Hotelier of the Week: Michael Marshall (24 Nov)

Michael Marshall, corporate vp, sales and marketing for Rotana Hotels

How has Rotana been affected by the current economic circumstances?

I think the situation in the UK is far worse than the one we are facing in the Middle East, but we are very alert as to what's going on in the market, to what our competitors are doing, and we listen to our customers. We need to continue the long term relationships we have with a lot of the corporate accounts.

We can have some form of flexibility in pricing but it has to be done as a partnership to help us through the short term, to help us get back to where we were before. Maybe if there was a corporate meeting depending on the season and location. And it's a matter of making sure everybody is focused.  That said, the platform is in place so that we don't lose business we should have or lose relationships we have had for a long time.

Michael Marshall

But you will continue expanding?

It's a period of very rapid expansion for us throughout the Gulf and we will have 66 properties by the end of 2012. We may see some delays but we haven't had any communications that any of the projects have slowed. We have just opened the Arjaan Hotel Apartments by Rotana in Media City in Dubai and in its first month of opening we have run at 60% occupancy, so we are delighted with this. Its location is excellent, overlooking the Palm, and we shall open the other three by the end of the year: Rosa Rotana, Amwaj Rotana on Jumeirah Beach and Media Rotana. Next year Mecca is opening in March, our first Saudi Arabian property, and, to support this, we have an office which is opening in Jeddah. So our outbound office for Saudi and overseas is going to be a very important element.

Going forward to next year we have Qatar opening then and we are expanding in Syria. Business is already good there. We have one property in Damascus running at 95% occupancy and we are looking at another property there, but we are opening in March at a resort called Latakia - a place surrounded by historic sites, crusader castles and a lot of unspoilt history and tourist opportunities. We are getting a lot of interest and have signed with up leisure agents such as Cox & Kings. So companies are looking at opportunities twinning Syria and Lebanon. It means that just in the next 12 months there will be another 4000 rooms coming on-stream spread right across the region.

The Dubai Media City product is a suite product. How is that performing?

We have the pricing right, the product, the location, the service are good; we are getting good feedback from the guests and its all business travel. The Media location is all business travel related, and it's a suite product, a lot of guests staying are short stay businessmen, with a maximum of a week but often three or four night packages. They stay there for the extra space you get, and when you go to Dubai you're always having meetings out. So some people use the facilities of a hotel a lot  although others are out the whole time.

The location of the properties in Dubai helps as well. Rose Rotana is on Sheik Zayed Road on the opposite side from the Towers Rotana, which is an excellent location for the financial centre. The four-star Media Rotana has 467 rooms and very good meetings space, 15 meetings rooms, and a great mix of rooms and suites, so we can target the long stay business guests plus the conference meetings and MICEMeetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market and the local corporates. We have good bookings so far. Yes, it's going to take time to build because it's a new location, but its proximity to Media City and Jebel Ali and the fact that it's not so far from the main financial district means it's a good location.  And then we have the Amwaj Rotana on Jumeirah Beach.

How does Rotana distinguish itself in a crowded market?

It is a regional brand, and though there are business travellers who like to stay in anonymous brands, there are others who, though they are busy and haven't got time to sight-see, want to experience some of the Middle East culture, which they can do with us. The Amwaj has a lot of wood, traditional wooden lanterns, so you get a flavour of Arabic culture even if you are working non-stop. And we are very well equipped and furnished, plus we have a very good reputation for food and beverage, very well known for business entertaining, and we offer everything anyone asks for from an international hotel with a bit of flavour, middle east culture and service.

The Rose Rotana

How do you staff this expansion?

We have someone on the road all the time and a whole team focusing on recruitment. We employ over 25 nationalities and we have a total of 17,000 staff. We are recruiting right the way into Eastern Europe, the Philippines, and parts of Africa.

Where do most of your guests come from?

50% are from the Middle East and intra-Gulf, but we also get guests from the UK, which is the biggest in Europe and may be as high as 15% in a particular hotel such as the Rotana Towers or the Beach Rotana, and also from Germany.

What new markets are you looking to?

We already get Russian guests on both leisure and business.  India is a focus, we have a sales office there. We've seen the numbers grow particularly where there are oil and gas contracts in Kuwait, where we have a hotel, and we get Indian guests staying there. But we are also targeting the United States with the direct flights with Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. We are getting a knock-on benefit from those.  And China and Asia are markets that we think will increase.

This year we have done the rebranding and now we need to develop the awareness of the sub- brands, and this is part of the plan. Rotana is well known in the UK market, and it's growing. There is the presence of our office in the UK and our attendance at the Business Travel Show. We also exhibited in Dubai and we shall be attending the UK show next year, as well as World Travel Market. There is also our work with the business travel agents, the TMCs while the number of corporate clients we are contracted with has increased in recent years as a result of our increased sales and marketing and public relations. But we need to build awareness of the suites Arjaan and then when we roll out Rayhaan and Centro, we will have a big push. In the case of Centro, there will be 25 Centro properties across the Middle East by 2014, and they are aimed at a new type of traveller, a new generation. They are located at the heart of business and commercial districts in major cities across the region.

Do you think people will put less emphasis on green issues now times are hard?

In all honesty, UK corporates have never mentioned it to us. We have our own measures in place, and we are confident that we can support any requirements, particularly since so many of ours are new and of a higher standards than others. There are campaigns on the environment and there is going to be the green city in Abu Dhabi which they are starting to work on. It's perhaps behind where Europe is and perhaps the US as well, but we want to take a proactive view, and we are developing our own initiatives.

The Media Rotana