Plans for one of the restaurants in Shaza's upcoming Bahrain property and the Shaza logo, which uses the Arabic letter Sheen designed in the Kufic style.
As a result, resources are being used to fine-tune the brand ahead of the delivery of a pipeline that currently comprises 11 hotels, located in Fez, Marrakech, Istanbul, Salalah, Dakar, Cairo, Jeddah, Doha, Sarajevo, Karbala and Bahrain.
Malhotra says the team currently has four main focus points: the creation of the Shaza design journal, which will inspire the concept brief for the hotels in conjunction with their specific location; the establishment of 100 Shaza ‘fazets’, distinctive facets or guest experiences that are both intuitive and special; the Shaza Ethos, which is the staff training programme; and the brand communication launch, set to take place just before Arabian Travel Market on April 30.
With regard to the design journal, Malhotra is adamant that it is time for hoteliers to redress mistakes made over the years.
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“We did research with a few 100 travellers and we asked them what they liked and didn’t like about design when they go to hotels, and each of them very interestingly came up with scores of irritants,” says Malhotra, referencing the ‘drip, drip, drip’ associated with the walk from the sink to dryer in bathrooms.
“These are the things hoteliers miss out when they shouldn’t. They should have got it by now that these are design deficits — they just shouldn’t happen. That formed the core of what we call our Shaza design journal, which is what we draw from when we make the concept brief of the hotel. Then comes the technical services person who supervises it, then comes the hotel services person who is creating these ‘Shaza fazets’.”
These ‘fazets’ are “distinctive experiences that are signature to Shaza”, says Malhotra.
“We are creating hundreds of experiences in the hotel; in the rooms, in F&B, in public areas — the three pivotal points where guest experiences mostly happen.”
One example is an in-room footbath delivered upon request — the sort of thing one might do at home after a busy day that normally, is not possible in a hotel room.
He explains: “Usually, when travellers come back to the hotel room — particularly in a business hotel — you want to enjoy the room and maybe you don’t want to go out. You had an intense day, a long flight, you want to put your feet up, read a book, rest, unwind.
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