Interview: Swiss-Belhotel's Gavin Faull

Swiss-Belhotel International chairman and president Gavin Faull details the company’s big plans for the Middle East, a string of exciting developments on the horizon, and why his outlook is optimistic

“We haven’t been a high profile name in the Middle East and the best way to get a high profile is to have success. That will come next year. We will be hitting ATM with a vengeance and we will need to have a booth twice the size. It will be jumping.” Those were the words of Swiss-Belhotel Gavin Faull when Hotelier Middle East met up with him at this year’s Arabian Travel Market in Dubai to discuss the company’s latest developments.

Since it was established in 1987, Swiss-Belhotel International has built a strong power base in Australasia, with a particular focus on Indonesia.However, in recent years, it has turned its eye to the Middle East, and currently has three properties in the region.

These are located in Kuwait and Doha, and one opened at the end of July in Bahrain — the 149-room Swiss-Belhotel Seef Bahrain. On the horizon are hotels set to open by the end of this year or early next year in Oman, Riyadh and Erbil.

Yet for Faull, progress has not been as quick as he would have liked. “We’ve been here for five or six years and our development has been slower than we would have wanted,” he explains.

“Of course the global financial crisis was in the middle of it so everyone stopped for three or four years. In an
economic downtown, the first developments that stop are hotels. Now we’re ready to go and we’ll be expanding our office here. We’re now on a roll.”

This expansion is likely to come as a result of a joint venture with a local Middle Eastern partner who Faull is remaining tight-lipped about for now.

“With the additional joint venture relationship, I will have projects in Turkey and Egypt — these are hot leads — and this person will make things happen. They will be operating hotels that we will take over within the next six months.”

While he may now be the driving force behind Swiss-Belhotel, Faull was previously a part-owner of Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School in Australia, before it was sold off in 2008.

His commitment to education has clearly endured, and another of his projects on the horizon at the moment in the Middle East will bring him full circle.

Using his connections, Faull will take over the operation of a property in the region, which will be used for conducting practical training by a Europe-based hotel school.

“We will manage the hotel on a pure management contract with the owner,” he says. “This will be a normal management contract. But I have a relationship with this university to use the hotel as their hotel school for practical training.

“They were looking for a hotelier who had hotel school relationships and there’s only one in the world, and that’s me. It’s part of our company philosophy that education is very important and training is very important too.”

Despite the presence of students, guests will be able to expect services that are no different to what they would get in a standard Swiss-Belhotel property. Indeed, Faull insists that guests won’t even realise the difference.
Comparing the Middle East region to Swiss-Belhotel’s home market of Asia – the company’s corporate headquarters are located in Hong Kong – Faull draws clear lines of distinction.

“The Middle East is very strong in the hotel business, especially the yields, compared to Asia,” he says. “Asia is huge value for money, Middle East is great revenue.

“RevPar is probably — four-star to four-star - 50% higher in the Middle East than it is in Asia brand for brand. Of course, the costs here are higher. Payroll costs are 50% higher than in Asia. So there’s reasons for everything.”

So an exciting few months lie ahead for the company, as it looks to bring to life the various contracts and deals being done in the region. Faull is full of anticipation.

“I’ve been developing Swiss-Belhotel for 20 years but I’ve only owned it for 10. When I bought it we had three hotels, now we’ve got 125. So it’s really jumping.”