CEO INTERVIEW: Melia Dubai GM Gilles Longuet
The general manager of the newly-opened Meliá Dubai, Gilles Longuet, explains how the Spanish hotel brand will make its mark on Bur Dubai’s hospitality scene
Establishing a new hotel in Dubai’s competitive market is challenging without a doubt; as it stands today, there are 64 five-star hotels alone, plus another 304 hotels in the four-star and below brackets and 193 hotel apartments.
Performance metrics reveal a strong market, with hotels recording 86.8% occupancy, $267.48 average daily rate and $232.32 RevPAR in March (according to STR Global), reflecting a healthy demand —but not to the extent that a new operation could ever be complacent.
The situation is exacerbated when the new hotel represents the launch of a foreign brand, unfamiliar in the Dubai market, and tasked with setting itself up against a host of international giants. Plus, in a city where the mantra ‘location, location, location’ runs high, for many, if a new property is not in the entertainment districts of Downtown, Marina and Palm Jumeirah, it’s a risky venture.
This is the challenge that faces Meliá Dubai, a new five-star hotel from Spanish chain Meliá Hotels International located on Kuwait Street in Bur Dubai, which opened on April 29. But according to general manager Gilles Longuet, formerly GM at Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach, the risk has been carefully calculated.
“It’s a boutique hotel and the risk is measured quite intelligently; I would say we are 10, 15 minutes from the airport; 10, 15 minutes from the exhibition centre, located in the historical centre of Dubai, near all the souks, so we can attract a lot of businessman as well as a lot of families and leisure people that want to come from Abu Dhabi over the weekend for example. There are a lot of possibilities,” says Longuet.
In fact, it is the different location, away from congested Sheikh Zayed Road and Downtown, and the fact it is a brand debut — making it the first Spanish five-star hotel in Dubai — that affords Meliá Dubai so many opportunities, continues the general manager.
Firstly, Meliá Hotels International is no small chain; the portfolio consists of 362 hotels in 35+ countries on four continents, making it the sixth largest hotel chain in Europe and 17th largest worldwide.
The company’s roots go back to 1956 when, aged 21, chairman and founder Gabriel Escarrer Julia opened his first hotel in Palma de Majorca, Spain. Today, the firm comprises eight brands and employs 37,000 staff, but it is still a family-owned and managed company — and it is the Spanish passion for service and hospitality that filters from the top down that Longuet believes will stand the hotel apart.
“This is a unique hotel located in Bur Dubai classified as a five-star; we have already received classification from Dubai Tourism & Commerce Marketing,” says Longuet.
“This will be the only five-star boutique hotel with personalised service in the historical part of Dubai. It’s only 164 room and suites, which is fully dedicated to the best service possible.
“The hotel has been beautifully designed by Marco Mangili, an Italian designer. You can feel the moment you walk in that it is different and unique in the whole of Dubai. It is elegant. Each design [of a Meliá hotel] is different, but it is a typical kind of service that is offered by Meliá — passionate service,” says Longuet.
One of Meliá’s key service concepts is ‘The Level’, its executive club offering private check-in and check-out, rooms in areas separated from the rest of the hotel, private meeting rooms, superior quality amenities and a private lounge with an open bar and snacks throughout the day.
For every guest, there is also the Meliá Connects service, promising to resolve in-room inconveniences within 15 minutes.
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The product
While the service is what Longuet hopes guests will remember — and return for — Meliá Dubai itself has been designed to draw guests to the Bur Dubai end of the city.
Most significantly, the hotel is relying on its two signature restaurants to establish a reputation as a culinary destination — critical for tapping into the Dubai residents market, known for eating out several times a week.
The offering includes Titanic by renowned British chef Marco Pierre White — the youngest chef of his time to be awarded three Michelin stars and the first British chef to win this accolade — and Signature by Sanjeev Kapoor, an Indian masterchef whose cuisine, according to White, is on a par with that of Vineet Bhatia of the highly acclaimed Indego restaurant at Grosvenor House in Dubai.
