Staying ahead of the Game
However, with Dubai’s hotel inventory predicted to double to around 164,000 hotel and hotel apartment rooms within the next seven years, how will the Marriott Al Jaddaf stand out from the crowd and establish itself firmly in time for 2020?
“Marriott Rewards is a very strong loyalty driver for us,” explains Al Jamal. “We’re talking about more than 40 million Marriott Rewards customers that we can tell right now that the hotel is open.”
Lunn is similarly confident about the draw of the company’s rewards scheme which he says “is massive in the area”.
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He adds: “It’s another Marriott property in an area where we anticipate huge demand, both in terms of groups and individual transient travel. Business customers will be attracted because they’re going to be able to use their Marriott Rewards points.
They’re going to be able to get to their work because we will be operating a shuttle service to the key business feeder areas of Dubai, including Business Bay, Emaar Square, DIFC, and Healthcare City.”
Nevertheless, coming into a high demand market like Dubai can be intimidating, even for the most confident pre-opening team.
“We are looking to achieve over 60% occupancy for our first year on the market,” explains Al Jamal. “In Dubai which performs on average in the low 80s we will need to build up a customer base first.”
Key to this he says, will be running a successful team. However, having only come on board in December 2013, getting to grips with a brand new workforce of 285, with 130 new staff to follow by the time the property is fully up and running, has been no mean feat.
“We were all working around the clock to get this property open on time and get customers coming in as soon as possible, so the biggest challenge was time,” says Al Jamal.
He was relieved to discover, having entered at a point when most of the team was already appointed, that many of the senior staff members had Marriott experience under their belts; and with positivity visibly emanating from the Al Jaddaf Red Coats, the pressure has been taken off slightly.
“Luckily the team on the property is very strong. My task was to distribute them around me and start functioning from day one because the opening was just around the corner. We have had a very short time to start working as a team and to make sure that we are singing the same song when it comes to receiving customers in the first month of being open.”
“We are overcoming these challenges together by having fun and sharing some group moments,” Jamal concludes. “It’s a new team and we are all motivated by the opening of this beautiful property.”
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