Engineering satisfaction

From Mr. Fix-its to the department with all the power, engineers explain why their roles have changed over the past 10 years and how they are saving properties more money than any other department.

Hotel engineers cover a multitude of roles — from overseeing the general maintenance of the property, to dealing with emergencies, electricity, plumbing, and even painting.

But despite the level of responsibility involved in the role, chief engineers were, until recently, viewed as the head of a group of ‘Mr. Fix-its’ — handymen who were there to solve problems, but never seen as partners in business.

However, thanks to the development of engineering strategies, the emergence of larger-scale hotel properties and the focus on ‘going green’, engineers have carved out a niche for themselves as multi-tasking colleagues, who are capable of saving the properties they work in serious amounts of money.

During this month’s roundtable, held at the Club Lounge of the InterContinental Dubai Festival City, chief engineers and directors of engineering report that they have seen a shift in power over recent years; making their department one of the few that can impact on the bottom line and implement energy-saving programmes.

The engineers who contributed to the roundtable have a wealth of experience; several of them have been in the field for more than 20 years, and some of them are responsible for the engineering in a cluster of properties.

Joining the roundtable discussion were director of engineering at the Courtyard by Marriott Dubai Green Community and Marriott Executive Apartments Dubai Creek, Wael Farouk — who has been with Marriott for all 14 years of his hotel career; Coral Deira Dubai chief engineer Abraham John — who worked for IHG for 24 years before moving to Coral Deira; Radisson Blu Hotel Dubai Media City chief engineer Nicholas Fernandez — who has been in the UAE for the last 12 years working in hotel engineering; Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach director of engineering Srilal Palilhakkara — who is looking after a cluster of hotels including Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait; IHG properties Dubai Festival City’s Gilles Despres — who currently oversees the engineering for more than 1000 rooms; Hyatt Regency Dubai and Park Hyatt Dubai director of engineering Ashroff Shakoor — who has been with Hyatt for more than 20 years; and Sakher Al Karmi, chief engineer for Al Manzil and Qamardeen hotels — who was previously with Marriott for 11 years, and Le Méridien for nine years.

The engineers were joined by representatives from the roundtable sponsor Emerson; Amitesh Singh and K.Jaykumar.

What is the most important aspect of an engineer’s job?
Nicholas Fernandez: It is the safety of the hotel, which is arguably the most important aspect of the property as a whole.

Part of my job description is to handle the security of the hotel and to make sure we are always safe. That is our responsibility, and that is why it is such a valuable job.

Of course a vital part of the job is also to provide air conditioning, water and so on, 24-hours a day, because if it breaks down that is when we have big problems.

Srilal Palihakkara: Hotel engineers are a different breed because they are not only engineers, they are also in front of the customer as well. Part of our job is customer satisfaction, which makes it very different from other engineering roles.

Ashroff Shakoor: You have to be a people person, not just an engineer. You see the people you deal with, so you can get anything done if you have a good team who can also deal with customers.

Often people think you are just mechanical and you come and maintain the hotel, but it’s not just mechanical — we all know that there are so many things you need to look at with hotel engineering. You have to get your hands dirty, only then are you a true hotel engineer.

Wael Farouk: We have to look at the bigger picture — you have to be a competent business partner. Engineering is not just a supporting department; we have to show ourselves as a business partner.

We have to be involved in the operations as much as we can be — not just from our point of view, but from the other departments’ points of view as well.

Gilles Despres: I will push it even further than that, because I think from my point of view, it is more about guest satisfaction — I believe I control this more than anything else.

Especially in a five-star hotel, guests are harder to cater to, so we need to create an environment in which they feel that they are catered to properly, without abusing the energy we have.

The guest needs to feel they are in a five-star hotel, but that we are not abusing the resources to make it feel like a luxury property — that’s really what I try to focus on.

Has the role of the hotel engineer been affected by the focus on being environmentally friendly?
AS: We have a green team and have manuals we are all trained from, so over the years we have seen a drop in the energy used by our properties. We used to use freshwater cooling and now we use a treated water plant, so this is something we are doing differently.

We have also had to look at the lamps we use — which are now LED — and there is a huge saving there, so that brings a lot of benefit to our field; we are now able to provide our properties with huge savings and be environmentally friendly, which I really enjoy.

NF: As the chief engineer you can make such a difference — you can really get involved, and not a lot of other department heads could do what you are allowed to do with your expertise.

Everybody is now talking about CO² emissions and for me that is actually what we are doing — I have the freedom to lower the hotel’s carbon footprint, to change the bulbs, to be more environmentally friendly.

I can make that happen; an F&B manager can’t. So being part of the environmentally-friendly team in a global sense is great.

Sakher Al Karmi: Eco-awareness also helps us because everybody wants to save energy and money, so if we need this item or we need that item it is now easy for me to convince accounts and purchasing, because I give them a saving in front of it.

So when I say I want to change the light bulbs to LED, it is something I will be able to do because there is a cost and energy saving. So this is something that I am very passionate about.

GD: The beauty of becoming eco-friendly is that this new challenge has propelled us to the forefront of the property. People now ask if your hotel has a green plan, or if you have won an award for being green; that is now the most important question for the customer and this is something we really control because we have the answer.

The engineering department is seen as more of a partner than we were before, because people want to be joined with somebody who wants to save the world.

SP: To add to this, our green initiatives work as a marketing tool as well, because we are able to have partnerships with different green companies. Eighty percent of our hotels globally will be certified as Green Globe this year so we are working towards that.

These things are becoming mandatory because a lot of other companies demand that you are green before they will do business with you, so it is important for engineers to be up-to-date with that.