Titanic promises to deliver a cuisine inspired by the “sunshine flavours” of Spain and the Mediterranean, says White — thus perfectly complementing Meliá’s heritage.
Menu highlights include carpaccio of scallops, fresh ginger and coriander to start; Magret of duck Marco Polo, white peaches and Sauternes roasting juices for main course; and hot raspberry soufflé for dessert.
But while the food is important, for White, it is the total package of the dining experience that matters most, and his aim was to create a space diners would be happy to spend an evening in.
“I’ve been to some great restaurants in the world but actually I’ve not enjoyed sitting in them and that’s why I’ll never go back to them. Food is not enough. It’s about the package and what’s very nice about [Titanic], is you come here, you can sit down, you can eat in the lounge if you wish, you can have a cigarette here, just chill.
But then you go through and have your dinner and, after, you can come back through and chill again. You can go downstairs to the club [Mansion] if you wish to and extend your evening. I like things which are multi-dimensional,” says White.
Ultimately, he wants his diners to enjoy themselves. “For me it’s all about having fun, enjoying yourself — that’s what’s important. How many times have you been to a restaurant where the food’s very nice but actually it’s quite boring, you don’t want to be there and you leave.
We’re in the business of selling fun, we’re in the business of selling a night out, that’s what it’s all about really and I think the more dimensions you can add to that, the better,” he asserts.
As with most ‘celebrity chef’ restaurants, while White has been involved in the planning and concept of Titanic, and in training the chefs, Longuet is in charge of the recruitment and management of the outlet.
Going back to the subject of service, however, and the pair share a common goal.
“For me the most important aspect of service is a smile. It’s friendliness. Nothing is too much trouble,” explains White.
On the choice of restaurants, Longuet explains: “In Bur Dubai there are so many restaurants and we wanted to be on top of all of that. Sanjeev Kapoor [will] create a new identity of Indian culinary experience — something that is quite unique.
“Sanjeev is the master of the master in India today. He has taken the essence of Indian culinary from different areas and redesigned it [with] a kind of fusion adapted to the continental and subcontinent tastes he developed specifically for the hotel. [It will be] the first of this line of restaurants,” he adds.
White backs this up, adding: “Last night I had Indian food downstairs which I have to say was without question some of the finest Indian food I have ever eaten in my life. My friend is Vineet Bhatia who was the first Indian chef to ever win a Michelin star — and it was as good as his food,” — praise indeed.
Of the partnership with White and Kapoor, Longuet explains: “The chefs established the menu, they give us all the training needed and then we run the operations and they come to make sure that everything is as per their guidelines”.
As well as offering the big name celebrity chefs to attract guests initially, Meliá Dubai also has a range of in-house F&B options including all-day-dining restaurant Azalya; an American bar with cigar lounge called Alfonso X; a rooftop Spanish tapas restaurant and bar called Estrellas, still under development; Quantum Sports Bar; and the aforementioned nightclub Mansion.
“I cannot describe it. It is exceptional. Cavalli would be envious. We run it in-house,” says Longuet.
Leisure facilities are also a high priority at Meliá, with the hotel offering the brand’s signature YHI Spa experience. The seven-treatment room facility features a spa boutique offering a large range of Meliá selection spa products, a salon, a Moroccan bath, separate male and female sauna and Turkish bath, and a water circuit, not to mention the health club and rooftop swimming pool.
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Spanish community
With the service culture and product established — Longuet says all facilities will be open by the end of May except for the spa and Estrellas which will come a little later — the focus now is on sales and marketing, with the Spanish and Latin American markets of major importance.
Meliá Dubai director of sales and marketing Vanessa Waldow explains: “The GCC is going to be very important for us, Europe and Spain for sure of course — Spain will be the leading country for us not only for corporate business but for leisure business, having direct flights with Emirates to Madrid and Barcelona and Latin America, due to the flight connection to Rio and Buenos Aires, so all the Latin and Spanish markets are going to play a big role for us”.
