hotelier middle east - june 2009

The definitive guide to successful hotel managementThe definitive guide to successful hotel management June 2009

First Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey results revealed insideSALARY SECRETS

HOTELSPYHotelier’s mystery shoppers target Dubai’s top hotels

FALLINGSTARS

Experts in the budget sector turn against traditional ratings

HOTEL SHOW REVIEW KSA FOCUS SALES AND MARKETING DEBATE PRODUCTS

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Hotelier Middle East • June 2009www.hoteliermiddleeast.com

05 NEWSHotels should do away with middle management; marketing experts need to go back to room 101; and greedy hotels need to give back.

12 NEWS ANALYSISSales strategies need attention, but can hoteliers tackle this in-house or should services be outsourced?

16 RESEARCHErnst & Young reveals the findings of its first Spa Benchmark Survey.

21 INTERNATIONAL NEWSClub Med reveals Asian strategy and Ritz-Carlton emerges strong from the downturn in China.

25 COMMENTThis month’s columnist and lobbyist share their news and views.

30 GM INTERVIEWBanyan Tree Al Wadi’s Pascal Ep-pink explains why this is not just another hotel in the desert.

32 PROCUREMENT MANAGERInterContinental Dubai Festival City’s Akbar Siddiqi offers his busi-ness insights and hotel highlights.

34 TALKING HEADSHospitality Management Holdings’ representatives on the company’s new brands and big plans.

36 ROUNDTABLESales and marketing directors are under pressure to set an example and avoid slashing rates.

41 COVER STORY Part One of the results of the first Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey.

46 LOW-COST HOTELSThe economic climate has widened the gap for economy hotels, but what star rating should they have?

52 HOTEL SPYThe first review of three five-star Dubai hotels by Grass Roots’ GCC-based mystery shopping team.

54 COUNTRY FOCUS: KSABusiness is booming in Saudi Ara-bia, but hoteliers must tackle service standards as the market grows.

59 PROJECT 360°Walking on the wild side at Anan-tara Desert Islands Resort & Spa on Sir Bani Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

65 GREEN HOTELIERIHG’s Green Engage programme and Wyndham’s top 10 environ-ment-conscious trading tips.

69 SUPPLIER NEWSWhy suppliers are looking to spread their wings across the GCC.

70 HOTEL SHOW REVIEWWhy quality was the key.

73 SUPPLIER PROFILEMegaman unveils strategy.

74 FITTED OUT An in-depth look at Hyatt Regency Dubai’s executive club lounge.

76 MADE IN THE UK Suppliers from the UK are targeting the Middle East.

80 PRODUCTSOutdoor furniture, flooring and Hotelier’s pick of the month.

89 TECH TALKTrends and new products.

92 SUPPLIER CLASSIFIEDContact the suppliers profiled in this month’s Hotelier Middle East.

95 HOTELIER INVESTORNews, interviews, comments and analysis for those with the money.

100 RECRUITMENT & TRAININGStaff movements and job vacancies.

103 CALENDARBeautyWorld and Wellness & Spas.

104 HOTELIER CONFIDENTIALThe latest gossip and quips from the Hotelier Middle East newsdesk.

36JuneJune 2009 Volume 8, Issue 2009 Volume 8, Issue 66

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June 2009 • Hotelier Middle East www.hoteliermiddleeast.com

Most-read stories on hoteliermiddleeast.com

1. Dubai scoops Bellagio signing2. Dubailand postponement blessing in disguise3. Dubailand on track for 20154. Best hotel staff accommodation shortlisted5. Jumeirah to open five hotels next year

A deal has been signed to open the world’s second Bellagio hotel as part of the Dubai Pearl project.

The agreement between MGM Mirage Hospitality and RMAL Hospitality — the hotel and restaurant arm of the Abu Dhabi-based Al Fahim Group — will also bring the region’s first MGM Grand and Skylofts ho-tels to Dubai Pearl.

RMAL Hospitality chief executive officer Anthony Liddiard said: “We have signed a LOI (letter of intent) for MGM Grand, Bella-gio and Skylofts with Michael Evans [execu-tive vice president of global development for MGM Mirage hospitality]”.

He added: “We have done a lot of due diligence on those brands working with the MGM team and adapting those brands to fit within what Dubai is all about in terms of ex-citement, in terms of entertainment, obvious-ly without certain elements of those brands in Las Vegas, but we feel that the model we are creating has a perfect fit for Dubai and we feel that the timing for the launch of those brands is right as well.

“We actually start pouring the concrete on

YOU HEARD IT

HERE FIRST

Dubai scoops Bellagio signing

TOP MIDDLE EAST SOURCE MARKETS – MAY1. UAE2. SAUDI ARABIA3. QATAR4. OMAN5. BAHRAIN

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A rendering of the Dubai Pearl project, which will be home to Dubai’s Bellagio.

May 15 and these hotels will come to fruition around about 2013 and we feel by then that we will be on the back of the recession and on the upward curve.”

MGM Mirage Hospitality senior vice presi-dent development & operations Tobias F. Mattstedt said the brands would be tailored to the market with the properties significantly smaller than their Las Vegas counterparts.

Liddiard was speaking at the Arabian Ho-tel Investment Conference, where he said that RMAL Hospitality was responsible for a total of six hotels at the Dubai Pearl project.

He said: “We are in the process of build-ing six new hotels in the Dubai Pearl project and our vision for that is looking at identify-ing what would be successful, new brands, which are not yet here but would certainly add value”.

One of these brands, revealed Liddiard, would be through a deal with French luxury glass and crystal manufacturer Baccarat.

“It will be the first Baccarat of its kind to open in Dubai”, he said. The property will be called Baccarat Residences, Dubai Pearl and is billed as “Dubai’s finest address”.

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NEWS

Hotels should ditch middle manag-ers who impede the empowerment of grass roots level staff — that was the controversial message from Roya International chief operating officer Gerhard Hardick who at the Hotel Show Seven Star Conference told hoteliers on a seminar panel, “you need to start managing from the front and lead from the back”.

“We are managing our hotels in an old-fashioned way and this needs to change,” declared Hardick.

“Everyone leads from the front, but I would like to see hotels put their front people to the back and their back people to the front — that would actually mean that you need far less supervisory and middle man-agement staff to execute when you need to execute.”

He said many hotel managers did not acknowledge that their grass roots staff — waiters and waitresses, for example — were “intelligent human beings” capable of taking initiative and making choices, par-ticularly as they were the customer-

STORY OF THE MONTH facing employees. “I would urge hotels to lead from the back across all departments – then you will find your margins definitely improve because your staff will be happy and your clients will therefore be happy,” he added.

Hardick’s criticisms didn’t stop there — he also slammed Dubai hotels for failing to provide good cus-tomer service.

“The service levels here are awful,” he declared. “They have actually run backwards over the past 20 years.”

Again, failure to empower staff was a key reason for this, he said.

“Where is the empowerment? It’s not there,” said Hardick. “We need to get rid of supervisory staff who stifle the people doing the work.

“Is it a change from what we do now? Yes. But it needs to happen and it’s not rocket science.”

Hoteliers on the panel session entitled ‘Innovative management in challenging times’, who included Hilton’s Jean-Paul Herzog and Raffles Dubai general manager John Pelling, responded with claims that they both had systems in place to empower staff. Hardick said he

agreed that Hilton, Raffles and most other hotel operators had staff empowerment programmes, but said the problem was that most were not executed.

Pelling agreed that hotel manag-ers, particularly those who had been working in the industry for 30 years, needed a “change of mindset” and should do away with some opera-tional procedures.

“Things land on my desk and I am the fifth signatory, which is ridicu-lous. Why do I need to sign it if other department managers have signed it?” he conceded. “We need to change the historic way of doing things.”

Herzog said Hilton actually measured the effectiveness of its staff empowerment pro-grammes and its service lev-els and said while a stream-lining of operations was desired, what must be remembered was that many systems were not self-imposed.

“Many proce-dures are forced on us,” he said. “They are imposed by

Hardick: the service levels in Dubai are “awful” .

THE REGION• Signings • Openings • Best practices • Strategy • Branding • Legislation • Events

Hotels should do away with middle managementcrazy accountants for example. However, if you look at our accounts departments today, they have around six people compared to 20 or so 15 years ago.”

Beirut and Jeddah have shown growth in both occupancy and revPAR for the first four months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, bucking the trend for overall decline in the Middle East.

Beirut experienced increased

MARKET DATA occupancy of 83.6% and revPAR of 155.1% for year-to-date April 2009 trends compared to 2008, according to Deloitte analysis of STR data in the Deloitte and STR Global Hotel Survey. During the same period, Jeddah figures reflected a 3.7% hike in occupancy and revPAR of 28.2% compared to the previous year.

The overall trend for the Middle

Jeddah and Beirut buck Middle East occupancy and revPAR trendsEast was a decline in occupancy of 9.6% and revPAR of 14.9%.

This was attributed to declines in occupancies and revPARs in key markets such as Dubai.

The emirate witnessed a drop in occupancy of 16% and revPAR of 34.5% during year to date April 2009 compared to 2008. The report said: “Dubai is challenged with continued

new supply of hotel rooms. Demand generation efforts continue to play an important role in marketing strat-egies of hoteliers”.

Abu Dhabi witnessed a decline in occupancy of 6.6% but a growth in revPAR of 10.5%, while Muscat — one of the fastest growing regions in 2008 — reported a 19.8% fall in occu-pancy and a revPAR drop of 6.3%.

Operators should ditch middle managers who stop staff at grass roots level from doing their jobs


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Dubai hoteliers who raked in the cash during the boom time should now reinvest in the destination that helped them become so prosperous.

“Hotel operators need to use their marketing budgets to promote not only their own brand, but also the destination. In times like this, the industry must pull together to help maintain good tourism numbers, despite the obvious global down-turn,” said Seven Tides Hospital-ity managing director Mike Scully, speaking at The Hotel Show.

“Dubai has traditionally been seen as a bread basket for many

DEBATE OVER STAR RATINGS AHEAD OF CLASSIFICATIONS According to operators in the region’s limited service sector, traditional ho-tel star ratings are fast losing signifi-cance, with brand recognition and value for money driving consumer choice in the new economy.

Premier Inn managing director Darroch Crawford said the brand is deliberately unrated in the UK and prefers to downplay the three-star rating its been given in Dubai.

“Star ratings are a throwback to days when it was difficult for people to have any idea of what they were buying,” he said. “With modern tech-nology, it is possible through the internet to know exactly what you’re buying and I think that’s what people rely on now, rather than stars.”

Ibis Al Barsha has also shrugged off its star rating: “We don’t consider ourselves as a two-star; we name our-selves an ‘economy hotel’,” said gen-eral manager Philippe Montaubin.

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) is planning to publish its new clas-sification system in the third quarter of this year, according to DTCM Hotel Classification Department director Majid Sager Al Marri.

HotelierMiddleEast.com gauged industry sentiment with a recent poll.

A third of all respondents said that star ratings were not obsolete as they were the main hotel definition relied upon by consumers. However, a quar-ter of respondents said that branding was the most important factor.

of the leading hotel brands in the region. Due to the high demand and limited supply it has not been neces-sary to market Dubai to the extent that they possibly should have and shareholder values were more important than securing the market when times got bad.

“It is important that some of the monies earned over previous years are now channelled into the market-ing of their properties in this region,” urged Scully.

He said hoteliers should not rely on the “tremendous marketing efforts” of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and Emirates Airline dur-ing the current economic crisis.

Scully was taking part in a panel session entitled ‘Innovative man-agement in challenging times’, which was also attended by Hilton’s Jean-Paul Herzog, Raffles Dubai general manager John Pelling and Roya International chief operations officer Gerhard Hardick.

Pelling said Raffles Dubai needed to be “careful with costs during this time”, and that he would “love to have more marketing dollars”.

“We see the GCC as the area where there is most opportunity [in terms of source markets] and so we are using our marketing spend in this region,” he said.

“We have recruited more Ara-bic-speaking sales people to help us with this and employed more people in our office in Saudi Arabia.”

Herzog said Hilton has increased its marketing spend “quite signifi-cantly” over the last four years and had opened a sales office in Saudi Arabia, while a “massive campaign” to drive GCC business to Cairo dur-ing the summer was underway.

However, neither Pelling nor Herzog mentioned initiatives to drive business to Dubai from mar-kets outside of the Middle East.

Emirates Airline is currently pro-moting the destination with a mar-keting campaign on Sky News.

Marketing budgets of Dubai hotels should be used to help promote the destination that helped fuel their growth, according to industry expert

Greedy hotels told to give something back

TOURISM

From left to right: Hilton’s Jean-Paul Herzog, Raffles Dubai GM John Pelling, Roya International COO Gerhard Hardick and Seven Tides Hospitality MD Mike Scully.

No, the average traveller still relies on star ratings more than other factors: 33.33%Yes, branding is all that matters these days: 23.81%Yes, because the star system is so inconsistent: 15.48%Yes, travellers are more influenced by terms such as “econ-omy” or “deluxe”: 11.9%No, each system is suitably tailored to its location: 15.48%

Are star ratings obsolete?

Source: Industry poll results from www.hoteliermiddleeast.com (n=84)


NEWS

7

THEY SAID IT…“Based on the numbers and the fact that I have been doing audits on spas in hotels for almost 50 years, essentially what you have in the industry — and I’m sure there are exceptions as there always are to every rule — but the spa industry is not making any money in Dubai.

“In fact, based on the numbers that I saw they probably are losing money.”Aspen Resorts International founder and senior advisor Raoul Andrews Sudre comments on the findings of the Ernst & Young Spa Benchmark Survey (see pages 16-18)

“[Success] comes down to, and I hate to sound like some sort of traditional hotelier, it comes down to the local management at the end of the day — to this all important guy – the general manager. You get him right, tick the box; you get him wrong, [you will have] big problems.”Corinthia Hotels chief executive Tony Potter sums up the key to surviving the economic crisis at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference

“Our philosophy at the moment is to ‘put feet in sheets’. Then work out how to save costs.

“If you focus too much on the cost issue, that customer will make another choice.”Wyndham Hotel Group president and CEO Eric Danziger says getting guests into hotels should be the priority at present

The challenges presented to hotel sales and mar-keting professionals by the current economic cli-mate have revealed a need for training to get back to basics, according to Dubai’s top sales and mar-keting directors.

Speaking at a roundtable organised by Hote-lier Middle East last month, The Address Hotels & Resorts area director of sales and marketing Seema Pande said: “It might have been an area that was neglected in the past and you need to bring it up. That sets a good company apart from a great company, because a great company has still carried on training throughout the years where they didn’t think they needed training”.

A key issue amid tougher market conditions was to ensure sales staff see their managers in practice and believe that senior management are there to support them.

Raffles Dubai director of sales & marketing Cathy Mead said: “You have got to be with them. I’m not going to send you out to [a challenging market] if I’m not prepared to do it myself.

“You are back to room 101; you are back to the basics,” said Mead.

“And we have to go back to room 101 as well,” she added. “It’s about one word — thank you — or recognising staff in front of their peers and say-ing ‘great job, well done’. It still makes people feel like a million dollars.”

Training was not only necessary for the short-term but in order for the industry to deliver sales and marketing professionals to staff the region’s upcoming property portfolio, said Rotana Hotel Management Corporation Ltd corporate vice president, sales & marketing Michael Marshall.

“Training is very important for bringing the pipeline of people through because this is a chal-lenge. We are recruiting; in all we’re looking for 15/16 people and finding these people is [tough].

“We are opening so many hotels that we don’t have that pipeline [of staff] internally and this is something that we want to build with more train-ing, but also, when looking out in the marketplace there are some people around but they are not all at the level, with the skillset that you want, and this is something we need to raise in the region,” asserted Marshall.

Pande was in agreement, explaining that when hotels were at their busiest people were recruited or promoted that did not necessarily have the right experience.

“In the last year or so, people that were pro-moted had no experience of running a team,”

Training must go back to room 101

explained Pande. “Now these people are getting trained. Most of us have worked hard and a lot of people didn’t have to,” she added.

In addition to his role at Rotana, Marshall is also one of the founding committee members of the UAE chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI).

The benefit of training courses offered by HSMAI is that they are very well priced, said Marshall, meaning hoteliers could afford to send staff on external courses that they couldn’t justify the cost of holding in-house for just two or three members of the team.

HSMAI president Mona Faraj, managing partner of Insights Management Consultancy, said that courses in subjects such as presentation skills and Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) would cost “anything from AED 750 (US $204) to AED 2000 ($545) tops”.

HSMAI already has 100 members — its target for the first 12 months — and Faraj is looking to set up a network in Lebanon and Qatar.

The other members of the HSMAI committee include: Tarek El Sherif of Millennium Hotels; Asma Al Fahim of European International Col-lege, Abu Dhabi; Kristie Goshow, Smart Thynk-ing; Jeff Strachan, Marriott International; Jumei-rah Group’s Terry Kane; Richard Haddad of Vision Hotels; Adrian Deegan from Rotana; and Sayed Tayoun, Crowne Plaza.

For more on the challenges facing sales and marketing professionals, see this month’s round-table on page 36.

Hotels must improve the skillsets of sales and marketing staff to overcome the challenges posed by today’s economic climate

Raffles Dubai director of sales & marketing Cathy Mead.

TRAINING


NEWS

9

PROPERTY: Jumeirah Al AinLOCATION: Al Ain Mall, Al Ain, UAEOPERATOR: Jumeirah GroupOWNER: Al Farida Investments CompanyARCHITECT: Creative InternationalINTERIOR DESIGN: KCA InternationalKEYS: 220STATUS: Scheduled to open 2011

New kids on the blockHotelier Middle East gives you the low-down on hotel announcements and new openings

As expected, Arabian Travel Market (ATM) played host to a raft of hotel announce-ments, with Cairo, Morocco

and Syria emerging as popular development destinations. Signifi-cantly, none of the announcements over the next two pages feature Dubai, reflecting the true regional focus of exhibitors at ATM.

Hospitality Management Holdings (HMH) CEO Michel Noblet.

PROPERTY: Afamia Rotana ResortLOCATION: Latakia, SyriaOPERATOR: RotanaKEYS: 246 rooms and 14 beach cabinsSTATUS: Soft opening May 2009ADDITIONAL FACILITIES: Private beach with marina; Bodylines health clubOUTLETS: Five

PROPERTY: Coral Cosmopolitan HotelOPERATOR: Coral Hotels & Resorts, HMHLOCATION: Cairo, EgyptKEYS: 85STATUS: Scheduled to open Q4 2010OUTLETS: TwoADDITIONAL FACILITIES: 2 meeting rooms

PROPERTY: CORP City Centre Riyadh OPERATOR: CORP Executive Hotels, HMHLOCATION: Riyadh, KSAKEYS: 86STATUS: Due for completion July 2009

PROPERTY: Coral Martini Aleppo OPERATOR: Coral Hotels & Resorts, HMHLOCATION: Aleppo, SyriaKEYS: 149STATUS: Scheduled to open mid-2010ADDITIONAL FACILITIES: 1000m² gym, meetings facilities, shopping arcade

PROPERTY: The Luxury Collection, AjmanOPERATOR: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, IncLOCATION: Ajman, UAEKEYS: 207STATUS: Scheduled to open 2012

PROPERTY: Ritz-Carlton Cairo, Palm HillsLOCATION: October City, Cairo, EgyptOPERATOR: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLCDEVELOPER: Palm Hills DevelopmentsARCHITECT: OBM InternationalKEYS: 160STATUS: Scheduled to open 2012ADDITIONAL FACILITIES: Egypt’s first 27-hole golf course, designed by Nicklaus Design


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PROPERTY: Best Western Doha Seef HotelOPERATOR: Best Western International — AsiaLOCATION: Doha, QatarSTATUS: Opening June 2009KEYS: 180OUTLETS: OneADDITIONAL FACILITIES: Health club, outdoor pool, meeting room

MANAGEMENT COMPANY: Al Hana Hotels and ResortsLAUNCHED: May 2009OBJECTIVE: To provide hospitality management and consulting for hotels, resorts, furnished apartments and restaurants, as well as catering and tourism companies

FOCUS: First-class and deluxe hotels initiallyDETAILS: www.alhana.com

The Al Hana Hotels and Resorts team, with chairman Fahed Hariri, third from left.

Hilton Hotels, Middle East & Africa area president Jean-Paul Herzog, Doubletree Suites by Hilton Ras Al Khaimah owner Mohamed Ahmed Ali Hassan Ruqait and Hilton Hotels, Middle East director of development Carlos Khneisser at the signing ceremony.

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PROPERTY: Doubletree Suites by Hilton Ras Al KhaimahOPERATOR: Hilton Hotels CorporationLOCATION: Ras Al Khaimah, UAESTATUS: Set to open Q1 2010KEYS: 112 apartments

PROPERTY: Grand MillenniumLOCATION: ADNEC, Abu DhabiOWNER: National Corporation for Tourism & Hotels (NCT&H)OPERATOR: Millennium and Copthorne Middle East Holding LtdKEYS: 725 roomsSTATUS: Expected opening Q3, 2011OUTLETS: 10ADDITIONAL FACILITIES: 14 meeting rooms, 1000-capacity Grand Ballroom

PROPERTY: Anantara Marrakech Resort & SpaOPERATOR: Anantara ResortsINVESTOR: H PartnersLOCATION: Atlas Golf Resort, Marrakech, MoroccoSTATUS: Scheduled to open 2011

PROPERTY: Anantara Mogador Resort & SpaOPERATOR: Anantara ResortsINVESTOR: H PartnersLOCATION: Essaouira, MoroccoKEYS: 40 guest rooms and 60 pool villasSTATUS: Scheduled to open 2011

Minor International CEO William E. Heinecke.

Ramada Worldwide, a member of the Wyndham Hotel Group family of brands, has announced the devel-opment of two new hotels opening in 2009: the 299-room Ramada Plaza Kuwait City hotel in Kuwait and the 183-room Ramada Hotel and Suites Amman hotel in Jordan.

Rixos Hotels has taken over management of Sungate Port Royal Hotel in Antalya, Turkey following success-ful negotiations with the Russian Mirax Group. The property will be renamed Rixos Sungate.

Safir International Hotel Management (SIHM) has announced plans for new offices to open in Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar in 2009 and in Oman in 2010 and its aim to add 10 more hotels to its 17-property portfolio by 2012. The company has also launched its first hotel in Iraq, Safir Hoda El Wali.

ANNOUNCEMENTS IN BRIEF

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That’s the consensus from consultants and sales and marketing experts who claim hotel sales teams need immediate training to help them perform during the current economic conditions

ANALYSIS

Gone are the days when ho-tel sales executives operat-ing in the lucrative GCC market were order takers

and the managers of strong de-mand — they now have to go back to basics and learn how to solicit and maintain new business.

Industry analysts, consultants and experts — call them what you will — all concur that many sales teams are in desperate need of some good old-fashioned sales training as they learn to face the challenge of the current economic climate.

As Seven Tides managing direc-tor Michael Scully states, many hotels “don’t have a decent sales force because up until now, they haven’t needed one”.

Until Q4 2008, the Gulf and Dubai in particular, had been a “cash cow” for many hotel opera-tors who have been “lucky in the market”, he said.

But now is the time for operators to “prove they are investing more in sales”, Scully added, as owners, such as those Seven Tides, a Dubai-based holding company, represents, were ultimately looking for opera-tors with effective sales forces.

Sales and marketing guru, Mona Faraj, the managing partner of Insights Management Consul-tancy (IMC), who boasts 15 years in the industry and has seen many boom and bust cycles, stressed that around 80% of the current hotel sales force in the region had entered the cycle at its peak and had never learned how to solicit for business and then keep that new client.

“All they were doing were man-aging demand and spread sheets — they were not managing sales strat-egies and because of the results they were obtaining, they hadn’t con-

sidered training,” she said. “There has not been a long-term strategy regarding sales team training and after experiencing five years of lux-ury, hotels are struggling.”

But Faraj said it was “never too late” to invest in sales force training, with particular emphasis on negoti-ating skills and managing accounts.

“Yes, there is a downturn, but in reality it’s a correction; products were not priced logically so we are just going back to where we should be,” she said.

“We are going through changes, but let’s take it as a fundamental change in how we look at our sales and marketing departments and go back to basics.”

She said that regardless of whether hotels conducted inter-nal sales and marketing training or brought in an expert to help out, training had to be developed “with the values and philosophies of the company in mind”.

“We cannot train someone in Marriott the same as someone at Rotana,” she said. “However, the basics are the same.”

Faraj said that IMC offered many relevant services from brand and distribution marketing to setting up sales and marketing offices from scratch as she has for One2One hotel in Abu Dhabi.

However, with sales force effec-tiveness in mind, hotels are advised to opt for ‘The Clinic’ concept whereby IMC analyses hotel sales and marketing strategies, diagno-ses problems and puts forwards solutions/remedies.

Hotelier Middle East colum-nist Guy Wilkinson, partner and general manager of consultancy firm Viability, believes that follow-ing a “panic knee-jerk reaction to the recession” whereby hoteliers dropped room rates in a bid to “buy occupancy”, hotel marketers have

Sales strategies need urgent attention

IMC’s ‘The Clinic’ service can

diagnose sales force ailments.

June 2009 • Hotelier Middle East

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realised the need to switch from a reactive to proactive mentality.

“This has meant an end to wait-ing for the phone to ring and the arrogant ‘take it or leave it’ pric-ing policy that had begun to lose friends for local hoteliers among the tour operator fraternity during the boom,” he said.

“Now that we’re a few months into the new market conditions, hotel sales and marketing teams are beginning to see that they can be more intelligent in their approach to prospects — by adding value.”

Wilkinson added that “going back to the text books” and imple-menting “cutting-edge techniques from other markets that only a ‘guru’ would know”, could be use-ful during the current climate.

“However, the best marketing consultant will avoid a didactic approach and instead work with the hotel’s existing sales and mar-keting team to reflect back to them what they already know,” he said.

“It is often simply a matter of internal hierarchies, getting in the way of efficiency and inspira-tion so an outsider can often break through such barriers easier than an employee of the hotel itself. This is especially true of unbranded hotels that lack the kind of head office support enjoyed by the chains,” asserted Wilkinson.HMEHME

Abdo Kayali, director of sales & marketing, Mövenpick Bur DubaiKayali conceded that the “greatest challenge” he faced at present was “retraining a few team members whose role in the past was to be an ‘order taker’ — because this is what the market demanded — into a proactive sales person”.

With this in mind he said a “combination of training and shadowing/partnering junior team members with experienced and talented managers” was essential. Kayali also revealed that the hotel had changed how the business was divided between the team members — from geographical segmentations to business sec-tors — to allow for “more ownership, faster decision-making and a better overall knowledge of our clients”.

Kayali said employing an outsider to come in and troubleshoot was “always beneficial” providing a “fresh pair of eyes” to analyse the sales strategy.

“Instead of using a consultant we have team mem-bers from regional office come in and spend a few days observing our methods,” he explained.

Jeff Strachan, area director sales and marketing, Middle East and Africa, Marriott Hotels International LimitedStrachan does not agree that sales and marketing teams have had it easy.

“Sure there were some cities in the Middle East and Africa that saw amazing compression and demand, however, that only changes the battle ground from volume driving occu-pancy to driving rate; it doesn’t change the fact that you still need to deploy talented sales people who are well trained on the type of business to source and how to sell the right rate, at the right time to the right customer,” he said.

“It is vital that a hotel understands its target market, posi-tions its product and service offering appropriately and delivers and deploys to that positioning consis-tently. For this process we often involve an exter-nal consultant.”

WHAT THE HOTELS SAID:Essam Abouda, vice president operations, Hilton Hotels, Arabian Peninsula & Indian OceanAbouda said the sales team had achieved “extraordinary results in 2009” despite the current environment and that over the past two years, each member of the sales team had participated in the company’s “excellent internal training programme” entitled ‘Customer Focused Selling’ (CFS). This, he claimed, had helped Hilton to “cope with the pressures of sales during a downturn”.

The company recently introduced the ‘CFS Leisure’ training programme tailored to target the leisure traveller.

NEW

S16


Against the backdrop of the dearth of standardised metrics in the spa

industry, Paul Arnold and Nikita Sarkar of Ernst & Young Middle East’s Hospitality, Leisure and Real Estate Advisory Services team unveil the results of the first Spa Benchmarking Survey for Dubai hotel spas exclusively in Hotelier Middle East

RESEARCH

From hotel operators’ and in-vestor perspectives, spas have for too long been viewed as a costly necessity with minimal

or no impact on the bottom-line. Not much was done to understand the operations of the spa per se and revenues from the spa and health club have historically been lumped together in the hotel’s P&L as recre-ation revenues or such.

In light of the growing impor-tance of spa operations, as well as to provide an additional service to the hospitality industry, Ernst & Young has created the first ever Spa Benchmark Survey.

The first phase of the Ernst & Young Spa Benchmark Survey is focused on a sample of Dubai hotel spas. Given the strong industry demand and co-operation of con-tributing data partners, the survey will be expanded in scope to cover Middle East and North Africa hotel spas in the near future.

