Fairmont Dubai awarded 'Hotel of the Year'

Fairmont Dubai was crowned ‘Hotel of the Year’ for the second time at the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts international leadership meeting held last month.

With more than 60 Fairmont properties poised for recognition in more than 10 categories, the property also picked up the ‘Enviro Star of the Year’ gong for Shelendra Singh’s efforts as the environment, health and safety manager.

Following these two wins, regional vice president UAE and general manager Fairmont Dubai, Philip Barnes said: “This acknowledgement is a true reflection of our team’s commitment to the guest experience”.

“Not only have we achieved an exceptional performance record during difficult economic circumstances, we also delivered on our promise to be good environmental stewards in the community where we work and live in,” he added.

Despite its relative youth in comparison to other, more iconic properties in the company portfolio, this is the second win for the Fairmont Dubai in the ‘Hotel of the Year’ category (the first such recognition was given in 2005), an unprecedented showing for a hotel to receive this award twice.

The criteria for ‘Hotel of the Year’ was stringent, and top marks were awarded for a property that achieved exceptional results across Fairmont’s Four Pillars – colleague engagement, guest satisfaction, RevPAR (revenue per available room) growth and EBIDTA (earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization).

Recognising that the guest experience starts with a dedicated and a highly motivated team of colleagues, Fairmont Dubai reached third place in the company for colleague engagement and satisfaction. Not only a rewarding place to work, the hotel was also noted as a strong market competitor, despite a recession year in a region where over supply was quickly outstripping demand.

Fairmont Dubai was lauded for keeping its competitive edge by being one of the top ten performing properties in guest satisfaction (GSI), increasing index points significantly over the previous year, and also by improving its RevPAR performance.