She says Dubai is a popular stop-over destination for the Spanish.
“Many travel to Australia and they do a three-day stopover in Dubai and Bur Dubai is quite known for its stopovers — they stay in the centre and the historical side and close to the airport so it is a great location.”
Longuet adds: “The South American continent is aware of this brand because, do not forget, it is one of the top [17 hotel] companies in the world.
“We have a strong relation with the trade attaché, with the embassy, the new ambassador
came — it was his first day in Dubai and he stayed with us. The Spanish are very concerned with their own services and companies and Meliá will be their home away from home. It’s something they will be looking for — there are 1800 Spanish living in Dubai, there is a lot of movement, a lot of people travelling and stopping over.”
As with all hotel businesses, targeting online bookings is of increasing importance for Meliá.
“We are expecting a good 30% coming from online business,” says Waldow. “Of course, we hope that most of the bookings will come from our own website; this is what every company is aiming at. We have a strong distribution and e-commerce team that sits in the corporate office in Palma and they will help us, so there is a full strategy behind the whole e-commerce and distribution part.”
The final piece of the puzzle as Meliá gets ready for business, therefore, is the people that work for the hotel. Longuet currently has more than 200 staff and is looking to grow this to 240, as we speak.
“We do have quite a good number [of Spanish employees],” he says, “not only Spanish, Columbian, Uruguayan, Swedish-Spanish for example, something unique! We try as much as we can to bring all the different elements but the main element is the passion of service.
We try to educate all our employees as much as we can, coming from 30 different nationalities, to educate them and give them the Spanish philosophy of welcoming and serving guests as per Meliá.
“So far we are quite pleased — we recruited talented young people who have the possibility to grow with the group in the region. We were not looking for the position they occupy today, but the potential position they occupy tomorrow. This is important for the group as well to identify the talent,” asserts Longuet.
Everything is in place, therefore, for Meliá to make its mark on Dubai, and with its Spanish heritage, culinary showpieces and promise of passionate service, this looks like being a refreshing new addition to Bur Dubai’s hotel scene.
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Hotelier's Highlight:
Titanic by Marco Pierre White
Hotelier was lucky enough to be present for the gala opening of Meliá Dubai on May 16, which included a five-course dinner at Titanic by Marco Pierre White, attended by the revered chef himself.
The restaurant features a large spacious lounge, ideal for pre- and post-dinner drinks, plus an intimate and elegant restaurant area offering 74 covers. The total capacity of Titanic is 240-250.
For White, Titanic provides the perfect venue in which to spend a few hours; he is adamant that when people go to a restaurant, what they are actually looking for is an evening out.
“I like lounges and for me I sat here last night and had a drink, it was very nice, very sophisticated, very elegant, very understated and I like my privacy, “When you go out to dinner tonight it’s not just ‘what do I want to eat tonight, it’s where do I want to sit?’,” he asserts. “The most important aspect of any restaurant is the environment you sit in… not so much the décor, not so much the food.
“If you think of your favourite restaurant where you like going the most, it’s mostly not the finest food in the world, but for whatever reason you like sitting in that environment, you like the staff, you like the service, you like the package and that’s what’s key. I’ve been to some great restaurants in the world but actually I’ve not enjoyed sitting in them and that’s why I’ll never go back to them.”
Hotelier's Highlight:
The Presidential Suite
The duplex presidential suite is 130m² and located on the top floor of the building. While still under development, features include:
• Separate work, dining, and living room area
• Small kitchenette
• Digital climate control air conditioning
• 2 Interactive, 50” flat screen HD televisions
• Dedicated phone line with personal voice mail, fax and printer
• Maxi bar with a selection of premium food and beverage products
• Connection to two additional bed rooms with separate entrances
• Limousine service transfer from and to the Dubai International airport
• Butler service
• VIP Welcome at the airport