“On TripAdvisor at the beginning of the year we were number 95, now we are number 21. That for us is a very good indication of how people perceive our services. They are not biased. There are people who actually come here and give you their feedback good or bad, it’s transparent so that’s a good indicator,” says Jersabeck, who reveals the hotel invites guests to write reviews via a flyer presented at check-out, as well as including this option in the Hilton SALT, (Service and Loyalty Tracking) post-stay review sent to guests.
“In terms of TripAdvisor, we also monitor the restaurants. We started Ballarò with number 2000 in January, now we are 198. Izel we started from 1500, we are now 190. Puro we started with 1000, we are now 640. Cave we started with 982, we are now number 90 and Marco Pierre White Grill, we started with 800, we are now 400.
I’ve got the results every month, I can see. I think in the next two weeks the hotel will get into the 20s; we want to be in the top 10 by the end of the year,” he asserts. Jersabeck was right; at the time of going to press, Conrad Dubai had hit the top 20.
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It’s a bold claim to reach number 10 and one that will be achieved through the team effort exerted so far. All four executives agree that “everybody” is competition, not just any one hotel or area of Dubai.
“You have to constantly do new things to remind people you are there,” says Jersabeck. “We want to be positioned as a luxury five-star property. Conference and events is just one big segment of the market; we want to be for corporates, for meetings, and as far as lifestyle dining venues are concerned, we want to be recognised for good quality service and food and to be available for the residents.”
Nair sums up the hotel’s strategy going forward in three words: “penetrate, expand and protect”.
“So you penetrate the market, you make sure you stand out and expand, that’s new segmentation and growing your business, and you protect your business, and that comes down to the service aspect, and what makes that guest loyal,” says Nair.
“In our 11th month we have close to 16% of our guests that are return guests and that’s pretty good. Considering that groups don’t come back all of a sudden, if we take out the group business, it’s a much higher percentage. That’s how a hotel survives and grows actually — that’s our aim here,” he concludes.
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