Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi’s general manager Jorg A. Hauri bagged the General Manager of the Year award at last night’s Hotelier Middle East Award.
Hauri, who chooses to live in the hotel to be available anytime, impressed the judges with his dedication to his hotel.
Hauri leads a team of 1000 and looks after 565 rooms and 11 outlets. He is also looking at managing a complex of three Rotana properties with a total of about 1000 rooms in three years’ time.
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Over the past year, Hauri has spearheaded energy conservation methods at the beachfront property and also moved 500 of the hotel staff to better staff accommodation closer to the hotel in the city.
To motivate his team, Hauri introduced the ‘Knowing Me and Knowing You’ programme at the hotel, which tasks supervisors and management to take on a colleague’s role for a day.
Upon winning the award, one of the most eagerly anticipated of the night, Hauri said: "I was not even aware of it until the shortlist was announced because it was done by my team. So when I saw my nomination I was very surprised but it was fantastic and to win this award feels great."
When asked what makes a good general manager stand out, Hauri, who has worked in the industry for 48 years now said: "Walk the talk, lead the team, be a mentor. I've been in the industry for 48 years now. I've been an expatriate for 38 years in 15 countries so I guess experience helps, and achieving results too – that’s what the owners are looking for and companies are looking for. But without a team, no general manager is a general manager."
The award was presented to Hauri by Peter Willis, sales director of Catererglobal.
The judges also highly commended InterContinental Recency Hotel Bahrain’s Michael Koth for his exceptional leadership during tough times and for elevating the hotel to one of IHG’s best performing hotels among 78 in the Middle East and Africa region.
Other stalwarts nominated in the category included Rupprecht Queitsch, general manager, JW Marriot Marquis Dubai; Michael Koth, general manager of InterContinental Regency Hotel Bahrain; and Horst Walther-Jones, general manager of the year, Movenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach.
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