HOTELIER AWARDS 2012: Team of the Year shortlist

These are the 10 finalists for the prestigious Hotelier Team of the Year Award, the winner of which will be announced at the Hotelier Middle East Awards to be held on October 31 at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC.

The nominations in this category were vast and lengthy, some teams got together to create books detailing the team achievements, while others made team films or submitted the achievements of each  department and hotel as a whole in detailed nominations. Hotelier hasn't published the nominations in their entirety here, but we have included a short summary of each entry.

Candidates were asked to sum up why their hotel teams should win the Hotelier Middle East Hotel Team of the Year 2012 Award. Here's what they wrote...

Atlantis The Palm, Dubai

“Atlantis the Palm is an iconic property that is known worldwide by millions of people. We are one of a kind. Atlantis the Palm is a market leader in the hospitality industry, whose success is made possible by thousands of team members. All the different departments work like well jelled machines day after day to provide the greatest experience our guests will ever have. Over the past 18 months, we have opened or renovated 4 F&B outlets, we have been involved with charity work and community service as well as environmental sustainability. Our sales, marketing and PR techniques have been instrumental in increasing our market share of countries worldwide and also increasing our bottom line performance. In turn, the supporting departments welcome our guests and create memorable moments for each and every one of them. Atlantis is not a hotel, Atlantis is an experience!”

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Crowne Plaza Jeddah

“Crowne Plaza Jeddah has made a remarkable achievement in the last four years. This was the team who worked hard during the renovation and made this hotel a modern Crowne Plaza. Their hardwork and dedication to work has resulted in getting numerous rewards and recognitions like ‘Torch Bearer’ which was given in recognition of maintaining high guest satisfaction throughout the year without losing standards. Moving forward the hotel was awarded ‘Hotel of the year’? which was the result of continuous hard work and efforts. Later year I received award for General Manger of the year that was another proof team hard work, loyalty to the work, hotel and company. They are good at team work, they understand the job and understand each other. They are committed creating suitable environment for work. Department heads leads team by examples that creates motivation. Thus the staff love their job and sometimes go extra miles in perform the job. Collectively this hard work has given a big fame to the hotel. The hotel is well known in the chain, in the city and the country. The hotel is on the way of setting new records of revenue earning, high guest satisfaction and employee satisfaction.”

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Jumeirah Emirates Towers is a great place to work, to shine, to grow! It is a big team of many nationalities, traditions, customs and opinions that lives as one entity, moves towards mutual goals and works with dignity, passion and desire to be useful and deliver the best to our customers, clients, guests, colleagues, owners and stakeholders. We are a family, a hotel, a union that respects many differences of interests and follows cultural legacy. That is why we deserve to with Hotel Team of the Year!

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Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates

The Team at Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates is incredibly hard working and focused on delivering a great guest experience, which has resulted in the achievement of great scores in nearly all assessed areas of the hotel’s operations in the latest Leading Quality Assurance Audit in April this year, seeing the overall hotel score increase from 87.4% to an impressive 91%. Achieving consistently high results both financially and in terms of guest satisfaction levels isn’t easy, and requires a lot of hard work and dedication. The nearly 30% increase in the hotel’s employee satisfaction scores in 2011 compared to 2010 show that employees don’t just work hard and deliver, they also enjoy the work they do and the team they work with. The team leads the way in finding more efficient, greener ways to operate a luxury hotel, without compromising the guest experience. They recently launched ‘Green Inspiration’, a committee of dedicated employee volunteers from across the hotel, with as sole focus to make the hotel’s operations greener and to conserve as much water and energy as possible. Since launch, they successfully moved the hotel to the use of FSC paper and all new IT equipment now has the energy star classification. Overall, the hotel managed to achieve a 2% reduction in overall energy and water consumption.

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Madinat Jumeirah highlighted its wonderful turtle programme as part of its submission. Here is an extract…
“The Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project (DTRP) is based at the Burj Al Arab and Madinat Jumeirah and run in conjunction with Dubai’s Wildlife Protection Office. It has been running since 2004 and has so far released over 500 rescued sea turtles back into Dubai’s waters. This year alone, over 350 sick or injured sea turtles have been treated by the DTRP’s team of marine biologists after washing up on the region’s beaches. In February this year the CSR team along with Sports and Leisure opened our 2nd turtle rehabilitation pen in Mina A’ Salam waterways, for rehabilitation of sick or injured juvenile turtles from Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project (DTRP). Initial treatment of all sick or injured sea turtles brought in takes place at Burj Al Arab Aquarium, before they are taken to Madinat Jumeirah, to complete rehabilitation in the two waterways located pens at Mina A’ Salam. There have been a number of turtle release events the Madinat Jumeirah team have facilitated over the 2011/ 2012 period with the turtles who have fully recovered in the pens at Mina A’ Salam. On 29 June 2012 over 1000 supporters of the DTRP attended The Big Jumeirah Sea Turtle Race to watch six satellite tagged sea turtles and 150 Hawksbill turtles released back into the ocean at Madinat Jumeirah. The Madinat Jumeirah team included security, lifeguards, sports and leisure department, just to name a few. Hundred of guests, colleagues and supporters cheered as the turtles made their way back into the sea at the event which was designed to raise awareness of the project and its role in rehabilitating sick and injured sea turtles. On November 26 2011 hundreds of guests, competition winners and 40 children from the Zayed Foundation for Humanitarian Care gathered on the Madinat Jumeirah beach to watch the release of six rehabilitated green sea turtles from the beach at Madinat Jumeirah. As part of the UAE 40th National Day Celebrations, a 40kg turtle was also released back into the ocean. The turtle, called 'Emerald', was brought to the DTRP at Burj Al Arab three years ago after suffering from life threatening injuries. On the morning of the release, Emerald was fitted with a satellite tracking device that enables the public to monitor her movements throughout the world's oceans while gaining invaluable insight into the life of a turtle. Turtle Rehabilitation On June 16 2011 in celebration of World Sea Turtle Day, the DTRP successfully returned 101 critically endangered hawksbill turtles back to their natural habitat following several months of rehabilitation at Burj Al Arab and Madinat Jumeirah. 101 children, including competition winners, pupils from a local school and hotel guests, released the turtles from the beach of Madinat Jumeirah back into the Arabian Gulf. The event, which attracted a large crowd with children’s activities and a taste of Jumeirah hospitality, was designed to raise awareness of the importance of the turtle rehabilitation programme, issues facing turtles, their risk of extinction (with an 87% decline in the hawksbill turtle population in the last three decades) and conservation of the marine environment. Earth Day – beach release of 100 rehab turtles | In celebration of World Earth Day, on 22nd of April 2011 , 100 endangered Hawksbill turtles were released back into their natural habitat. Following several months of rehabilitation the record number of 100 turtles were released by 100 children on the sandy beach at Madinat Jumeirah.”

