GM Interview: Haytham Omar, Rixos Bab Al Bahr
When it opened 12 months ago, Rixos Bab Al Bahr introduced the all-inclusive concept to the Middle East. Parinaaz Navdar catches up with general manager Haytham Omar to find out how the hotel exceeded its performance targets for the first year of operations
Rixos Bab Al Bahr opened in the UAE in February 2014, bringing the all-inclusive concept to the Middle East for the first time. The hotel — the largest in the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah — comprises three pyramid-shaped buildings, and opened two years after the brand’s first UAE property, Rixos The Palm, located on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah. Exercising a phased opening strategy, Rixos Bab Al Bahr launched with 179 keys, followed by an additional 310 rooms in March and a further 170 in August.
General manager Haytham Omar, who has led the team since the pre-opening, reveals that high demand meant the final pyramid was opened ahead of schedule.
“We were planning to open the second building at the end of March or early April, but we opened it on March 1 instead because there was very good demand; so that was another 310 rooms,” Omar explains.
“We continued with both pyramids for the entire summer, until August and the Eid holidays, when we decided to open the third pyramid, which contains the other 170 rooms.
“And so from August 1, we had the full inventory online. However, from day one we had opened all of the facilities in the hotel and all of the restaurants, because these were already ready — the à la carte restaurants, the entertainment square and the kids’ clubs.”
While the hotel managed to draw in international guests, who were perhaps used to seeing the all-inclusive model in European and US destinations, Omar admits the concept was new to the local market, and this posed a few challenges.
“We were always compared with the price of hotels that offer bed and breakfast.
“So people would see a property in the northern emirates for AED 500 (US $136), and we are at around AED 1200 ($327) for example,” Omar states.
“They don’t see the value because they don’t understand what the term ‘all-inclusive’ means. So we lost a lot of opportunities at the beginning, until we started educating people in our marketing campaigns.”
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Marketing efforts have paid off, and Omar reveals it was the local market that helped fill rooms during the typically low summer season.
He points to a combination of brand awareness and marketing the concept locally as contributing factors to the hotel achieving its budgeted targets ahead of schedule.
Saying this, the Russian market accounts for the lion’s share of demand at Rixos Bab Al Bahr, and this represented 35% of occupancy when Hotelier visited the property in October 2014.
“Our main feeder markets (30-35%) are the Russian Federation countries. We have 20% from the German-speaking countries, another 15-20% from the UK, and the rest is mainly from Eastern Europe and Iran — each of which represent around 15%. We also have some MICE business and local business at the weekend,” he says.
“We have attracted nearly a 40% increase in Russian business to RAK since we opened because our brand is very strong in the Russian market. We brought additional charter business from Russia because they know the brand and what to expect even if they don’t know what to expect in Ras Al Khaimah,” he adds.
Since the interview, however, the fall of the Russian Rouble, coupled with the country’s plunging economy has seen tourism numbers take a hit and fewer Russians are visiting the UAE. Omar admits the resort has suffered too, but is now targeting other countries to make up for the numbers.
“Of course we have been impacted by the reduction of the Russian business. We are still trying to maintain 25% of incoming guests from Russia.
“However, we have a huge volume [of guests] and we are trying to look at opportunities from other markets, mainly from Eastern Europe and other countries. The RAK Tourism Authority is also supporting us and Air Arabia [which operates flights into Ras Al Khaimah Airport] has also started flying to some GCC countries and Iran, so we are targeting more areas,” Omar asserts.
In addition to market challenges, there were also several teething problems during the first year of operations. Not expecting the rush of local and international visitors during Eid, TripAdvisor reviews during the period suggested the hotel staff were clearly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of guests.
“Becoming full for the first time at the hotel, of course meant there was a bit of fine tuning needed, and we learned. For the past week and the coming 10 days, we are full, and we expect to handle it better because we learned from our experience.
“But to be fair, out of 2000 people, or 650 rooms full during four days, I think it is fair that I have maybe 10 rooms or guests who are not happy. Sometimes it is our fault, but 50% of the time, it’s that you came to a place without doing the research and just booked it without understanding what it is all about.”
Omar believes a lot of the complaints at the time also came from guests who did not realise the resort catered to families.
“Our guests need to know what kind of resort they are going to; we are a family resort. During Eid, we had nearly 500 kids between the ages of 0-14. So the families are very happy because they can see the kids enjoying themselves.
“I’m always walking around the resort, and I can see some couples annoyed; but why are they annoyed?
“Because they see 400 kids around them. So I would advise them, for example, to go to the Banyan Tree because this is their type of hotel, so it’s really about the perception.”
Omar is quick to say, however, that couples are also an important market for the resort, and to this end, Rixos Bab Al Bahr is set to introduce an adults-only pool in the first quarter of 2015 — however this will accompany the development of an additional children’s pool with slides and activities. More all-day dining restaurants to complement the six existing restaurants and four bars at the resort, are also on the cards for this year.
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Since the market position of the hotel is not entirely clear to guests, I ask Omar to explain how it compares to its competition — for example the Waldorf Astoria. Omar insists Hilton Worldwide’s luxury resort does not fall into Rixos’ comp set, however. “We don’t compete because the Waldorf Astoria is a different hotel to ours. It is a bed-and-breakfast hotel; it’s not for families or entertainment.
“Whoever stays here for two nights and there for two nights will see a huge difference, because we are both targeting totally different clients.
“It’s not a fair comparison, and neither are the other hotels [in Ras Al Khaimah].”
Looking to the future, Omar is now focused on setting more challenging targets for the resort, drawing on experiences and knowledge from the first year of operations.
“What we know is that we offer great value for money. People who go to other holiday destinations and then come here know how valuable the package is here, with all the F&B that people pay plenty of money for when they go outside.
“I’ve heard a lot of properties are thinking of implementing a concept like ours in the northern emirates, especially in Fujairah and some in Ras Al Khaimah too.
“It’s a very competitive market now and we are all trying to do our best,” Omar says.
Stat attack
- 10 Food and beverage outlets
- 600 employees
- 34 Nationalities employed
- 400 ‘Likes’ on Facebook
- 60% Average occupancy during October 2014
- 90% Guests stay seven nights or more