It is our experience that there is a dearth of standardised metrics for profitability and performance measurement within the spa indus-try. In addition, there is great varia-tion in defining metrics and a lack of transparency with regards to shar-ing information.

The fact is that you cannot man-age what you cannot measure. This

has never been truer than now. The Ernst & Young Spa Bench-mark Survey is positioned to fill this void by promot-ing a better appreciation of spa business operations vis-à-vis general market performance indicators, and possibly substanti-ate the positive impact that spas have on the overall perfor-mance of a hotel/resort property. Furthermore, the survey provides an effec-tive communication vehi-cle for operators and owners by addressing the need for improving spa performance and facilitating investment decisions.

HOW THE SURVEY WORKSDue to the complexity of spa business, as well as the nuances that differentiate each spa, it is challenging to limit the metrics for spas to three as is the case for hotel key per-formance indicators.

In consultations with the many spa operators in Dubai, the fol-lowing 10 metrics were shortlisted as the most relevant and gener-ally applicable for spa operations. These are tracked in the Spa Bench-mark Report on a monthly basis.

WHAT IS REVPATH?Most of the metrics in the Ernst & Young Spa Benchmark Survey are fairly straightforward and com-monly looked at by spa operators internally for their own spas.

Of special note is metric num-ber four; RevPATH, which stands

Making sense of spas

METRICS IN ERNST & YOUNG’S MONTHLY SPA BENCHMARK SURVEY REPORTAverage Treatment Revenue per Treatment Sold

Average Daily Treatment Revenue per Treatment Room

Average Daily Treatment Revenue generated by Therapist

Revenue per Available Treatment Room Hour (RevPATH)

Utilization of treatment rooms’ hours (as a percentage of available treatment room hours)

Utilization of therapists’ hours (as a percentage of available therapist treatment hours)

Fitness and membership revenue (as a percentage of total spa revenue)

Retail revenue (as a percentage of total spa revenue)

Treatments booked by hotel guests (as a percentage of total treatments booked)

Treatments booked by non-hotel guests (as a percentage of total treatments booked)

IN A DYNAMIC PRICING AND DEMAND ENVIRONMENT, THERE IS NO ROOM FOR GUT-FEEL AND SUBJECTIVE DECISION-MAKING

NEWS

17


for Revenue per Available Treat-ment (room) Hour. Conceptually this metric is similar to RevPAR for hotels and is calculated in either of the following ways:1.revPATH = Treatment room uti-lization x Average Treatment Reve-nue per Occupied Hour

2. revPATH = Total Treatment Revenue

Available Treatment Room Hours

RevPATH indicates the rate at which revenue is generated and captures the trade-off between average guest expenditure and facility use. RevPATH can be used for accu-rate analysis of a spa’s utilisation as it allows for fair comparison of spa services/products/treatments of different types of spas by compar-ing revenue over a universal metric — one-hour of time.

REVENUE MANAGEMENT Utilising RevPATH as a standard spa industry metric also allows for the application of revenue manage-

ment, which has been successfully applied to airlines, car rentals, hotels and restaurants. A recent study, Spa Revenue Management, published by Cor-

nell University’s School of Hotel Administration in the US (Sheryl E. Kimes and Sonee Singh, February 2009) very aptly highlights the appli-

cation and the importance of revenue management in spa operations.

Revenue management is a princi-ple that is used to enhance a firm’s revenues by selling the right prod-uct to the right customer at the right time at the right price. It is impor-tant to note that revenue manage-ment is not meant to trick the cus-tomer into paying more than he or she is willing to pay. Instead, it is a way of acknowledging customers’ different needs and perceptions of value and catering to those needs.

In tough times, consumers are more discerning in trying to make their dollar go further and on many occasions the decision boils down to brand recognition over another.

It is a time when customers are looking for value for money but not necessarily at the cost of forsaking quality. Hence, the application of industry metrics towards improv-ing spa performance and opera-tions and thus, ultimately strength-ening the spa brand, have become critical today.

Largely, spas have up until now relied on informal estimations of demand to make decisions regard-ing the treatment mix, and schedul-ing and pricing. In a dynamic pric-ing and demand environment, there is no room for gut-feel and subjec-tive decision-making. Companies now need to track numbers inter-nally more formally, as well as com-pare these against external mar-

REVPATH INDICATES THE RATE AT WHICH REVENUE IS GENERATED AND CAPTURES THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN AVERAGE GUEST EXPENDITURE AND FACILITY USE

NEW

S18


LESS THAN 50% OF THERAPISTS’ HOURS ARE CURRENTLY UTILISED

ket-level information to ascertain performance levels.

THE RESULTSBased on the inputs provided by our data contributors, followed by dis-cussions with spa operators in Dubai, the following are key insights from our survey results for Q1 2009: • A positive trend for spas is that data indicates the popularity of visiting spas has not diminished as consumers are increasingly looking for ways to manage stress. The sur-vey results show that the number of

spa treatments booked increased by 7% from January to March 2009. However, consumers are becoming more price-sensitive as treatment revenue increased only by 4% over the same period.• The Year-to-Date Average Treat-ment Revenue per Treatment Sold stood at AED 360 (US $98) for beach hotel spas versus AED 349 ($95) for city hotel spas. On a monthly basis, Average Treatment Revenue per Treatment Sold declined across all Dubai spas from January to March by approximately 3%. This may be

due to an increase in discounts and/ or packages offered by spas. • Year-to-Date Utilisation of Treat-ment Room Hours for overall Dubai hotel spas was 24%. Both city hotel spas and beach hotel spas saw a decline in treatment room hours’ utilisation of 1% and 2%, respec-tively, from January to March. • Year-to-Date Utilisation of Ther-apists’ Hours for overall Dubai hotel spas was approximately 48%. The utilisation of therapist hours for overall Dubai hotel spas improved by approximately 3% from January to March, no doubt due to the reduction in head count in recent months.

However, less than 50% of ther-apists’ hours are currently utilised which indicates an opportunity to create greater efficiencies.

WIDER IMPLICATIONSErnst & Young will continue to benchmark Dubai’s hotel spas dur-ing 2009, with the key findings from Q2 slated to be published exclusively in the August issue of Hotelier Mid-dle East.

Ernst & Young partner and head of Real Estate Transaction and Advisory Services Group in the Middle East, Mohammed Dah-mash concludes: “We are keen to contribute positively to the devel-opment of the spa industry in the region as it has a larger potential to

generate overall economic value, attract tourism and bring about a change towards healthier living.

“Our Spa Benchmark Survey is a step in this direction, and we believe that the many innovations within the report have been appreciated by the industry.

“Application of standard perfor-mance metrics to business practices for spas will not only optimise rev-enue and improve the bottom-line but also create opportunities to fur-ther advance efficiency. And most importantly, standardisation will enable many different stakeholders of the spa industry to speak a com-mon language for the first time.” HMEHME

Ernst & Young partner and head of Real Estate

Transaction and Advisory Services Group in the

Middle East, Mohammed Dahmash


21


NEWS

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Com-pany has identified China as a key area of growth as the coun-try presents gaps to be filled

for many more top-end hotels, resi-dences and resorts.

The firm is already the “largest lux-ury operator” in China, according to its regional vice president sales and mar-keting Asia Pacific, Simon Manning, and there are cities and “untouched” resort areas that demand expansion of the luxury brand.

“None of our luxury rivals have the coverage that we have — we are in several gateway cities (Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shen-zen) plus we have a resort (Sanya) and there are three properties under development,” he said. “We are putting hotels in Macau, another in Shanghai, plus the tallest hotel in the world in

STORY OF THE MONTH

Hong Kong. We are going into China in a big way because there is still a lot more opportunity.”

With the Ritz-Carlton brand per-forming well in cities, the company is considering rolling out its ‘The Resi-dences’ brand in some of these top loca-tions. However, the firm’s potential is not limited to the big gateways.

“We have done the key Eastern coastal cities but there is room for a luxury offering in secondary cities and resort areas,” he explained.

“We haven’t gone to the beautiful mountain resorts and there are very few golf resorts.”

Manning said China’s “only real beach destination” was Hainan, but predicted that new coastal areas would open up such as the stretch of land between Hong Kong and Vietnam, which was currently underdeveloped.

“When you look at it, China has one billion people but just one resort destination, so we have a lot of middle-income Chinese with nowhere to vaca-tion,” he said.

Manning also revealed that despite the recession, China was faring well and business travel remained robust.

“What we have to remember is that China can support itself because it’s such a big country. In some hotels in China, 76% of business is domestic and the average across all properties is 60%,” he said. He did concede, how-

Ritz-Carlton Sanya.

Ritz-Carlton gets active in Chinaever, that Beijing had felt the impact of the recession more than other cities for two key reasons.

Firstly, the hotels there attracted a higher percentage of international business and secondly, there was an over-supply of rooms at present.

“We went from 7500 rooms to 17,000 in a 24-month period (due to the Bei-jing Olympics),” Manning added.

“It will take another two years, or at least another 12 months for demand to pick up in Beijing where hotels are at around 50% occupancy.”

He said rates across the board at Ritz-Carlton’s China properties were down by around 10% but said the only real source market suffering was finan-cial services.

However, Manning forecast that Asia would be the first region to rebound from the recession because of its status as the manufacturing base of the world.

“Inventory levels got low in China so orders are picking up,” he said.

“Economies that manufacture will do better during a recession than ser-vice-based economies and Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Taiwan and Japan all have strong manufacturing sectors and big populations.

“We are getting to a stage where we as a region can support ourselves and we can already see commercial activ-ity picking up.”

In fact, Q2 and Q3 were “looking up” for Ritz-Carlton’s Asian proper-ties compared to Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, he said.

“I think the worst of the crisis is over and we will bounce back ahead of the US and Europe.”

The luxury hotel company has identified opportunities to expand in a country where domestic leisure and business travel continues to go gangbusters despite the downturn in global arrivals

THE WORLD• Signings • Openings • Best practices • Strategy • Branding • Legislation • Events

Ritz-Carlton’s new Reserve concept will fill gaps in the company’s brand and make up the shortfall of top-end prod-uct in Asia, according to Manning.

“There is no luxury resort in Hainan in China and no branded luxury resorts in Japan — they are all domestic,” he said.

The Reserve brand, he said, would be suited to “affluent travellers who don’t want branded luxury but want the same standards [as branded luxury]”.

Reserve properties will be located in remote locations that are not suitable to the traditional Ritz-Carlton brand and

will typically be much smaller in size.“They will have a more intimate feel,

be harder to reach, and have a sense of destination,” added Manning.

The first Ritz-Carlton Reserve will open in Phulay Bay in Krabi, on the west coast of Thailand in October.

Others are planned for destinations including Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos and the UAE.

“We are also looking at a couple of projects in Vietnam,” revealed Manning.

For more information visit www.ritzcarl-tonreserve.com

ABOUT RITZ-CARLTON’S RESERVE BRAND

NEW

S22


All-inclusive brand targets Asia, aiming for “exponential growth”

Club Med model targeting cash-conscious consumers

Club Méditerranée (commonly known as Club Med) is focused on India as it pushes growth in Asia, its chairman and CEO Henri Giscard d’Estaing has revealed.

He said the premium all-inclusive holidays offered by the company — which have already been successful in China — would appeal to Indian con-sumers and travel agents alike in the current economic climate.

“The combination of happiness and efficiency through our all-inclusive offer is most relevant in the current times of gloom and recession,” he said. “Customers have never needed Club Med as much, as we help them budget a relaxed holiday.”

He added: “Our global average occupancy is currently pegged at 70% while our studies indicate that other hospitality brands are enjoying an average occupancy of only 50%.

“The secret to Club Med’s commer-cial success is that 30 to 40% of our cus-tomer base are repeat customers who enjoy the Club Med experience.”

However, Club Med VP marketing Asia Pacific and general manager com-mercial Greater China, Korea, India & South East Asia, Olivier Horps, acknowledged that achieving this ratio in India would be challenging.

“We understand that sales will be slow in the initial period and we have learnt this from our experience of launching the China sales office.”

But from 1% today, Horps pre-dicted that within five years India will be contributing 10-15% of Club Med Asia’s revenues.

China contributed 10% of the total revenue of Asia last year, and next year this is expected to touch 15%.

D’Estaing said: “The Chinese mar-ket has exhibited the largest potential and India’s potential comes close to this. Though we have started slowly with only 1000 customers last year, we expect to grow exponentially in the coming years”.

In recent years Club Med has invested EUR100-150 million (US $141-212 million) annually on rede-signing its existing properties, which total 80 resorts across five continents.

“However, in 2009, this invest-ment will be limited to EUR50 mil-lion ($71 million) due to the current economic downturn,” said Club Med Asia Pacific president and CEO Caro-line Puechoultres.

The company was less bullish on Club Med’s expansion.

“We are trying to be the best, not the biggest, hospitality brand in the world,” said d’Estaing.

Club Med will launch several new resorts in the coming years.

Thailand’s troubled hotels focused onmaintaining ratesThe latest research from STR Global has revealed the marked impact of ongoing political unrest in Bangkok on Thailand’s hospitality industry.

Over the five months from Novem-ber 2008 to March 2009, the four Thai markets tracked by STR Global have reported monthly declines of more than 30% in revPAR against the com-parable period the previous year.

The falls in revPAR were driven by declining occupancy levels that were not matched by similar declines in av-erage room rates.

STR Global area director Asia Jo-nas Ogren said: “It is reassuring to see that average room rates declined significantly less than occupancy, and revPAR should be able to start improv-ing as soon as occupancy and travel demand recovers.”

The political unrest of November 2008, which flared up again most re-cently in April 2009, has not directly impacted tourists, but the airport clo-sures during November’s protests and foreign governments’ travel advisories have made visitors more wary of the destination, according to the report.

STR Global managing director James Chappell said: “Security is a main con-cern of travellers, and the recent media coverage of violent protests will deter many business and leisure guests con-templating travel to Thailand”.

Demand in Bangkok in the middle of April has rapidly fallen by more than half of that of the previous year, down to as little as 33% on certain days.

Despite such low occupancies, ho-teliers are holding their rates as best they can with year on year declines of 4% and an average rate of THB 3,323 (US $98) for the first three weeks of April, the report revealed.

The STR Global data also revealed that Thailand has actually been un-der-performing the southeast Asian market as a whole since September 2006, the time of the most recent military coup. The percentage change in year-on-year revPAR for Thailand has been consistently worse than that for the region since then.

ASIAN MARKET

MARKET DATA

US project cancellations at highest level to date

Accelerating project cancellations in the US are now reaching the highest level Lodging Econometrics has ever recorded, according to the company’s analysis of its US Q1 2009 Construc-tion Pipeline Summary.

In Q1 2009, the construction pipe-line decelerated rapidly and currently

stands at 4918 projects / 619,431 rooms. Compared to the pipeline peak in Q2 2008, this is a drop of 16% by projects and 21% by rooms.

At the end of Q1 2009, just 29% of pipeline projects were under con-struction, with totals expected to trend downward until 2011.

The swift drops have prompted Lodging Econometrics to revise its

From top: Club Med’s CEO Henri Giscard d’Estaing and Asia Pacific president Caroline Puechoultres.

“Our resort in Oman is expected to be launched by end-2010 or early 2011 and our resort in Egypt is expected to be operational by 2010. We are also keen to launch a ski resort in north China and a beach resort in south China by 2012 and are currently scouting for land for these projects,” said Horps.

Forecast for New Openings by 4238 rooms or 2.6% lower in 2009 and by 15,169 rooms or 9.4% lower in 2010.

However, for projects seeded in the pipeline around 2005 that are already financed, the outlook is more positive, with these opening at an increased speed. New supply additions will reach a cyclical peak in 2009 and then taper off beginning in 2010.

NEWS

23


The Maybourne Hotel Group has said it’s “no secret” the luxury hotel com-pany is eyeing opportunities to expand in the Middle East.

“Getting a flag in a few cities in the Middle East is important,” May-bourne Hotel Group chief executive officer Stephen Alden said.

“There isn’t a specific product right now that I can tell you about, but there are a number of projects being brought to us that we are actively discussing.”

He said the company, which cur-rently operates three iconic top-end properties in London — The Berke-ley, The Connaught and Claridge’s — had been focused on renovating these properties over the past couple of years, but that growth would come in the latter part of the year, not just in the Middle East, but in other areas of the world too.

“The goal is to have 20 to 25 hotels over the next 10 years, but we would stay focused on having a very individ-ual approach to each hotel.

“None of the new ones would be called Maybourne hotels — they would have their own individuality,

Maybourne Group eyes Middle East

but of course, maintain the same stan-dards as Maybourne properties.”

The key to growth was to find a “geographical balance” said Alden, who stressed that most of the cities where the group was eyeing opportu-nities were key feeder markets, namely New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Moscow.

With this in mind, the group is ramping up its activity in the Gulf.

Alden attended Arabian Travel Market in Dubai earlier this month while general managers from the three Maybourne Group properties will conduct a travel trade roadshow in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Jeddah and Riyadh in the next few weeks.

In addition, the company has appointed a director of sales Middle East — Natalie Kjellstrom.

“Natalie will head up the Middle East operations in London but we will look to have someone here (Dubai) too.

“We are seriously considering open-ing an office here as part of our long-term sustainable business plan.”

Alden said that due to their iconic status and service standards offered, Maybourne’s hotels had performed well in 2009 despite the recession.

STRATEGY

UK company “actively discussing” expansion

The Blue Bar at The Berkeley — one of the Maybourne Hotel Group’s three iconic top-end London hotels.

Outdoor FurnitureChildren’s Collection

“Lauralee”

Tel: +971 4 347 57 01Fax: +971 4 347 14 71

Email: [email protected]: www.dubaikudos.com

COMM

ENT25


Amid current debates on revenue management, investment opportunities, company re-engineering

and streamlining services — is-sues mentioned repeatedly at last month’s Arabian Hotel Investment Conference and Arabian Travel Market — it can be easy to neglect the most important focus of a hotel’s business: the guest.

After all, while the economic climate has certainly affected the hospitality industry, it has also impacted each and every customer, especially those from core Middle East feeder markets in Europe.

To bring the focus back to the customer and their needs, this month Hotelier Middle East has launched its partnership with Grass Roots, a mystery shopping organisation based in the GCC with experience of the consumer and hospitality sectors.

The objective is not to catch hotels out, but to offer them a fresh pair of eyes, track down best prac-tice and draw attention to areas that may need improvement from the customer service point of view.

While the assessment of each hotel is subjective and based on one mystery shopper’s view, the

method of reporting is objective, with each ‘hotel spy’ having to rate the same areas in accordance with a strict marking scheme.

They are then encouraged to offer comments and observations to give the hotels much-needed insight to aspects of their property they may not have time to assess in their daily roles.

The mystery shoppers have started their investigation in this issue at the very top, by checking out three of Dubai’s best five-star resorts: Park Hyatt Dubai, One&Only Royal Mirage and Al Qasr, Madinat Jumeirah (see pages 52-53 for the results).

In future issues, the mystery shoppers will look at properties in other GCC countries and those in other star-rating categories also.

In the first report, as would be expected of such high-class hotels, all rated well, with each mystery shopper saying they would return and recommend the property to friends and family — a true sign of customer satisfaction.

However, even these hotels fell down in some areas, the most no-table, considering the current late-booking climate, being the delay in emailing reservation requests

to potential guests. With consum-ers booking holidays to Dubai later than ever before and ringing around hotels in order to get the best deal possible, it is imperative that requests are followed up ac-curately and immediately.

If you don’t, you are in danger of losing that guest to the hotel next door that does respond in time, regardless of whether your deal is actually a better one.

Not only are people strapped for time as well as cash, but the way you respond to their enquiry is the first experience they have of your service and your brand.

Make sure it is a good one.

Registered at Dubai Media CityPO Box 500024, Dubai, UAETel: +971 (0)4 210 8000Fax: +971 (0)4 210 8080Offices in Dubai & London

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Watch out for the hotel spy

Louise Oakley, [email protected]

A lot of people have pulled out,

but these events are important for

established and financially-strong

companies. When times are down,

companies should be even more

aggressive in the market place.

We launched more products in

2009 and will top this in 2010.

For us it’s not a matter of how

many leads you get, it’s the quality

of the leads.

Andres Norgaard, CEO, Gloster

It wasn’t a question of whether

we should exhibit; we planned

to do so whatever the situation.

We weren’t sure what to expect,

but we’ve found the show to be

surprisingly busy. I’m based in

the UK, so it’s also important to

come and say hello to our existing

clients and meet new ones.

Simon Richards, sales and

marketing director,

Burgess Furniture

The Hotel Show attracts the right

people. People are still buying,

but budgets are a little lower.

Lanfranco Arena, general man-

ager, Prodital Leather Appeal

It’s the first time we’ve exhibited

and we’ve found it to be a little

slow. However, it’s the quality

not the quantity and we’ve been

impressed with the hotel brands

that have attended. We’re hoping

to have some distribution agree-

ments signed during the show.

Michael Milton, export sales

manager, Samuel Heath

It’s important to be here so that

when the marketplace does start

to recover, you’re well positioned.

We’re not expecting to sign any

deals at the show, it’s more of an

investment for the future.

Simon Keen, founder, Simon

Keen Lighting Ltd

Although the show isn’t as packed

as last year, there are some good

people here. Regardless, it’s a

must to have a presence. Dubai is

the hub for business and people

from all over the Middle East

come here to do deals.

Alex Nazarian, sales manager,

Royalton Trading

It’s the unique products and

concepts that are doing well

because investors are here to find

something different. People are

starting to make decisions again.

Elie Assamad, president,

FDC International

VOX POP: Are trade shows worth the investment during a downturn? Exhibitors at The Hotel Show have their say:

COM

MEN

T26


Viability director Guy Wilkinson visits Tunisia and discovers a boutique hotel offering that juxtaposes history and hip — a phenomenon he argues the Gulf market is yet to embrace

‘Hotels de charme’ in Tunis

Although North Africa is lined with Arabic-speaking coun-tries, known collectively as the Maghreb, the truth is that

Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco can seem a million miles away from the Gulf.

They are in fact, not quite so far, but a fair distance nonetheless, show-ing just how large the greater Middle East really is — Tunis city, for exam-ple, is actually 4500km from Dubai and more than seven hours by air.

It is probably the fact that Tunis is only 1000km away from Paris, and just a stone’s throw from Sicily (Palermo is only 300 km away), that

explains why Tunisia is the top tour-ism destination in the Maghreb, with almost seven million foreign tourist arrivals contributing 35 million bed-nights at the country’s 834 hotels in 2007. Most tourists head for the pop-ular beach resorts of Hammamet, Souss, Monastir, Sfax and Djerba, or venture inland to attractions such as the amazing troglodyte town of Tata-ouine, where George Lucas found the sets for Luke Skywalker’s fic-tional home planet Tatooine in Star Wars, including the Hotel Sidi Driss in Matmata — well worth a visit.

The capital of Tunisia, Tunis, which is mainly a business destina-tion, nevertheless attracts about 10% of the tourists and boasts charm and interest enough to provide a full hol-iday’s worth of both activities and relaxation for those so inclined.

The ruins of ancient Carthage — founded in 814 BC and once the scourge of Rome — are still to be seen, while the ancient Arabic souk district or Medina was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The adjacent and still elegant ‘Ville Nouveau’ was built by French colonists in the nineteeth century, while the beach district of Gam-

marth, boasting a golf course and a number of attractive modern resorts, has only existed for a decade or so.

The real jewel of Tunis, in most tourists’ eyes at least, is Sidi Bou Said, a cliff-top village named after a thirteenth century Sufi saint.

As the Lonely Planet guide aptly describes it: “With cascading bou-gainvillea and flaming-red gera-niums set against gleaming white-wash, bright-blue window grills, narrow, steep cobbled streets, and jaw-dropping glimpses of azure coast, the cliff-top village…has to be one of the prettiest spots in Tunis.”

For boutique hotel fans, there are several outstanding ‘hotels de charme,’ as the French call them.

The Dar Said Hotel, dating back to 1863, was once a well-off mer-chant’s house and according to the management, has been converted to a 24-room hotel complete with wi-fi, with the minimum of alteration to the original appearance.

The beautiful blue tiling and white-washed ceiling plasterwork is all original, for example, although the sea-view pool is new and the pri-vate hammam is now heated at the press of a button.

Near the very top of the hill is the petite Dar Fatma, a guest house recently converted from a traditional house by a local architect and his wife. This really is something spe-cial, with skull-cracking stairs wind-ing up to the seven rooms, each with a different name and view, but shar-ing a cool modern interior with white accents and in some cases, giant pho-tos of the Sidi Bou Said or yore.

The Villa Didon, named after Car-thage’s famous queen, lies further down the hill.

Another converted house, but of a much more recent vintage, the 10-suite ‘designer’ property — complete with furniture by Philippe Starck and Mies van der Rohe — makes a fiercely modern statement against the quaint backdrop of the village and the nearby archeological site.

These are hidden gems that allow their guests to simultaneously immerse themselves in the bourgeois history of Tunis and savour its innate sense of ‘hip’.

Unfortunately, we’ve not really seen either of these things yet here in the Gulf market. HMEHME

Guy Wilkinson is a director of Viability, a hospitality and property consulting firm in Dubai. For more information, email: [email protected]

COLUMNIST

TUNISIA WELCOMED ALMOST SEVEN MILLION FOREIGN TOURIST ARRIVALS CONTRIBUTING 35 MILLION BED-NIGHTS AT THE COUNTRY’S 834 HOTELS IN 2007

The view of the jewel of Tunis — Sidi Bou Said — from The Dar Said Hotel

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With research revealing a reluctance among hospitality graduates to accept jobs or work placements in the Middle East, Hospitality Graduate Recruitment managing director Jeff Ross urges the region’s hoteliers to make sure they are competing with the rest of the world

Is Arabia losing its appeal?

In preparation for last month’s Arabian Travel Market, Hos-pitality Graduate Recruitment undertook new research to look

at how the Middle East is perceived as an employment destination, as well as some general hospitality employment research.

A sample of 500 international hos-pitality students and graduates was taken, with very interesting results.

Firstly, only 16% of students and graduates selected the Middle East as their preferred destination for their next internship or job.

Of the remainder, 36% chose Europe, 17% Asia, 17% the Ameri-cas, and 11% Australasia.

Considering the job opportunities historically on offer within the Mid-dle East, this is an area upon which improvement must be made.

It is the collective responsibil-ity of all Middle East employers to ensure that their employment offers are transparent and efficiently mar-keted globally.

The Middle East is of course competing with many other emerg-ing employment markets, with the advantage though that the infra-

Jeff Ross is managing director of Hospitality Grad-uate Recruitment (h-g-r), which helps hospitality employers globally to find hotel-school students and alumni for entry level, trainee, supervisory and junior management positions. Ross is also executive director of Hospitality Ex-ecutive Search (HES Global) Middle East, Europe & Russia, a senior executive search firm serving the hospitality industry exclusively.Tel: +41 41 370 6759Email: [email protected] / [email protected]: www.h-g-r.com / www.hesglobal.com

IT IS THE COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY OF EMPLOYERS TO ENSURE THAT THEIR EMPLOYMENT OFFERS ARE TRANSPARENT AND EFFICIENTLY MARKETED GLOBALLY

LOBBYIST

Key nationalities: 42% Asian, 39% European, 9% AfricanAge: 52% between 22-25, 30% 26+ and 18% between 19-21Gender: 53% female, 47% maleCurrent point of career: 51% graduated (within last six months), 49% currently studying

DEMOGRAPHICS OF SAMPLE

45% of current students stated that they would be willing to carry out an unpaid internship, provided that the employer pays for their accommodation, meals, uniform, visa, travel, etc.

Understanding of expatriate benefits is one area where it was proven that there exists a general lack of understanding within hotel schools and students and alumni. This consequently makes salaries appear low in comparison to other destinations.

Many Middle East hotel brands were widely unrecognised within our polled sample, and there is clearly work to do in terms of promoting these brands, companies and career opportunities to a greater extent within the leading global hotel schools and alumni communities.

ADDITIONAL FINDINGS

COUNTRY YES NO DON’T KNOW

Bahrain 30% 42% 26%

Egypt 41% 35% 24%

Jordan 21% 50% 29%

Kuwait 30% 51% 19%

Lebanon 17% 57% 25%

Oman 32% 41% 27%

Qatar 54% 26% 20%

Saudi Arabia 38% 40% 21%

UAE 81% 8% 11%

DESTINATIONS WHERE STUDENTS AND GRADUATES WOULD BE WILLING TO WORK

structure and management experi-ence is already firmly in place to sup-port great learning experiences, in comparison to other newer employ-ment markets for example.

HGR is an ideal vehicle for Middle East employers to cen-trally advertise their vacancies and

brands to 250 international hotel schools and to collectively raise awareness of the region as an excel-lent employer destination.

In the context of the Middle East as a hospitality employment des-tination, the results of the survey revealed relatively low interest in

certain regions where tourism is booming — see chart opposite.

