Pre-function area overlooking the Gulf and leading to the conference and events facilities. The property includes 13 meeting rooms and the Mezzoon Ballroom, accommodating up to 1400 conference guests.
Brand Essence
The rooms reflect a calm, neutral approach with photography showcasing the UAE in the ’60s and ’70s from the private collection of His Highness Sheikh Suroor bin Mohammed Al Nahyan. The inclusion of the collection reflects Jumeirah’s brand promise ‘stay different’ of being culturally connected.
Greif explains: “We wanted to say ‘yes’, we have a modern hotel and all the niceties you want as a traveller, but we also want to show you a little bit about who we were around 40 or 50 years ago.”
The stay different approach is also reflected in the smaller details which are highly appealing to a luxury guest.
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“We have certain things that have been created exclusively for us such as the Arabian coffee spice created by a Michelin-star chef and we have exclusive rights on the TWG teas,” reveals Greif.
With one of the largest conference facilities in the city and extensive leisure options which include Talise Spa, three swimming pools and multiple dining options, Jumeirah at Etihad Towers appeals to both business and leisure guests.
“Ultimately, the hotel should have about 70% business clientele and 30% leisure. The hotel caters to both but we will never position ourselves as a beach resort,” she explains.
The response from the local and international markets has been positive and while occupancy remains low in the early phase, maintaining rates was a priority.
“At the moment, we are running relatively low occupancy; however, it’s also better for us, because we did not want to come in with extremely low room rates — rather less occupancy, but making sure we can service our customers.”
Commercial Approach
With several recent luxury openings in the city, what has been the impact of the competition? Greif takes a long-term perspective.
“You need to look at it from different perspectives; we have a lot of new hotels and increase of bedroom stock, and the increase of business to the same level is not there at this moment.
“However, as the destination of Abu Dhabi evolves and the more big international brand names you get, it’s a testament to the destination.
“It also proves to investors, who put their money in to build these operations, that they do see a future here,” she says.
Competition certainly keeps hotels on their toes and Jumeirah already has aggressive sales and marketing plans for 2012 including sales trips to key markets, reports Greif.
“We’ve just been in the GCC and we went to Berlin in March. ‘We’re then having a strategic sales blitz with our office in Frankfurt, covering England, Germany and Switzerland. Then we will go over to Asia, to Japan and China, and then later on we’ll go to India.”
The use of Sirius — the Group’s reward and recognition programme — has also made an impact on performance, with approximately 12% of the overnight business coming from Sirius members.
Well into its third month of operation, the priorities for Jumeirah at Etihad Towers in 2012 are very clear, as Greif emphasises.
“Our priorities are to settle the hotel operation down and to make sure we are using our customer feedback to improve on what we do today.
“Training and re-training is especially important because everybody was new to this hotel, so people need to get comfortable with the technology being used here, so a lot of it is now making sure that everybody sticks to the standards and improves on those as well.”
With the team comprising just 10% of colleagues who transferred from other sister properties, the emphasis is understandable and forms part of a very clear outcome for the end of 2012: “By the end of this year, this machine has to be very well-oiled and that requires support from everyone — it doesn’t matter what level.
The focus is on our colleagues to make sure they’re comfortable, that they get the skill sets they need, and they also get the know-how to deal with our different clientele,” concludes Greif.
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Apr 19, 2012 , Sri Lanka
We at Mega-One Corporate Consultants Pvt Ltd based in Colombo are proud to be the recruiting agent in Sri Lanka for this fabulous property in Abu Dhabi. We wish MS. Doris Greif & all the Staff at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers the best of luck and may the hotel be the torch bearer for Jumeirah.