The Hotelier Middle East GM survey is back for 2014, and following last year’s Dubai Expo win, it seems general managers are waiting for huge hotel pipelines to come to fruition, while considering how they are going to hold on to staff and drive revenues to keep owners happy in a rapidly changing market.
With 73.7% of respondents UAE-based, it’s not surprising that our first GM survey since Dubai’s Expo 2020 win reports that the major challenge general managers perceive is upcoming competition in the region, and supply potentially outweighing demand in the years to come.
Aside from the UAE responses, 14% of those who participated in the survey were Qatar based and 8.8% are running hotels in Saudi Arabia, while 1.75% each were based in Oman and Jordan.
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A total of 57 respondents participated in the survey and they represented a mix across city hotels, resorts and hotel apartments, with the lion’s share managing city hotels (31.8%) and 24.5% business hotels, while 21% run a hotel apartment property.
For the respondents’ hotels, 39% of revenue is generated by business from corporate individuals, and 32% from leisure individuals; 14% and 13% comes from business groups and leisure groups respectively, and 7% of business is driven by MICE guests.
More than half of the respondents were from five-star properties (56%), while 35.1% manage four-star businesses and the remaining 8.8% are at the helm of a three-star. While almost a third of the participants are general managers at properties with 100–200 rooms (31.6%), around half lead hotels that have between 200 and 400 rooms and 8.8% head up 2000–3000 room properties.
In terms of entry into their roles, 60.4% came from F&B, while 43.7% grew into their positions from front office and 37.5% from rooms. Housekeeping departments produced 12.5% of our GMS, yet just 6.2% came from each of finance and recreation.
Performance for 2014 has been positive so far, with 57.8% of respondents reporting occupancy slightly or significantly higher than last year, while only 7% said it had been significantly lower.
Revealing a similar trend, room rates were reported by 55% of respondents as being slightly higher or significantly higher than 2013, which compared to 69% last year, suggesting a slightly slower growth rate in 2013—2014 than 2012—2013, perhaps owing to a low starting base in 2012 as a result of the lingering effects of the global economic downturn.
Average rates this year were reported by 19% of respondents as being around the $175–200 mark, while 17.5% (most likely those from three- and four-star hotels), said rates stood at just $75-100. Just one respondent claimed average rate at their hotel was $500–750.
Among the first three quarters of the year, Q1 was reported as the best performing period in terms of occupancy by 72% of respondents; 19.3% reported Q2 was the best, and 8.8% said Q3 was the most favourable. Flipping this on its head, 80% of respondents claimed Q3 was the worst period, while 8.8% said Q1 was.
Of the GMs surveyed, results revealed that 67% of revenue for their hotels comes from rooms, while 10% comes from F&B banqueting, and 17% from F&B outlets.
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Nov 13, 2014 , Nigeria
The GMs survey was a perfect description of what most GMs go through. The responses also represents what obtains in other climes and in Nigeria. The most frightening of the situation is the insecurity and unrest coupled with unstable government policies.