JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai can be considered one of the emirate’s marquee hotels, and operating it cannot be an easy job. However, general manager Bill Keffer is up to the task.“I have been with the Marriott Group for roughly 23 years now. After opening the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, California, I took over as assistant F&B director at the New York Marriott Marquis,” says Keffer.
The JW Marriott Marquis nearly doubled its room keys over the last 12 months, from about 800-odd rooms to 1608. This is why Keffer says RevPAR has been hard to gauge, but adds that he is confident of the results. “We cannot give accurate statistics and details because we nearly doubled our rooms, but we are happy to state we maintained 2014’s RevPAR,” he states.
Keffer has steadily risen through the ranks ever since he began his journey with the Marriott Group. After his role at the New York Marriott Marquis, his next destination was the Far East as he took charge of the food and beverage at the Renaissance Hotel in Japan.
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Then, with stints at the Marriott in Seoul, South Korea and the UK, Keffer arrived at the Marriott Harbour Hotel in Dubai to assume the position of general manager. In January 2012, Keffer moved to the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel as hotel manager, eventually taking over as general manager 18 months ago.
During this period, Keffer has been vested with the daunting task of not only achieving a positive RevPAR, but ensuring occupancy levels and hotel revenues keep moving upwards. He explains: “In 2014, we had a near 80% occupancy, after which we more than doubled the number of rooms at the hotel. But occupancy figures for H1 2015 have been positive as we have managed to maintain them at 80%, even with added rooms to fill.”
Keffer credits the impressive performance to several reasons. “Sales teams in different countries and continents work tirelessly to attract new business. I often tag along with them, which helps me understand different markets and what we need to do back in Dubai. Recently, I visited China and learnt that about seven million citizens have passports, from a population of 1.4 billion. Now, that is a staggering figure when you put their spending power into perspective, and how serious an impact it could have on the travel market — not just for the UAE, but the entire world.”
Keffer claims that China has about 200,000–300,000 million people in the middle class bracket, and predicts that the majority of them will travel the world.
“Our occupancy figures are high thanks to the staff that we hire; citizens from as many as 70 countries work at the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai.”
The tallest hotel in the world seems to be in a purple patch, as summer occupancy figures were particularly high.
“Traditionally, hotels in Dubai report a 35-40% occupancy during Ramadan, which has coincided with the summer months in recent years. As Ramadan split the months of June and July, we had just under 60% occupancy for June and slightly over 50% for the month of July,” Keffer adds.
If those figures are anything to go by, it is safe to conclude the hotel has had a successful summer season.
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