What does stand out is the high level of ‘don’t know’ responses, which would indicate a reasonable level of ignorance about many large, quality Middle East destinations.

The students and graduates were also asked to list the most impor-tant factors in choosing employers, which were, in order, as follows: career opportunities; company/brand reputation; company culture; international work opportunities; and remuneration.

Many will be surprised to see that remuneration ranks lowest. This definitely represents an opportunity for hospitality employers to focus on the more intangible elements of their corporate profiles, such as rep-utation and working culture, in pro-moting opportunities to students. It is not all about money! HMEHME

ADVE

RTIS

EMEN

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Forget filling in room ser-vice forms or hanging ‘do not disturb’ signs on the door. Guests can open hotel and room doors, order food, drinks, wake-up calls, spa treatments, concierge services and trans-portation, remote control their television or air-conditioning, receive and send messages all from the All in One touch de-vice provided at the hotel re-ception. This personal elec-tronic Butler with an inbuilt GPS system will guide hotel guest through all their choic-es and selections by just a few touches. Advanced Hospitality Sys-tems www.ahs.com.ro developed this new, unlimited and unique device for Hotel hospitality and information management. The company was founded by co-operation between the nr1 IT Company in Romania, Omni-logic www.omnilogic.ro and two Belgian professionals with a vi-sion. The team experience per-mitted the development of the most advanced hospitality tech-nology currently available!

The application also allows ho-tel guests - after logging in with their room number and securi-ty code - to look up information on shopping, nightlife and local restaurants, as well as to check messages. Options to request DO

NOT DISTURB, room clean-ing, or additional linens, towels and toiletries are obviously also available.

By offering the device to its customers, a hotel (chains) will increase the value of its custom-er loyalty program as all the cus-tomer’s needs, preferences and expectations will be registered to make a next visit easier and more attractive.

Imagine a handheld touch device that substitutes all keycards, remote controls, light switches, radio buttons… fi lls your bath, and preselects your room temperature. You are only one click away of ordering your room service, switch to the movie channel and adjust the curtains…

Explore the future of Luxurious Hotel hospitality

Hotel chains can boost profi ts by almost 50% by retaining just 5% more of their customers!

roomfeatures

ADVANCED HOSPITALITY SYSTEMS

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FEATURES

� Open the room-door � Turn on electricity when entering the hotel-room � Switch/ dim lights in the room� Adjust blinds/ curtains with a timer function� Fill the bathtub without even entering the bathroom� Preselect the desired room temperature� It substitutes all Remote controls � Acts as a Radio receiver (receive in digital quality, most of the worldwide radio stations)� Substitution of any remote control as for air conditioning systems in the room� Ordering room service� The AHS device can also be used as a personal credit card inside the hotel � Request room cleaning � Order a rental car or taxi� Request dry cleaning� Reservations of Spa treatments, sport utilities...� The AHS device also operates as a communication device inside the hotel� Internet surfi ng� Order a fi lm on TV� Hotel calendar� Event announcements� Weather forecast � Stock Exchange index � Shopping opportunities information� Additional hotel accommodation information � Cultural life in the area information� Wellness accommodation overview� Build in camera for out-room check and a build in telephone� Advertising� GPS (Global Positioning System)

Information ManagementCustomer loyalty is the key to success in today’s commoditized hotel industry. To that end, many hotel companies offer frequent-guest programs. Unfortunately reward pro-grams are not enough to induce loyalty. Affective commitment, that emotional bond is what is needed to ensure repeat patron-age.

StrategiesIncreased customer loyalty drives long-term profitability more than any other strategic factor. In fact, we estimate that Hotel chains can boost profits by almost 50% by retaining just 5% more of their customers!

RecessionIn a recession, your best custom-ers are even more important. When customers are easily distracted by lower prices or free add-ons at the competitor, emphasize the benefits of stay-ing with your brand. This does not mean offer more discounts, instead, make sure your service offers sufficient motivation that guests will impact on the selec-tion of your hotel.

Guest profi lingThe key to guest loyalty is infor-mation! Who are your customers? Which country are they from? What is the purpose of their stay? What are their prefer-ences? How can you personalize their stay without bordering them with never-ending ques-tionnaires? ... The ‘All in One’ device allows hotels to register valuable information about their guest’s preferences and use this information on a next visit in order to make the stay as comfortable as possible.

� preferred radio frequencies� preferred TV channels� preferred water temp� preferred room temp� preferred meals� preferred personal info� preferred newspaper� preferredadvertising brands � etc…

After installing a first hotel in Belgium, A.H.S. has started ini-tiatives towards numerous lead-ing hotels in the Middle East.

MORE INFORMATION?+32 498 230 888 (Belgium)+ 40 21 3054550 (Romania) + 971 501234 175 (UAE)

When creating a loyalty value, a hotel needs to fi nd its consumer’s specifi c hot buttons.

GPS inside the Hotel infrastructure

www.ahs.com.rowww.omnilogic.ro

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Banyan Tree Al Wadi general manager Pascal Eppink explains why this new desert resort, which is set to open in Ras Al Khaimah in September, will encourage guests to stay longer than you might think

At home in the dunes

For several years, Emirates Hotels & Resorts’ famous Al Maha property was the UAE’s only desert resort. While this

has established a loyal following and a reputation for exceptional lux-ury, Arabian Travel Market (ATM) revealed that some like-minded hote-liers are also preparing to set up home on the dunes.

Desert Islands has already opened off the coast of Abu Dhabi (see page 59) and Anantara is preparing to launch a second property, its flagship in the region, in the Empty Quarter.

Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts is also looking to make its name in the Emirates, with the September launch of Banyan Tree Al Wadi in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), the company’s first Banyan Tree branded property in the UAE following the opening of sis-ter brand Angsana on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai at the end of last year.

While Anantara is still keeping details of its Qasr Al Sarab property under wraps, the imminent opening of Banyan Tree Al Wadi just after the summer means that its general manager Pascal Eppink is raring to go. And having been on site since the early part of 2008, he has real experi-ence of why the property will offer more than a typical desert resort.

“This will be the first desert resort with its own private beach, nature reserve, hydrotherapy spa and golf

course,” reveals Eppink, speaking exclusively to Hotelier at ATM.

The low level resort, which com-prises 101 villas, each with their own private swimming pool, has been designed in keeping with the tradi-tional architecture of RAK.

“The colours of the buildings are as similar to the sand as possible, so the resort blends into the desert as if it has been there forever,” says Eppink.

In keeping with the theme, there is a Bedouin camp in the nature reserve, a falconry centre at which guests can take a course and leave as a trained falconer and even a snake pit.

Guests will be greeted by a mem-ber of staff and a camel upon arrival and those staying in luxury villas will be granted a camel for the duration of their stay “so they can give the camel a name and use the camel at any time,” says Eppink.

Animal specialists have been hired to look after the animals in the nature reserve, which will have its own reha-bilitation programme, with visiting experts also coming to the resort as a result of tie-ups with universities in the area.

“We will have a falcon exhibition centre. When guests come in, they will see the history of falconry, we will display where the birds come from and how they live, we will offer daily educational tours in a purpose-built classroom and have professors coming in to talk about the different subjects of flora and fauna native to RAK,” says Eppink.

GM INTERVIEW

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With such a multi-faceted prop-erty to manage, Banyan Tree has partnered with several other experts and existing facilities in order to offer guests the best service. Dubai-based adventure activity company Desert Rangers is setting up a base in Ras Al Khaimah specifically to run activities for Banyan Tree Al Wadi.

“They will deploy a number of peo-ple to RAK who work only for Ban-yan Tree, so that makes our services flexible in the sense that if a guest wants to sleep in and wants to start a tour at 11am instead of 9am, we can do it,” says Eppink.

The golf course, meanwhile, will be operated by Banyan Tree, but the facility itself already exists: the Peter Harradine-designed Al Hamra Golf Course. Banyan Tree Al Wadi will therefore open with 325 staff, but the full golf course and restaurant team will take the tally up to 400.

DESERTED BEACHOne area in which Banyan Tree does not need to partner with out-

side experts is in the field of spa, for which therapists will be recruited from its very own training academy in Phuket, Thailand.

Eppink says: “Banyan Tree is quite known for its spa facilities so we will have a large hydrotherapy facility and of course we have 10 dif-ferent types of spa treatment rooms as well — deluxe up to what we call royal treatment rooms with their own experience showers etc.

“We will also have four spa treat-ment rooms in the sea on a private island; that’s next to our beach club.”

The beach club is 15 minutes away from the main desert resort, along-side the golf course, explains Eppink, but it is a private facility exclusively for guests of Al Wadi, with transport provided by the hotel.

Future plans include expanding this facility in order to offer guests the chance to stay both in the desert and by the sea, adds Eppink.

“A year from now, we will be build-ing another 20 villas on the beach,” he reveals.

BIOGRAPHY: PASCAL EPPINKPascal Eppink took up the role of general manager at Banyan Tree Al Wadi in the first quarter of 2008 and has been responsible for co-ordinating the operational aspects of the development as well as hiring and training the pre-opening team.

Well-versed in the Banyan Tree philosophy, Eppink was previously resident manager at Banyan Tree Phuket in Thailand, the group’s flagship property, at which he was in charge of rooms, F&B, HR and engineering during his two and a half years at the resort.

Other notable experiences in the industry include roles as rooms and hotel manager at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel & Spa, director of rooms at Grand Hyatt Muscat, in Oman, and at Hyatt Regency in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and resident manager at Orchard Hotel Singapore.

Eppink holds a bachelor degree in hotel management from the Hoge Hotelschool Maastricht in the Netherlands and is fluent in Dutch, English, French and German.

Property City/ Region Country Rooms Opening

Banyan Tree Al Wadi Ras Al Khaimah UAE 101 2009

The Meydan Dubai UAE 287 2009

Banyan Tree Sifa Sifa Oman 141 2011

Banyan Tree Al Gurm Abu Dhabi UAE 158 2011

Banyan Tree Meydan Abu Dhabi UAE 77 2011

Angsana Sifa Sifa Oman 185 2011

Angsana Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi UAE 223 2011

BANYAN TREE’S UPCOMING MIDDLE EAST PROPERTIES

It is the wide variety of facilities and activities on offer at Al Wadi that cause Eppink to predict that people will stay at the property “longer than the average desert resort”.

“Most desert resorts have a two to three night [average length of stay] but because of the variety of activities available people can be active for a few days, relax for a few days on the beach, play golf and use the spa, so I think four to five nights will be the average at Al Wadi.

“Europeans can probably stay easily for a week, but of course there will also be people from the Middle East who come only for the week-end, so that takes the average down because most weekend business is two nights,” says Eppink.

“Western Europe will be a key market for us, the GCC as well of course and to a lesser extent India, Japan and China, which are tradi-tional markets for our company, so we have a well-established brand name,” he adds.

And finally, with the option for people to use Banyan Tree Al Wadi for a week-long holiday, Eppink says it is also important to keep them feel-ing connected.

With that in mind, everywhere, except for in the nature reserve, will offer wireless internet connection.

“It’s a company standard; people expect it from us,” he says.

“We didn’t offer internet in some of our hotels in Thailand and Indone-sia for a long time — we didn’t put it there on purpose.

“We want our guests to come and escape from work pres-sures, but by the time the average length of stay gets a bit longer, there are very few people that can live a week or more without looking at their emails,” concludes Eppink. HMEHME

THIS WILL BE THE FIRST DESERT RESORT WITH ITS OWN PRIVATE BEACH, NATURE RESERVE, HYDROTHERAPY SPA AND GOLF COURSE


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How have you progressed to your current role?I started my career in accounting, and made the move into procure-ment almost immediately. I’ve been a part of the hospitality indus-try for 35 years, all the time with InterContinental. Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of be-ing a part of pre-opening teams for restaurants, hotel renovations and new hotel openings.

With the IHG Dubai Festival City properties, we had the re-sponsibility of opening not one, but three hotels, looking at a total of 1024 rooms and suites.

Being able to open on schedule was definitely a testament to a great team effort, with other de-partments helping out in preparing Bill of Quantities (BOQ), selecting products and receiving them.

What were the major suppliers to InterContinental DFC prior to launch?Our major suppliers were DEPA for interior and furnishing, Sevens for kitchen, Sealy and Restonic for mattresses, and Al-Futtaim Tech-nology for software.

Every company has a different methodology of choosing suppliers, and their own perspective on what makes a supplier good. Some of these decisions would be made on quality, and some on the price tag.

Our policy is to channel these different viewpoints into a coher-ent and consistent method of se-lecting suppliers that produce the best supplier base in order to meet our company objectives, which are reliability, quality and price.

What are the most difficult products to source for the hotel and why?I don’t believe there are any major difficulties in sourcing items. Every-thing is available locally. Our loca-

tion in the Middle East also gives us easy access to suppliers in the inter-national market.

The Dubai market has changed tenfold in recent years. It has be-come a ‘global village’ of sorts, where products of your choice are easily available.

Overall approximately 98% of our suppliers are Dubai-based, and only 2% international.

What are your key responsibilities and challenges?In today’s market, purchasing has

evolved to a key area of responsibil-ity, providing organisations with a competitive advantage.

My key responsibilities are to procure the right goods at the right price and time.

Our primary objectives as a pro-curement department are: to obtain the best quality at the lowest price; to manage investments while main-taining adequate supply; and to maintain the hotels’ competitive advantage. The fiercely competi-tive market is a constant challenge in itself.

PROCUREMENT MANAGER

IHG Dubai Festival City materials manager Akbar Siddiqi says sourcing products locally is not difficult but forging long-term business partnerships with suppliers is the primary challenge

Finding a business partnerProcurement is talked about often,

about quality and cost. Doing it bet-ter means less cost and more profit. The challenge is to keep the price low and achieve our bottom line targets.

Since opening InterContinental DFC just over a year ago, how have you changed the way you source products?Just-In-Time (JIT) is a process to schedule purchases with suppliers.

We have targeted and developed a network of suppliers that can con-sistently deliver quantities to match our immediate requirements, at the time when we need them (not earlier or later), while meeting our quality standards. This allows us to dras-tically reduce our stock holding, and at the same time, become more responsive to customer needs.

What measures do you take to save on materials? Does sourcing locally help?Getting the right price can often impact a company’s success. What constitutes the ‘right price’ can change over time and so our approach to pricing is continually reviewed. Sourcing locally is vital as long as it is from the source or agent.

What sort of aftercare service do you expect from suppliers?Every company requires after sales services to support its core activities. The specification for after-sales ser-vice is called Statement of Require-ment (SOR).

Being in a hospitality industry, it is crucial to select suppliers who are reliable, capable and proven to be good business partners.

With many companies, the re-sponsibility for developing the SOR lies with the user.

A good vendor can provide an invaluable service to the user by offering his or her knowledge and expertise in defining a SOR.

Our expectation from each of our suppliers is to be business partners, rather than just a supplier. HMEHME

Siddiqi claims approximately 98% of IHG Dubai Festival City’s suppliers are Dubai based.

PEOPLE33


H O T E L S &R E S T A U R A N T S

D I V I S I O N

the world’s besthotel & restaurant’s tabletop

brands under one roof

...because your guest deserves the best

SARA HOTEL & RESTAURANT DIVISIONSalah Al-din str., P.O. Box: 5293 Dubai–UAE, Tel: +971 4 2659191Fax: +971 4 2659292, Email: [email protected]

Procurement manager’s hotel highlights:

KINESIS WALLTECHNOGYM

Web: www. technogym.com

VISTA CHANDELIERSPRECIOSA, CZECH REPUBLIC

Web: www.preciosa.com

MOSAIC BAR AT REFLETS PAR PIERRE GAGNAIRE DESIGNED BY CHRISTIAN GHION, FRANCE

Web: www.christianghion.com

BELGIAN BEER CAFÉ BAR AND ARTIFACTS SOURCED IN BELGIUM;

DESIGNED BY CRENEAU Web: www.creneau.com

PAINTINGS IN THE LOBBY AREAFOUR SEASONS RAMESH GALLERY

Web: www.fourseasonsgallery.com

THE ‘PETRIFIED TREE’ IN ANISE DESIGNED BY SUPER POTATO, JAPAN

Web: www.superpotato.jp

ARABIC LANTERNS CUSTOM-DESIGNED BY RANDA FAHMY DESIGNS, EGYPT.

Web: www.randafahmy.com

INFINITY-EDGE POOLDESIGNED BY BOB COLLINGRIDGE,

AUSTRALIA

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Flourishing under the HMH umbrella

MARKETING PRO-JUNCTION VICE PRESIDENT A chance meeting with Hospital-ity Management Holdings (HMH) chief executive Michel Noblet drew Hina Bakht away from her 12-year journalistic career and into a new role as communications manager with the then-emerging hospitality company.

“At the time, we only had one hotel open and the company was in its initial stages of development,” says Bakht. “I have been with the company for five years now and its development has been a constant success story.”

Marketing Pro-Junction (MPJ PR) is a subsidiary of HMH, which takes care of the firm’s internal PR, mar-keting and events, as well as offering its services to external companies.

One-and-a-half years ago, HMH decided to refresh the brand iden-tity for Coral Hotels and Resorts. Bakht was placed in one of the driv-ing roles of this redesign.

“The previous Coral identity was very classical and successful, but five years down the line it was time to refresh the image,” she explains.

A huge portion of the project was dedicated to market research, which took in a range of different opinions from the public, the company and external consultants.

“We had 17 people working on our internal team and everyone had a role to play. We also had input from international experts,” she says.

“There are so many brands out there, we had to find what hadn’t been done before.”

The outcome of the one-and-a-half year project was a colourful, playful new marketing campaign based on the company’s core values.

“Coral is very art-friendly, very culturally dynamic and has five-star service standards, because it is a luxury brand,” says Bakht.

“There are real people, real emo-tions within the company and the current marketing campaign is packed with emotions.”

The recent Arabian Travel Mar-ket was the first big test for the new

brand concept, but Bakht says she believes the HMH stand passed with flying colours.

“The number of people who came up and said it was beautiful sur-prised even me,” she says.

“We are putting the new branding on buses now, so over the next cou-ple of months we will see many more colours around.”

Bakht’s big ambition now is to grow MPJ PR’s client base to include other key hospitality com-panies in the region.

“MPJ is not just in-house — our objective is to find a foothold with other hotels and chains,” she says

“We are able to give great input, because this is our area of expertise.”

The Holiday Inn property in Al Barsha, Dubai has already come on board as a client and is “very satis-fied” with the results so far, accord-ing to Bakht.

She explains that there are two kinds of communication worker — one that focuses solely on PR work and another that combines PR with marketing, events and communica-tion. Bakht very clearly places MPJ

After just five years in operation, Hospitality Management Holdings has unveiled a new brand identity for its subsidiary Coral Hotels, launched a successful training school and has finalised plans for an upcoming hotel management academy. Hotelier Middle East talks to three of the company’s representatives who have been responsible for driving these initiatives

PR in the second category and says that in a mature industry, more and more companies are choosing this as a more strategic option.

GROUP DIRECTOR HR AND TRAININGDr Mounir Ichoudane has impres-sive credentials, by anyone’s stan-dards. After graduating from Oxford University with a PhD in hotel management, Ichoudane worked for the Hilton group in properties across Saudi Arabia, Malta and Tunisia before being pro-moted to regional HR manager for the Maldives.

“The experience of living in so many countries is great — it has given me the ability to really relate to the cultural awareness,” he says.

Ichoudane joined Coral Hotels and Resorts in March of 2008.

“When I arrived I was just respon-sible for Coral. Now I am working across all of the brands under the HMH umbrella, which is more chal-lenging,” he says.

“We have more than 1500 employ-ees and the HR managers for all of

TALKING HEADS

[L-R] Hina Bakht, Dr Mounir Ichoudane and Mohamed Elkahla.

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the brands report to me — there are about 16.”

Since joining HMH, Ichoudane has been instrumental in help-ing with the opening of the compa-ny’s training academy, which deliv-ers corporate training and in-house career development for Coral and other HMH properties.

“We have clients from all indus-tries, whether it is oil, transport, or others — our business concept was designed to attract the most varied client base possible,” he says.

“Our academy comprises a train-ing centre and two training outlets that are based at Ras Al Khaimah.

“It’s not just about training though; we have many team-build-ing activities and it can also be used as an incentive, or just to get people together and reconcile.”

To capitalise on the success of this training centre, HMH has revealed plans to open a Hotel Management Institute by 2010.

“This institute is going to be huge — we will bring people in from all over the world to train here,” explains Ichoudane.

He points out that one of the great-est advantages HMH has is the potential to provide training and graduate positions through the Coral Hotels brand.

“I remember at university, finding a hotel to train in and gain experi-ence is not easy,” he explains.

From an industry perspective, Ichoudane says Human Resources has changed “tremendously” since he began his career.

“The whole notion of HR has changed — associates have become assets,” he says.

“Ten years ago everyone talked about the quality of your product; now they talk about the people.”

He explains that his job is now more strategic and goes beyond mere recruitment, focusing instead on the development, training and retention of associates.

With several new Coral proper-ties, HMH has managed to avoid redundancies and recruitment costs by hiring internally.

CORAL HOTELS VICE PRESIDENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTMohamed Elkahla has a dual role with HMH, as general manager for the company’s original Coral Deira

property and vice president of busi-ness development for Coral Hotels and Resorts.

He joined as general manager in June 2005 on the back of a career in corporate sales that spanned Hilton, Hyatt Regency, Jebel Ali Hotels and Taj Palace.

“My background is a great help as it has given me both local and inter-national experience in the hospi-tality industry and this has given me good knowledge of the market, which helps me perform my cur-rent role to a higher standard,” says Elkahla. “As vice president of busi-ness development, I am responsi-ble for looking for opportunities and hunting out leads for the hotel expansions for all of the HMH brands, including Coral Hotels and Resorts, EWA Hotel Apartments, Corp Executive Apartments and Ecos Hotels.”

Elkahla says new establishments and brands have been “flourishing” in the region recently, but acknowl-edges the continued success of tradi-tional brands.

He says the main trend he has noticed recently is the awareness of non-alcoholic hotels and brands, which he says HMH has been moni-toring closely.

“My job changes in response to what’s happening in the market at the time, so this means that recently it’s changed to reflect the delicate strength of the Arabian market and the financial situation across the world as well as in our operat-ing areas,” he says. “The biggest challenge is to fill up the hotel; to get full occupancy. This helps us tackle the challenge of every operator and manager — to fulfill the commit-ment to the owner.”

Coming up, HMH has a range of properties and future projects.

“We have a property in Cape Town, South Africa, which will be opening toward the end of the year,” says Elkahla.

“We have many others upcom-ing too; we have a big project in Morocco, as well as one in Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.

“In addition to projects across Africa, we’re planning to expand towards the east, looking to the markets in India and Asia (certainly Malaysia) and growing all of the HMH brands.” HMEHME

THE PREVIOUS CORAL IDENTITY WAS VERY CLASSICAL AND SUCCESSFUL, BUT FIVE YEARS DOWN THE LINE IT WAS TIME TO REFRESH THE IMAGE

IN ADDITION TO PROJECTS ACROSS AFRICA, WE’RE PLANNING TO EXPAND TOWARDS THE EAST, LOOKING TO THE MARKETS IN INDIA AND ASIA

THE HOTEL MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE IS GOING TO BE HUGE — WE WILL BRING PEOPLE IN FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD TO TRAIN HERE


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Nasser FawziDirector of Sales & MarketingKempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates

Walk the talkWith Dubai hotels fighting for custom, the pressure is on the emirate’s sales and marketing professionals like never before. In a lively roundtable hosted at one of the stunning ski chalets at Kempinski Mall of the Emirates, the cream of the crop discuss how the challenges have changed

WE HAVE TO FORECAST AND THEN REFORECAST SEVERAL TIMES DURING THE MONTH

Tareq DaoudDirector of MarketingGrand Hyatt Dubai

I FEEL AS A RESPONSIBLE PERSON THAT WE ARE KILLING THE MARKET OURSELVES

YOU ARE STILL TRYING TO MANAGE EXPECTATIONS

Cathy MeadDirector of Sales & Marketing

Raffles Dubai


How have your roles been affected by the economic downturn?Cathy Mead: One of the important things is understanding the needs of the actual customer base in the mar-ket at the moment, because the eco-nomic downturn has affected Dubai and the room rates that we were once all enjoying; we’ve had to realign ourselves and probably join the rest of the world. The average room rates that we achieved were because of the amount of business coming to the destination — we physically could not accommodate it.

We’ve gone through a phase of being very spoilt and therefore we could perhaps cherry pick the busi-ness that we wanted to at the right price, at the right time, and now we have to work harder and smarter. The secret is to get up close and per-sonal to your customers.

I also think it’s about your team’s motivation; your team is critical to your success.

Michael Marshall: We have an area structure for our 12 Rotanas; in this kind of climate that needs a lot of communication because things are changing so quickly in the mar-ket place and that wasn’t happen-ing before — business was coming and we could almost pick and choose what business we had, especially groups and meetings, so there was pressure but of a different kind.

Now there’s a lot pressure because we are facing late booking periods and later pick-up periods, so the comfort zone that we used to have [in our hotels has gone] and communica-tion is crucial.

ROUNDTABLE


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IT WASN’T EASY BEFORE — WE ALL HAVE A HABIT OF SAYING WE CRUISE-CONTROLLED, BUT IT WASN’T EASY

THE PRICE HAS TO BE RIGHT; CUSTOMERS

WANT A DEALMichael Marshall

Corporate Vice President, Sales & Marketing

Rotana Hotel Management Corporation Ltd

GETTING TO KNOW YOU: HOTELIER’S EXPERT PANELNasser FawziDirector of Sales & MarketingKempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates

I have been away from Dubai for three years at Kempinski Barbaros Bay in Bodrum, Turkey and Kempinski Hotel Soma Bay in Egypt.

My career started in the UAE with Sharjah National Hotels, before mov-ing to Kempinski Ajman.

Cathy MeadDirector of Sales & MarketingRaffles Dubai

I joined Raffles on March 1. I have been in Dubai for five years with Jumeirah; I did the pre-opening of Madinat Jumeirah, then moved to Jumeirah Beach Hotel because I wanted more exposure into leisure and spent the last two years in the corporate office. Prior to coming to Dubai, I worked for the University of Warwick; it has a huge hospitality division.

Michael MarshallCorporate Vice President, Sales & MarketingRotana Hotel Management Corpo-ration Ltd

I started in regional sales with Inter-Continental in London, then worked up to be director of sales and marketing there. My first experience in the Middle East was in 1996 in Egypt; I came over as regional director sales of marketing based in Cairo. In 1998, I moved to Athens looking after 21 hotels across the southern Mediterranean and the ex-Soviet Union countries. After two years I moved to head office based in London and looked after all the revenue generating programmes for EMEA.

Then, after 17 years I left IHG and went to Qatar to work for an owning company and then nearly two years ago I came to join Rotana at head office in Abu Dhabi, responsible for the group’s revenue, sales, reserva-tions and marketing programme.

Tareq DaoudDirector of MarketingGrand Hyatt Dubai

I started with Grand Hyatt in 2002 in the pre-opening team as associate director of sales for the GCC market and I moved up the hotel to my cur-rent position in October 2008.

Prior to that I have regional and property experience in sales; I started in hotels in 1992 in Jordan with the Forte Group, then I moved to Marriott in a regional worldwide sales office position before moving with the company to Qatar and Dubai.

In 2001, I moved to Ritz-Carlton Dubai as senior sales manager until I joined Grand Hyatt Dubai.

Seema PandeArea Director of Sales and MarketingThe Address Hotels & Resorts

Seema PandeArea Director of Sales and MarketingThe Address Hotels & Resorts

I started my career with Inter-Continental and Le Méridien in Delhi. I moved to Dubai as part of the Habtoor Group, did the pre-opening of Metropolitan Palace and then moved to the Fairmont pre-opening team. Then I worked for Southern Sun.

At the moment, as DOSM for The Address, I take care of the existing hotels — The Palace and Downtown Burj Dubai — and we will be open-ing The Address Dubai Mall and The Address Dubai Marina in the third and fourth quarter.



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Mead: And it’s communi-cation vertically and hor-izontally. The trick is that you have got to be able to communicate up the food chain and you’ve got to be able to communicate down the food chain. It’s being able to understand and dissect the information at a very high level and being able to deliver that in bite-sized pieces to your colleagues so it doesn’t scare them from doing their job today.

Seema Pande: And like you said, you need to be able to deliver upwards as well. We know what the market is like, we know the last minute pick-ups are coming, so we need to be able to give that comfort level upwards.

Tareq Daoud: It is a major challenge; we have to forecast and then refore-cast several times during the month.

Nasser Fawzi: I have to raise one point which I have noticed since I came back [to Dubai this year]; all the hotels are lowering their rates — by at least 50% compared to last year — but the business is not coming in and it’s not because of the number of rooms’ increase in Dubai.