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Media One Hotel

“There have been many moments over the last 12 months that have really shown the strengths of the Media One team, but I believe the example that stands out above the rest was the way the team came together on New Year’s Eve. The hotel was at 100% occupancy, MED restaurant was full to capacity and M-DEK was preparing itself for a massive night. We had lifeguards who had finished their dayshift and changing uniforms to work with the F+B team at night, the finance team were bar backing, our DOSM was acting as a host to seat guests in The MED and the HR Manager was serving on M-DEK with over 900 guests. At the end of the night, when the last guests had left, and bodies were weary after working 18+ hours, bringing a massive celebration to over 1500 guests, that I realised that none of this could be achieved without the mammoth effort and coordination of a very special team. The Media One Team believes in being vibrant and they encourage and motivate each other to go beyond and I am proud to be their leader, leading them to be outstanding in today’s competitive hotel business.”

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Raffles Dubai

“Raffles Dubai team is a multi-cultural, driven and competitive team of individuals, excelling in creativity and offering outstanding customer service. As a collective group, we are very team spirited - hosting numerous team building events, social sports teams and have been actively engaged in support of charities and implementing green initiatives. Raffles Dubai works on the principle of ‘Talent Density’? - by having a number of talented people at every level working very hard, this type of structure allows for rapid decision making, this together with an un-waiving commitment and efficient execution by our line staff has created our success today. Raffles Dubai colleagues pride themselves on being a very experienced, forward thinking, motivational, creative team who inspire loyalty and lead their peers and teams by example. The colleagues are honourable, dedicated and hard-working, with an executive team who are very approachable and well integrated with the colleagues. They portray and deliver outstanding focus and drive and with this openness they accept the fact that wisdom can be found in the most unexpected places.”

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Rosewood Corniche

“Rosewood Corniche opened its doors in September 2007, bringing a new level of luxury hospitality and personalised services to Jeddah. Appreciated and recognized by several regional and local industry bodies, the hotel was voted as Saudi Arabia’s Leading Hotel for the last three consecutive years, shortlisted as the runner up for Team of the Year Award in 2011 & awarded tripadvisor.com certificate of excellence in 2012. The hotel was positioned as Jeddah’s only ultra-luxury hotel, catering to Royal Family Members, Dignitaries and Senior Business Leaders. 2011 & YTD 2012 were great years for the hotel; financial performance, achieving better than expected guests’ satisfaction scores and obtained the necessary working visas to enhance the team capabilities. The hotel has received a flurry of comments on popular social networking websites making the towering cylindrical property an iconic flagship for quality and service within the city. The hotel’s success story can’t be associated with one person alone or a particular department, but should be seen as a consolidated effort of each team member, combined with professional pride and the desire to not only achieve but to further accelerate and exceed guests’ expectations. Aside from offering impeccable services to guests, the hotel has also played a major role in its contribution towards society and the community. The introduction of various social responsibility initiatives such as its sponsorship of Jeddah Autism Centre, supporting the non-profit organisation, Sleysla and its participation in several environmental & governmental initiatives has enhanced the hotel’s status and manifested itself further as Jeddah’s leading hotel. We believe our results and improvements in critical key measurable such as financial performance, employee opinion survey; mystery shopper program and guest satisfaction scores make us a strong contender of the prestigious Hotel Team of the Year Award in 2012.”

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“In just five years, The Palace - The Old Town has become one of the most prominent properties in the city, running in the league of Dubai’s established hotels. This is merely the fruition of consolidated efforts across all spectrums of the hotels operations - from housekeeping to back-of-the-house. And while we have made significant inroads, as evident in the above, this is just the beginning for our team. Each and every associate in the hotel plays an integral part in spearheading the growth of The Palace, contributing every iota of their passion and professionalism, making them a team worthy of praise.”

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“The Mina Seyahi workforce deserves to win the Hotel Team of The Year 2011 title as we have all worked together as a team in successfully closing Le Meridien Seyahi for renovation without having to retrench anyone from our team, but rather emerge them in The Westin Dubai and vacation management. While doing this we have had a tremendous cross exposure throughout the complex and the associates have appreciated the Management's commitment to them. Over the last two years both hotels have been seeing great financial success which would not have been possible through the increased service levels that were achieved through various training sessions, better quality control through improving processes in our housekeeping team and increased communication levels within all departments. In addition our various promotions in Food & Beverage have been well received by the public and have made our hotels a favourite with many local residents. All this has led to increased Guest Satisfaction Index and we are working hard for the successful Le Meridien Mina Seyahi reopening.”