BACK ROW L-R: Executive assistant to GM Sothanee Boonvanit; director of engineering Andre Brinckman; security manager Khalid Khalil; director of revenue Jimmy Jacob; executive chef B.Pathmanathan. FRONT ROW L-R: Director of finance Parag Varshney; HR manager Jergen Arnade; director of rooms Rorie Ylagan; GM Scott Mawhinney; director of F&B Simone Stanco; hygiene manager Shahul Hameed and DOSM Stefan van der Kruyf.
Time to takeoff
Local residents aren’t the only ones eager to see the property open its doors to guests. Mawhinney, van der Kruyf, Pathmanathan and Stanco have all been onboard at Dusit Thani Abu Dhabi for two years, as have a number of other executive managers.
“When we’re fully up and running there’ll be close to 500 staff, probably even more. We’ve got more than 200 onboard already. The contracts have been signed, we’ve finished the recruitment as we’re entering the soft summer months, and by October we’ll have 500-600 people,” says Mawhinney.
Reflecting on the past two years, Stanco says: “Together with the support of the corporate team we developed the F&B concepts. It was nice to see this baby take shape, from a concept stage through to operating equipment — it’s an amazing challenge”.
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Speaking of challenges, he adds that the F&B team has been very lucky: “We’ve all got preopening experience so everything went according to schedule and we didn’t have any specific challenges. The recruitment part is where we put a lot of effort; there are a lot of people looking for jobs but the key is to find the most experienced”.
Pathmanathan says he faced challenges in “certifying the kitchen”, which he describes as “the biggest headache”.
“In Abu Dhabi we have a very strict Food Control Authority so we had to redesign it to their guidelines which can be quite challenging, but we’ve overcome that and moved forward. That was the most difficult part, other than that the task has been getting ingredients and the staff,” he explains. During the preopening, Stanco and Pathmanathan were also pulled in to lend their skills to the recent launch of Dusit Thani Maldives.
For general manager Mawhinney, he says the period has enabled him to get to know the employees and the hotel: “I’ve been supported by a very strong team so I’ve had a very easy life for the last two years.
“Simone and chef built the F&B concepts from zero, Stefan has done the full sales and marketing communication plan with finance, Rorie has set up the entire rooms division, housekeeping, the gym, the spa, front office as well.
And when it comes to dealing with the Abu Dhabi authorities they’ve been unbelievably cooperative, very proactive. We’re just on the verge of getting our final classification. We should be getting our five-star classification next week,” he reveals.
With the final touches being made at Dusit Thani Abu Dhabi, Mawhinney is confident the hotel will launch has gone well.
“We have a lovely property and with all the elements put together by our team, we see by the end of the year we should be doing 65-75% occupancy, which is pretty much a traditional occupancy for a city hotel whether you’re in London, Geneva, Hong Kong or wherever.
Abu Dhabi is growing tremendously right now so we’re opening up at the right time and right place to benefit from Abu Dhabi’s growth,” he concludes.
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