How did you set your rates for this year?Mead: There’s a fundamental thing that I think that we ignore as hote-liers, we went out with our wholesale rates to market which is normally a good indicator around March/April time, but we didn’t look at the exchange rates. For Europeans, it’s 25% more expensive [to come

to Dubai] even if we flat lined rates and had done nothing in 2008. So our rates increased, plus it was 25% more expensive, so unknowingly I think we turned some people off even before the economic crisis kicked in.

Pande: But to be fair these rates were set much earlier as well because Dubai really experienced [the impact of the crisis] in October/Novem-ber [when we realised] ‘we are not immune to this’. Our rates are gener-ally set in March/April, but this year was later, we waited until the end of April for ATM; we all went into ATM with nothing.

Usually by now you’ve figured out the impact of your rate on the mar-ket, but we haven’t for 2009 because the business is so late, every market segment is late, conference is late, lei-sure is late and GCC is always late.

Of that 25% increase and the reac-tion when people adjusted their rates, for hoteliers who speak so much to each other, I don’t think we talked a lot to people at that time, so while we understood what we were doing, maybe that communication [to con-sumers] should have been clearer.

Is the late-booking trend continuing? Fawzi: It’s the leisure business and the group business. We still get some

enquiries for the future as well, but I can make a confirmation [a day in advance for groups]

Mead: It depends on the size of the group so if you are looking at smaller groups of 20-30-40 rooms the lead in time is still short but if you’ve got larger events coming into the city then no, they have to

pre-plan that because logistically there are a lot of challenges.

Fawzi: They know that in Dubai rooms are available and they can wait until the last minute as there are always special offers. I feel as a responsible person that we are kill-ing the market ourselves as well; we are reducing rates and competing with each other. I think last year the average rate in town for the hotels around the table was something like AED 1200-1500 (US $326-408) and this year it’s down to AED 500 ($136).

Mead: Customers are creating a price war with hoteliers and it’s down to how open and transparent we want to be with each other.

Fawzi: I call it a fish market.

Mead: It is a fish market; we have to be able to say ‘what’s our walk-away’. There’s no way that Raffles is going to go in at AED 500net BB ($136) but we’re being told that Grand Hyatt is doing it, The Address is doing it…

Pande: And you also have to remem-ber that Grand Hyatt has a lot of rooms to fill, but if I’m not convinced about the rate I will call Tareq and say ‘are you doing it?’

Daoud: We have a lot of rooms but we still manage to get our rate integrity to a certain extent of the market. But I agree 100% with Cathy — loyal customers staying with us for the last four to five yeas are calling us saying ‘can you match his deal or upgrade a room to a suite’.

Is there too much pressure on hote-liers at the moment?Daoud: We always put the blame for the prices on the hotels but what about the other sectors? The other sectors have not adjusted like the hotels do — airlines to a certain extent maybe they did, [but not] F&B


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outside of the hotels, taxis, transpor-tation etc. The infrastructure is not supporting the hotels to come up with the right pricing for the whole city and that is what we are facing.

Mead: We are seen as a very expen-sive destination for F&B.

Daoud: When customers visit travel agents in Saudi Arabia and choose a package with an airline and hotel, they also think about how much it will cost to take a taxi from the air-port to the hotel and then from the hotel to go around the city, then to buy food from outside — all of that is not really helping the hotel industry.

Marshall: I think the airlines are under pressure now though. Saudi Air-lines now have dropped their price to Dubai, which makes it more afford-able for people to come

Daoud: What about the flights com-ing into Dubai? You’ll find a huge decrease in the number of people actually coming to Dubai, that’s what the figures I compared to 07 to 08 to 09 [show]. I’ve really seen a drop in UK nationalities, German nationalities, US nationalities and GCC nationalities.

Fawzi: It’s all against us — the increase of hotels, no increase of airlines, decrease of nationalities.

Does that mean that your jobs were much easier before?Pande: It wasn’t easy before; we all have a habit of saying we cruise-controlled but it wasn’t easy. It was a different kind of pressure for the

right business at the right time and the right price.

Marshall: Budgets were high, expec-tations were high, so you are right.

Mead: The challenge is the same, you are still trying to manage customers’ expectations and where before you were managing the expectation with really high rates, now you’re trying to manage the expectation because you’re trying to gain loyalty.

Daoud: It’s even more challenging because the guests we have right now are on a lower rate but we still want to show them the best that we have.

Changes in exchange rates made Dubai 25% more expensive even if rates were flat-lined in 2008.

Upcoming property pipeline chal-lenge coupled with confusion over how many of those people flying into Dubai are staying and how many are stop-overs.

Need to ensure transparency to prevent hotels from being dragged into a price war by customers.

Need of Dubai infrastructure to support the hotel industry in mak-ing the destination more affordable for tourists.

Increased focus on gaining cus-tomer loyalty.

Issue of maintaining high-levels of service when much lower rates are being paid.

Clear and regular communication across all levels of the organisation.

Continuing trend for late bookings spreading into groups business.

Selling skills need to be refined — slicing price is not the answer.

Problems associated with people that have been promoted through the industry in busy times that now need extra training in this climate.

KEY ISSUES FOR SALES AND MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

To attract guests this summer should you add value or focus on naked rate?Mead: If your only leverage is to slice the price and to discount then you’re not an incredible sales person, an incredible sales person knows the difference between selling a Rolls Royce and Ford Focus.

Should you discount dramati-cally because your lead-in rate is the attractor or should you really try and build in value to the overall offering, so include other items?

Daoud: If you asked this question two years ago you would say it’s about naked price, if you ask it now you would add value. We have been work-ing on the summer since last Decem-ber; we knew that this day would come so this year what we are doing differ-ently is we are working with our sister hotels Hyatt Regency and Park Hyatt Dubai on one strategy.

Marshall: The price has to be right because customers are looking for a deal, but it is about value and look-ing at some different ways of meeting those customer needs.

We’ve been putting together packages with our resort and our city hotels, because we have Fujai-rah and Ras al Khaimah which both need business, and we’ve got Al Ain as well so we’ve packaged that up with Abu Dhabi and made different combinations as well.

It’s trying to do something differ-ent to make people want to stay.

Pande: You have got to compete with someone so rate is critical, but value-adds will never go out of fashion.

Mead: And as hoteliers that helps us too, looking to when the market increases slightly and perhaps we are in a position to be able to increase our prices. If you start slashing rates now and if sales people go out in a year’s time [with higher prices], you’re just going to get beaten black and blue.

It’s about responding to the mar-ket. You have got to have your tools in the tool box.

For more insights from the roundtable, visit www.hoteliermiddleeast.com HMEHME

Europe/Middle East/AfricaE-mail: [email protected]: +47 69 24 51 00

North America:E-mail: [email protected]: +1 972 907 2273

Asia/Pacific:E-mail: [email protected]: +65 6305 7670

Latin America:E-mail: [email protected]: +52 55 36 40 12 14

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SALARY SURVEY41

Salary SecretsThe first Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey is a comprehensive study into the earning potential and job satisfaction of hospitality professionals in the region. Part one of the survey results presents the top-line findings, which reveal some positive trends in terms of pay rises, promotions and company benefits, demonstrating that the Middle East is still a competitive employment market


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The first Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey was carried out online via Ho-telierMiddleEast.com, meaning it was open to hospitality industry profes-

sionals from across the region at all levels, rather than just targeting re-spondents from one database.

The response was enormous, with 431 respondents in total. This means, of course, that the results were also wide-ranging, with responses from all categories from bar and food service staff, through to sales managers and finance executives, all the way up to general managers, regional directors and company CEOs.

Therefore, in part one of the survey here, Hotelier Middle East presents the top-line findings, assessing issues such as pay rises and promotions through to employee sentiment and job satisfaction.

In part two, which will be presented in the July issue of the magazine, we will drill down to reveal the average wage for each sector and compare and contrast the earning potential in differ-ent types of hotels in various locations.

So, if you want to know whether you would earn more in a city hotel than in a beachfront resort, or if a career in F&B offers more return than a sales and marketing path, don’t miss the July issue.

THE RESPONDENTSFrom April 16 to May 20, a total of 427 respondents from hotels across the Middle East responded to the Hote-lier Middle East Salary Survey 2009, which was posted on HotelierMid-dleEast.com and promoted through the daily newsletters.

The breakdown of respondents by sector is as follow (n=427):

F&B: 75Reception: 8Reservations: 10Housekeeping: 15Maintenance: 10Management: 122Sales and marketing: 66PR and communications: 13HR: 20

IT: 20Finance: 10Procurement: 11Head/regional office: 18Other (front of house): 16Other (back of house): 13

The breakdown of respondents by role is as follows (n=427):

Director: 56Senior manager: 50Executive manager: 42Regional manager: 10General manager: 33Manager: 127Assistant manager: 52Full-time employee: 55Part-time employee: 0Trainee/apprentice: 2

In terms of nationality, respon-dents came from a total of 25 countries/country areas out of 32 options, with 85 respondents choosing ‘other’.

The top five countries of origin selected were:Western Europe: 80Central Asia: 57UAE: 35Lebanon: 26Far East: 20North America, Australasia and South Africa followed closely after .

THE NUMBERS

of respondents said their company had

announced a pay freeze

16.3%HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED FOR YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYER? (N=326)

16.6%Less than 1 year

42.6%1-3 years

17.5%3-5 years

23.3%More than 5 years

Response Percentage

ResponseCount

16.6% 54

42.6% 139

17.5% 57

23.3% 76

Answered Question

326


SALARY SURVEY43

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Receiving

Camshelving®

Storage

Preparation & Cooking

Holding & Transporting

Cleaning & Sanitizing

Serving

MONTHLY REMUNERATIONThe average monthly remuneration, including salary, allowances, accom-modation value, commissions and bonuses, was at the lower end of the category, with almost a quarter of respondents (21.8%) earning between US $1500 and $3000.

The second and third most popu-lar categories were $3000-$4500 and $4500-6000, possibly reflecting the fact that the majority of participants put themselves in the “manager” cat-egory for job level.

Nearly 15% of respondents said that more than 40% of their monthly wage comprised of allowances, bonuses and commissions. Only 19.6% said their salary did not depend on these factors.

The majority of respondents (61.7%) consider their salary to be average for the region.

However, when asked to compare their salaries to global averages, the majority of the sample (47.6%) thought that their salary would be below aver-age. Another 44.4% thought it would be about average globally.

WHAT IS YOUR TYPICAL MONTHLY REMUNERATION (INCLUDING ALL EXTRAS)? (N=326)

Response Percent

ResponseCount

9.5% 31

21.8% 71

18.7% 61

16.0% 52

8.3% 27

9.8% 32

6.7% 22

2.8% 9

4.9% 16

1.5% 5

Answered Question

326

Less than US $1,500

US $1,500 - 3,000

US $3,000 - 4,500

US $4,500 - 6,000

US $6,000 - 7,500

US $7,500 - 10,500

US $7,500 - 10,500

US $10,500 - 13,500

US $13,500 - 30,000

US $30,000 +

9.5%

21.8%

18.7%

16%

8.3%

9.8%

6.7%

2.8%

4.9%

1.5%


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PAY RISES AND PROMOTIONSAlmost a third of respondents (32.8%) had received a promotion in the last 24 months, while the vast majority (89.3%) had received a pay rise during the same period.

Just over a third (34.4%) received their pay rise between six months and one year ago, while nearly a quarter (22.5%) received a pay rise in the past six months — a surprise considering the current market volatility.

Only 4.2% of respondents had not received an increase in their sal-

ary since before three years ago, but 19.9% had not been promoted in the past three years.

Looking forward, more than three quarters of the sample expect to receive a promotion within the next two years (76.5%).

However, a quarter (24.8%) does not expect a pay rise in the next year and 16.3% said their company had announced a pay freeze.

On the plus side, a third of respon-dents said they expected a pay rise of more than 10% within the next year.

Switzerland-based Hospitality Graduate Recruitment managing director Jeff Ross offered some valuable insights to the survey results, based on his experience of the hospitality industry in Europe and the Middle East.

Ross notes the fact that 48% of respondents consider themselves underpaid compared to global trends.

“We see increasing pressure globally on all salary packages, but now that cost of living is declining in the Middle East, I personally feel that Middle East salary packages are not uncompetitive against other destina-tions,” said Ross.

This was especially the case, he added, when coupled with the fact that 50% of respondents said they had received a pay rise within the past year.

“Also, in combination with the fact that 75% expect promotion within two years, this offers opportunity to progress quicker than in Europe for example, and there-

fore can be more attractive in terms of remuneration,” observed Ross.

Another positive finding was the discovery that 74% of respondents receive more than 25 days’ holiday a year.

“This is definitely much higher than in other regions and is a strong benefit for Middle East workers,” ex-plained Ross.

He reiterated the need for employers to maintain these standards and “not use the current trading environment as an opportunity to drive down salary packages, when there are many (desperate) job seekers out there and the strong bargaining position has now returned again to the employer”.

Jeff Ross is the managing director of Hospitality Gradu-ate Recruitment (h-g-r). For more information: [email protected] or www.h-g-r.com

EXPERT OPINION

WORKING CONDITIONSWorking 50-hour plus weeks is con-sidered the norm in the hospital-ity industry, with the vast majority (67.5%) falling into this category.

Only 28% said they work between 40 and 50 hour weeks.

However, on a positive note for the Middle East hospitality industry, three quarters (73.3%) of respon-dents said they were able to take more than 25 days annual leave each year. Only 1.6% received less than 10 days’ holiday.

THE NUMBERS

of respondents have received a payrise in the past six months

22.5% HOW MANY HOURS A WEEK DO YOU WORK? (N=311)

Less than 30

30 - 40

40 - 50

More than 50

0.6%

3.9%

28%

67.5%

Response Percent

ResponseCount

0.6% 2

3.9% 12

28% 87

67.5% 210

Answered Question

311

SALARY SURVEY45

DON’T MISS THE JULY

ISSUE OF HOTELIER

MIDDLE EAST FOR PART

TWO OF THE SALARY

SURVEY 2009 RESULTS

Have you been offered a period of unpaid leave by your company within

the past six months?

QUESTION OF THE MONTH

22.5%YES

77.5%NO

EMPLOYEE SENTIMENTAlmost half (45.3%) of the sample said they felt “completely confident” in their current role, yet only a quar-ter (27.4%) said they were completely happy in their current job.

A third (35.8%) of respondents said they would leave their current job for a more prestigious position.

On the subject of the driving fac-tors in accepting a new job with a dif-ferent company, more loyalty from

the employer, promotion prospects, more professional respect, the repu-tation of the company, better train-ing schemes and financial incentive were all selected by respondents as being “extremely important” .

Financial incentives were by far the most significant “deal breaker” however, with 34.5% of respondents acknowledging that better salaries could sway them into accepting another role.

A THIRD OF RESPONDENTS SAID THEY EXPECTED A PAY

RISE OF MORE THAN 10% WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR


WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS IS MOST TRUE? (N=296)

I look forward to the future with complete confidence

I feel less secure than I felt six months ago

I am anxious about keeping my job

I believe I will be made redundant within the next six months

I have already been told I will be made redundant

45.3%

39.5%

8.8%

3.7%

2.7%

Response Percent

ResponseCount

45.3% 134

39.5% 117

8.8% 26

3.7% 11

2.7% 8

Answered Question

296


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Stars are blind

No-frills, budget, econ-omy, limited service — ever-tightening belts across the world have increased the demand

for low-cost options in a market that is currently overflowing with five-star hotels.

Instead of the latest designer ho-tel brands and ultra-luxe resorts, the names on everyone’s lips lately are Premier Inn, Ibis, Holiday Inn Ex-press, Centro by Rotana and a host of other budget hotel concepts.

These operators agree that the Middle East has been dominated by an unsustainable level of opu-lence for too long and is now mature enough to recognise the need for mid-range and low-cost options.

However, while the gap in the market is undeniable and consum-er demand is strong, several chal-lenges face the burgeoning budget hotel industry in the Middle East.

For most hoteliers, classification disputes and the danger of over-supply top the list of concerns.


LOW-COST HOTELS The vast disparity in rating sys-tems across the Middle East is per-haps most apparent in the budget sector; IHG’s Holiday Inn Express hotel was given a two-star rating in Dubai, yet the same standard rooms managed to warrant a four-star rating in Bahrain.

EasyHotel founder and “serial entrepreneur” Stelios Haji-Ioan-

nou freely admits that his planned expansion plans into the Middle East have faced severe delays and ever-increasing costs because of regulatory constraints.

He says the company has been forced to add extra amenities to its usual no-frills, “superbudget” rooms, after prolonged battles with local authorities.

Haji-Ioannou’s argument, that consumers should judge what is necessary and vote with their wal-lets, is echoed by Premier Inn man-aging director Darroch Crawford.

“EasyHotels have a very small room [size] — by their own de-scription — and they find that they are not able to deliver the same product that they are delivering elsewhere in the world, which has added considerably to their costs,” says Crawford.

“I think we, as operators, should be able to deliver a similar product throughout the world and let the customers decide if that product is acceptable or not.”

Premier Inn has a three-star rating in Dubai, based largely on the fact that its hotels offer both a bathtub and shower in each room.

However, Crawford explains that the brand is deliberately un-rated in the UK and prefers to downplay its three-star rating.

“Star ratings are a throwback to days when it was difficult for peo-ple to have any idea of what they were buying,” he says.

The Middle East has seen a recent influx of budget hotels springing up to take advantage of a clear gap in the market. According to these new players, traditional star ratings are fast losing significance, with brand recognition and value for money driving consumer choice in the new economy

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Centro by Rotana Yas Island.


INDUSTRY FOCUS

“With modern technology, it is possible through the internet to know exactly what you’re buying and I think that’s what people rely on now, rather than stars.”

Ibis Al Barsha general manager Philippe Montaubin represents another hotel that has shrugged off its star rating.

“We don’t consider ourselves as a two-star; we name ourselves an ‘economy hotel’,” he says.

“This is simply a value-for-mon-ey property offering great service in an ideal location.”

The recently-opened Ibis Al Barsha is a 480-room hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road.

Montaubin explains that de-spite its budget price-tag, the hotel strives to remain up-to-date with its contemporary clientele.

All rooms are wifi-enabled and are equipped with IDD telephones, flat-screen televisions and a plug-and-play device for music players and other electronic accessories.

“It is not a high-tech hotel, but we still have to be in line with what is happening in today’s world,” Montaubin explains.

IHG vice president for develop-ment in the Middle East and Africa Phil Kasselis says that budget hotels in the region have a unique oppor-

tunity to offer value for money in a contemporary setting.

“The beauty of this market is that all of our developments are new-builds, so effectively you are creat-ing a new product, which hasn’t been compromised by having to retrofit an existing building; you’re launching a clean brand,” he says.

“Accordingly, people are pleas-antly surprised.”

The Holiday Inn Express brand (part of IHG) is currently in the middle of a global re-launch ini-tiative, focusing on consistency, quality and a more contemporary brand identity. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

BACK ON HOME TURFWhile many of the local up-and-comers are seen as small-time competition by the major brands, most agree that the new Centro by Rotana will prove itself a force to be reckoned with.

The Centro concept is pitched at the budget-conscious business market, targeting corporate com-panies, small to medium business owners and individual travellers.

As the name suggests, Centro properties will be situated in the central business districts of major cities throughout the Middle East.

Centro by Rotana Barsha.

BUDGET HOTEL BRANDS ARE RIGHT TO CONTINUE TO INVEST IN THIS REGION, BECAUSE THERE IS HUGE POTENTIAL

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REALITY HAS FINALLY SET INTO DUBAI — IT’S NOT LA LA LAND ANYMORE

nesse, yet at affordable rates,” El Zyr explains.

“Subsequently, we improved upon the services and the physical product required to cater to these requirements against an interna-

tional set of benchmarks.

“The result was a product de-sign unlike any of the other brands which are expected to be available in the region.”

Unlike some other budget brands, Centro hotels offer extra “frills” such as swimming pools, gymnasiums, meeting rooms and business services, including secre-tarial support.

El Zyr also points out that Cen-tro will have access to Rotana’s sales and marketing network,

including global reservation systems and operations, a region-wide loyalty pro-gramme, plus centralised staff recruitment and training programmes.

Premier Inn’s Darroch Crawford readily admits that: “Centro will clearly be a competitor that de-

serves our respect.”

“Rotana has a heritage of open-ing hotels in this region; they have an understanding of the market that is better than most and I think that the Centro project will be one that we have to watch more care-fully than most,” says Crawford.

Rotana plans to roll out a total of 25 Centro properties across the Middle East by 2014.

Landmark Group is another local player gearing up to launch into the


The first two Centro by Rotana properties — Centro Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and Centro Barsha in Dubai — are expected to open in September 2009.

Rotana president Selim El Zyr says the company undertook thor-ough market research to set the Centro brand apart from its po-tential competition.

“In order to ensure such differ-entiation, we first pinpointed the essential requirements of today’s young business and leisure travel-lers, who seek both style and fi-

mid-market hospitality sector with its new Citymax Hotels brand.

Plans are underway to open three hotels in Dubai and Sharjah by December 2009, including a 693-room property in Bur Dubai; a 378-room in Al Barsha; and a 260-room in Sharjah.

Landmark Gulf Group general manager hotel division Michael Weyland says the Citymax hotel brand will cater to “discerning business travellers”.

Weyland says the hotels will op-erate on a flat rate — under AED 500 (US $136) and possibly as low as AED 290 ($79).

“I believe that the core differen-tiator of the hotels is its transpar-

Premier Inn’s three-star economy room. Premier Inn’s Darroch Crawford.

Ibis Al Barsha general manager

Phillipe Montaubin.


Centro by Rotana.

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WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DELIVER A SIMILAR PRODUCT THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AND LET THE CUSTOMERS DECIDE IF THAT PRODUCT IS ACCEPTABLE OR NOT

ent pricing,” he says. “Room rates will be consistent throughout the year, enabling the traveller to plan his or her trip well in advance.

“This is especially relevant for corporates who want to budget and plan travel itineraries of their em-ployees well in advance without any nasty surprises of increased tariffs.”

As for competition, Weyland in-sists that “the cake is big enough in Dubai” and says Citymax will not be taking business away from its competitors, but instead from the upper scale segment.

RISK OF OVER-SUPPLY?While no-one seems to disagree that there is space in the market for budget and economy hotels, opinions remain divided as to just how much space there is.

“Overall the budget sector is still a very small percentage of hotels — in other parts of the world, the budget sector is often up to 30% of the market,” says Crawford.

“I don’t think that Dubai will ever get to that level, but there is already an oversupply appearing in certain areas.

“Certainly on Sheikh Zayed Road now, there’s an oversupply of budget hotels in my opinion — particularly when the four- and five-star hotels are dropping their rates to budget levels.”

However, Crawford insists that the situation in Dubai is “a short-term blip” and says budget hotel brands are right to continue to in-

vest in this region, because there is huge potential”.

Premier Inn has two upcoming properties in Dubai, including an airport hotel scheduled to open in December. The brand also has projects in Abu Dhabi, has se-cured land in Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah and is “actively looking” at Muscat, Doha and Riyadh.

Crawford says Saudi Arabia of-

fers the greatest potential for the brand, largely because of the num-ber of Saudi nationals who travel by road within the country.

“There is a demand for afford-able accommodation in Saudi Ara-bia,” he insists.

“I think there was always a de-mand [in the Middle East], but it was just unfulfilled. For example, there were a lot of people who

couldn’t afford to come to Dubai, even to visit friends and relatives, because the cost of accommoda-tion was enormous.”

EasyHotels’ Stelios Haji-Ioan-nou agrees, explaining that people are quickly being brought back down to earth as the global econ-omy tightens and corporates scale back spending.

“As people are forced to trade down, they forget their expense accounts and their ‘image’ and start looking for the cheapest op-tion,” he says.

“Reality has finally set into Dubai — it’s not la la land anymore.”

Ibis’ Montaubin believes that the budget accommodation sector will ride on the back of increases in low-cost air travel to the region.

“Everybody is waiting for fly-dubai and we already have Air Arabia in the market,” he says.

“If these airlines are growing, there is a market for us because we work hand in hand.”

As with the rest of the hotel industry, many owners and op-erators are nervous about being drawn into a pricing war.

Sami Al Ansari, chief executive officer of Ishraq Gulf Real Estate Holding says that “sanity must come back into the market” and it is time for hoteliers to draw a line.

Ishraq Gulf Real Estate Hold-ing owns more than 20 Holiday Inn Express properties throughout the Middle East.

“We are just shooting ourselves in the foot as prices continue to come further down,” says Al Ansari.

He believes management com-panies are to blame for slashing rates and suggests that “talk may start about a cartel” if the situa-tion continues.

On the flip side, Haji-Ioannou argues that in a market driven by supply and demand, prices should be allowed to fluctuate.

His budget mantra remains: “Price to fill — whatever it takes.” HMEHME

The Holiday Inn Express brand is undergoing a global relaunch. IHG’s Phil Kasselis.

Landmark Gulf Group general manager hotel division Michael Weyland in a Citymax hotel model room at ATM.

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Hotel Overall survey score

Date of assignment

Time of assignment

MAKING A RESERVATION BY PHONE OVERALL SCORE

Reservation by phone comments

Rating out of 5

HOTEL ARRIVAL OVERALL SCORE

Hotel arrival comments Rating out of 5 for the lobby’s appearance

Rating out of 5 for the lobby’s seating area

OBTAINING REFRESHMENTS OVERALL SCORE

Obtaining refreshments comments

Al Qasr, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai

73% Overall Score

(40/55)

11/5/2009 08:45 67% (6/9) When transferred to the reservations department the person introduced themselves, used my name during our interaction and repeated back the details of the reservation, but the details were repeated too many times unnecessarily, and I felt I was kept longer on the phone answering what I felt to be far too many questions e.g. Q: “Is it a special occasion?” A: “No.” Q: “Is it a birthday?”

After 24 hours when the email still hadn’t arrived I called to enquire and found out that my email address as well as telephone number were incorrect on their system. Confirmation arrived 30 minutes after second call. The details received after this were accurate.”

2 93% (13/14)

I drove myself to the hotel and when I arrived at the hotel the car door was opened for me, I was greeted by the valet/guest engagement representative, the main door was opened for me and I was greeted within one minute of entering the hotel.

Although I was greeted at the entrance, staff didn’t enquire about where I was going or offer directions to the lobby.

4 5 55% (6/11) I located the area where I could have a drink/refreshments, and was served after one minute.

My coffee was served but the waiter walked way without asking if I wanted anything else. Given the quiet early morning period, service was very slow and twice I had to leave my seat to get a waiter’s attention.

One&Only Royal Mirage, Dubai (The Palace)

55% Overall Score

(30/55)

11/5/2009 09:15 67% (6/9) When transferred to the reservations department the person introduced themselves, used my name during our interaction and repeated back all the details of the reservation except the price.

After 24 hours I had to call the hotel again to ask for my reservation. The details received were accurate, however you are still expected to print a form, sign it and fax or email it back which is rather long winded process, especially as they already have your credit card details.

2 64% (9/14)

I drove myself to the hotel and when I arrived at the hotel the car door was opened for me, I was greeted by the valet/guest engagement representative, the main door was automatic, but I was not greeted when I entered the hotel.

It was not immediately obvious where the lobby seating was located and I had to walk around to find it myself, as there weren’t any staff in view to guide me.

4 4 45% (5/11) I located the area where I could have a drink/refreshments, and was served after two or more minutes.

I found my own way to a table and it was three minutes before I was approached by a waiter to take an order, however, it was a very quiet time with only one other table taken and a handful of staff available.

Park Hyatt Dubai

93% Overall Score

(51/55)

14/5/2009 08:15 100% (9/9) When transferred to the reservations department the person introduced themselves, used my name during our interaction and repeated back the details of the reservation.

I received an email confirmation within two hours. The details received were accurate.

5 100% (14/14)

I drove myself to the hotel and when I arrived at the hotel the car door was opened for me, I was greeted by the valet/guest engagement representative, the main door was opened for me and I was greeted within one minute of entering the hotel.

All staff made an effort to say hello and made me feel welcome.

5 5 91% (10/11) I located the area where I could have a drink/refreshments, and was served within one minute.

Staff were very friendly and helpful; newspapers and magazines were provided when requested.

Hotel Spy In the first of the new mystery shopper series published exclusively in Hotelier Middle East in partnership with Grass Roots, our hotel spies went undercover at three of Dubai’s five-star luxury hotels

Park Hyatt Dubai One&Only Royal Mirage Dubai Park Hyatt Dubai scored almost full marks, with the quick response from its reservations team setting it apart from the other hotels

The Palace at One&Only Royal Mirage lacked internet in the lobby and the five-star service from staff that our mystery shopper expected


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Rating out of 5 for the quality and variety of refreshments available

Rating out of 5 for how I would rate the quality of this service

CONCIERGE ENQUIRY OVERALL SCORE

Concierge enquiry comments Rating out of 5 for the quality of the service received from Concierge

INTERNET AVAILABILITY OVERALL SCORE

Internet availability comments

RESTROOM OVERALL SCORE

Restroom comments CLOSING OVERALL SCORE

On leaving the hotel comments

4 3 50% (3/6) Concierge was able to assist with providing activity details, and I received a printed copy of the details.

