Event review: Qatar Hospitality Summit

The outlook for Qatar is more positive than in recent years, with demand finally on the up, but hoteliers need to address service issues and broaden their target markets to sustain performance and justify an increase in rate

More than 142 general managers and hotel department heads gathered at Grand Hyatt Doha on April 15 for the annual Hotelier Middle East Qatar Hospitality Summit.

The event, which comprised a series of panel discussions and workshops led by close to 20 of Qatar’s top hoteliers, addressed a range of industry issues, from delivering world-class customer service and attracting new markets through to driving revenue through F&B and acquiring talent in a new market.

An opening address from Chris Hewett, senior consultant, TRI Hospitality Consulting, examined the hotel pipeline and current performance and looked at the numbers that will shape Qatar’s hospitality sector through to 2015 — revealing a more positive outlook than in recent years.

Hewett revealed an increase in demand for Qatar hotels, reflected in improved figures and in line with a boost in visitor numbers to the country.

He said Qatar hotels recorded 1.3 million visitors in 2013, up 8.3% from 1.2 million in 2012, and a 13% increase in overall hotel revenues. Hotel earnings at four- and five-star hotels reached QAR 3.58billion (US $983million) in 2013.

At the same time, Doha International Airport welcomed 23.2 million passengers in 2013, up 9.9% on 2012.

Occupancy in 2013 stood at 59.8%, an increase on 2012, but ARR dropped 6.3 percentage points to QAR 847.1 (US $233). Hotels maintained RevPar though, said Hewett, reporting an increase of 7.7%.

However, with another 7000 rooms planned for Doha by 2017, Hewett warned occupancy would be impacted, particularly if the market did not diversify.

Currently, Qatar has 127 hotels comprising 14,000 rooms. Of these, 86% of total keys are four- and five-star.

The mid-market represented just 4%, revealed Hewett.

“The midscale is severely under served, and this will impact the market going forward,” he commented.

In addition to the need for diversification, in order to maintain current performance, hoteliers would need to both improve service and widen their target reach, said hoteliers at the event.

Speaking on the opening panel, ‘Positioning Your Hotel for the Future’, Ray Mc Shane, general manager at Mondrian Doha, set to open next year, said: “There are major service issues in Qatar. Not many of us have had wow experiences in terms of service, in terms of what’s being delivered at the moment — we collectively in this room are responsible”.

The subject was discussed later in a session entitled ‘Delivering World-class Customer Service’

Julian Crane, director of marketing at Four Seasons Doha said: “Having been here two and a half years, I think there’s a foundation of good service, but there’s a want and a need to extend this good service further.”

At St. Regis Doha, an integral luxury amenity is the butler service to assist guests with unpacking, room service and transport and provide one point of contact. Tareq Derbas, general manager at St. Regis commented: “We have a butler service; one butler per nine rooms and we’re the only hotel in Doha doing that — I think that adds a lot of value to the guest experience.”

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Magdy Shoukry, general manager of Governor Hotel, Doha claimed that hotels needed to provide a personalised room service experience to stand out to long-stay travellers.

“We added our personal chef,” he commented. “Whatever comes to your mind that you want us to cook, we do it. The reason is we have a lot of long-stay guests so we want to make them feel at home.”

Guests also needed to be engaged via social media, said Savino Leone, GM of Crowne Plaza Doha.

“Social media is key. You need to manage it every day. One of our targets is to respond to 80% of comments. When a guest goes to make a booking they will check TripAdvisor so it’s very important that you respond to reviews and make your own comments.”

Derbas added that today “customers are in the driver’s seat — they are two steps ahead of us”. He said that the hotel’s aim is to impact guest experience through social networks.
“Nowadays people are posting their experiences during their stay. As soon as they make a negative comment on their social network that’s where the hotel could be impacted heavily,” he said.

Crane revealed that Four Seasons uses a ‘Glitch System’ whereby guests’ issues are posted live to staff members so that something can be done to resolve problems while the guest is on site. “While the guest is with us we can do something thoughtful with this opportunity. It’s about knowing when to engage with that guest and letting them know, firstly that we know, and also that we’re doing something about it,” he said.

Traditionally reliant on the GCC market, which provided 1,090,239 million visitors in 2013, Qatar also needed to spread its wings, said the hoteliers, and target luxury guests from Asia, which represented 152,475 visitors in 2013 while Europe represented 35,861 visitors in 2013.

Hewett highlighted that business demand from Asia in Qatar was up 14% in 2013 from 2012 and that hoteliers must look at ways of capturing their share of the growing market.

Panelist Anand Jindal, revenue director, Grand Hyatt Doha commented: “It would be good if hotels could have a Chinese page to customise guest experience at an early stage. Hoteliers will have to customise service offerings to suit different nationalities, e.g. does the room service menu have two or three options for Chinese guests?”

Oryx Rotana Doha cluster director of sales, Gabriele Ferola added that he believes attracting Asian guests goes back to the issue of providing a very high level of service, which is something that Asian visitors, especially those from China and India, expect.

He said: “The biggest thing lacking here is service; they are used to extremely high standards of service; they’re born and brought up with great manpower resources and when they have spending power they are used to that service. If you go to Shanghai you’ll have a person to press the button for the elevator to take you to your room — you won’t find that in Qatar.”

Despite the positive growth figures, visa restrictions were still outlined as a key barrier to boosting further growth of the Asian market, a point highlighted by Puneet Baijal, executive assistant manager, food & beverage, Grand Hyatt Doha. “Looking at the amount of development Qatar is going through, I think there’s a strong need for QTA to think about their visa regulations,” he said.

“This process of visa restrictions needs some sort of alignment to their vision.”
Qatar attracted over 1.3 million visitors in 2013, up 8.3% from 1.2 million in 2012. Overall revenues increased by 13% or US $112.92 million (approximately QAR 411.1 million).

For a full report from the Qatar Hospitality Summit and a detailed Qatar market update, see the June issue of Hotelier Middle East.