HOTELIER AWARDS 2012: How to nominate
The Hotelier Middle East Awards are back for their eighth edition and the Hotelier team is keen to get more readers involved than ever before.
Over the past seven years, hundreds of hoteliers from properties across the GCC and Levant have entered the prestigious Awards, eager to win recognition for the hard work of their most esteemed colleagues.
There are 19 categories in total; 18 for individual professions from general manager and executive chef to laundry manager and steward and the highly competitive Team of the Year Award designed to celebrate the success of an entire hotel through the achievements of its team (see box on page 81 for a full list).
Nominations for this year’s Hotelier Middle East Awards are now open, with the deadline set for Thursday August 30, 2012. With competition expected to be even greater than ever, Hotelier Middle East has compiled a complete guide to help you understand the process and ensure your nominations stand out.
Who can nominate?
Nominations are open to all hotels in the Middle East, from one-star to five-star, branded or independent, and including hotel apartments. If you work in a hotel in the Middle East, then you can nominate one or more of your colleagues.
Hoteliers are not allowed to nominate themselves, but if you would like to be considered, approach your line manager or HR manager and they will be able to advise you. Nominations made from people outside of your hotel will not be considered, but if a friend or guest thinks you deserve it, again, pass their feedback to your HR manager.
Ideally, it’s best if the HR manager, PR manager, marketing manager or executive secretary co-ordinates nominations and Hotelier Middle East recommends that the GM is included in the process of deciding who to nominate.
Who should I nominate?
If you are a department head or the person the hotel has chosen to champion the Hotelier Awards, then you have the difficult task at looking within your talented teams to decide who should be nominated.
The reasons for nominating someone are wide-ranging and there are no hard and fast rules. Ultimately, Hotelier and the judges are looking for employees that have gone over and above the call of duty.
It doesn’t have to be the most experienced person in the hotel, rather a colleague that is conscientious and committed, who brings a fresh outlook to their role and, as a result, contributes something original to your hotel. Imagine if they had chosen to work with a different hotel and not joined you? Do you think those projects they spearheaded would have been so successful?
Would the initiatives they are in charge of even exist? Think about colleagues that are indispensable, colleagues that inspire the rest of the hotel and colleagues in which you see fantastic potential for the future.
Please make sure that the person you are nominating has worked for your hotel for at least 12 months. If the person resigns after you have nominated them, please inform the team at Hotelier Middle East. Also make sure that the person you are nominating will be able to attend the Awards ceremony in Dubai on October 31, 2012.
Article continues on next page ...
Writing your nomination
The nomination process is conducted online at HotelierMiddleEast.com/awards. Firstly, please read the Nomination Guidelines (see box left). For the individual categories there are five simple questions to answer in the section ‘Why should this person win the award?”.
Each question must be answered – it’s best to write the answers into a word document first, then you can simply copy and paste them in the online form. It also means you have a useful record of the nomination.
The questions are:
1. Please enter details of this person’s career background. This must include information on when they joined your hotel and how they progressed to their current position.
2. In what ways does this person excel in their role? Please provide at least three examples of their achievements in this position over the past 12 months, eg reduced costs by xx%, improved efficiency by xx%, introduced and implemented a new strategy (give details), expanded their team etc.
3. How has this person gone over and above the call of duty at your hotel? Please provide at least three examples of this — it could be anything from funding their own training to assisting another department that is short-staffed, to implementing a CSR or environmentally-friendly initiative, to introducing a sports tournament within the staff accommodation facility, to helping a guest with a very unusual request, to saving a life. Please provide examples of their achievements in 2011 and 2012 only.
4. Please sum up in one sentence why this person deserves to win a Hotelier Middle East Award in 2012?
5. To support your nomination, please provide testimonials from others explaining why they also believe the person you are nominating should win the award or examples of previous feedback or comments that back up your claims. Please provide at least three testimonials from your colleagues and at least three testimonials from guests. When guest comments are not applicable to certain back of house roles, e.g. steward, please just provide colleague testimonials.
The questions listed above apply to each of the 18 individual categories. The set of questions to be answered for the Team of the Year Award are different – please email louise.oakley@itp.com for a template if you would like to enter your entire hotel team in this category.
Article continues on next page ...
After you’ve nominated
The nomination deadline is Thursday August 30 2012. No nominations will be accepted after this date. The online survey will then be closed and the Hotelier Middle East team will begin shortlisting the entries.
In each category, a shortlist of five candidates will be chosen. These will be posted online at HotelierMiddleEast.com and the person that nominated each shortlisted nominee will be contacted.
The five shortlisted in each category, will then be submitted to Hotelier’s independent panel of judges, which last year comprised Stefan Breg, chief worrier at Tribe Restaurant Creators; Lynne Bellinger, MD, Learnpurple UAE, Kathi Everden, editorial consultant; Ron Hilvert, founder and MD, Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, Naim Maadad, hospitality consultant, Roya, Guy Wilkinson, partner and GM of Viability, a specialist hospitality and real estate consultancy in Dubai and Louise Oakley, group editor – hospitality, ITP Business.
The judges will have two weeks to analyse the nominations and cast their votes on the top three in each category. The entire judging panel will then come together at a judging day to discuss their opinions and decide upon one winner in each category and one highly commended runner up. Their decision will be based on the nomination submitted in the context of the panel’s hospitality background.