The concierge recommended either a day at Bab Al Shams or a desert dinner with a tour starting at 4pm, but didn’t have any suggestions for the rest of the day.

2 100% (3/3) An internet service is available in the lobby; I asked someone and was informed that internet usage was free and I didn’t have any connection issues when I connected to the internet.

75% (3/4) I had to ask two people to assist me in locating the restrooms as I still couldn’t find them; the restrooms looked clean, the items I used were in good working order and quality products such as crèmes, individual hand towels etc were available.

86% (6/7) Somebody said ‘goodbye’ as I left the hotel. I didn’t have to wait long for valet assistance, and my car arrived within five minutes.

I have previously visited this hotel for its restaurants; I would visit this hotel again based on my experience today, I did feel welcomed and a valued customer and would recommend this hotel to friends and family.


The concierge recommended a visit to the water park at Atlantis hotel and a stroll along ‘The Walk’ at Jumeirah Beach Residence, even though the request was for an activity at a very hot time of year.

2 0% (0/3) When I asked, I was informed that an internet service is not available in the lobby.

75% (3/4) I had to ask someone to locate the restrooms; the restrooms looked clean, the items I used were in good working order and quality products such as crèmes, individual hand towels etc were available.

57% (4/7) Nobody said ‘goodbye’ as I left the hotel. I didn’t have to wait long for valet assistance, and my car arrived within five minutes.

I have previously visited this hotel for its restaurants; I would visit this hotel again based on my experience today for its restaurants, but not as a hotel guest or to use the lobby cafe, I didn’t feel welcomed or a valued customer, although I would recommend this hotel to friends and family for its restaurants only.


Concierge was helpful and suggested an organised tour of Dubai with an itinerary chosen by the guest.

4 67% (2/3) An internet service is available in the lobby; I asked someone and was informed that internet usage is charged to both guests and non-guests, and I didn’t have any connection issues when I connected to the internet.

75% (3/4) I had to ask someone to locate the restrooms; the restrooms looked clean and were very warm, the items I used were in good working order and quality products such as crèmes, individual hand towels etc were available.

100% (7/7) Somebody said ‘goodbye’ as I left the hotel. I didn’t have to wait long for valet assistance, and my car arrived within two minutes.

I have previously visited this hotel for meetings; I would visit this hotel again based on my experience today. I did feel welcomed and a valued customer and would recommend this hotel to friends and family.

Grass Roots is a business performance improvement consultancy with 20 years’ experience worldwide in helping companies get the most out of their staff.

It assists organisations to evaluate customer service through tailored mystery shopping programmes using genuine consumers.

These mystery shoppers collect information anonymously, making undetectable visits to a precise, but realistic brief.

They report back on their entire experience, from entry to exit. This method — using real people, in real situations, having real reactions — provides an accurate picture of the consumer experience.

Grass Roots has experience and understand of the GCC consumer and hospitality sector and follows the premise that “what is really happening on the ground is essential for companies to address their shortcomings and change their processes in order to set and meet the highest customer service standards possible”.Visit: www.grassroots.ae

ABOUT GRASS ROOTSNana Mancell of Grass Roots Middle East and North Africa explains how the report on the three hotels was complied.

“The mystery shoppers are consumers selected from our database of more than 2000 individuals across the region who match the profile of a guest of that hotel. They were given a questionnaire together with advice and guidelines on the details to check and record their experience through our web-based system. Our shoppers were requested to report back on their experience within 24 hours of their visit. This was done through an online questionnaire containing a combination of multiple choice questions and requests for personal comment and opinions. This objective and subjective feedback — both the facts and shoppers’ opinions of their visits — have been combined to give an overview of customer service at the hotels visited.

“The survey of the hotels consists of the following sections: making a reservation by phone, arriving at the hotel, refreshments served in the lobby area, a concierge enquiry, internet availability, restrooms and leaving the hotel. The sections consist of between four and 13 questions and cover the guest’ s impression and experience of the visit. The overall scores for the survey as a whole, and each section therein, are represented as a percentage of the scores received. The scores are generated from “yes/no” and fixed answer questions, whereby a score of either 1 or 0 is obtained, and from satisfaction ratings, whereby a score of between 0 and 4 can be obtained.”

HOW MYSTERY SHOPPING WORKS

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T he Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ever-expanding hotel pipeline and apparent resilience to cur-rent market pressures came

under scrutiny from the hospitality in-dustry last month at the Arabian Ho-tel Investment Conference (AHIC).

The panel session entitled ‘how to succeed in Saudi Arabia’ generated mixed views and the conversations on KSA continued throughout the con-ference — and indeed at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) which followed directly after. Here, Hotelier Middle East picks up the debate, looking at the freshest data, the latest announce-ments and the strongest opinions.

Firstly, let’s look at the facts. According to the latest data from STR Global, occupancy in KSA stood at 72% in April, 5.5% less when the April 2009 figures are compared to April 2008. Comparing the same periods, ADR increased by 9.7% to SAR611.49 (US $163), resulting in revPAR for April 2009 of SAR440.26 ($117) — a 3.7% increase on April 2008.

Also of significance is the fact that Jeddah was one of only four Middle Eastern markets (the others being Amman, Beirut and Muscat,) to report double-digit increases in ADR, with Jeddah reporting +23.3% to $176.53 in April 2009 (compared to April 2008).

So, while occupancy might be slightly down in the Kingdom, it is still at an acceptable level and hoteliers are

holding their rates. Secondly, the KSA government has massively stepped up its role in supporting its hospital-ity and tourism sector, with a new national tourism plan set to be pub-lished this year.

Presented at AHIC by the Saudi Government Commission for Tour-ism and Antiquities (SGCTA) presi-dent and board chairman HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdu-laziz Al-Saud, the plan states that:• Visitor numbers will nearly double from 47 million in 2008 to 88 million by 2020• The number of hotel rooms will rise from 117,097 to 254,310• Apartment units would increase from 101,544 to 185,853• Industry employment is set to grow from 1.1 million to 1.5 million

According to HRH Prince Sultan, the numbers will be even greater than these “prudent” estimates, especially as the government has approved bank financing to process loans to fund heri-tage projects for small and medium size enterprises.

The plan came about in order to meet increasing demand and cater to the domestic market.

“More than $10 billion is spent by Saudi Arabians on travelling over-seas...but they are now eager to spend a good part of their holidays at home,” says HRH Prince Sultan.

“We aimed to capture 5% of this but with the trend to ‘holiday at home’, this could be bigger — there is a large

gap between supply and demand with areas such as weekend traffic showing major growth potential,” he adds

As a result, the government budget has not decreased, despite the eco-nomic slowdown.

“Our government budget in 2009 is the biggest ever in order to keep proj-ects on-stream with an unsurpassed expansion of the infrastructure,” asserts Prince Sultan.

“Our economy is based on factors that make it more resilient to fluctua-tions (worldwide).

“We are sure that hotel investment will be one of the biggest growth areas in Saudi Arabia as tourism is accepted on the national agenda.

Coupled with the market data, this is obviously music to the ears of hotel owners, investors, developers and operators alike, providing an even stronger rational to the construction pipeline currently underway.

The Al Hokair Group, for example, is developing its sixth Holiday Inn in partnership with IHG and keen to share in the government’s vision.

At the launch of Holiday Al Kho-

bar Corniche during Arabian Travel Market, Al Hokair Group manag-ing director Mosaad Al Hokair com-mented: “The SGCTA has a robust plan in place to increase the tourism industry’s share in the country’s gross domestic product from six to 16% by 2020. We are proud to be contribut-ing to that plan with our partner IHG whom we can rely on to support our objectives.”

Another KSA-based company keen to make an impact on the country, no doubt in preparation for the increas-ing presence of international brands coming up, is Elaf Group of Compa-nies, which comprises Elaf Hotels, Elaf Hajj & Umrah and Elaf Travel and Tourism.

“We have just completed our road-map for the coming five years: we are planning to triple our capacity in terms of rooms under management; the number of pilgrims we are serving; the number of customers we are serving in the outbound business; and to expand our business outside of Makkah Madi-nah through developing in Jeddah,” reveals Elaf deputy chief executive

With development and opportunity in Saudi Arabia a key talking point at the recent Arabian Hotel Investment Conference and Arabian Travel Market, Louise Oakley finds out why the country holds so much appeal for the industry and uncovers why it runs the risk of disappointing the hotel guest in the future

The Kingdom holds its own

SAUDI ARABIA

THE CHALLENGE IN RIYADH IS LACK OF ROOMS; THERE IS NOT ENOUGH SUPPLY IN THE DELUXE CATEGORY

Raffles Makkah Palace lobby.

55

Tarik Nabulsi. The group’s first hotel outside Mecca, the Elaf Jeddah Red Sea Mall, is set to open its doors in July this year.

“So far we have specialised in Umrah and Hajj hotels, taking care of religious tourism in Makkah, but this year we are getting out of Makkah and looking to Jeddah with our first city hotel,” says Nabulsi.

“We have expanded into city hotels because we felt there was a big demand for this kind of product in Jed-dah and not enough supply,” he adds.

For those based outside of KSA, the opportunities are just as strong.

Hilton Hotels vice president devel-opment Middle East Elie Younes believes the KSA market, where Hil-ton will launch the region’s first Gar-den Inn branded property in Riyadh this year, is resilient.

“Saudi Arabia is definitely a suf-ficient market — it is more recession-proof than others,” he says.

Meanwhile, Accor Hospitality chief development officer Christian Karaoglanian sees “great opportuni-ties” for both an Ibis country-wide network targeting corporate clientele and luxury Sofitel hotels in Riyadh and Jeddah, starting with the open-

ing of Sofitel Al Khobar by the end of this year. And development for the country’s most luxurious hotel to date is already underway, with Raffles Hotels and Resorts set to manage an all-suite property — with three mem-bers of staff to a suite — in the Abraj Al Bait Complex being developed by Saudi Binladin Corporation.

Fairmont Raffles Hotels Interna-tional (FRHI) chief operating officer Chris Cahill says: “Raffles Makkah Palace will be Raffles Hotels & Resorts’ second property in the Mid-dle East.

“The growth of Raffles’ footprint to Makkah will also see FRHI operate as a group in the Holy city, as Raffles Makkah Palace will be located adja-cent to The Makkah Clock Royal Tower, A Fairmont Hotel, at the Abraj Al Bait Complex — part of the King Abdal Aziz Endowment Project with a mandate to upgrade the pre-cincts of the two Holy Mosques.”

THE INSIDE VIEWWhile the outside opinion is that busi-ness is booming in Saudi Arabia, do those actually working in the coun-try’s hotels agree?

The general manager of Four Sea-sons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Cen-tre, Rami Z. Sayess, says 2008 was a record year for the hotel with 30% growth and that despite the downturn, 2009 looks like another record year.

“We have not really been affected; on the contrary a lot of meeting plan-ners have shifted their events to Saudi Arabia. A lot of financial institutions specifically are going on a weekly or monthly basis to Riyadh in particular because this is an area where they can find people interested in doing busi-ness still,” observes Sayess.

While the corporate market, which accounts for 80% of the business is still strong, Sayess business has also been boosted by the fact that women can now apply for visas to travel to Saudi Arabia unaccompanied.

“Another area we have been work-ing on is honeymoon packages, as Saudi Arabia has limited options for this. It has been growing very success-fully,” says Sayess, adding that the hotel has also developed a very profit-able outside catering business.

Now, he says, the focus has turned to offering activities for children.

“The idea was to get the children to make the decisions; if they want to go to a place they are going to end up there,” he says.

Sayess explains that all of these ini-tiatives are aimed at reinventing the hotel to ensure that it is constantly pleasing its repeat business, which stands at about 45% for rooms and 60% for F&B.

“The challenge in Riyadh is lack of rooms; there is not enough supply in the deluxe category,” says Sayess.

COUNTRY FOCUS

www.hoteliermiddleeast.com Hotelier Middle East • June 2009

Image: Peter Vitale

The Abraj Al Bait complex, where Raffles Makkah Palace will be located.

Ballroom at Four Seasons Riyadh.

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COUNTRY FOCUS57


A SNAPSHOT OF THE HOTELS SCHEDULED TO OPEN IN KSA IN 2009

“One of the things we are going to do is add 12% of our inventory in the next 18 months.”

The renovation will be performed in stages so the hotel will not close, he says, with room numbers increasing from 249 to 278, in-room technology being upgraded and a new-look meet-ings facilities.

“This is actually a great time to rein-vest and be ready before new competi-tion comes into the market so we will be ahead of the game,” says Sayess.

The other luxury hotel located in Riyadh, Al Faisaliah Hotel, A Rose-wood Hotel, is also undergoing a multi-million dollar expansion sched-uled to open in 2010. It will include a new wing of 106 luxury rooms and suites, a new Mediterranean dining restaurant and a ladies-only spa with 12 treatment rooms.

A QUESTION OF SERVICESo far, so good — those not yet oper-ating in the market want to and those that are already established are ready and waiting for the competition.

But as more hotels come online, con-sumers are going to have more choice, raising the issue of ensuring service, not just facilities, are good enough to keep people coming back. And according to Al Mousim Travel presi-dent Rashid Al Mugait, this is where the KSA market might struggle: “The country is totally underserved by the hospitality business.

“I think the people of Saudi Arabia and the guests of Saudi Arabia deserve much, much better services and higher quality. Unfortunately this is not the case. I would go to the extreme and really consider if I can call it hospital-ity, because I don’t feel that hospitality does exist here.”

Al Mugait criticises international brands for not embracing the local cul-ture in their hotels and the F&B indus-try for not providing local food or a “restaurant that is a destination”.

He also warns that sales and mar-keting teams do not cast their net wide enough in order to attract business.

Muhammad Al Amir, manag-ing director of Riyada International Hotels and Resorts and Ramada Worldwide — Saudi Arabia, shares Al Mugait’s view that these issues must be addressed.

“There is plenty of opportunity in Saudi Arabia but I concur with Rashid; we need to invest more in quality and systems that will reflect and keep that going,” he says.

He adds that the limited aviation capacity could also be a challenge.

“If you cannot arrange a trip for an individual how can you fly a group,” he asks.

However, with BA this month relaunching its flight from London to Riyadh and Jeddah after a four-year suspension, Jet Airways begin-ning a daily service from Mumbai to Saudi Arabia, SWISS Interna-tional Air Lines integrating flights with Lufthansa German Airlines to increase frequency on its Saudi Ara-bia network and Saudi Arabian car-rier nasair upping it flight frequency between Jeddah and Abu Dhabi from three times weekly to daily, perhaps this is an issue that is already being dealt with.

THE COUNTRY IS TOTALLY UNDERSERVED BY THE HOSPITALITY BUSINESS

Indeed, according to Air France /KLM commercial director for the Gulf, Iran and Pakistan Bas Gerres-sen, “there is an over-capacity com-pared to demand”.

Gerressen believes that in accor-dance with IATA predictions for 2009, capacity would outstrip demand in the Gulf region this year and that one market in particular that would notice the onslaught of extra seats would be Saudi Arabia, given British Airways’ return as well as a presence from Luf-thansa, bmi, Austrian and its own Air France flights from Riyadh and Jed-dah to Paris.

But then if the hotels planned for this year open as planned (see box-out) perhaps the ratio will balance out.

And that brings us back to another theme from AHIC; the fact that fore-casts and figures aside, with the mar-ket so uncertain there is inevitably a significant element of ‘wait and see’ involved when talking about growth.

However, with such strong gov-ernment support and little signs of real economic slowdown, the wait for Saudi Arabia to boom is likely to be one of the shortest. HMEHME

Company City/Region Brand Property Rating Rooms Apartments Opening

Rotana Mecca Rayhaan Al Marwa -Rayhaan Five-star 1000 0 2009

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts Yanbu Movenpick Movenpick Hotel Yanbu Five-star 229 0 2009

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts Makkah Movenpick Movenpick Hotel & Residence Hajar Tower Makkah

Five-star 406 693 2009

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Accor Riyadh Mercure Mercure Al Suleimanania Midscale 100 0 2009

Hilton Hotels Corporation Riyadh Hilton Hilton Garden Inn Riyadh Olaya No Rating 180 0 2009

Hospitality Management Holdings Al Asha Coral Coral Plaza, Al Asha Four-star 65 0 2009

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Lying 8km off the coast of Jebel Dhana, Abu Dhabi, Anantara Desert Islands Resort & Spa is part of Tourism Development and Investment Company’s ambitious Desert Islands project. Hotelier Middle East takes a behind-the-scenes look at the property

Where the wild things are

PROJECT 360º

Tourism Development and Investment Com-pany’s (TDIC) Desert Islands project com-prises six natural is-lands in the Arabian Gulf, which will house

boutique resorts, camping facilities and untouched breeding grounds for birds and turtles.

When finished, the islands will offer a complete nature-based des-tination holiday, including a game reserve, heritage sites, outdoor adventures, beaches and five-star hospitality offerings.

The Anantara Desert Islands Resort & Spa opened in late 2008 as part of the first wave of the Desert Islands project. Situated on Sir Bani Yas Island — the UAE’s largest nat-

ural island — the resort neighbours the existing Arabian Wildlife Park.

This park is part of the legacy left by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who used the island as a holiday destination for his extended family and guests.

Anantara has continued the tradi-tion by offering guests a natural yet exclusive experience.

Sir Bani Yas Island is accessible via a 50-minute seaplane or 25-min-ute standard flight from Abu Dhabi, or via speedboat from Jebel Dhana marina, a 240km drive west from Abu Dhabi International Airport.

The 64-room Anantara resort blends Arabian and African design elements to create the atmosphere of a five-star safari lodge set into unspoiled natural terrain.

Despite the resort’s luxurious fit-tings and manicured landscaping, sensitive development and conser-

DESERT ISLANDS vation are the key pillars of the Des-ert Islands project.

The energy strategy of Desert Islands is being developed by a part-nership between TDIC and Masdar — the Abu Dhabi government’s much-anticipated advanced energy and sustainability initiative.

However, Sir Bani Yas Island is already home to one of the Middle East’s largest wind turbines; it stands 65m high, has three rotor blades with a 52m wing span each and a production capacity of 850 kilowatts per hour.

TDIC plans to use solar and wind energy solutions throughout the Des-ert Islands project.

As Anantara’s first property in the Middle East and the only hotel TDIC has launched so far within Desert Islands, Hotelier Middle East thought a visit to the island would be worth the journey.

DESERT ISLANDSIN BRIEF

Developer: TDICOperator: AnantaraRooms and suites: 64Guest services: Boutique; fitness centre; kids club; library with wifi; tennis court; free-form infinity pool.Activities (organised by TDIC): Game drives; guided game walks; snorkeling; kayaking; mountain biking.F&B outlets: Al Shams pool bar and snacks; Samak seafood grill; The Palm all-day dining restaurant; The Lounge cocktail bar and coffee lounge.

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SPAThe Safaa Spa is situated in a quiet corner, separate to the main resort building, with a private courtyard and garden. Natural elements and oils are used within the facility, in conjunction with contemporary spa lines such as Natura Bissé. Spa rituals and design aesthetics centre around the therapeutic energies of semi-precious stones: amber for energy; emerald for love; and aqua marine for relaxation.

Hot stone massages (Spa Pro heater pictured right) are one of many treatments on offer at the Safaa Spa.

PROJ

ECT

360º

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ARABIAN WILDLIFE PARKSir Bani Yas Island is home to around 30 species of free-roaming animals, including a 400-head herd of the endangered Arabian Oryx. The 4100-hectare Arabian Wildlife Park is dedicated to the breeding and rehabilitation of animals indigenous to the Arabian Peninsula. Guests at the Anantara Desert Islands resort can take part in game drives, hiking or mountain biking activities to get up close with cheetahs, giraffes, peacocks, sand gazelles and antelopes.

The resort’s two Royal Villas are both spread over 200m², offering two bedrooms, living and lounge space, kitchenette and dining area and a private pool with outdoor garden shower. A private butler service is on-call 24 hours a day.

Anantara Desert Islands general manager Andre Erasmus says designers, including inte-rior design company Dekloo & Co, drew on the island’s history as a retreat for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and his guests.

“The design brief was that as a guest you shouldn’t feel like you’re walking into a hotel; you

should feel as though you are in the private resi-dence of a sheikh,” says Erasmus.

“When you walk in, you feel like you are in this ruler’s house — every object, every artwork, every piece of furniture that you see here has been col-lected by the sheikh throughout his journeys in Arabia, Africa, North Africa and so on,” he says.

“Every piece of art tells a story.”Emphasis has been placed on natural materi-

als for the Royal Villas, with products sourced from a range of companies throughout the world to emphasise the eclectic design of the rooms.

ROYAL VILLA

Pastry chef Abdullahsamad Mohammed heads up a team of five, who are responsible for supplying the remote hotel with fresh produce daily, as well as special treats for guests.

“We do not buy any ready-made items; everything is made in-house,” says Mohammed.

He says the equipment choices and layout of the room con-tribute to the department’s success.

“I have been working in the hotel trade for more than six years in Mövenpick, Holiday Inn and Sheraton.

“Compared to other hotels, I would be working to serve 250 rooms, but I wouldn’t have this much space.

“Here we have only 64 rooms — and we have enough equip-ment, enough space, enough of everything.”

He says the kitchen is “easy and comfortable” to work in.

BACK OF HOUSERoyal Villa, left to right: private pool, living and dining room, private outdoor courtyard.

The pastry kitchen’s dough mixer in use, preparing fresh bread and pastries for the resort.

PROJECT 360º


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ALL LIT UPRaw colours, textures and materials are used throughout the resort, allowing the interior design to blend in with the natural desert surroundings. Wood, stone, shell and raw fabrics are used in most areas.

FAVOURITE FEATURES

SAMAK SEAFOODSamak is a beachside seafood grill restaurant, open for dinner and set amongst the resort’s poolside landscaping. Samak offers candle-lit dinner under the stars, an impressive wine list and a range of seafood and steaks prepared over an open fire.

MEET AND GREETAnantara Desert Islands currently features meeting rooms within the resort, which are fitted out with audiovisual and presentation equipment, including portable LCD screen and DVD player, digital data projector, conference phone cabling and handsets, whiteboards and flipcharts.

The resort will also open a conference centre in 2010, which will accommodate 250 guests. The new centre will comprise eight breakaway rooms and a boardroom.

GREAT OUTDOORSOutdoor spaces around the resort feature lounge chairs, tables and other areas for guests to six, relax and take in their surroundings. A collection of vases, shells, sculptures and other ‘found items’ from around the world add to the impression of being a guest in the home of a well-travelled sheikh.

Samak restaurant sculpture by Tatjana Jakovljevic. 1

2 Meeting facilities will soon include a new conference centre.

BOOKWORMThe Desert Islands library is a small, cosy room that is tucked away in the manner of a private study.

It features a quiet corner for reading, a chessboard and other games, plus research tools such as atlases, globes and studies of wildlife and nature. The room also features a work desk and wireless internet access for guests.

The resort uses raw elements where possible.

Outdoor lounge areas surround the lobby.

SUPPLIERS & PARTNERSProduct: Landscape architectureCompany: LMS International

Product: Interior design Company: Dekloo & Co

Product: FurnitureCompany: Creative Renovation Group

Product: EngineeringCompany: Al Jaber L.E.G.T. Engineering & Contracting (ALEC)

Product: Pastry Kitchen equipment and fit-outCompany: Emirates KitchensKEY PLAYERS

Developer: TDICProject manager: Bovis Lend Lease, Turner & Townsend and Leighton’sArchitect: Norr Architects Engineers PlannersContractor: Hilal Bil Badi & Partners Contracting Company (Hilalco)

3

5The library features books, games and wifi access.

PROJECT 360º

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Hoteliers trying to capture “green revenue” from environmentally conscious travellers must be wary of opportunistic and counter-pro-ductive initiatives, according to Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa execu-tive chef Marion Lovell.

“While there are certainly those who are genuinely facing these [en-vironmental] issues, others seem to be taking advantage of the trends without really tackling the issues or contributing to solutions,” said Lovell. “To highlight an example — a well documented issue in Eu-rope — for decades, increased de-mand for food encouraged the mas-sive use of pesticides to increase production,” he continued.

“However, this inadvertently re-

Green trend is here to stay• News • Solutions • Opinion • Best practices

sulted in widespread destruction of local bee populations.

“As bees are one of the pollina-tors in most fruit production, the widespread application of general pesticides was therefore actually counter-productive.”

Lovell explained that by buying produce from sustainable and or-ganic sources, “we know the ingre-dients are better-tasting, and are a healthier option for the environ-ment and for our customers”.

“Governments can encourage the implementation of sustainable practices and many have imposed penalties on industries that do not follow good policies,” said Lovell.

“This I am sure will increase greatly in the future, as green poli-cies are now becoming major po-litical and social issues in many countries,” he added.

Daimer introduces ‘Eco-Green’ cleaning products made from plants

BURNING ISSUE

Daimer Industries, a manufactur-er and distributor of commercial cleaning products, has announced a line of eco-friendly professional grade cleaners for the front and back of the house.

Daimer’s Eco-Green cleaners for the food service industry are de-

Hoteliers need to support a long-term, wide-spread environmentally-friendly strategy

rived from plants and vegetables without any ozone-depleting sub-stances, synthetics or volatile or-ganic compounds (VOCs).

In addition, Eco-Green prod-ucts have been certified as readily biodegradable, which means the chemicals biodegrade by more than

Wyndham Worldwide is pursuing aggressive Middle East expansion and sustainable growth with its new Wyndham Green initiative.

The Wyndham group includes the Ramada brand, which already has nearly 40 properties in MENA. New Ramada properties in Jordan and Kuwait were announced in May.

The company was recently named a Green Pioneer by ConEdison Solu-tions for its commitment to environ-mental preservation and for using electricity provided by green power.

Wyndham Hotel Group execu-tive vice president of development Jim Alderman said that despite the significant growth in hotel develop-ment in the Middle East, there was still a need for quality, international and midscale lodging brands.

“The World Tourism Organisation

Wyndham exports its winning green initiative to Middle East

1. EarthSmart linen and towel program 2. Reduce energy — energy efficient bulbs in guest rooms and public spaces or sensors and other green technology 3. Reduce water — low flow faucets, shower head and toilets, ozone laundry system, etc. 4. Recycle - paper, bottles, plastics, batteries, cell phones, etc. 5. Air — smoke-free sites and Wyndham ClearAir rooms 6. Waste/Recycle — recycled office paper, guest directory and other hotel materials: reduce direct mailings

7. Purchasing — eco-friendly cleaning and laundry products, organic coffee and food programme and other eco-friendly products 8. Community programmes — donate amenities and linens, working with a local charity, and other programmes that foster community involvement 9. Energy Tracking — using ENERGY STAR tracking programme to track and reduce energy consumption 10. Education — appoint green champions; train employees, owners and developers; and provide environmental resources

90% within 28 days. “With the in-creased knowledge of the dangers associated with commercial chemi-cal formulations, it has become es-sential for virtually every industry to seek environmentally-friendly alternatives,” said Daimer.com spokesperson Matthew Baratta.

“Daimer’s new Eco-Green prod-ucts were designed to set a new green standard for the food service industry. Our cleaning products eliminate the negative environ-mental impacts, health risks and liability associated with the use of traditional chemical preparations.”

has predicted that the Middle East will have the highest rate of overall tourism growth in the world over the next several years,” said Alderman.

“As the demand rises, the Rama-da chain is well poised to continue its aggressive growth to meet that need,” he added.

Wyndham’s top 10 basic green initiativesAl Maha Desert Resort & Spa.

Wyndham’s Jim Alderman.

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InterContinental Hotels Group’s (IHG) Green Engage pro-gramme is a software system that allows hotels to measure

their energy and water consumption and manage elements of operation that affect the environment, such as insulation, waste and recycling.

The Green Engage system also outlines practical measures that hotels can take to reduce energy use and wastage, as well as benchmark-ing them against similar properties around the world.

GH How was the programme developed?Kinsell: It was one of those software programmes that someone had cre-ated in their garage and some of our people in Australia identified it and played with it a bit. Our Asia-Pacific teams put their arms around it and tried to make it a little bit more robust and fit for a bigger purpose. We put it across all of our hotels that we managed last year to test it. Then we added a series of management reports and graphical interfaces and displays — the kind of stuff that you would see on a front end instead of raw data — so that it could be used by all people in the hotel.

GH What benefits are you expecting from the programme?

Kinsell: The early returns that are coming through sug-gest that we’ll find ways to cut as much as 25% in waste water and energy. Firstly, it’s a way to save costs in a period when people are focusing on cost-cutting areas. Sec-

ondly and importantly, it is the right thing to do in terms of the environ-ment and thirdly, it allows the man-agement to look more deeply into an area that they haven’t had the tools for — it gives them a sense of con-trol, responsibility and accountabil-ity. From that we can derive a series of best practices and take it even fur-ther. It’s a great launching pad.