How do you balance saving money and energy with guest satisfaction?
WF: We have goals to reduce consumption and we have to look at them from year to year — this is in line with the Municipality [DTCM] and the new energy regulations.

So the plan to reduce energy consumption is in place and this is something we have to implement in our properties, but it doesn’t mean compromising on guest satisfaction.

SP: We are able to lower our consumption by having energy benchmarks — we have an online system monitored by a third party which compares our property to others in a similar bracket, to see how much energy we are using. At the end of the year we get a report of our carbon emissions and use the information to set future goals. Again, this is something we keep an eye on within the property.

GD: I don’t want to play with something like the A/C system when the guest is there — I am looking to save electricity on unoccupied rooms, because I focus on guest satisfaction and I try to avoid involving the guest in my savings.

We monitor the room temperature and can make savings by using less energy at certain times of day — you increase the temperature slightly when the guest is asleep and then decrease it before they wake up, that way you save four hours of energy and the guest has a perfect night’s sleep.

NF: But you have to be careful because if your guest has a bad stay, all it takes is for them to get on TripAdvisor and say that they have had a bad experience at your hotel, for example if the temperature is too hot it makes a big difference, so you could be biting the hand that feeds you. I could save AED 20 (US $5.4) on room costs, but imagine the damage it could cause.

How much say do engineers have in the property at the building stage?
WF: Engineers are being brought in at such a late stage, once things have already been done, and it is very difficult to change the things which haven’t been done properly.

But there is one thing that can change, and that is having a design standard for everything. From this, engineers can have an input. Essentially, you can’t take care of a new build if engineering has not been taken into account.

Things like solar panelling and lighting — if you do these things at the beginning of the build it is easy, but if you try to add them in afterwards, that is when you will have problems.

GD: Refurbishment is something we can put our stamp on. Designers and architects are very good at making the vision of the owner come to fruition; but what we need to be able to do is sit down with them and say ‘that’s great, how do I maintain it?’, because the architects are not designing things to maintain equipment.

They aren’t thinking about how to maintain the property, so when you are involved in a refurbishment, it is your chance to have an input. A lot of the time, companies will bring you in during the last three months of a new build, but that is already too late because the A/C is in the wrong place, or things have been made more difficult for you.

Abraham John: Construction and maintenance are two very different things, and maintenance is often not considered when hotels are being designed — so renovation is a good opportunity to improve things and make the building a great deal easier to maintain.

How much impact do you have on the direction of the hotel?
GD: Our input is getting better and better because room rates have settled at the moment, so the next step is where we can save and where we can make more money — and the only people who have a big influence on this are the engineers.

Honestly you have the room price as standard, but how do you save on costs? Engineering has much more power to affect the bottom line than any other department.

How you save is by investing in the correct equipment and so on; we have the power to do this and we are better positioned than we were 10 years ago when we were just seen as the guys who fixed things.

NF: When you are running a hotel you are able to give your expertise and recommendations for what you would like to see being done. We also have a 10-year plan for what we would like to see happen in the hotel. So it is important that we have the freedom to do this, and have our input in hotel decisions. For engineers, it is important for you to be heard.

SA: When you look at the total cost of a hotel, you have the payroll costs first, then energy costs are your second highest. So that is why we have everything in our hands — we can take advantage of this now and that is why we are saving energy.

It is much easier for us as engineers to purchase things now, to change things within the hotel and to be green, because everybody is convinced that it will save the hotel money. We are the department that has the power to do this.

Top 10 tips to lower energy consumption
1 Consider using LED lighintg in the hotel — this saves electricity and LED lights release less heat than normal lights.

2 Install a calibrated water control system for hotel bathrooms that control water pressure and flow.

3 Start a towel and linen re-use programme to help aid water and energy savings — this allows guests to participate in being green.

4 Make sure windows are tightly shut to prevent air escaping, and close the curtains in unoccupied hotel rooms.

5 Switch off or turn down lights in areas which recieve natural sunlight during the day.

6 Ensure that all staff members report any problems which may cause energy wastage, immediately.

7 Install occupancy sensors for lighting in areas such as corridors and walkways, or meetings rooms which are not often used.

8 Install timer swtiches that are operated manually to control the equipment in the hotel’s wet areas such as jacuzzis and saunas.

9 Regularly check pipes for leaks and provide maintenance to the plumbing system.

10 Consider installing revolving doors as they allow less cold air to escape from the hotel.

About Emerson
Emerson Climate Technologies™, a business of Emerson, is a provider of heating, air conditioning and refrigeration solutions for residential, industrial and commercial applications. The group combines the best in-class technology with proven engineering, design, distribution, educational and monitoring services to provide customised, integrated climate-control solutions for customers worldwide. Emerson Climate Technologies’ innovative solutions, which include industry-leading brands such as Copeland Scroll® and White-Rodgers®, improve human comfort, safeguard food and protect the environment. For more information, visit emersonclimate.com.

Major Energy Saving
Park Hyatt: The hotel has installed 1500 five-watt LED lights worth AED116,000 ($31, 589) and used them to replace the 50-watt halogen bulbs previously used. Park Hyatt estimates that it will see a return of investment in six and a half months.

This measure means that the hotel is currently saving 90% in electricity or AED18,000 ($4900) per month.

In addition, Park Hyatt has also installed aerators in the wash basins — which amounted to a total cost of AED19,180 ($5223) and an estimated water saving of 60% (without aerators the flow is 21.5 litres/minute and with aerators the flow is 5.5 litres/minute).