CHAIN OF THE MONTH: Fairmont

Louise Oakley meets the regional leaders of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in the UAE to find out why their success at establishing their hotels as food-and-beverage hubs will pave the way for the brand’s growth towards a total of six hotels in the Emirates

Since making its regional debut with the opening of The Fairmont Dubai in the UAE 10 years ago this month, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has come a long way in the Middle East, establishing a strong brand presence and a loyal following.

Fairmont Dubai, now firmly embedded in the hearts of the community, has made waves with its culinary prowess and green credentials; Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi emulated the success of its Dubai sister while bringing a new leisure offer to the capital; while in Saudi Arabia, Makkah Royal Clock Tower, a Fairmont Hotel has been an overwhelming success since opening in 2010 — with 858 rooms online, there is still more inventory to come as the project is being extended in response to feedback and demand.

There are three Fairmont hotels in Cairo too, but, as Henning Fries, regional vice president for Fairmont in the UAE and GM, Fairmont Bab Al Bahr tells Hotelier, regional growth is now being ramped up — and its impact will be felt this year.

Sat in The Exchange Grill at Fairmont Dubai, Fries says that maintaining the Middle East pipeline is one of the team’s priorities for 2012, with the launch of Fairmont Palm Jumeirah in quarter three tipped to be one of the group’s headline openings globally.

This will bring the brand’s UAE portfolio to three hotels, but this will be doubled in future years to six properties, as Fries explains.

“We have a project in Fujairah, which is going to be a smaller resort property, a gorgeous setting which we hope to have opened either towards the end of this year, early next year,” says Fries.

“And another one which we are just about finalised the opening dates and phasing of is in Ajman — a completely new market for us, but we are very excited because Ajman is not very well known to the local community but it is actually one of the closest emirates with some nice activities taking place and we’re going to be a catalyst in that as well.

“We have a prime location, beach front, it’s very close to the Ajman city centre, there are a lot of exciting plans there for the city to grow up and Fairmont will be right there in pole position,” he reveals.

“Another project that has been in our works for a while now is Abu Dhabi marina, our second property in Abu Dhabi. They are breaking ground during the first part of this year, that is quite a significant project again, connected with residences and all sorts of other services that we hopefully see in 2015 . It’s by Marina Mall and part of a redevelopment of that area — we are the prime hotel partner in that,” says Fries.

When I ask why the UAE needs six Fairmonts, Fries smiles as he explains the brand expansion strategy.

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“I think overall the UAE has been tremendously successful, in terms of tourism, trade and financial markets and so on, it’s really become the dominant hub for holiday makers and people doing business in this region. And with that of course there are opportunities for us as a brand to grow quite substantially.

It is not a very small country — Fujairah offers a completely different experience compared to Abu Dhabi, so you’re not all competing for the same clients. And it is so diverse in its offerings that it allows for good penetration of a brand to come in.

“You have a city centre product which has been tremendously successful here with Dubai. That is really the torch bearer of our brand for the region.

Then you have a leisure product, coming on with The Palm, although there is also opportunity on a business, corporate market. You have a straightforward resort hotel coming up in Fujairah, in Abu Dhabi it’s corporate and leisure. So they are really different markets.”

There is also growth outside of the UAE, with the first Fairmont recently announced for Jordan, “an absolutely lovely property” strategically located in Amman, says Fries.

Fairmont’s debut into Oman is still on the table with a hotel at The Wave development in Muscat, although this has slowed with the opening not expected until 2015, while a second hotel is also planned for Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Business Gate due to open between 2014 and 2015.

Fries acknowledges Fairmont has made a “huge commitment” to this region in terms of expansion and therefore, is also building up expertise at its regional Dubai office, one of only four regional hubs worldwide for the Toronto head-quartered brand.

“Dubai has become our regional hub so to speak, so we have from marketing to technical services, all based here now as a satellite to mirror what our corporate office has in North America, simply because there is so much development and such a commitment taking place here in this region. From here we are servicing the Middle East, Africa as well as Asia, so this is a very important location,” asserts Fries.

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Palm Paradise
The buzzword at the regional hub could well be ‘palm’ at the moment, as the team gears up to launch Fairmont Palm Jumeirah under the leadership of general manager, Martin Van Kan.

The hotel, which will feature 381 guest rooms and suites, a pool, beach and spa, and seven bars and restaurants, looks set to be the brand’s flagship in the region — and Van Kan’s excitement at the prospect is palpable.

One element of the vast offering he is particularly confident about is the food and beverage, something Fairmont’s other UAE hotels are already renowned for.