GH Before developing this in-house, had you considered outsourcing?Kinsell: We hadn’t found anything that was as simple to use, as cost-effective, or that could be rolled out over the whole company. Going global, you have to think through all the implications. Not only is lan-guage an issue, but there are different operating platforms and adoption rates by different cultures. Going to different markets, the urgency is dif-ferent as well. In the Middle East, the energy solution isn’t as urgent in terms of cost. Last summer when we were in Europe and the cost of the barrel was at $150 and laundry costs were going up by 15% and F&B costs were going up, it was urgent, and that’s what drove a lot of the adop-tion of the tests.

GH How do you expect the initiative to be adopted in the Middle East?Kinsell: It’s going to go down very well here for a number of reasons. Firstly, because we manage something like 90% of the properties we offer in the Middle East, we have control of that, so it’s our call. The costs are a mini-mal amount of money, so it’s not like we’re going to the owner and bur-dening them with a new capital plan. It’s very low-cost and the returns are not only seen within the year, but within the quarter. HME

ANALYSIS

THE EARLY RETURNS THAT ARE COMING THROUGH SUGGEST THAT WE’LL FIND WAYS TO CUT AS MUCH AS 25% IN WASTE WATER AND ENERGY

A very GREEN engagementInterContinental Hotels Group president EMEA Kirk Kinsell discusses the Green Engage programme that is expected to save as much as US $200 million after a roll-out to the group’s entire portfolio later this year

www.hoteliermiddleeast.comJune 2009 • Hotelier Middle East

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With an increasing number of delayed or cancelled projects clogging up the construction pipeline, Dubai is no lon-ger viewed as the goldmine it once was for hotel suppliers.

Many are now being drawn to the new promised lands of KSA, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Oman, where a new projects are continuing on time, despite the economic slowdown.

Al Kamda General Trading senior vice president business development Andrew Dick said the UAE pipeline was “not as full as it could be”.

“We need to spread our base out of Dubai. We had a good start to 2009, but we are concerned about what will happen from Ramadan to the end of the year,” said Dick. “We come in at a late stage of hotel development, so we

Suppliers look for sales beyond Dubai

Samsung’s 450, 457 and 550 Series LCD TVs save between 50% and 60% on electricity consumption compared to older models and their mercury and lead content is “almost 60% lower”, according to Samsung Electronics manager vertical market business Sachin Somkumar.

“Hotels and consumers are demanding this [greener TVs] and it saves them money,” he said. “They also demand the latest technology and compatibility with the other products they use and we provide that, but our TVs are also a lifestyle product.”

But there is still room to push the boundaries as far as ‘green TVs’ are concerned said Somkumar, who promised that in 2010, Samsung would launch a “revolutionary” series of TVs for the hospitality industry.

Samsung Electronics currently has

Supplier Focus• News • Analysis • Innovations • Trends

Suppliers at HOTEC 2009 were building bonds with a wider selection of hotels

HOTEC ANALYSIS expect to see the effects of currently delayed projects later this year. But we are diversifying into wider territory and seeing good early results.”

Al Kamda is primarily targeting Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Abu Dhabi.

Dometic AB regional director MENA Gören Anninger said he was using HOTEC to diversify his client base: “We are still selling and the sec-ond quarter of 2009 looks good, but it is too early to know what to expect in the third quarter,” said Anninger.

Some companies, such as Cambro Manufacturing , were looking further afield to Egypt, which regional sales director Paul Micallef said was “one of the most important places in MENA”.

He said it was more profitable to build relationships with hotels on a regional level, rather than with indi-vidual properties. His aim was to get

brand approval across an entire net-work, such as the Hilton group.

More than 70 suppliers attended HOTEC 2009, meeting with nearly 60 buyers from the hotel industry.

a 35% share of the hospitality TV market in the GCC, but said it pre-dicted a big jump to 50% next year due to the contracts it had signed with new-build hotels in the region.

“We have already been successful with iconic properties in the UAE, including The Address, Atlantis, Emirates Palace and the Grand Hyatt, however, we have products to cater to the full gamut of hotel star rat-ings and our new series reflects that,” said Somkumar.

The new range has also been designed with more environmen-tally-friendly materials and consid-eration for hotels to save energy; it’s the reduced level back-light that will help hotels save up to 60% of standard power consumption, Samsung claims.

Sizes available range from 19-inch to 46-inch screen with features includ-

ing bathroom speaker output, secure remote, side HDMI port, USB cloning and Jack Pack compatibility for easy connectivity to remote devices.

Somkumar said that where possi-ble, Samsung had tried to keep prices stable compared to last year.

Kettal focused on high-end designSpanish outdoor furniture specialist Kettal has launched its latest collec-tions from internationally-renowned designers Patricia Urquiola and Marcel Wanders at a high-profile event organ-ised in association with the Spanish Embassy in Dubai.

Held at the Kettal showroom in Dubai, which opened last July, the aim was to formally introduce the venue, the company and the products to Dubai’s design community.

Kettal communications director Rosa Aznar said: “We are the number one high-end outdoor furniture com-pany in Europe and now we are intro-ducing ourselves in the Gulf region, through Dubai”.

Patricia Urquiola’s Maia collection features a hand-braided design that forms flower shapes and a unique shadowing effect.

The braided design is combined with a sturdy aluminium structure.

“This was a big jump for outdoor fur-niture. Only a few years ago, you could not imagine that outdoor furniture would look like this,” said Aznar. “Javier Mariscal, a well-known designer from Spain, has said that the Maia relaxed armchair is one of the most iconic, emblematic, chairs on the market.

The Atmosphere collection of modular furniture by Marcel Wanders consists of an aluminium and porotex chassis that is resistant to extreme weather conditions.

Aznar said: “We believe this collec-tion will be very popular in the Gulf. It is extremely weather resistant.

“It can be used in Helsinki, where it is minus 40°C, and in the Gulf, where it is plus 40°C”.

The company is also keen to for-mally introduce its ‘Kettalize it’ service to the region. This enables buyers to customise their Kettal furniture by selecting from a range of colours and fabrics and an online tool allows buy-ers to explore and implement the dif-ferent options on the Kettal website.

Samsung TVs to save hotels big bucks

Samsung showcased its TVs at The Hotel Show.

Dometic’s Göran Anniger.

SUPP

LIER

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Footfall at The Hotel Show may have been less than usual this year, but realistic exhibitors had expected exactly that. New faces and old hands alike tell Hotelier Middle East why a quieter show meant better quality business and solid partnerships for success in the future

A quiet success

Although the official visitor fig-ures for this year’s Hotel Show were not available at the time Hotelier Middle East went to

press, it is likely that they will reveal a lower level of attendance than last year. Gaps between stands were noticeably larger and there were none of the usual visitor queues at the regis-tration desks.

However, attendance is by no means the only way to judge the suc-cess of a trade fair or conference and in the case of The Hotel Show, it was more a case of quality over quantity than ever before.

Exhibitors pulled out all the stops to product exciting and enticing stands and visitors were there with

THE HOTEL SHOW REVIEW

In addition to the new companies present at this year’s event, The Hotel Show 2009 attracted the support of trusted companies that have been exhibiting since its inception.

Mühldorfer GmbH & Co. KG is one such company, said Mühldorfer CEOs Elisabeth Hintermann and Maximiliana Pangerl, explaining that the 90-year-old German duvet and pillow manufacturer has been active in the Middle East marketplace for 15 years.

While Pangerl said that the show had been quieter than usual, it had been successful for Mühldorfer because it was the “right people” in attendance looking

to form long-term partnerships.Mühldorfer, which counts Jumeirah’s

Burj Al Arab as one of its partners, was displaying its new Bio-Nature range.

This new bio-line programme is based on carefully chosen cotton qualities, which are subject to a particularly gentle process, unbleached and uncoloured. For example, only natural additives like potato starch are used to stabilise the thread and then are washed out again leaving no residue.

For more information:Email: [email protected]: www.muehldorfer.com

LOYAL SUPPORTERS

one key intention; to do business. Every moment outside of the office has to be justified these days, and the time wasters and bargain hunters that often slip in to these kinds of events were nowhere to be seen.

DMG World Media exhibition director Maggie Moore said this was fundamental to the success of The Hotel Show.

“We’ve worked hard on the qual-ity of our visitors; we rang around all the hotels and have spoken to general managers, executive assistant man-ager and executive committee mem-bers to make sure they knew about the show and that the decision makers would be here.

“We’ve always been very careful at keeping it strictly a trade show.”

And according to the suppliers Hotelier Middle East spoke to, Moore achieved exactly that.

FRESH FACESVisitor numbers to The Hotel Show may have plateaued this year, but the excitement of new exhibitors certainly hadn’t. There were many companies exhibiting for the first time, either to find distributors or gain the attention of operator delegates.

Clement service commercial export Alexandra Fantino said the company was presenting its chef uniforms, available in 14 colours, in Dubai for the first time in order to find a distrib-utor. As well as being useful for mak-ing contacts, Fantino said The Hotel Show provided valuable insights into the market in the UAE, helping the company to target it better.

The same was true for AmbiFlame director James Harris, who was dis-playing the company’s range of water resistant, affordable lights for the first time in the Middle East.

Harris said the show had gone very well, which was perhaps in part

due to the creative ‘corridor’ of light drawing visitors to the stand, which was created thanks to the support of neighboring exhibitors Biondi and Schröno, distributed in the region by Prime Project.

Biondi’s Gold Glass Mosaic, launched only two months ago, was set off by Schröno sofas with Swarovski Crystal embellishments.

Schröno sales manager — Asia Michael Kriesten said the aim had been to show customers how the com-pany’s range of luxury furniture could actually look in their hotel.

“We want to show how these sofas can be used in the high end — resi-dences, palaces, villas and hotels.”

After the show, the furniture was due to be moved to Schröno’s new Dubai-based showroom in Garhoud, set to launch this month.

Kriesten said the show had been very worthwhile, with meetings with turnkey suppliers such as interior fit-out companies and hotel groups such as Ramada and Crowne Plaza.

“Turnkey suppliers are a good dis-tribution method for us, many people don’t want to deal with the middle man,” he said.

One new entrant looking to offer this sort of service to hotels was Texlynx, a hotel and retail supplier which has just opened a Dubai office offering bathrobes, slippers, kitchen

AmbiFlame.

AmbiFlame director James Harris.

Elisabeth Hintermann and Maximiliana Pangerl.

71

equipment, towels, sheets and more.Texlynx president Imran Lateef says the company’s USP is its partnership with worldwide brands that mean it will be able to offer Middle Eastern hoteliers new ideas coupled with the fact it manufactures continuously round the year, so customers won’t have to wait long for products.

Lateef’s personal understanding of the products means his advice will also be valuable to hoteliers.

“I have previously worked in the mills; when I meet a procurement company or hotel I will know what they are looking for and also know what will not suit them,” he said.

“Our focus is region-wide, after the UAE my next target market is Qatar then KSA, then the smaller pockets in between,” revealed Lateef.

Not only was Technogym the only exhibitor in the health and fitness category at The Hotel Show, the company also stood out thanks to its innovative stand, which displayed a luxury hotel wellness suite.

In a world-first for the wellness specialist, half of its exhibition space was dedicated towards presenting its equipment as it could be used within a hotel suite, including Kinesis Personal.

Technogym managing director Christian Dietrich said: “We wanted to show hoteliers they need 8m² up to 16m² to offer wellness in a suite”.

The company’s export area manager Middle East & India Michele Moro added: “It’s a money maker. Behind the set-up and design there are at least four business ways to increase revenue.”Moro described these as follows:1. People pay a certain price for a suite and they will pay a little more for a wellness suite.

2. With Kinesis in the suite for VIPs, it makes it easier to sell personal training (PT) — the tool is already there.3. After their PT session, the guest can enjoy a sports massage.4. And to complete the wellness experience, the hotel can also offer the guest a wellness meal.

The concept of the wellness suite was also important in meeting the needs of those guests that were short of time and those that desired privacy, added Moro.

“We are educating hoteliers not just how to use the equipment but in how to make money out of the wellness suite,” explained Moro.

Technogym also launched its Vario CV machine and was focused on educating visitors as to the business and health benefits of its FLEXability range.

For more information: Email: [email protected]:www.technogym.com

WORLD FIRST FOR TECHNOGYM

KEEPING UP APPEARANCESExhibiting at this year’s Hotel Show was not just a useful business strategy for new entrants; many existing and well-established companies said it was vital they maintained a presence at the event.

According to Baal Artisans man-aging director Khajak Krikorian, the show sets the benchmark for the hos-pitality industry.

“I wasn’t expecting big crowds this year but we had to be at the show. Even if next year there are less people, we will still be here,” said Krikorian.

Albert Douglas of wood flooring manufacturer Alomi, which has been exhibiting at The Hotel Show for five years, said that it was important to exhibit again to demonstrate the com-pany’s solid position in the market.

“The point of being at the show is to renew existing ties and let people know we’re still firmly here. We will look for business opportunities for when the liquidity returns,” he said.

“It’s not so much a busy show; it’s more about quality,” added Douglas.

Amancorp commercial director Michael Cunningham said the show had been quiet but good.

“It’s about making contacts with good quality people. I think it’s been good because we are niche; it makes a difference,” he said.

Zat managing director Wisam Kas-aji agreed, explaining that although the show had not been as crowded it had attracted good quality and dedi-cated people.

Left to right: Biondi GM Fadil Kicin and Schröno’s Michael Kriesten at their sparkling Hotel Show stands.

He added that the company, a turn-key hotel supplier, hadn’t felt any impact of the economic downturn and was continuing to work with four- and five-star hotels.

Kuwait-based FDC International president Elie Assamad said he thought the show was perfect for the current climate, which he believes has given people more time to research their business and develop their understanding of the industry.

“You have to take more time to develop and explain and demonstrate your products and services to the cli-ent, so that they can make the right choice,” said Assamad.

After the show, he said he expected to see demand for five-star, high-tech finishings at a four-star price and would be working to ensure that FDC International could meet this next generation of demand.

“A lot of the developers are young,” explained Assamad, “so you have to build a new circle of those existing in the market place.”

He concluded: “I’m very positive that we are out of the negative period and think we are on the take-off now. People are starting to make decisions again. From my last 30 years’ experi-ence, recessions don’t last long here. We’re still healthy and doing well. HMEHME

Texlynx president Imran Lateef at the show.

www.hoteliermiddleeast.com Hotelier Middle East • June 2009

SUPPLIERS

Technogym managing director Christian Dietrich.

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Megaman began in 1994 as a manufacturer of en-ergy-saving lamps and over the years its de-

votion to R&D efforts has set the company up as a successful global leader in design, manufacturing and distribution.

In addition to compact fluores-cent lamps (CFL), the company has developed a new series of energy-saving products with light emitting diode (LED) technology, which

offers a total eco-lighting solution to clients.

In the UAE, big names such as Jumeirah Group, Dubai Air-ports and Jebel Ali Resort all use Megaman technology.

Outside the UAE, Megaman sells to more than 80 countries. Europe remains the prime market, with Megaman in the top three brands in the DIY market.

Megaman brand executive Gladys Ho explains that the envi-ronmental goals of most large hotels place a heavy emphasis on energy-saving lighting.

With terms such as “eco-friendly” and “energy-saving” playing on the minds of hoteliers worldwide, Megaman aims to provide lighting solutions that tick all the right ‘green’ boxes

Megaman has mega plans

“Many big hotel chains are now constantly trying to one-up each other with smart eco-lighting design upgrades for the initiatives of lever-aging their green images and reduc-ing operating costs, without com-promising on lighting quality,” says Ho. “The hotel industry is a pioneer in adopting new technology and new products to accommodate their unique energy and aesthetic needs.”

GIVE CFL A CHANCE“One of the main challenges for our company is the limited market acceptance of CFL, due to consum-ers’ past experience and negative impression of CFL that is gained from low cost and poor quality products,” says Ho. “As energy-saving lamp technology is advanc-ing, CFL now possesses different features and can perform different lighting effects, suitable for most of the lighting designs.

“We have to educate our custom-ers about how to compare the prod-

uct quality and select those that are high quality and also fulfil interna-tional standards.”

“Driven by the initiative of offer-ing the total eco-lighting solution to consumers, Megaman will continu-ously revolutionise both the design and technology of energy-sav-ing lamps using LED technology, offering LED lamps with various lighting features such as dimmable capacity in the upcoming future,” says Ho. HMEHME

COMPANY PROFILE

COMPANY INFOCOMPANY NAME: MEGAMAN Energy Saving LampsESTABLISHED: 1994HEAD OFFICE: Neonlite Electronic & Lighting (HK) Ltd (Hong Kong)USPS: Energy efficient lighting solution — CFL and Integral LED lampsTELEPHONE: +852 2305 1722EMAIL: [email protected]: www.megaman.cc

KEY PRODUCT TRENDS1. LED LIGHTING TECHNOLOGYThe newly launched Megaman LED Reflector Lamps, using patented Thermal Conductive Highway (TCH) technology, possess a rated life of 20,000 hours and energy savings of up to 80%. The average cost of ownership shows a payback in under 4000 hours’ operation or six months.

2. CFL WITH VARIOUS FEATURESMegaman has a complete range of dimmable lamps, Dimmerable Lamps and DorS Dimming Lamps, which support linear dimming and step dimming respectively. Megaman Energy Saving reflector lamps come in various forms including CFL GU10, CFL GX53, CFL AR111 and PAR reflector lamps and different wattages ranging from

7W to 23W, offering an eco-replacement for halogen or incandescent reflectors from 20W to 150W. They produce intense illumination which is useful for highlighting and emphasising certain items or areas, making them especially suitable for shops, restaurants, galleries, museums, or any other areas where intense lighting is required.

3. ECO-FRIENDLY PRODUCTSMegaman Energy Saving Lamps comply with the European RoHS Directive which controls the use of hazardous materials for electronic devices and equipments. The lamps are liquid mercury free and are made from the “finest and greenest” ingredients including water-based adhesive, lead-free glass tubes and recyclable plastic.

MEGAMAN WILL CONTINUOUSLY REVOLUTIONISE BOTH THE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY OF ENERGY-SAVING LAMPS USING LED TECHNOLOGY

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Hyatt Regency boasts an impressive repeat visitor rate — 55% of the hotel’s guests are regulars.

Many of these regulars are business travellers who choose Hyatt Regency for its dedicated ex-ecutive lounge facilities, according to Hyatt Regency Club manager Marshneil Bhardwaj.

The Regency Club offers a full service to customers staying in rooms on the club floors (15-18) and in suites (floors 18-21).

Customers can book hotel rooms, check in and check out, utilise con-cierge services and arrange private conferences or meetings directly through the club reception.

“The Hyatt Regency Club con-cept is to create a hotel within a hotel,” says Bhardwaj.

“Our regency club guests are dis-cerning travellers who are looking for personalised service in an el-egant setting.

“Our staff offer guests one-on-one services and provide a home away from home,” she says.

The Regency Club offers break-fast, cocktail, tea and coffee ser-vices; wireless internet; boardroom use; private conference organisa-tion and catering; a business cen-tre; and secretarial services.

In 2004 the club was refurbished, along with the rest of the Hyatt Re-gency property.

“Before the 2004 refurbishment, we had a two-storey club lounge, which included a small library, a boardroom and television room upstairs; a smaller buffet; and sofa seating,” explains Bhardwaj.

She says the new design has added space to the facility. A major selling point is that it encourages interaction between the guests, rather than splitting them up into a range of small rooms. HMEHME

Club classHyatt Regency Deira has built a loyal client base of business travellers over its 27-year history. Hyatt Regency Club manager Marshneil Bhardwaj and Sala Interiors general manager Nadeem Khan take a walk through the latest incarnation of the business lounge

Khan: “These are designed to conceal all equipment and accessories other than screen and key board for clean surfaces.”

COMPUTER STATIONS

FITTED OUT

Khan: “The teak wood travertine marble wall exhibits a striking and inviting presence and serves as a wonderful backdrop for large LCD TVs.”

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JOINERY, FIT-OUT, FURNITUREAjman KoreaWeb: www.ajmankorea.comLeaders Furniture: Web: www.leadersfurniture.com

MUSIC & HOME THEATRE VV & Sons: www.vvsons.com

LIGHTS Gulf Lights: +974 469 9683

IRONMONGERY Häfele: www.hafele.ae

MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL AND PLUMBING Penguin Engineering: Web: www.penguindubai.com

SANITARY FITTINGS Sanipex: www.sanipexdubai.com

CARPET Al Aqili Furnishings Web: www.aqili.com

INTERNAL NON-NEON LIGHTS Emirates Neon Web: www.emiratesneon.com

KITCHEN EQUIPMENT Technical Supplies & Services Web: www.tsscuae.com BetterlifeWeb: www.betterlifeuae.com

Salah Interiors was the driving force behind Hyatt Regency’s 2004 refurbishment. Salah Interiors offers project management; architecture; interior design; quality control and site engineering. The company has a furniture unit and an in-house curtain, carpet, wall covering, furniture, upholstery, kitchen and lighting division.

Other clients have included Ritz-Carlton, InterContinental, Golden Tulip, Sheraton, Kempinski and One&Only Royal Mirage.

KEY PARTNER

KEY SUPPLIERS

Khan: “An elegant, contemporary, executive look, creating high level comfort standards for business and lounging.”

TABLE & CHAIRSKhan: “This adds to the elegance of the mood and sophistication of the environment in a very subtle manner.”

ART/PHOTOGRAPHY

BUFFET/COFFEE STATION

Khan: “This is custom designed and built, well positioned and easy to use and sift through.”

BOOKSHELF

Khan: “Surely one of the largest reception tables in any lounge. Sleek and elegant in design equipped with Walter Knoll Furniture.”

RECEPTION DESK

CONTACT:Tel: +971 4 340 0658Fax: +971 4 340 5985Email: [email protected]: www.salahinteriors.ae

Khan: “The central feature of the Regency Club Lounge, housing wine at three different temperatures, cold salad counter, coffee machine, cup warmers, beverage coolers and condiments. It contains and provides all you can think of at the highest level of hospitality.”

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Current exchange rates are leading Middle Eastern hote-liers to look abroad in order to get the best deals for their

supplies. While there-in lies the ob-vious challenge of doing deals with companies based overseas, the pros-pect of getting more for your dirham is not one to be sniffed at.

The UK specifically is a supplier stronghold offering a variety of goods to meet the needs of all types of hotels and all manner of services. Not only are British goods cheaper than they were a year ago, but with markets slowing elsewhere and growth still forecast for the Middle East, some companies in the UK are keen to get your business. Here, Hotelier Middle East gets the low-down from nine sup-pliers and reveals their USPs, how they are approaching the Middle East market and the latest deals that have been signed.

VALUE FOR MONEYAccording to Steelite International Plc export sales manager David Tab-bernor, who works with Dubai-based A. Ronai to distribute Steelite’s range of table-top solutions to the region’s hotels, there are several ways hoteliers can benefit from the UK market.

“UK suppliers have a long-estab-lished reputation in the Middle East for quality products, value for money — particularly based on current exchange rates — and reliable deliv-

ery, coupled with product innova-tion, local support through a distribu-tor network and regular visits to the region by factory personnel,” says Tabbernor. Likewise, the Middle East offers a great marketplace for suppli-ers, he continues.

“The Middle East represents a major market of opportunity for sup-pliers, even taking into account the recent fall in the number of new proj-ects going ahead in the shorter term.

“It is important for suppliers to develop lasting long-term relation-ships with the main players in the industry and capitalise on the reputa-tion we have established.”

Food and beverage stone grill spe-cialist Black Rock Grill Ltd manag-ing director Peter Hatter agrees: “The US dollar versus British pound make goods and services much more afford-able and tremendous value for money.

“Black Rock Grill has found the GCC to be at the leading edge in terms of state of the art food and beverage concepts. There is ongoing develop-ment of hotels, restaurants, retail and leisure markets in all GCC states and we want to be part of that. Plus, it’s a great place to be seen as the visitor numbers are impressive with visitors from countries across the globe,” con-tinues Hatter.

Value-for-money aside, Churchill China export business development manager Glenn Ewart says that the benefits of the UK market “come down to reliability and quality”.

“Choosing a UK hospitality supply company ensures that they are backed

Hotelier Middle East highlights some of the best hotel suppliers based in the UK and finds out how and why these companies can assist the Middle East hospitality sector

MADE IN THE UK

UK MARKET

by the highest quality. For example Churchill manufactures to the high-est industry quality standards such as ISO 9001, BS 4034, and BS 12875 and therefore the hotelier is assured of quality supply chain and quality prod-uct,” says Ewart.

“Sanitisation and hygiene stan-dards are constantly being upgraded so equipment is right at the cutting edge,” adds Hatter.

Skopos Design Middle East sales manager Roberto Granda, who sup-plies fabrics to properties including Yas Island Rotana in Abu Dhabi, Crowne Plaza Minhal in KSA and Holiday Inn Express in Garhoud, Dubai, says that UK suppliers can help to regulate newer markets in which standards are not clearly defined.

“UK standards are among the strict-est in the world and in a market where standards are currently hazy, Skopos supplies products to the Middle East meeting strict UK specifications to ensure that high quality installations are achieved, with product highly durable and guaranteed to last aes-

thetically and technically over and above that of some other suppliers,” asserts Granda.

For Northmace & Hendon man-aging director Mike Plaut, the UK’s USP in terms of hospitality products is that they are design-focused, which he says matches the trend for “hotels to jump a generation and become attractive and personal”.

Plaut says: “The UK hospitality supply market leads the world at the moment. It is design-led and interna-tional in outlook.

“There is a concentration of tal-

Black Rock Grill.

Andy Thornton Ltd.

Churchill China plc.

INTERNATIONAL SUPPLIERS77


ent and companies and this leads to a really vibrant and exciting industry”.

ROOM FOR GROWTHThis design-focus is of particular sig-nificance for companies such as Andy Thornton Ltd, an interior fit-out spe-cialist, for which the Middle East market appeals because of the “huge demand for high-end hotel furniture” and constant development of new hotels. Managing director Peter Sid-dall says UK suppliers have “a limited home market and hence export to sup-plement this business”.

“We intend to develop our relation-ship with interior design practices and architects in the UAE. We believe there will be opportunities for growth in the hospitality sector in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

“We hope to formalise an agree-ment with a Bahrain-based design company to generate hotel refurbish-ment work throughout the Middle East. Although we are experiencing a slowdown in sales and enquiries from Dubai, we still expect there to be a sub-stantial market in the future.”

The UK market, where Andy Thornton does 56% of its business, has actually been fairly resilient despite the global recession, says Siddall, although “room occupancy rates have dropped in recent weeks so owners may start to hold back on investment”.

“However, Britain is expecting a bumper domestic holiday season in the summer as cash-strapped UK residents have decided to holiday at home this year. Business is definitely down but not as much as we had expected,” he says.

Churchill’s Ewart says that the UK market has not plateaued recently but instead changed over the last 10 years, “with a move to push the two- and three-star market out, replace with

budget brands such as Premier Inn and Travelodge, and drive the stan-dards of four-star up”.

“The main challenge is getting consumers that are non-residents to come in and eat in hotel restaurants and keep residents in the property, as the high street is very diverse and competitive. Business is tough in all markets — you rely on giving the best service, best price and best quality; it is a formula that wins but it is one that we constantly challenge ourselves on to deliver,” adds Ewart.

This familiarity of UK suppliers with trends that are only emerging in the Middle East could be useful to the region’s hoteliers.

For example, Skopos Design is pre-paring to target the growing KSA mar-ket and the trend for economy hotels — perhaps the two main growth areas highlighted at recent industry events Arabian Travel Market and the Ara-bian Hotel Investment Conference.

Granda says: “As a market we must highlight KSA’s continued invest-ment in the development of a long hotel network across the country. Generally speaking, the current eco-nomic situation has accelerated the development of a previously non-exis-tent network of budget hotels across the GCC”.

DISTRIBUTION CHALLENGESMorton Commercial Parasols man-aging director Richard Morton is another supplier that sees good pros-pects for business in the region.

Currently making use of the inter-net and some advertising to target the market, Morton says the main challenge in distributing products is awareness of the range.

It is for this reason that several com-panies, such as Black Rock Grill and

Andy Thornton, are looking to establish agreements with pro-

UK SUPPLIERS HAVE A LONG-ESTABLISHED REPUTATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOR QUALITY PRODUCTS, VALUE FOR MONEY — PARTICULARLY BASED ON CURRENT EX-CHANGE RATES — AND RELIABLE DELIVERY

Morton Commercial Parasols.

Dudson Ltd.

