains.

Though all of the company’s hotels in the eastern part of the country remain closed, the ones that stay open in other parts of the country offer the ever-growing population of displaced people food and shelter at nominal rates, embodying the very definition of what the hospitality industry is all about.

He adds, “I really ask people across the world to–if you can–please hire Ukrainian people. As a culture, we like to work hard and you’d be helping the war efforts by engaging employees from Ukraine, either in-person or online. On top of this, cross-cultural exchanges and communication like this help everyone to learn and develop new skills.”

Moving forward

So what is next for this ambitious hotelier? With 19 new hotels in the works, some of which are currently being constructed and some of which are on pause due to the situation, big things are coming for the group.

“The dream is for Ribas Hotels Group to be a world-renowned brand, similar to the likes of Hilton Hotels and Radisson Hotels. We’re actively in conversations to launch properties in Bulgaria and Romania, and we’d like to open in Asian locations like Bali and Thailand. Of course, we’d like to enter the USA too. If we keep moving step-by-step, I think nothing is impossible.”

We’re inclined to agree.

Find out more about Ribas Hotels Group

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