“Food and beverage at the Palm is going to be where we hopefully are going to be opening the hotel in great style and for the foreseeable future F&B will be our bread and butter — we will be owning that community as best as we possibly can,” asserts Van Kan, even suggesting that Fairmont The Palm’s brunch could “topple” Fairmont Dubai’s Spectrum on One “off its number one brunch spot”.

“Fairmont’s name in the city in very many respects came out of F&B and one of the big things 10 years ago was its position in brunch and that really helped elevate the F&B status here,” says Van Kan.

“There’s no reason why we can’t use that as a platform from which we can all move to greater places. There are some great opportunities and the restaurants that we have are new offerings to the market in that area in which we play,” he says of The Palm.

“They are an unthinkable or unmissable part of the community,” says Fries of Fairmont Dubai’s restaurants. “Being really part of the local community and a place where people meet and socialise and so on.

“And that will be a very similar scenario at The Palm project. And that is part of our philosophy and drive — that you really build the success of the hotels on the relationship and success within the local community,” he adds.

Van Kan says they “deliberated for a long time” over whether to develop all the F&B in-house or to work with brands, just as Fairmont Bab Al Bahr brought in the Frankie’s and Marco Pierre White steakhouse brands in partnership with Rmal Hospitality.

Ultimately, they decided to go it alone. “The marketed/branded restaurants segment in Dubai is obviously very mature, so [there’s some space for] coming back to grassroots and creating them yourselves using the talents that you’re able to resource into creative or concept designs within your outlets,” says Van Kan.

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He expects the new Fairmont to cause a stir among Dubai residents with its Brazilian restaurant, incorporating the Churrasco method of grilling. Van Kan’s goal is for it to be the must-visit restaurant for birthday celebrations.

The hotel’s signature restaurant is a pan Chinese bar restaurant concept, and there will also be an all-day-dining located on the beach level with “a breakfast to die for” and a cigar and malt lounge.

Getting the leisure component right at Fairmont The Palm is also very important, says Van Kan, with 60% of business coming from the wholesale markets.

“[We will offer] the Willow Stream Spa, which is the trademark name of the spas given to many of our Fairmonts. It is going to encompass 17 treatment rooms across 3000m² with both male and female sides where we will offer traditional massage, dry steam rooms, hammam, scrub rooms, mud rooms etc.

“The pool deck at the beach in terms of length will be around 750-800 metres…and there will be around 40 cabanas around four swimming pools, as well as a further 30 to 35 cabanas along the beachside. They are cabanas with private service components to them, wi-fi in the cabanas, so if you need to take your business out to the beach, you can go and do it.

“Children’s programmes are going to be a very important part of the leisure facilities as well,” he continues.

“We’re going to be tying up with a provider that is able to capture the imagination of the children at different age groups rather than putting them in a room in front of a Playstation, it is about engaging with the kids at different ages…and programmes will not be repeated over a three or four day stay, so the children will feel energised by this,” says Van Kan.

With concepts defined, Van Kan’s focus is now on recruiting the 600 staff needed for the pre-opening.

“That will change over time as the hotel becomes far more settled and that number will grow,” he says.

“The Palm is in extremely high demand especially at this time of year through eastern European market segments and the like and we’ve noticed through the openings of other hotels on the island that they do generate a huge amount of interest from the get go,” observes Van Kan.

He is confident not only in the demand for the property from hoteliers internally and externally, but in the support from Fairmont’s new talent acquisition system — recently launched in the region and according to Van Kan, a “completely different step change from what is out there with the competitors”.

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Fries expands: “We are spending a lot of time and effort to really identify the best possible strategy to grow quite fast by not losing our identity and making sure what we deliver is really true to the Fairmont brand.

We’re looking internally and externally as well, I like to think this is a great differentiator for us, we have a great selection process in place in terms of how we’re screening our colleagues to make sure we’re hiring talent and individuals that are brand ambassadors to drive our business forward.

The company itself has invested a significant amount in a project that has just gone live in our region which is an automated talent acquisition system which makes the whole process of hiring so much more efficient and so much more effective.

I think it’s quite unique to the industry. It automates the entire process from the start — from the first time you’ve made contact or how you’ve made access to sending your CV, and how you’re then being serviced from that point onwards, it records everything.

“It keeps your details on file, then you have just very simple online questionnaires which you have to complete in the first stage, only then will you be getting into the personal contact.

It’s a fabulous tool for us as hotels especially when we start ramping up in the hiring process of multiple hundreds, to have something in place that really supports us.

It keeps track of alumni, individuals that have for whatever reason decided to leave the brand but are re-hirable and it keeps in touch with them,” says Fries, adding that where other databases only record information, this system actually uses the data stored.