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IF UK COMPANIES BELIEVE THEY CAN TAKE A UK BUSINESS MODEL, DROP IT IN HERE, FLY OUT ONCE A YEAR, SHAKE HANDS AND SIGN A DEAL, THEY WILL NEVER DO WELL

SUPPLIER SHOPPING LIST:Company: Andy Thornton Ltd For: Interior fit out; furniture, lighting and accessoriesRecent projects: Crown & Lion Pub, Byblos Hotel, Dubai; Regent Place Hotel, DubaiTel: +44 1422 376000 Email: [email protected] Web: www.andythornton.com

Company: Black Rock Grill LtdFor: Stone grill cooking conceptRecent projects: Steakhouse restaurant chain, KSATel: +44 1256 359858Email: [email protected]: www.blackrockgrill.com

Company name: Churchill China plc For: Tableware and stemwareRecent projects: Mövenpick Hotel Doha; Bonnington Dubai; Staybridge Suites Abu DhabiTel: +44 7974 919548 Email: [email protected] Web: www.churchillchina.com

Company: Dudson LtdFor: Ceramic tablewareRecent projects: Rotana Makkah, KSA; Radisson, Yas Island; Sheraton, Kuwait.Tel: +44 1782 819337Email: [email protected]: www.dudson.com

Company: Morton Commercial ParasolsFor: Parasol shade solutions

Tel: +44 1452 371 669Email: [email protected]: www.mortonparasols.com

Company: Northmace & Hendon For: Ironing centres and welcome traysTel: +44 29 2081 5200 Email: [email protected] Web: www.northmace.com

Company: Steelite International plc For: Tableware, metalware and table-top solutionsRecent projects: Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi; Holiday Inn Dead Sea; five properties on Yas Island: Radisson Blu, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites, Rotana and CentroTel: +44 1782 821000 Email: [email protected] Web: www.steelite.com

Company: Skopos DesignFor: Drapery and upholsteryRecent projects: Rotana, Yas Island; Crowne Plaza Minhal, KSA; Holiday Inn Express, Garhoud in DubaiTel: + 44 1924 465 191 / +971 50 257 3392Email: [email protected]: www.skoposdesignltd.com

Company: Sysco Guest SupplyFor: In-room amenities including toilet-ries, slippers and towelsTel: +44 118 981 7377Email: [email protected]: www.guestsupply.co.uk

active distributors or other partners in the region. Andy Thornton’s Sid-dall says: “We always have to compete with cheap imports from India and the Far East though we can usually compete when quality is paramount. We have limited representation in the Middle East and do not have a show-room so cannot service the specifiers as well as we would like.

“There is also the logistical problem of shipping orders from the UK, though this is not too much of a concern when the order is large enough and the client can order in time for a sea-freight shipment to be arranged.”

Dudson Ltd, a supplier of ceramic tableware founded in 1800, already has a dedicated export sales manager

for the region — Sharon Black — and a local distributor based in Dubai, Haif Hospitality.

“We also actively take part in regional trade shows and have recently become a corporate mem-ber of the Culinary Guild of Chefs in Dubai,” says Black.

“The main challenge for our busi-ness is ensuring strong working rela-tionships are continued with our distributor although we mainly work remotely. To ensure we combat this we have regular contact and a very open working relationship,” she adds.

Sysco Guest Supply Europe man-aging director Ken Wharton, also VP international operations for the par-ent company, says that recent addi-tions to its in-room amenities portfo-lio — including new toiletry ranges from Bulgari and Crabtree and Evelyn — “may provide the impe-tus to look at expanding the way we currently operate in this incredibly important market”.

Sysco mainly targets the Middle East through direct marketing and then distributes through its world-wide distribution partner Kuehne

Northmace & Hendon.

Steelite International plc.

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Nagel via its new purpose-built ware-house in Dubai.

“We ensure that there is always suf-ficient stock on hand to enable us to deliver to our hotel partners within days rather than them having to com-mit to the more traditional “over large” orders that get delivered many weeks later,” says Wharton.

He adds: “We think that prospects for the Middle East for Guest Supply are excellent.

“We have launch plans in hand for some wonderful product ranges — some specifically geared to the Middle East and in line with this, our activity in the region is set to increase further”.

Meanwhile, Skopos Design has its own office in Dubai.

“Using Dubai as a hub we target the whole of the GCC,” says Granda.

“The office is run by a Skopos employee rather than a distance dis-tributor; this enables us to directly dis-pense more than 30 years of experience and expertise into a growing market.

“Customers receive the benefits of full knowledge and technical capabili-

ties of dealing directly with Skopos but from their own desks and offices.

“This links back to the UK office and thus the distribution is slick.”

QUALITY AND CULTURENorthmace & Hendon’s Plaut picks up on Siddall’s earlier point that it is important to ensure customers are focused on quality.

“Like all markets, the biggest chal-lenge during the current downturn is getting customers to focus on the long term and not cut corners by buying cheap non-professional products that will need replacing within the short term,” says Plaut.

This is something that is also on the wish-list for Ewart at Churchill.

“Our company has been working in the region for more than 10 years and targets it via a network of partner dis-tributors that are all true drivers of our brand in the Middle East,” says Ewart.

“Challenges come in many forms and it is from many areas — I see many new and untried companies coming into the market who offer low

cost alternatives, but there is a balance between cost versus quality.

“For me, quality should always be high on the wish list and competitive-ness should then follow, not cost first and quality last,” says Ewart.

“It is a false economy to buy table-ware that breaks and chips easily and you have to replace four times a year, against a quality product that may be more expensive but only needs to be replaced annually,” he continues.

“The secret is to adapt to what is needed culturally and business-wise in the region — companies need to lis-ten and need to be here regularly.

“If UK companies believe they can take a UK business model, drop it in here, fly out here once a year, shake hands and then sign a deal, they will never do well,” he continues.

“This is a long-term commitment, and they need to listen — no one here needs nor wants lessons — they can teach us a few things! Just look around at the properties and developments; there are lessons for all of us here,” Ewart concludes. HMEHME

Sysco Guest Supply Europe.

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Outdoor furniture suppliers share their top tips and first-hand insight into the latest industry trends

Take it outside

For more information about Hotelier Middle East suppliers contact [email protected] or +971 4 435 6272. For distributor details see page 92.

BIOTZANow is the time for mid-market products to break into the Middle East, according to Biotza import/export manager Danelis Michael.

“There is a general trend towards more economical products,” he says.

“Our product is low maintenance, low cost and the fabrics can be changed.”

Specialising in sun loungers and umbrellas, Michael says there is a misconception that metal frames are not suitable for the Middle East’s warm climate.

“It is difficult to bring metal products into the Middle East market — many people are afraid of the heat and its effect on the metal,” he says.

“However, wood products need treatment and often deteriorate; metal could be a good solution for the Arab world.”

Hawaii ThaiTel: +66 2376 0100 3Web: www.hawaiithai.com

HAWAII THAIHawaii Thai managing director Vichai Viphavaphanich says that in the past year, he has seen a shift towards modern style, with clean lines and uncomplicated design.

Natural-looking textures such as weaving are also in vogue; Hawaii Thai offers synthetic rattan furniture with a polyester coating and aluminum frame.

To make the most out of outdoor spaces in your hotel, Viphavaphanich suggests using statement pieces to break up the landscape.

“Big eye-catching pieces really stand out in a big space, which perhaps benefits many sun lounges that otherwise all look the same,” he says.

White is back, according to Grosfillex director of operations Olivier Le Levreur. “There was a change in the market a while ago where no one wanted white products, but as with all

design cycles, we see a trend coming back for white,” he says.Storage solutions remain high on the list of priorities for most customers, says Le Levreur, with

Grosfillex’s foldable tables in strong demand. “This table design is two years old, but it is very popular and still feels quite new to the market,” he says.

Nature CornerWeb: www.naturecorner.com

NATURE CORNER CO LTDSynthetic rattan manufacturing company, Nature Corner, operates according to a “relaxed, casual” philosophy that focuses on providing “something different” in both colour and texture.

While the majority of the company’s products reflect shades found in the natural world, there is also a range of brightly coloured modern designs on offer.

GrosfillexTel: +33 4 74 73 30 53Web: www.grosfillex.comGROSFILLEX

PEOPLE ARE LEANING TOWARDS CONTEMPORARY DESIGN WITH PLENTY OF STRAIGHT LINES

BiotzaTel: +30 28310 22412Web: www.biotza.gr

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Ploss & Co Tel: +49 40 5371 610Web: www.ploss.com

PLOSS & CO

Ploss & Co national sales manager USA Nicki Lind Nevad says that “people are leaning towards contemporary design with plenty of straight lines; old fashioned design is really on its way out”.

Simplicity and function are the two key concepts to take note of, he says. Ploss & Co has cornered both sides of the market by providing a range that caters to the widest needs possible.

“Poly-wicker products are easy to clean, they withstand UV and can be hosed down,” he says. “Teak is more like an expensive good red wine — we have our teak customers who appreciate the

beauty of natural wood.”

GervasoniTel: +39 0432 656611Web: www.gervasoni1882.com

GERVASONI

Gervasoni CEO Giovanni Gervasoni maintains that “real quality always lasts longer” than cheaper alternatives. Gervasoni uses a combination of materials including teak, ceramics, aluminum and fabrics to create stylish outdoor furniture for hotels and resorts.

Gervesoni’s top suggestion is to integrate styles from the outset: “Hoteliers should get a good architect to specify good furniture to match their own design”.

“They shouldn’t be too obvious — it should be driven by subtlety and quality. We do lots of business with custom-made products and we can change the design to suit the product.”

Maintenance is only as high as you make it, according to Gloster CEO Anders Norgaard.“Many hotel clients don’t want materials such as teak or glass because of the perception of high

maintenance and constant fingerprint marks,” he says.“However, teak is only high maintenance when you make it that way — when you put oils on it. If you leave

it in its natural state teak is not difficult to maintain.”To solve the fingerprint issue, Gloster has manufactured a ceramic/glass product that not only repels

fingerprints, but is also unaffected by surface corrosion and cannot be scratched. The company also has lighter-weight teak products, such as stackable sun lounges, which are popular

with hotels and hospitality outlets.

Nakkash GalleryTel: +971 4 282 6767Email: [email protected]: www.nakkashgallery.com

DEDONThe new Special Edition D.D.C. (DEDON Dress Code) includes four classic fashion patterns that have been reinterpreted for the DEDON slim line collection by Jean-Marie Massaud.

The results of this “excursion through the world of fashion” are the four designs Edinburgh, Cambon, Oslo and Marseille. The collection is described as “Vivienne Westwood meets Pablo Picasso and Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s with typical Hollywood extravagance and glamour”.

GlosterTel: +65 626 56 222Web: www.gloster.com

GLOSTER

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Get your hotel rooms and public areas right from the ground up with these flooring products

Product guide: flooring


CENTIVAFlooring design and manufacturing company Centiva has launched two new ranges — Stria and World Options.

Striva is made with 51% recycled content and comes in eight colours. World Options incorporates international designs and influences into a collection designed for use “anywhere on the globe”.

ARTIGOArtigo designs and manufactures high-performance rubber flooring. Rub-ber has unique stress-resistant characteristics and is able to maintain its elasticity over time. Artigo began a research and development path in the 1920s within the Pireli group and continues to innovate. Ebony is one of three new collections by Artigo.

ArtigoTel: +39 0290786415Web: www.artigo.com

Centiva (c/o Al Nabooda)Tel: +971 4 3407778Fax: +971 4 3417076Email: [email protected]: www.centiva.com

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CARPETS INTERNATIONALThe Axminster Collection by Carpets International is designed to show how humans can explore and imitate the relationship be-tween design and nature.

The company believes that “what nature offers to the fullest extent, with-out imposing limitations or design constraints, creates a balanced and self-renew-ing environment”.

Carpets International ThailandTel: +66 2314 5402Fax: +66 2318 3537Web: www.carpetsinter.com

DESSOThe cradle to cradle philoso-phy — which focuses on reus-ing a product’s raw materials — is an essential part of pro-duction for Desso. This line of thought was developed by the German chemist Michael Braungart. The essence is that products are developed with the underlying thought that they can also be taken apart again. According to the philosophy, the loose parts subsequently need to be able to be used as raw materials for new products, without losing any of their value.


VIFLOOR NON WOVENS BVVifloor is a Dutch-based manufacturer of needlepunch carpets and matting for the household and contract markets.

The production facility has the latest technology in blending, carding, nee-dling and finishing.

Vifloor Non-Wovens B.V.Tel: +31 38 4778181 Web: www.vifloor.nl

DessoTel: +31 416 684 100Fax: +31 416 335 955 Web: www.desso.com

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HOTEC Middle East 2010 is now open for bookings! HOTEC Middle East 2010 offers a unique and focused format of face-to-face meetings between senior decision makers of the leading Middle Eastern hotel chains and high-qualitysuppliers to the industry.

BUYERS:As a buyer, there are immense benefits from the time-efficient format. Over two days of face-to-face business meetings, you can meet a diverse selection of leading suppliers and learn about the latest innovations, thus allowing you to remain up to date with product innovations and strengthen yoursupplier relationships.

Upon application, your attendance to HOTEC Middle East 2010 is complimentary, so please contact Debbie Wilson for more information:

Debbie WilsonEmail: [email protected]: +44 7787 404 140

Announcing the next HOTEC Middle EastThe Original Hospitality Industry Meeting Forums

Please contact Philip Denning for more information:Philip DenningEmail: [email protected]: +356 7743 4501

Middle EastHOTEC10

7-10th May 2010 SUPPLIERS:As a supplier, the benefits of attending HOTEC Middle East 2010 are substantial, as you are guaranteed one-to-one meetings with leading hotel chains from across the region. The event offers you a unique opportunity to build personal relationships with key purchasing decision makers, thus allowing you to expand and strengthen your customer base.

Book your place at HOTEC Middle East 2010 by 17th July 2009 to benefit from a full 10% discount.

www.hotecme.com

PRODUCTS



EGE Sense by ege is a multifunctional col-lection offering trendy design possibil-ities ranging from organic and wavy lines to stringent and linear designs. Using the five senses: hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch as its source of inspiration, the collection attempts to capture the peaceful tranquility of nature while adding style, comfort and expression to the interior.

The range offers five designs in contemporary colours, recolouring options and six standard qualities from 750 – 1400 g/m².

ege carpets middle east Tel: +971 4 375 6490 Email: [email protected]

YALDARugs from the 2009 Prime Signature collection are carefully tufted by hand. The use of contour cutting gives the patterns plasticity and various yarn effects and high-low structures lend the rugs an individual 3D look.

The acrylic yarn ‘Espirelle’, spun at high revolution, is very hard wearing and gives the product a soft feel.

YaldaTel: +971 4 3413484Fax:+971 4 3413483E-mail: [email protected]: www.yalda.ae

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PROD

UCTS


Each month Hotelier Middle East showcases a selection of the newest products to hit the market

Products: pick of the month


WANZL MIDDLE EASTHotel Max handmade basket with small item box is made out of high-tech plastic, suitable for use with food. It is resistant to UV light and water. The basket can be transported on the Carry Max Trolley.

Also from Wanzl is a new range of chambermaid trolleys — available in three sizes with three different wood finishes.

The premium chambermaid trolley features a lockable lid, removable compartments, anti-slip mats and a top box accessory.

TECHNOGYMRun Personal is a new treadmill from Technogym that combines fitness technology with design by Antonio Citterio and Toan Nguyen.

The Run Personal system includes an iPhone/iPod connection; USB media port; IPTV; training games for mind and body; and a range of Guide Me software applications.

TechnogymTel: +971 4 337 5337Email: [email protected]: www.technogym.com

BRAVILOR The portable stainless steel Ad-vanta Thermos coffee contain-er, now available from Bravilor Bonamat, holds two litres of coffee that can be dispensed straight from the Bravilor TH and Tha coffee machines into the special brew-through lid of the container.

The contents is kept hot in a double-walled vacuum inner container that helps to retain the quality of the coffee as well as its temperature, and the level can be viewed through a glass gauge.

The container measures 174mm x 206mm x 335mm.

Bravilor Ltd.Tel: +44 1628 776060Web: www.bravilor.co.uk

LEE BROOMIn his exclusive 2008/9 collection entitled Rough Diamond, designer Lee Broom transforms vin-tage furniture in its original condition into design art, using light. One piece from this col-lection is the Club Chair, a chesterfield armchair that has been trans-formed with fairground light bulbs. All of Lee’s pieces are limited edi-tions and are identified as such with a numbered plaque. A letter of au-thentication is also given with each piece, person-alised by the designer.

Lee BroomTel: +44 20 7820 0742Web: www.leebroom.com

Wanzl Middle EastTel: +971 4 341 8555Fax: +971 4 341 9595Email: [email protected]: www.wanzl.ae

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PRODUCTS



VALERAValera has a range of ice cream serving and display models, including the stan-dard IC stainless steel range with sliding glass lids and heat-reflecting glass; the ICE 2V, which is a counter top display that can be used for wrapped prod-ucts or fitted with two optional stainless steel ice cream pans; the Slant Ice ice cream conservator with sliding glass lid and hygienic canopy, displaying up to nine flavours under sloping lids; the Top 6 and Top 7, featuring a static re-frigeration auto defrost function, fan cooled condenser plus refrigerated under storage; or the versatile Slant J510 LT display freezer.

Valera Ltd.Tel: +44 01708 869593Web: www.valera.co.uk

DORNBRACHTDornbracht has released its first water units designed especially for the kitchen. The collection comprises single and double units, developed in co-operation with a Canadian manufacturer.All units are handmade from stainless steel and have been designed as base and inset basins to fit flush with adjacent areas. Different configurations are recommended for preparing, cleaning, cooking and drinking.

Dornbracht International HoldingTel: +971 4 3350731Fax: +971 4 3350741Email: [email protected]: www.dornbracht.com

SERRALUNGA“Toy” is an occasional table designed by Christophe Pillet for the Ser-ralunga 2009 collection. The cross-over of the structure’s three poly-ethylene legs is designed to create a harmonious symmetry, completed by the tempered glass tabletop, which is held in place by three suction pads. The tabletop diameter is 80cm and the table stands 48cm tall. A lacquered version is also available.

GC InternationalTel: +971 509458939 Email: [email protected] / [email protected]: www.serralunga.com

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Potential hotel guests are increasingly researching online and making decisions based on technology features, according to a recent Reuters Synovate survey.

Nearly one third of the 6300 people surveyed across 10 countries said that the number one way they assess a hotel is via its website, with nearly half doing online research and comparisons before making a decision.

The Hotel Show exhibi-tion director Maggie Moore said the survey proved that “plugged-in hotels are likely to get more guests checking in”.

“The survey showed 47% of travellers now make sure a hotel caters to their tech-nology needs before they book,” said Moore.

Moore warned that charg-ing guests to use the internet was fast becoming an out-dated practice: “It is clearly no longer recommended for hotels to make wireless inter-net an added cost feature.”

“Business and leisure trav-ellers expect to be connected at all times just as they are in their offices and homes.”

Emaar Hospitality Group CEO Marc Dardenne com-mented just last month dur-ing a panel session at Ara-bian Travel Market that he “still can’t believe that some hotels are charging travel-lers for internet”.

Dardenne said that inter-net should be available for free, regardless of whether a property catered to the busi-ness or leisure market.

Banyan Tree Al Wadi gen-eral manager Pascal Eppink agreed, explaining that the Al Wadi desert resort in Ras Al Khaimah, a luxury, inti-mate retreat due to open after the summer, would offer wireless internet free of charge.

“It’s a brand stan-dard; people expect it from us,” he said.

Globally, the sur-vey found that 19%

of respondents used online tools to research every hotel in their intended destination to make an informed choice.

In the UAE, this figure rose to 39%, with a further 10% of UAE respondents also visit-ing online blogs for first-hand insight on various properties.

The Reuters Synovate survey was conducted online, via telephone and by face-to-face interview across 10 countries.

Traveller survey puts tech on top• News • Analysis • Innovations • Trends

Technology is still not being fully integrated into hotel design, a panel of experts maintained during The Hotel Show’s Technology meets Design seminar.

Unsuccessful examples of in-room technology were still far more common than effec-tive examples, Kirsten Molle, managing director of Protem-pit, the UK-based IT project management and consul-tancy firm, pointed out.

Part of the problem was that IT still falls under the mechanical and electrical (M&E) remit, she said.

“There are so many cases where I’ve come on board a new-build hotel project and by the time I get there, first

of all I’m usually sitting next to the plumbers, because IT often sits under the M&E consultants,” said Molle.

“Then you get into a design meeting where you are basically presented with a finished design with a completed selection of fin-ishings, fabrics, furnishings and so forth, and you have to try and refit quite com-plex technologies into that finished design.

“Apart from the cost aspect of having to rework already finished construction sites, I think it’s a real shame because it limits the amount of value that you can drive out of the synergies between design and technology.”

Panel highlights need forintegrated tech solutions

Entrepreneur Ilir Guslo debuted his Human Regenerator anti-aging machine at The Hotel Show in Dubai.

The machine is a tubular shaped booth into which a person can walk, lie down and then receive wellness treatment and anti-aging therapy from some of the very latest proprietary technologies in the market.

Human Regenerator CEO Guslo said that the device boosts wellness through three hi-tech methods. Guslo explained that all cells in the body vibrate at different fre-quencies according to their function and wellness, so the device uses Electromagnetic Cell Regeneration (ECR) to reset ill cells to the correct vibration.

Meanwhile, Coherent Protonspin Manipulation (CPM) causes protons in cells to spin faster, creating an anti-aging effect. Finally, a chip that helps suppress harmful longitudinal waves created by electromagnetic sources such as mobile phones is used.

He outlined that device was aimed at high-net worth indi-viduals and that only 50 units per year would be produced, each costing around 420,000 (US $589,882).

He also indicated that Dubai’s Jumeirah Group was the first company in the world to sign a deal with Human Regen-erator and that further details as to the nature of that deal would be available in June.

Human Regenerator anti-aging machine brings fresh youth to Dubai

Ilir Guslo.

Guests seek out tech-savvy hotels and expect internet use to be free, according to a survey by Reuters Synovate

Maggie Moore.

89

Molle: integrate technology into design.


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TECH TALK


Hotelier Middle East presents a range of technology solutions, both in-room and beyond

Technology product guide

For more information on Tech Talk, contact [email protected] or +971 4 435 6272. For distributor details see page 92.

AVAYAThe Avaya 9670 Deskphone includes a large colour touch screen; high-quality speakerphone; full QWERTY keyboard; and built-in applications such as maps, weather and calculator. Avaya provides a range of unified commu-nications solutions and integration technologies for customers, including hotels and hospitality professionals.

AvayaTel: +971 4 4048 100Fax: +971 4 4048 140Web: www.avaya.ae

BNS ROOMWISEThe RoomWise HD-IPTV in-room entertainment solution was recently de-ployed at the Empire Hotel in Hong Kong. BNS’s system provides 26 local and international HD and SD channels and VoD services, plus next genera-tion front-end interactivity features.

Hospitality features include flight information, weather, room service, games, local map with points of interest, housekeeping mode, express check-out, folio review, world time, TV alarm and more.

Connected via an IP network, RoomWise integrates with the hotel’s ex-isting Property Management Systems.

PHILIPS AUREA FLATTVSPhilips has launched the next generation of Aurea FlatTVs, with a range of technical improvements.

Aurea offers a Full HD display; 100Hz Clear LCD with a 2ms response time; the latest version of the Perfect Pixel HD Engine; 2250 trillion colours processing; and a dynamic contrast ratio of 30000:1.

The energy consumption when using stand-by mode on the Aurea has been reduced to minimum energy levels of 0.15W.

PhilipsWeb: www.philips.com

BNS Ltd.Tel: +852 21809918Web: www.bnsltd.com

ONITYOnity’s new Wireless innPULSE is a radio-frequency (RF) network that wirelessly connects SensorStat DDC thermostats to Onity’s innPULSE energy management software. This enables users to network Onity’s pro-prietary SensorStat products together to form a comprehensive Energy Management System (EMS) without the need for hardwiring from each SensorStat occupancy-sensing digital thermostat. The product is currently only available in North America.

OnityTel: +34 943 448 300Email: [email protected]: www.onity.com

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SUPPLIER ADDRESS BOOK Contact details: Sarah WorthTel: +971 4 435 6374 / Fax: +971 4 435 6080Email: [email protected]

ARCH EUROPE

BLOSSOMHOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES TRADING LLC

FLOORINGCentivaTel: +39 256 767 4990Fax: +39 256 760 1763Email: [email protected]: www.centiva.com

DessoTel: +31 0 416 684 100 Fax: +31 0 416 335 955 Web: www.desso.com

Carpets International ThailandTel: +66 0 2314 5402Fax: +66 0 2318 3537Web: www.carpetsinter.com

YaldaPh : +971 4 3413484Fax:+971 4 3413483 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.yalda.ae

ArtigoTel: +39 0290786415Web: www.artigo.com

Ege Carpets Middle East Tel: +971 4 375 6490 Email: [email protected]

Vifloor Non-Wovens B.V.Tel: +31(0)38-4778181 Web: www.vifloor.nl

NEW PRODUCTSWanzl Middle EastTel: +971 4 341 8555Fax: +971 4 341 9595Email: [email protected]: www.wanzl.ae

TechnogymTel: +971 4 337 5337Email: [email protected]: www.technogym.com

Valera LtdTel: +44 01708 869593Web: www.valera.co.uk

Bravilor LtdTel: +44 01628 776060Web: www.bravilor.co.uk

Lee BroomTel: +44 (0) 20 7820 0742Web: www.leebroom.com

Dornbracht International HoldingTel: +971 4 3350731

Email: [email protected]: www.dornbracht.com

SerralungaTel: +39 015 2435711Email: [email protected]: www.serralunga.com

TECH PRODUCTSBns LtdTel: +852 21809918Web: www.bnsltd.com

PhilipsWeb: www.philips.com

AvayaTel: +971 4 4048 100Fax: +971 4 4048 140Web: www.avaya.ae

OnityTel: +34 943 448 300Email: [email protected]: www.onity.com

OUTDOOR FURNITUREBiotzaTel: +30 28310 22412Web: www.biotza.gr

Hawaii ThaiTel: +66 0 2376 0100 3Web: www.hawaiithai.com

GrosfillexTel: +33 0 4 74 73 30 53Web: www.grosfillex.com

Nature CornerWeb: www.naturecorner.com

Ploss & Co Tel: +49 40 5371 61 0Web: www.ploss.com

GervasoniTel: 39 0432 656611Web: www.gervasoni1882.com

GlosterTel: +65 626 56 222Web: www.gloster.com

UK SUPPLIERSAndy Thornton Ltd Tel: + 44 1422 376000 Web: www.andythornton.com

Black Rock Grill LtdTel: +44 1256 359858

93


Contact details: Sarah WorthTel: +971 4 435 6374 / Fax: +971 4 435 6080Email: [email protected] SUPPLIER ADDRESS BOOK

NAKKASH GALLERYEden Rock Chair & Side Table by Rausch Classics. This chair was featured in the Fitted Out feature on Fujairah Rotana Resort & Spa in the May issue (page 93) but without a caption. The Rausch Classics Outdoor Furniture is supplied by Nakkash Gallery.

NAKKASH GALLERYTel: +971 4 282 6767Email: [email protected]: www.nakkashgallery.com

Email: [email protected]: www.blackrockgrill.com

Churchill China plc Tel: +44 7974 919548 Web: www.churchillchina.com

Dudson LtdTel: +44 1782 819337Web: www.dudson.com

Morton Commercial Parasols.Tel: +44 1452 371 669Web: www.mortonparasols.com

Northmace & Hendon Tel: +44 29 2081 5200 Email: [email protected] Web: www.northmace.com

Steelite International plc Tel: +44 1782 821000 Email: [email protected] Web: www.steelite.com

Skopos DesignTel: + 44 1924 465 191 / +971 50 257 3392Email: [email protected]: www.skoposdesignltd.com

Sysco Guest SupplyTel: +44 118 981 7377Email: [email protected]: www.guestsupply.co.uk

FITTED OUTAjman KoreaWeb: www.ajmankorea.com

Leaders FurnitureWeb: www.leadersfurniture.com

VV & Sons: www.vvsons.com

Gulf Lights: Tel: +974 469 9683

Häfelewww.hafele.ae

Penguin Engineering: Web: www.penguindubai.com

Sanipexwww.sanipexdubai.com

Al Aqili Furnishings Web: www.aqili.com

Emirates Neon Web: www.emiratesneon.com

Technical Supplies & Services Web: www.tsscuae.com

BetterlifeWeb: www.betterlifeuae.com

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Made in Germany


95

• News • Trends • Analysis • Hotel listings

Hotelier Investor

PRICE (US $) CHANGE PRICE (US $) CHANGE

BX Blackstone Group (NYSE) 10.95 32.7% CHH Choice Hotels International (NYSE) 27.29 -2.5%

MAR Marriott International (NYSE) 23.36 10.3% KHI Kingdom Hotels (LSE) 2.75 20.1%

IHG InterContinental Hotels Group (NYSE) 10.63 13.7% REZT Rezidor Hotel Group (SSE) 2.08 9.5%

HOT Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (NYSE) 24.47 31.9% LHO LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE) 13.68 27.3%

WYN Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE) 11.79 31.6% AC Accor (PSE) 45.46 17%

STOCK WATCH — MAY

Notes: Relevant exchanges are indicated in brackets: New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), London Stock Exchange (LSE), Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE), Paris Stock Exchange (PSE). Quotes sourced from euroland.com, londonstockexchange.com and nyse.com. Figures for March are based on quotes from May 31 compared with April 28 2009.

