Mr & Mrs Smith

Husband-and-wife Nidal Farah and Carina Brun both work in security at two of Dubai's top hotels.

A lot of what happens at work stays at work for husband and wife pair Nidal Farah and Carina Brun.

Farah is the assistant director of security at Raffles Dubai and Brun is the security manager at Mövenpick Hotel Bur Dubai.
The nature of their jobs means that much is kept secret - even from each other.

"For example, he doesn't know how many staff I have and I have no idea how many staff he has," Brun explained.

The pair met five years ago when Farah was working at Zinc nightclub at the Crowne Plaza in Dubai.

"They always look in your handbag and they usually just take a peek, but he was digging through it for ages," Brun said.

And while their career paths have taken them to different properties, there is still much in common between the two roles.

Farah said he normally arrived at work around 8.30am.

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"The first thing I do is check my email in the morning before doing a round before the morning briefing at 9am," he said.

The morning briefing with the members of the executive committee reviews the previous night's operations and the plans for the day ahead, which normally takes between 30 minutes to one hour.

"If there are any incidents during the night that need following up I will do that after the meeting, and then we follow the plan for the day," Farah added.

"There are several types of incidents that need following up, such as a lost and found, a fire alarm, or a guest complaint.

"I also do patrolling three or four times everyday. I am on the lookout for everything from a security and safety point of view, such as locks, fire exits, checking that everything is clean and there are no strangers around.

As we have only been open for six months there are still a lot of contractors in the building, which doesn't make it easy."

Parolling normally takes 30 minutes, with Farah conducting quick meetings with the security team members on each floor to receive updates on what is happening throughout the hotel.

He also has several meetings with staff during the working day.

"We have normal department meetings, kind of like a team briefing and team-building," he explained.

"We don't just talk about the hotel, we talk about what they are doing outside of work and what is happening in general."

For Brun, her morning briefing is conducted at 8.30am.

"After the briefing I check my emails," she said.

"I have a briefing with my team during their shift change, and then I have rounds of the hotel. A round of the hotel takes between 30 minutes and one hour, depending on what I come across.

"You check the fire exits to make sure they are not obstructed, and move the items if you need to. You make sure the doors that should be locked are locked, and that the lights are off, and nothing has been stored in the electrical rooms.

"After that, I go back to check my emails and anything that needs to be followed up. Because I have been with the hotel for some time I have a lot of meetings, not necessarily in the hotel but also out and about."

In addition to the department meetings, Brun said she was also busy training new members of staff and attending security forum meetings.

While communication between the hotel security departments in Dubai "is not as good as it should be" according to Brun, there are moves being made to start a forum to share information and tips.

"The idea is to start communicating a lot more between the different five-star hotels," she explained.

"We obviously have certain people that we know in different properties - for example I always communicate with five to 10 different properties each day via email.

We share information about accidents and incidents that have taken place in Dubai, or international incidents that concern other properties in our chain.

"For example, if someone walks off with a whole bunch of Rolex watches from one particular property, then we share the CCTV images with the other hotels," Brun said.

"We also have currency issues, so we share any information we have about the different fake bills and counterfeit money."