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Dubai institution
While Van Kan is just starting out on his Dubai journey at Fairmont Palm Jumeirah, in the city, general manager Michael Moecking is busy planning 10-year anniversary celebrations at Fairmont Dubai.

“Throughout the year we will have special packages, special celebrations, especially in food and beverage. We are going to promote our 10 years. And the employees will have a great party on February 5 where we will celebrate the 10 years in style.

We still have 50 employees with us now that started 10 years ago, so we are very proud of them and we will have a very nice dinner with them and their families,” says Moecking.

Looking at the bigger picture, however, and in keeping with Fairmont’s ethos, an anniversary campaign will target the community and act as a platform from which to further promote Fairmont Dubai in the future.

“What we are actually doing is we are starting out trying to be a little bit younger, doing viral campaigns, trying to include the internet and get the hotel promoted and celebrated over the internet, so that will be very interesting – not a corporate campaign. It’s a sexier campaign that we are looking to run,” says Moecking.

“We see ourselves as an institution…but every institution needs to be talked about so we will add an Italian section at Spectrum on One this year, so we are trying to refresh the image a little bit — something that people can talk about. We’re bringing household mothers in for two weeks of homestyle cooking classes — we need to create something new and have a story to tell,” says Moecking.

“This property really sets the tone for us as a brand, the success of this property was really built on the success of its F&B,” backs up Fries.

Going forward, Fries says the success of each of the UAE hotels will in part rely on their relationships with one another, a factor that will no doubt become even more significant as the three further UAE properties come online.

“We are three hotels. We’re very different. We have a lot of commonalities as well and we make those synergies work between us. They benefit the customer and the colleague and that is going to be our recipe for success — we’re not three individual hotels, there is a lot of connectivity behind us that we can work together.

“There are going to be many more synergies in the future as we get different locations coming online and sharing resources — we have people with a proven track record of excellence and this is all adding value.

“It’s never easy to open up a new hotel, whatever market, it’s always going to be a challenging undertaking and we as a brand are there to give it good support and see it off to a good start,” he concludes with a knowing look at Moecking and Van Kan.

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The UAE hotels in 2012

Henning Fries, Bab Al Bahr: How will you cope with growth in luxury inventory in Abu Dhabi?
“It would be foolish to think [recent additional supply] is not going to [have an] impact. Anybody in the market will notice other entrants coming in. Of course we want to make sure we maintain the business levels we have enjoyed and continue to grow the client base as it is.

So yes, Abu Dhabi is going to be a challenging market, that certainly is no secret. Having established a brand and having achieved above a fair market share already in the second year of operation, it gives us a very good base to maintain and build on.

“Abu Dhabi is showing significant growth year on year in terms of its rivals and in room nights being booked. In a normal market, it would be astonishing how much the market grows, so we are ready in terms of our products, services and where we stand to face that traditional competition.

And I think what will happen overall in the market, it will probably squeeze out some operations that no longer stand up to the mark. Our objective is to really firmly keep our feet planted in the market, and to be a catalyst also for the market.

Michael Moecking, Fairmont Dubai: How will you capitalise on the 10-year anniversary of Fairmont in Dubai?
“I’d like the property to be known as one of the institutions. What this property managed very well in the last 10 years in consistency and service delivery and I believe we have a good chance to keep this going because this is what we do in product and service delivery.

Secondly, as we are 10 years young, we need to at least think a little differently, or renew our sense in certain areas and look at some renovations coming up – the lobby, the conference floor will be renovated this year. So I would like to continue what we do best — a personalised service and have the product go with this and just keep us young and fresh.”

Martin Van Kan, Fairmont Palm Jumeirah: You have a clean slate, what’s your ambition?
“We have to dovetail on what Fairmont has in Dubai — 10 years. A lot has been done with the community and with environmental awareness and we have to make sure we don’t stand apart from that in terms of operating excellence.

After two years our presence in the market in Abu Dhabi has set a lot of expectations for us to makes sure we can reach our market position forecasts, whether it is the wholesale markets or the corporate markets and we have that opportunity with everything that is happening immediately with Tecom and Media City.

“So there is a tremendous market that can be taken out of the corporate market. We would like to make sure we get our fair share. We’re very aware of all the other new hotels that are opening on the crescent in the east and west side. It will be a very competitive market.

And for us success will be spelt by making sure we have staff that is able to serve customers from day number one to bring life to the Fairmont brand. It is not just opening another hotel in Dubai, it is about opening a Fairmont hotel on the Palm.”