Jordan has a shortage of three- and four-star hotels meaning there is “an excellent chance for investment”, the country’s Minister of Tourism, Maha Khatib, said.

There were plenty of top-end brands with plans for properties in Jordan, she said, but there was still room for more mid-range operators.

She revealed that Accor’s Ibis brand planned to open properties in Amman, but said she was “trying to convince them to open in Petra”.

There are currently 24,000 rooms in Jordan and 10,000 rooms in the pipe-line over the next three years.

At the top end, Six Senses Resorts & Spas recently opened a property at the Dead Sea and Khatib revealed the company had another one planned for the ancient city of Petra.

“It’s on the best plot of land ever – at the entrance to the old city,” she dis-closed. “It will have a big conference facility and a beautiful resort and spa.

“Amanresorts is also opening in the North of Jordan — 40 villas in the middle of the forest.

Jordan ripe for hotel investmentThe Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities (SCTA) is actively seeking partnerships with pri-vate investors who wish to claim their stake of the many developments in the pipeline.

In terms of the potential for hotel investors, the possibilities are endless and not only involve hotels, resorts and furnished apartments, but eco lodges, farm-stay properties and heritage buildings, explained SCTA chairman and presi-dent HRH Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdu-laziz Al-Saud, speaking at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) in Dubai.

The master plan is considered conservative by some in that it aims to double the current number of hotel rooms in the Kingdom from 117,000 to 254,319 by 2020 and more than double the number of furnished apartments available, the number of which currently stands at 100,000.

The latter are likely to be in the budget to “budget plus” category, SCTA vice president for investment Dr Salah K Al-Bukhyyet told Hotelier Middle East in an exclusive interview.

“The market surveys that we have conducted reveal our target audience is domestic tourism and that they want furnished units,” he said.

“Saudi Arabian families are very big so they need the space and facilities like a kitchen, so a furnished apartment is better value for money than a hotel where they would have to take sev-eral rooms.”

Accommodation up for grabs in KSA

xxxx xxxxx

For a list of upcoming properties, see www.hoteliermiddleeast.com. To update your company’s list, contact [email protected]

There are gaps in the mid-range category claims tourism minister

OPPORTUNITIES “There is also one planned for the Dead Sea and another registered for Petra,” she added.

The ministry is also looking at a more diverse range of accommoda-tion and in a bid to create a sustainable tourism industry, “non-traditional touristic trails”, are being developed.

“These are designed to “make sure local communities are totally inte-grated into the tourism industry and give tourists the chance to integrate with local families”, Khatib said.

“We are trying to diversify our tourism offering to include village lodges where tourists can stay.

These give the local commu-nity the chance to provide tour-ism services — it’s sustainable tourism development.”

There are three new trails currently being developed: in Ajloun in the north where there are “three or four beautiful vil-lages” where hiking and eco trails will be offered; Tafileh, a village that is very close to Petra providing an over-night stopover for tourists travelling from Amman to Petra; and in Salt — a

“very unique city” that is located 25 minutes from Amman with “beauti-ful architecture that has preserved the local culture and heritage”.

“We are also working a lot on the infrastructure in the downtown areas of cities such as Jerash, Amman, Ajloun and Tarek,” said Khatib.

INVE

STOR

96


The hotel owner/operator power struggle is swung in favour of the owners as opera-tors face lower revPARs dur-

ing the current financial crisis.That’s the verdict from both

camps who told Hotelier Middle East at the recent Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) and Arabian Travel Market (ATM) that owners were definitely in the driv-ing seat as operators were failing to meet performance targets expected.

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company president and chief operating officer Simon Cooper conceded that there was “always pressure to perform” from owners but the current eco-nomic climate meant targets were often unachievable.

“In this environment when we have lower average rates, it’s a bigger challenge to deliver a bottom line for the owner. When you are down 20 or 30%, you just can’t cost your way out of it,” said Cooper.

“Many of us are getting a lower yield than last year, but the guests don’t expect less of an experience so we must continue to deliver on ser-vice. There are costs that you can cut, but not many in the luxury segment.”

He conceded: “We are probably not meeting owners’ expectations.”

According to the new manag-ing director of UAE-based holding company Seven Tides, Mike Scully, owners are looking for operators they believe will bring them value.

“We will find a lot of operators have been lucky in the market —Dubai and the Middle East in gen-eral has been a cash cow for many of them, so it will be interesting to see

who now puts their money back in,” he said. “Now operators must show their worth by what investment they have put into the feeder mar-kets for Dubai themselves — not investments made by the DTCM or Emirates Airline.”

He said owners would now “look very carefully at operators”.

“The advantage is on the owners’ side, because the pipeline is disap-pearing [and they can afford to be more fussy],” he continued.

“Operators should also prove they are investing more in sales. Many have not had a decent sales force because up until now, they haven’t needed one.”

Having said that, Scully, who previously worked for Starwood both developing and operating the Mina Seyahi complex, comprising Le Méridien and Westin hotels in

Dubai, acknowledged that the

“biggest danger” for operators was to set room rates that were too high.

He said the philosophy of Seven Tides, which has facilitated the funding for four brand new hos-pitality developments in Dubai between the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, was to “under-stand the business”.

“The market determines the price it will pay — not the owner or the operator,” he said.

Therefore Seven Tides and Möv-enpick Hotels & Resorts, which will operate the four new projects (the Royal Amwaj and Oceana on Palm Jumeirah, Ibn Battuta Gate and

The power struggle is in favour of owners, thus putting the onus on operators to offer more value

Hotel owners take the driving seat

Mövenpick Deira) “will go into the market at the right price”.

Other operators such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts said they were feel-ing the heat from owners.

“We see an increase in requests for performance guarantees,” said vice president acquisitions & devel-opment, Europe, Africa & Middle East, Neil George, speaking at AHIC. However, Layia Hospitality CEO Daniel Hajjar said that ulti-mately, the government was in the driving seat.

He said hotel owners and opera-tors were both being kept in the dark as to the future of tourism-related

projects and it was therefore diffi-cult to plan properly for the future when their money was tied up in

such initiatives.“In a situation where investors

are involved in mega projects they have the right to know what

is happening to those projects,” said Hajjar, who revealed that several new hotel projects for his brand had been delayed, yet there were no indi-cations as to when the larger-scale projects they were part of would come to fruition.

“All we ask is to be told exactly what is happening so we can plan ahead. If that changes, that’s fine; we will change too.”

He added: “Someone in govern-ment needs to stand up and say what projects are going ahead and what projects are not going ahead and when projects are going ahead, we need some idea of when.” HME

ANALYSIS

THE MARKET DETERMINES THE PRICE IT WILL PAY — NOT THE OWNER OR THE OPERATOR

Operators need to keep up with owners in the race for value.

INVESTOR97


Early May is a busy time for the hospitality sector in the Gulf; the Arabian Hotel Invest-ment Conference (AHIC) is

followed closely by Arabian Travel Market (ATM), so for the lucky ones it’s a full week of exhibiting, meet-ings and networking events.

There is still a lot of doom and gloom, but before we assess investor sentiment and discuss some of the key issues that arose at these events, let’s look at some facts about the region (with thanks to Deloitte and STR Global);• During the first two months of 2009 the Middle East was the only region in the world to experience a growth in air traffic (+1.7%) and the International Air Transport Asso-ciation (IATA) predicts that this growth will be sustained through 2009 (+1.2%).• During the first quarter of 2009 the Middle East comfortably retained its position as the highest global revPAR earner, despite the correc-tion experienced in one of its key destinations, Dubai, where revPAR fell by 36%.• GDP is forecast to grow at 1.5% in the MENA during 2009, exceeding the world average.

On the surface this paints a rela-tively rosy picture for the existing hotel stock in the region, but to what extent are these positive demand indicators offset by supply growth?

Lodging Econometrics forecast of new supply suggests that a total of

23,374 new bedrooms will enter the Middle East market in 2009, of which 13,250 (57%) are in Dubai — the destination suffering the largest revPAR fall so far this year — while only 3549 (15%) are in Saudi Ara-bian cities, which are enjoying the largest revPAR increases.

While an inevitable correction in Dubai hotel rates and greater barri-ers to entry in Saudi Arabia may be factors, these new rooms look like a case of ‘right time, wrong place’.

While many developers are reluc-tant to admit it, a number of projects are being delayed.

There are two reasons for this, one enforced, the other voluntary.

In the first category is lack of liquidity — a factor that is more

Last month’s Arabian Hotel Investment Conference provided insights to investor sentiment, says Vision Hospitality Asset Management regional director Middle East and Asia Nigel Teasdale

What are investors feeling?

likely to affect developers whose cash flow has been restricted by Dubai’s real estate woes, and in the second, a recognition that there is little to be gained from opening in such poor trading conditions, better to batten down the hatches and ride out the storm.

On this basis it is probably fair to assume that not all of these new rooms will be realised on schedule, and it is in those markets where demand has weakened sharply that delays are most likely.

So, turning to AHIC investor sen-timent and the first point to make is that there were fewer investors at the show this year.

This is no great surprise, visitor numbers are down at pretty much

every conference and exhibition as travel budgets have been cut, how-ever, lack of attendance does send a message on sentiment.

There were also fewer bankers at AHIC than in 2008.

Why? Well first of all because there are fewer bankers around now and secondly, because most are not in a position to do deals. Interest-ingly the ones who did attend were not the ones who have been making all the news, for all the wrong rea-sons, over the last 12 months.

So what was the mood of the investors? The sense that came from the seminars and informal discus-sions at last month’s events was that they recognise that now may just be a good time to be looking at prudent deals in the right location.

Reduced land prices (some hot spots excluded) and construction costs are assisting ROI calculations, and with a two- to three-year devel-opment timeline we are likely to be back in the sunlit uplands by the time projects open.

The other key message that came through was that this time there is less appetite to develop without the benefit of both a robust feasibility study, and advice on operator selec-tion and management agreement terms. Alongside this, the hotel operating companies know that they need to be more flexible than last time round.

Without a compliant developer pipeline the opportunity to grow their brand is severely restricted and there are a number of smaller operating companies on the block prepared to offer interesting terms, who are snapping at their heels. HME

COLUMNIST

Nigel Teasdale is regional director for Vision Hospitality Asset Management. Contact: [email protected]

HOTEL OPERATING COMPANIES KNOW THAT THEY NEED TO BE MORE FLEXIBLE THAN BEFORE

Operators will have to work harder to please investors.

INVE

STOR

98


HIHI Starwood has just opened its first W in the Middle East. What brand will enter the region next?Today, we have 48 hotels and resorts operating under six of our nine dis-tinct and compelling brands, includ-ing Sheraton, Le Méridien, Wes-tin, Four Points by Sheraton, W and The Luxury Collection. These prop-erties represent nearly 12,000 rooms in the region across 11 countries.

We look to leverage the estab-lished presence of these brands as we continue to grow in the region with the introduction of St. Regis, Aloft and Element. Once these hotels open, the Middle East will become the second region in the world to have Starwood’s complete portfolio of nine brands represented.

The 292-room W Doha that opened in March was our first in the Middle East and leads the way for W Festival City in Dubai and W Amman, scheduled to open in the next few years.

Plus, by the end of the year, we will have approximately 40 Aloft hotels open in four countries and we are thrilled to introduce this new concept to the Middle East this fall when the Aloft Abu Dhabi opens. Aloft meets the needs of today’s traveller and fills a void in the mid-market space, combining innova-tive style and programming.

This hotel will be located adja-cent to the city’s new conference and convention centre. We have since signed the Aloft Riyadh, due to open in 2011.

We have also signed four St. Regis properties for the region: in Doha, Qatar; Bahrain; Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi; and Business Bay, Dubai. The 322-room St. Regis Doha, which also has 18 bungalows, will be the first to open in Q3 2010.

In 2011, we look to open our

first Element in Abu Dhabi. Ele-ment was launched to the devel-opment community in 2006 and is our extended-stay offering. This brand is designed to promote bal-ance through smart and sustainable design and serves as the Starwood concept lab for “green” initiatives.

HIHI Launching all nine brands in the Mid-dle East is quite an accomplishment. Why do you see so much opportunity in the region?I have a great affection for the region; my first job in the hotel busi-ness in the early 1980s was at the Al Khozama Hotel in Riyadh. In my consulting years I spent a consider-able amount of time in both Egypt and Jordan, and then worked for Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia for more than a decade. In addition to the opportunity to meet the needs of travellers to and within the Middle East, we also see great opportunity with the region as a significant ori-gin of outbound travel in the world.

As Middle Easterners travel abroad, they look for brands they know, and therefore Starwood’s development in the Middle East today has significant implications for our hotels worldwide.

HIHI Where is the opportunity greatest?The Gulf region accounts for 79% of

As Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide gears up to open its 1000th hotel, the firm’s president of global development, Simon Turner, reveals why the Middle East offers so many opportunities

our Middle East operation, with 38 properties in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Looking forward, the GCC will continue to be a priority market for Starwood. We now have 19 new, best-in-class properties under con-struction in the Middle East and 15 of those are in the GCC.

HIHI How is Starwood performing across the region? Travellers to and within the Mid-dle East continue to connect to our brands as evidenced by our strong performance. This region has been achieving the highest growth rate worldwide with revPAR (measured in US $), growing by 15% in 2008. It is still early in 2009 and, of course, the world is a somewhat uncertain place, but in general the region is performing reasonably well com-pared to other markets.

HIHI What is your strategy to navigate through these uncertain times?First, it is critical to be able to rely on

an experienced and established local team to address issues and opportu-nities on the ground. My colleagues Roeland Vos (president, EAME) and Guido de Wilde (vice presi-dent, regional director Middle East) have many years of experience in the region and are an incredible asset to Starwood. On the development side, we are fortunate to have Bart Carnahan who oversees EAME and Neil George who, from his base in Dubai, directs development in the Middle East.

In 2009, we are focused on iden-tifying and executing against the brand standards that are most important to guests while produc-ing attractive margins for own-ers. We’re also making it easier for developers to work with us through streamlined processes as well as tools and resources to ensure we are able to respond to owner needs quickly and decisively. Starwood is building, opening, converting, reno-vating and innovating for the recov-ery and beyond. HME

INVESTOR Q&AWE HAVE SINCE SIGNED A SECOND ALOFT PROPERTY WITH THE ALOFT RIYADH, DUE TO OPEN IN 2011

Aloft-y approach from Starwood

Turner: Middle Eastern travellers look for brands they know.

Aloft Abu Dhabi is set to open later this year.

Contact details:

Wet Fish Trading L.L.C, Unit FG 5, Dubai Investment Park, Jebel Ali. UAE.Tel: 04 8852692 Fax: 04 8852699 www.wetfishuae.com [email protected]

URS HACCP APPROVED INAUGURAL WINNER OF THE LLOYDS TSB SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD

The U.A.E ‘s leading fish supplier


RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING Contact details: Benjamin JonesTel: +971 04 435 6175 / Fax: +971 4 435 6080Email: [email protected]

Mövenpick: Adrian UpwardHMEHME How did you get started in the hos-pitality industry?As a child I attended college at an agricultural boarding school for seven years, where at evening ranks the name Upward would often be called out to report to the disciplines masters office.

When they came to realise that caning was not having the desired outcome they decided to put me on kitchen duty in the dinning room — which I hated with a passion.

After leaving school I was train-ing as a guide in the Southern Alps where I would assist in taking tourists up into the snow line.

Accommodation was provided in a local hotel. In the staff quar-ters, we would have our evening

Mövenpick Tower & Suites in Doha introduces its new executive chef

meal at the rear of the hotel kitch-en in full view of the proceedings and I often sat there well after I had finished eating to watch the commotion that was taking place in front of me. On one of these eve-nings the kitchen porter was burnt

by scalding water and I was asked to fill in for the evening.

That one night ended up being some 25 years ago now and I’m still counting.

HMEHME What do you enjoy most about work-ing in the industry? The best thing about working in the hospitality industry is the adrena-line of service and the fact that there is no routine. Every day we are fac-ing new and different situations.

HMEHME What has been your strangest expe-rience on the job? I have been in the industry for more than 25 years and I have faced many strange experiences related more or less to the day-to-day operation. All I can say is that in our job every day is an experience by itself as long as we benefit from it, being strange or not does not really matter.

HMEHME What are your biggest challenges?I would say that the biggest chal-

lenge of being a chef is working in a kitchen with different nationalities and cultures.

The kitchen is a very tough world that can be compared to an army where you need full concentration and dedication from the entire team.

Also changing properties is a ma-jor challenge in our job as you have to leave a team that knows what your expectations are and your way of working to a new place where you need to set your own standards and expectations that may take time to be understood, accepted and followed.

HMEHME What do you do to relax and unwind in your spare time? I love to spend my spare time with my lovely three girls, travelling all over the world, taking pictures and spending some time in the ocean.

I really love photography; wher-ever I go I try to use my camera to take some nice snapshots.

Finally, I would say that I have a weakness for fast motorbikes — on the weekends I always take my mo-torbike and drive as fast as I can.

Adrian Upward: “Every day

is an experience.”

Bin Eid Executive Search - (Specialised in 5* Hotel Sector)

BIN

EID

Executive Search

&Selection

Bin Eid is highly specialized in Senior Level Search &Placement of Hotel / Hospitality Industry Professionals. Our clients include prominent 5 star hotels (International chains), 4 star deluxe properties and other hospitality and leisure industry establishments in UAE and other Gulf Countries. We are now in the process of filling in the above positions for our clients in the UAE, GCC and Other Countries.

CV may be forwarded by e-mail to M.D. WARRIER indicatingthe present / expected salary:

BIN EID EXECUTIVE SEARCHSpecialised in 5* Hotel SectorPost Box 5455, Sharjah, United Arab EmiratesTel. +9716-5686144,E-Mail – [email protected] Website – www.bineid.com

General ManagerOperations Manager - RestaurantsHuman Resources ManagerTraining ManagerF & B DirectorItalian ChefFinance Director / ControllerFront Office ManagerDirector of Sales & MarketingPR & Marketing ExecutiveSales Manager /Sales ExecutiveExecutive HousekeeperDirector of EngineeringSpa Director

THE KITCHEN IS A VERY TOUGH WORLD...YOU NEED FULL CONCENTRATION AND DEDICATION FROM THE TEAM

100


RECRUITMENT AND TRAININGContact details: Benjamin JonesTel: +971 04 435 6175 / Fax: +971 4 435 6080Email: [email protected]

ON THE MOVE…asset management for hotel owners and is developing the ECCO business budget brand of hotels.

Scully is also the founder and a director of Coffee Planet, the UAE’s fastest grow-ing coffee company.

Seven Tides has earmarked future developments in Dubai and is actively seeking worldwide acquisition targets.

REDA ALL ABOUT ITHoliday Inn Al Bar-sha has appointed Reda Moukthar as general manager.

Moukthar has several decades of

experience in the hotel trade, working across the Middle East for Starwood. He brings a strong background of finance and sales and marketing to the property.

GO GARYShangri-La Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi, has appoint-ed Gary Robinson as executive chef. Robinson moved to

Abu Dhabi from his previous location in Hong Kong, where he held the same post in Kowloon Shangri-La, managing more than 100 chefs while implementing and overseeing the hotel’s culinary direction.

One of the highlights of Robinson’s career was his previous position as head chef for His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In his new role, Robinson will oversee the operations of five restaurants and daily kitchen operations at Shangri-La Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi.

He will also oversee the culinary opera-tions of Traders Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi in its pre-opening stage and will continue this role when the hotel opens in the third quarter of this year.

BARNES BUMPED UPPhilip M Barnes has replaced Kamal Naamani as Fairmont regional vice president, UAE and general manager of Fairmont Dubai. Naamani has joined the pre opening team of the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China, as general manager.

Barnes will oversee the performance and day-to-day operations of the Fair-mont Dubai and manage the opening of several properties under development.

SLEIMAN SLAYS ‘EMChef Ahmad Slei-man, renowned for his international ex-perience, has joined Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh. Sleiman

will oversee all of the hotel’s restaurants, including Seasons, Quattro, Tea Lounge, The Grill and banqueting.

Sleiman has worked with the Four Seasons group since 1991 and has worked in properties in Newport Beach, California; Hawaii; and Doha.

In his spare time, Sleiman enjoys vol-leyball, swimming and football and he is a dedicated member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS).

KUWAIT FOR KURTKurt Viehmann joins Sheraton Kuwait Hotel & Towers as the hotel’s new resident manager in charge of the entire

F&B department. Viehmann will oversee the hotel’s day-to-day operations, with a specific focus on driving service perfor-mance excellence.

Viehmann brings with him a wealth of experience from his previous hospital-ity roles in Lebanon, Yemen, Qatar, UAE, Albania, Russia and Germany.

He has worked for various Starwood properties in Europe and the Middle East, such as Sheraton Doha, Sheraton Tirana, Sheraton Abu Dhabi and Sheraton Frankfurt Airport.

SCULLY TURNS THE TIDESIndependent UAE holding company Seven Tides has appointed Michael Scully as managing director for its grow-

ing portfolio of five-star properties.Scully will oversee the opening of four

luxury developments in Dubai, including two on Palm Jumeirah, during the first quarter of 2010.

Seven Tides also owns the five-star Dukes hotel property in central London.

Scully joins Seven Tides after recently forming UAE-based First and Foremost Hotels and Resorts, which specialises in

101

Director of Convention Sales

InterContinental Abu Dhabi is currently seeking for Dynamic and Talented

individuals to take over the position of

As Director of Convention Sales you will be responsible for managing and leading the hotel’s Conventions Sales team, including developing strategies for conventions and banquets; developing, implementing and monitoring action plans to increase revenue and forecast the objectives. You will also play a leading role in handling the VIP events and participating in all promotional events.

As Italian Chef you will be in charge of food preparation of the restaurant by ensuring that product quality standards are met and that optimum service is provided to all guests. You will also play a leading role in staff training and guest interaction.

Do you have what it takes to be a leader in the world's most global hotel company? If so, make it happen and apply now for a career with InterContinental Hotels Group, where a world of personal and professional opportuni-ties exists.

You will need to promote the desired work culture of the InterContinental Hotels Group

and the brand ethos.

In return, we will provide you with an exciting full expatriate package, and the chance to work with a great team of people.

otmo

oR

deeccuS

Italian Restaurant Chef

This position entails overseeing, coordinating and implementing the convention sales activi-ties under the guidance of the Director of Convention Sales. The candidate will be interacting with individuals outside the hotel within his/her market segment, but not limited to clients, local associations and other members of the local community.

Convention Sales Executive

Most importantly, we'll give you Room to be yourself.

ebot

mooR

flesruo

y

What’s your passion? Whether you’re into tennis or travel, at InterContinental Hotels Group, we’re interested in YOU! We love people who apply the same amount of care and passion to their jobs as they do to their hobbies. We aim to be acknowledged leaders in our industry, so we strive for success and value talented individuals, are always looking for a better way to do things, and have a real will to win. We respect our staff for who they are; individuals and team players whose skills make us one of the world's top hotel companies.

Please apply online to www.ihg.com/careers


EVENTS103

Don’t Miss

June 15-18Asia Luxury Travel MarketShanghai, Chinawww.altm.com.cn

September 9-11La CumbreSan Juan, Puerto Ricowww.lacumbre.com/en/

September 16-19Top ResaParis, Francewww.topresa.com

September 30 – October 3HOTEC Europe, Cypruswww.mcleaneventsinternational.com/events/HotecEU2009/about/

October 13-15Sports ArabiaAbu Dhabi, UAEwww.sportsarabia.info

NovemberThe Middle East Tourism Marketing Summit 2009Dubai, UAEwww.metms.comNovember 2-4

Sweets Middle East/Sweet & SnackTec Middle EastDubai, UAEwww.sweetsmiddleeast.com / www.sweetsnacktecmiddleeast.com

November 7-10International Hotel, Motel and Restaurant ShowNew York, USAwww.ihmrs.com

November 9-11Equip’Hotel Middle EastAbu Dhabi, UAEwww.equiphotelme.com

November 10-13World Travel MarketLondonUKwww.wtmlondon.com

December 1-3EIBTMBarcelonaSpainwww.eibtm.com

December 6-8Dubai Drink Technology ExpoDubai, UAEwww.drinkexpo.ae

December 7-10International Luxury Travel MarketCannes, Francewww.iltm.net

June 7-9Beautyworld / Wellness & Spas Middle EastDubai, UAEwww.gulfbeautyexpo.com

Wellness and Spas Middle East is the international trade fair for the professional spa and wellness industry, presenting 200 exhibitors from 28 countries showcas-ing the latest products, services, trends and solutions for the spa, fitness and well-ness industries.

The event aims to bring together key buyers and decision makers from the wellbeing and hotel sector, with delegates including spa and fitness club opera-tors, hoteliers, spa suppliers, architects and designers.

September 9-10 CIBTMBeijingChinawww.cibtm.travel

October 4-6Franchise Arabia Abu DhabiUAEwww.franchisearabia.info

October 5-10Cityscape DubaiUAEwww.cityscape.ae

October 14Hotelier Middle East Awards Dubai, UAEwww.hoteliermiddleeast.com/hotelierawards

October 27-29International Hospitality ForumAmman, Jordanwww.ihfjordan.com

November 3-5Halal World Expo Abu Dhabi, UAEwww.halalworldexpo.com

FEATURED EVENT

Calendar

Also...

Rumours that Wellness & Spas will offer visitors facial transplants are unsubstantiated

Events this month focus on the hotel spa and wellness professional in the UAE


CONF

IDEN

TIAL

104

• Roundtable: Chefs• Feature: Mixed-use developments• Country focus: Morocco• Product analysis: Tableware/flatware• Product guide: Amenities• Technology: Property Management Systems (PMS)

Every month you have a chance to win a ‘Flow’ tableware set from Villeroy & Boch’s hotel and restaurant division. All you need to do is answer the following question:

How many people responded to the Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey 2009?Send your answer and contact details via email to [email protected], with the word ‘COMPETITION’ in the subject line.

Last month’s winner was Russel Stokoe, marketing manager, Rikan General Trading LLC.

Hotelier Towers had a slight change of scenery last month, when the entire team was temporarily trans-

planted to Dubai International & Exhibition Centre for both Arabian Travel Market and The Hotel Show.

As well as providing the launch pad for HotelierMiddleEast.com, with the Hospitality Group’s roving reporters let loose on the hunt for a story, a stand with sofas or a much-needed snack, the shows provided industry leaders and wannabes alike with the chance for major exposure.

And what better place than a trade show floor for Hotelier to find out about the latest announcements, juicy gossip and insider information?

The news came through thick and fast at ATM, with the vast majority of hotel chains either entering a new market, launching a brand, reveal-ing their (somewhat ambitious) tar-gets for the next five years or, rather less interestingly, signing yet another management contract.

Most of this you should by now have found about through your trusty daily updates from Hote-lierMiddleEast.com, but what you may not have realised is just how quickly stories change behind the scenes. There was the chairman that claimed comments he had made in both an interview and a public panel

Next issue:

session about the risk of further staff cutbacks being needed, should the downturn continue, had been taken out of context. It was a perfectly real-istic and refreshingly open comment

from a usually tight-lipped company, recorded in our notepads and on our dictaphone for good measure. Then there was the general manager who said that he didn’t really mean it

when he said his hotel — which could put the Burj Al Arab to shame in terms of its sheer unadulterated lux-ury — would be “50% more expen-sive than Raffles and Four Seasons”.

The revelation went from being a unique selling point in one breath to a little white lie in the next.

And then there’s the rumours we picked up at The Hotel Show that have yet to be confirmed. Which lux-ury resort might be up for sale? And which five-star hotel is entering June on just 6% occupancy? Our roving reporters are on the case as Hotelier hits desks, so maybe now is the time to get those stories straight. HMEHME

Hotelier competition

• Hotelier Middle East Power 50 • Part Two of the Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey 2009

Don’t Miss:

CLARIFICATION: The answer to last month’s question ‘What company was the interior designer for The Address Downtown Burj Dubai’ was WA International. WA International is an entirely separate company from Wilson Associates, incorrectly referred to on page 71 of the May issue. Apologies to WA International and Wilson Associates.

SHOW SECRETS

The Hotelier team hard at work (top) and visitors filling out subscriptions for the next must-read issue (bottom)

SCHRÖNO® upholstered furniture: The Number 1 brand for hotels and large building projects.

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The premium upholstererwww.schroeno.com

SCHRÖNO® Middle East/Asia Prime Project UAEMr. Michael Kriesten RAK Free Trade Zone P.O. Box 10559 Ras Al Khaimah UAETel. +971 7 2076137 Fax +971 7 2041010 mobil +971 50 141 3078 [email protected]

CALL TODAY FOR AN APPOINTMENT: +971 50 141 3078

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