It's payback time for Middle East hoteliers
The sixth edition of the Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey has revealed that Middle East hoteliers are looking for payback for their hard work, with positive performance witnessed across the GCC for quarter one.
Dubai’s occupancy for quarter one was at 87.5% and in February the emirate achieved the highest occupancy rates since 2007. Meanwhile in Doha, occupancy rates peaked in quarter one this year, up almost 10% on last year for the same period.
RevPAR was up across the board with Abu Dhabi reporting an increase to $127.8 from $125.7 for the first quarter, and Jeddah saw a huge boost from $184.1 to $200.4.
With positive performance across a range of key indicators, it’s no surprise that 50% of hoteliers that took part in the survey reported that they feel confident about the future, compared to 44% of respondents last year.
Additionally, 39% said that confidence has been restored to the Middle East, an increase from last year’s figure of 37.6%.
However, booming economies doesn’t necessarily translate as satisfaction among hoteliers in their current positions. In fact, just 21.7% of participants claimed to be happy in their current roles, a figure a 3% decline on last year’s results.
The survey indicates that around a quarter of the industry is being paid US $1,500 - $3000 per month, while the second most common salary band is under $1,500 with 19.6% of respondents claiming this is their monthly remuneration.
While the last two surveys carried out revealed a positive trend in wage levels, with the number of respondents earning less than $3000 per month falling to from 47.5% in 2011 to 35.9% in 2012 and 33.7% last year that seems to have reversed again. This year respondents earning $3000 saw a 10.3% over the last 12 months, with 44% saying they earn less than $3000, a figure close to levels witnessed in 2011, at the peak of the Arab Spring.
Of those who earn less than $3000, 25.7% are line staff, 31.84% are management level and 30.17% are executives, while only 1 respondent was a GM.
Not surprisingly then, respondents revealed that they are not as satisfied with this year’s wage levels as last year. In our 2013 survey, 74% of respondents said that wages were not adequate for line staff, while this year this figure increased to 79%. Similarly, while last year 64% of participants thought wage levels weren’t adequate for managers, 68% said the same this year.
An increasing dissatisfaction in wage levels along with a boost in confidence among hoteliers has led to a seeming restlessness in the market, with 35% of respondents claiming they would leave their positions for something more prestigious, as compared with just 28% who said so last year.
While last year 7% of participants were anxious to hold onto their jobs, this figure dropped to 4% for 2014. Additionally, 47.25% of respondents said that they currently do not work with the company that provides the best packages overall, while 15.38% said they don’t currently work with the company that does, but previously did. Only 37.36% of respondents believe that they work with the company that offers the best overall packages, indicating an overall dissatisfaction among hoteliers in their current positions.
The sixth Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey is more comprehensive than ever before with almost 500 (490) hoteliers from across the GCC region providing responses – 102 more than last year.
Download the Hotelier Middle East app through iTunes to read more on the Salary Survey in the June Edition of Hotelier Middle East on your iPhone or iPad.