The continual growth Rotana is achieving is keeping Kaddouri busy, with 52 operational properties and 54 in development, largely outside Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

To ensure the company is ready to tackle the challenges in new markets, Rotana has invested in its team and is growing the organisation. “Today we have 13,000 colleagues. By 2020, when we’re going to have 100 hotels operating, we’re going to have double that number of colleagues.

“And we’re working on a lot of these things in parallel to that growth.”

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Duroob is one such initiative. It aims to increase the number of local employees within the company. “When we started Duroob we didn’t really know where it was going to take us. Today we have about 2.6% of 13,000 [as locals].

Because Duroob is not just about the UAE locals being embraced into the hospitality industry. In Bahrain you have Bahrainis working, in Saudi you have Saudis working, in Oman, you have Omanis working, and so on and so forth.”

He continues: “Across the company, we have really worked hard to increase the number of GCC nationals working in the hospitality environment — and we’re taking it very, very seriously. Our chairman is a big advocate of driving GCC colleague employment. We have programmes, we have incentives, and we have development for them to come in at entry level but also to grow.”

While the UAE government has not put a formal percentage requirement on the number of Emiratis employed by companies operating in the country, Kaddouri is proud that Rotana is being proactive and driving the initiative.

Another challenge for Kaddouri is to raise the level of sophistication of Rotana's IT and loyalty programmes. The company has recently introduced a new customer relationship management system to try and manage its database better.

It also has a dedicated website for its loyalty programme, Rotana Rewards, which is starting to see a lot more online renewals and purchases.

But what’s really new with this system is the “instant redemption” where guests can use the Rotana Rewards card to use points to buy meals, for example. “If you have enough points you can pay for your meal then and there, as opposed to redeeming them the traditional way. A lot of people like that because a lot of people have points but don’t necessarily use them, and were looking for an easier way to redeem points.

“We wanted the card to be something that was easy to use, and for people to say it’s great value for money, hence the redemption idea. We feel that redemption is going to take us to another level.”

Kaddouri estimates this system will be launched by the end of 2015 among Rotana Rewards’ near 100,000 members. “Compared to the multinationals who have millions it’s not a lot. But we’ve also got to compare ourselves to them as a company. “We’re happy with the growth of our Rotana Rewards loyalty base, but we’re working tirelessly to increase the membership across all three cards. That’s a very big focus for us.”