Names of the winners will be kept a highly guarded secret until the glamourous black tie awards ceremony being held at a five-star location in Dubai on October 31. With more than 600 hoteliers attending every year, it’s the highlight of the Middle East hotel industry’s calendar and one event you cannot afford to miss!
Article continues on next page ...
Top tips from the editor!
1. Appoint someone within the hotel to be the Hotelier Awards champion: it’s probably best if they are from the HR, PR or GM’s department. It needs to be someone well connected within the hotel and with a knowledge of the achievements of high performing colleagues. This helps avoid multiple nominations being entered for the same person by different colleagues and ensures all relevant data is collated in one strong nomination.
2. If you have a PR or marketing department, it’s a good idea to let them have a look at the nomination before you submit it. They will be able to help with translating nominations into English and will be able to check all the required information is there.
3. Focus on the recent achievements of your colleague and put them into context – for example, if a colleague has taken an active involvement in the hotel’s sustainability programme, what impact has this had on the hotel?
4. Look for interesting individuals: we are not just looking for someone who does their job well, but a hotelier that brings something special to their role. For example, where have managers gone over and above the traditional appraisal system to motivate their team, or how has your chef put themselves front of house to create a character for their outlet?
5. Don’t forget testimonials: our judging panel are tough, and they look closely at the testimonials. For guest facing roles, include customer, as well as colleague, feedback, and, for everyone, try to include a testimonial from the GM.
Nomination Guidelines
To make it fair, we have to be strict: make sure you follow the simple guidelines below before you nominate.
1. All hotels in the Middle East are eligible to nominate team members for the Hotelier Middle East Awards. The Awards are open to all star-ratings of hotels, from one-star to five-star and including Hotel Apartments.
2. Nominations must be made by a hotel representative on behalf of a member of staff of their hotel. Hotelier Middle East recommends that nominations be approved by the PR / Marketing team and / or the general manager’s office before they are submitted.
3. Hotels are allowed to nominate people in as many categories as they wish. Each nomination must be made separately though.
4. This is the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2012, and as a result, the independent judging panel is seeking to reward the best performers in 2012, so please ensure that each nomination includes relevant and up to date information on achievements over the past 12 months.
5. All nominations must be submitted online at www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/awards. Nominations submitted in any other format will be disregarded.
6. The online nomination submission form is split into four sections:
A. Who are you nominating — contact information for the nominee
B. Why should this person win the award — reasons for why the nominee should win; please note there are five questions to answer.
C. How can we get in touch with you — contact information for the nominator
D. Photograph submission — please email a photo of the nominee to hotelierawards@itp.com
All four sections must be completed.
Please ensure you answer all five questions within Section B to provide the judges with enough information and enable fair comparisons. Please do not copy and paste the same text into each answer box – each of the five questions should have a different answer.
7. The deadline for nominations is August 30, 2012. Nominations received after this date will be disregarded.
8. When all the nominations have been received, the Hotelier Middle East team will compile firstly a shortlist of nominees (up to five per category), which will be presented to the independent panel of judges. The judges will then meet during September to discuss the shortlist and decide upon the winners. The judges’ decision is final.
9. The winners will be announced during a glamorous ceremony on October 31, 2012 in Dubai. The winners will not be revealed until this date. Last but not least, good luck!
Article continues on next page ...
The 19 categories and last year's winners
CONCIERGE OF THE YEAR: Jerome Rodrigo, Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi
PROCUREMENT PERSON OF THE YEAR: Mohammed Kapital, Jumeirah Group
LAUNDRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR: T. Chandran Thanggaraja, Park Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi
HOUSEKEEPER OF THE YEAR: Nuran Acar, Hilton Abu Dhabi
IT PERSON OF THE YEAR: Prasanna Rupasinghe, Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates
HOTEL ENGINEER OF THE YEAR: Wael Farouk, Courtyard by Marriott and Marriott Executive Apartments Green Community, Dubai
GREEN HOTELIER OF THE YEAR: Bruno Huber, Mövenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea
FITNESS AND RECREATION PERSON OF THE YEAR: Asela Jayaweera, InterContinental Doha
SPA PERSON OF THE YEAR: Nicola Bush, InterContinental Dubai Festival City
MARKETING AND PR PERSON OF THE YEAR: AnaMarija Raickovic, Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach
HR PERSON OF THE YEAR: Ayeda Al Hamoor,Jumeirah Zabeel Saray
STEWARDING PERSON OF THE YEAR: Frederick D’Silva, Grand Hyatt Dubai
OUTLET MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Abdouh Sofiane, Aloft Abu Dhabi
FOOD AND BEVERAGE MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Kazem Shamas, Doha Marriott Hotel
SOMMELIER OF THE YEAR: Sydney Rathnayake, Raffles Dubai
EXECUTIVE CHEF OF THE YEAR: Georges Khalil, InterContinental Doha
GENERAL MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Robert Kunkler, Madinat Jumeirah
HOTELIER’S UNSUNG HERO OF THE YEAR: Abdulkareem Muradi, Security Officer, Crowne Plaza Bahrain
HOTEL TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD: Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai