ESSENTIAL GUIDE: Hotelier Awards 2013 nominations
Your essential guide to how to enter the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2013, being held on October 30 at JW Marriott Marquis Dubai.
The Hotelier Middle East Awards are back for their ninth edition, with planning for the glamorous ceremony at JW Marriott Marquis Dubai well underway, and the Hotelier Middle East team is keen to get more readers involved than ever before.
Over the past eight years, hundreds of hoteliers from properties across the GCC and Levant have entered the prestigious Hotelier Middle East Awards, eager to win recognition for the hard work and dedication demonstrated daily by their most esteemed colleagues.
As always, there are 19 categories in total; 18 for individual professions from general manager and executive chef to laundry manager and housekeeper and the highly competitive Team of the Year Award celebrating the success of an entire hotel through the achievements of its team (see box, right, for a full list).
However, this year we have also made some changes and introduced five new awards, which are already proving highly competitive. These are for Young Hotelier of the Year, CSR Champion of the Year, Hotel Manager / EAM of the Year, Sales Person of the Year and Chef de Cuisine of the Year.
The Young Hotelier of the Year Award has a separate nomination form and we’ve also revamped the nomination form for the other 17 individual awards, putting more onus on you to tell us about your colleagues’ achievements and why they are so important.
This is all designed to help ensure the nomination process is as fair and transparent as possible, with examples of achievements able to be compared. We’ve kept the section for testimonials, which proved very popular last year, and this provides opportunity to submit the interesting, personable stories that are integral to the awards.
Nominations for this year’s Hotelier Middle East Awards are now open, with the deadline set for Thursday 22 August 2013. To help you enter, 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 we recommend the GM or appropriate head of department is included in the nomination process.
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Who should I nominate?
If you are the person chosen to champion the Hotelier Awards, then you have the difficult task of looking within your talented teams to decide who should be nominated. 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.
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. Also, consider those that have overcome the odds in their careers and personal lives to achieve what they have at each property.
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. Please also make sure that the person you are nominating will be able to attend the Awards ceremony in Dubai on October 30, 2013.
Writing your nominations
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 first, then you can simply copy and paste them in the online form. It also means you have a useful record of the nomination.
PDFs of the nomination forms are available here www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/awards/entry-guidelines/ and the questions are as follows:
1. Please enter details of this person’s career background. This must include information on when they joined and how they progressed to their current position.
2. In what ways does this person excel in their role? This is split into two parts. Firstly, please provide at least three examples of their achievements in this position over the past 12 months, e.g. reduced costs by xx%, improved efficiency by xx%, introduced and implemented a new strategy (give details). Secondly, please expand upon why these achievements demonstrate how the nominee excels in their role.
3. How has this person gone over and above the call of duty at your hotel? Again this is split into two parts, with the first part requiring a list of examples and the second section providing space to expand upon these examples. Provide at least three examples of this — it could be anything from funding their own training to assisting another department or implementing a CSR or environmentally-friendly initiative. Please provide examples of their achievements in 2012 and 2013 only.
4. Please sum up in one sentence why this person deserves to win a Hotelier Middle East Award in 2013?
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. 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. Procuremnt Person, please just provide colleague testimonials.
The above questions apply to 17 of the individual categories. The questions for the Young Hotelier and the Team of the Year Awards are different and should be answered on the specific entry forms devised for these categories – please download a PDF of this nomination form here: www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/awards/entry-guidelines/
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What happens after you’ve nominated?
The nomination deadline is Thursday 22 August 2013. No nominations will be accepted after this date. Once this date has passed, the online survey will be closed and the Hotelier Middle East team will begin the task of shortlisting the entries — we receive hundreds of nominations each year. 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 successful shortlisted nominee will be contacted.
The five shortlisted nominations in each category, making a total of 95 nominations, will then be submitted to Hotelier’s independent panel of judges, which comprises: Stefan Breg, chief worrier at Tribe Restaurant Creators; Lynne Bellinger, managing director UAE, Purple Cubed; Ron Hilvert, founder and managing director of the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management; Naim Maadad, hospitality consultant; 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 a period of two weeks to analyse the nominations and cast their votes on the top three performers in each category. The entire judging panel will then come together in an intense judging day to discuss their opinions and decide upon one winner in each category and one highly commended runner-up.
The names of the winners will be kept a highly guarded secret until the glamourous black tie awards ceremony being held at JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai on October 30. With more than 500 hoteliers attending every year, it’s the highlight of the Middle East hotel industry’s calendar and one event you cannot afford to miss!
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Award Categories
1. NEW: Young Hotelier of the Year
2. NEW: CSR Champion of the Year
3. NEW: Hotel Manager / EAM of the Year
4. NEW: Sales Person of the Year
5. NEW: Chef de Cuisine of the Year
6. Fitness / Spa Person of the Year
7. HR Person of the Year
8. Marketing /PR Person of the Year
9. F&B Manager of the Year
10. Executive chef of the Year
11. Procurement Person of the Year
12. Concierge of the Year
13. Laundry Manager of the Year
14. Housekeeper of the Year
15. Hotel Engineer of the Year
16. IT Person of the Year
17. Hotelier’s Unsung Hero of the Year
18. General Manager of the Year
19. Hotel Team of the Year
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Full details of the critieria for each category is available here: www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/awards/award-categories/
Top Tips from the Editor
• Appoint someone within the hotel to be the Hotelier Awards champion: it’s probably best if they are from the HR, PR or general manager’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.
• 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.
• 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, please tell us why what they did was special and what impact has this had on the hotel.
• 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 develop a new personality for their restaurant?
• Don’t forget the testimonials: our judging panel are a tough bunch and they look closely at the testimonials. For guest facing roles, including customer feedback as well as colleague feedback, and for everyone, try to include a testimonial from the general manager.
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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 2013, and as a result, the independent
judging panel is seeking to reward the best performers in 2013, 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 for 17 of the individual award categories is split into five sections:
1. Who are you nominating — contact information for the nominee
2. Why should this person win the award — reasons for why the nominee should win
3. Testimonials — comments from colleagues and guests to back up your nomination
4. How can we get in touch with you — contact information for the nominator
5. Photograph submission — please email a photo of the nominee to hotelierawards@itp.com
All five sections must be completed.
Please ensure you answer all six questions