Interview: Crowne Plaza Dubai GM Georges Farhat

Farhat urges anyone entering the hospitality industry to be patient.

Two decades after joining the hotel as a management trainee, Georges Farhat is now the general manager of Crowne Plaza Dubai. Hotelier Middle East finds out how he maintained focus to achieve his big ambition

Whenever new people join I give them my example in the speech. I say that if I can do it, I’m sure everyone else can also do it. Where there is a will, there is a way.” Those are the words of Crowne Plaza Dubai general manager Georges Farhat, but it’s a philosophy that barely scratches the surface of his remarkable journey.

Unlike many of his peers in the industry, Farhat’s CV does not read like an itinerary of a world tour, peppered with exotic locations around the globe as their career trajectory takes them towards their goal of being a GM.

Story continues below

Over the past two decades, he has loyally served one hotel. Arriving at the landmark Sheikh Zayed Road property just a few months after it opened, he started off as a management trainee on the food & beverage side of the hotel in 1994. Twenty years on, at the beginning of this year, Farhat took over as acting general manager, landing the role on a permanent basis in July and fulfilling an ambition he never wavered from.

“I put a goal in front of me: I wanted to be a manager and wanted to be a leader,” he says. “That’s why when every opportunity came in front of me or when a position came up I used to fight hard for it, I used to work hard for it and I used to get it.”

That determined attitude was apparent right from the beginning; in his first two years he took no days off work, even coming in on his holidays, spending time in the front office as well as carrying out his F&B duties. It paid off when, in 1997,Farhat was formally brought to the front of house as duty manager.

In his time with the 560-key property, Farhat has worked with two owners and five general managers. And despite only taking on his current role in January, he had already been entrusted with plenty of responsibilities beforehand. “Even though I was the number two, I was sometimes the first person you would see, from guests, IHG and the owner.

“I built trust with my manager to be on the same line, to speak the same language and to support my boss,” Farhat says.

Interview continues on next page...