Retain to gain
It is this proactive approach to dealing with guest feedback that keeps them coming back, and perhaps led to the hotel being highly commended in the ‘Best four-star hotel in Saudi Arabia’ category at the second Saudi Excellence in Tourism Awards earlier this year.
Eikeland says a large number of guests are repeat visitors: “This is also because, unlike many hotels, we’ve had the same staff more or less since the beginning. Guests recognise them and you know how important that is when you’re in Arabia,” he says.
Nearly a quarter of the hotel’s employees are Saudi Arabian nationals — all members of the security team are Saudis, with others employed in finance, HR and sales — though Eikeland admits it can be more of a challenge to retain the national staff.
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“There is a high turnover [among the nationals]. You have to get them motivated for the job and that is a little challenging sometimes — especially for security. Most of those in finance, HR and sales have stayed for a long time, there’s one staff member who has stayed since we started,” he says.
However, generally the key to retention across the board is enabling staff to “grow” within the company Eikeland asserts: “We grow people and they see that the longer they stay the more they can grow.
“We run internal training programmes as on-the-job training is very important and we have a lot of development schemes as part of The Rezidor Group.”
Saudi Arabia has a huge hotel development pipeline over the next four years and as the Kingdom’s hospitality industry develops, Eikeland hopes to see more nationals seeking to work in hotels.
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