CEO interview: Nehme Imad Darwiche, Jannah Hotels
While the Gulf market is saturated with well-established international hotel groups, in 2013, home-grown company Jannah Hotels and Resorts sprung from obscurity, like an oasis within the desert.
Since the launch of its first property — Jannah Eastern Mangroves Suites in Abu Dhabi — the hotel group has grown rapidly, but relatively quietly, with a further four properties launched in the UAE since 2013. This number includes two hotels in Abu Dhabi (Jannah Place Abu Dhabi and Jannah Burj al Sarab), and two properties in Dubai (Jannah Place Dubai Marina and Jannah Marina Bay Suites). The group has now confirmed a third Dubai property is in the pipeline, with Jannah Dubai Creek expected to open in 2018.
With ambitious plans for expansion in the UAE and the wider region, the group’s aim is to hit the magic number of 33 properties open or in the pipeline by 2020. According to Nehme Imad Darwiche, Jannah’s founder and CEO (and president and chairman of Darwiche Worldwide Legacy), the group plans to open in a third emirate, Sharjah, while target markets for further expansion in the GCC include Bahrain, KSA and Qatar.
In the coming years, Darwiche told Hotelier Middle East, Jannah will also take on the Mediterranean. European or Arabian Mediterranean, we quiz Darwiche? “Wherever there is an olive tree, we will build a Jannah hotel,” Darwiche responds.
Darwiche’s energy and ambition for the group are perhaps unsurprising characteristics for a man who, at just 31, is one of the region’s youngest CEOs. The self-made CEO grew his hotel career in the region first with the Rotana Group (where he worked his way up to F&B manager), and later at Anantara Hotels (where Darwiche worked as hotel manager for the pre-opening team of Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa by Anantara). “They didn’t make me CEO, so I made myself CEO,” Darwiche jokes during his photo shoot with Hotelier Middle East.
“From Rotana, I learnt how to be a very strong regional player. I learnt from Anantara how to be a very strong international player. I learnt from Rotana, effectiveness and cost saving. I learnt from Anantara, luxury at a low price. I learnt from Rotana, how to create loyalty among employees, and I learnt from Anantara how to create a story. The combination of the two made me who I am today.”
Darwiche’s youthful zeal is also evident in the number of unorthodox ideas he has put together to create a very different mode of operations for Jannah.
“First of all, I changed the organisational chart,” Darwiche tells us as he draws a triangle on a piece of paper, to represent the traditional pyramid hierarchy of most companies. “The chart always looks like this, the CEO at the top of the pyramid, and all the ranks underneath.” Next Darwiche sketches a ‘V’ shape, with himself, the CEO, at the bottom of the ‘V’.
“So I made it like this, the CEO, and all the ranks upwards. I changed the names. Our GMs are ‘mayors’, like the mayor of a city, because his job is to take care of the people there. Heads of department at Jannah are called ‘ministers’. In any government, ministers are chosen by the people and their job is to improve people’s lives. I changed the name of our employees to ambassadors. I love the word ‘ambassador’. On top of this pyramid are the guests, they are the boss. And I am at the bottom as their most humble servant.”
Article continues on next page...
In a digitally savvy marketing move, Jannah’s ‘ambassadors’ are required to sign in to work each day, by checking in to the Facebook page of the hotel where they work. Only after an obligatory few minutes liking, sharing and commenting on the company’s social media pages, does a ‘normal’ working day resume for Darwiche’s employees. Social media training is given to all staff at Jannah on their first day.
Jannah’s hiring policy, Darwiche tells us, is to select intelligent and educated staff (mostly with university degrees, he adds), who have the right attitude and character for the company. Skills and experience, Darwiche comments, are secondary to having the right mindset, and the ability to multi-task across departments.
“It is really hard to get in to our company. But once you are in, you are defined as first class talent. Which means you are a very special and talented person. Your job at Jannah is to serve people who are first class like you. We are a first class company. We hire first class talent, serving first class guests.” This is the ‘belief system’ at Jannah hotels Darwiche explains, telling us that attempts to motivate and engage staff mean little if they do not believe in the company.
He says: “They can switch jobs any day, they can stop anytime. To keep going, the employee needs to believe that the work he is doing is aligned with his own personal goal. If your beliefs as the talent, and my beliefs as the company are aligned, then I am successful.”
The name, ‘Jannah’, comes from the Arabic for ‘garden’, or ‘paradise’. It is the result of a dream Darwiche had many years before, featuring an olive tree that would bear turquoise stones instead of fruit. The image stuck with Darwiche and gave the brand both its name and its logo.
Planting the olive tree in Darwiche’s dream was a local Bedouin friend whom he had met during his time working at Anantara’s Qasr Al Sarab, a resort located in the Liwa desert. This friend, Darwiche recalls, greatly inspired him with tales of traditional Arab culture and Bedouin hospitality. The philosophy behind Jannah, Darwiche says, is “modern Bedouin hospitality”.
The philosophy of modern Bedouin hospitality has given Jannah many of its most unique characteristics. Service in his hotels, Darwiche explains, is run by a series of ‘Karim butlers’. ‘There are no name tags, everyone is called ‘Karim’, which means ‘generous’ in Arabic.’ The system, he explains, runs on internal software called ‘Just Ask’. Guests can make all requests to ‘Karim’ via WhatsApp. The details are then processed by an internal call centre, which can see where staff are located (like pins on a map, which Darwiche equates to the Uber system). The guest’s request can then be forwarded on to the nearest member of staff. Hence the need for Jannah staff to multi-task.
Other service driven features of the hotel group include favours for guests, such as stocking and re-stocking minibars, or filling up a car’s tank with petrol, all of which Darwiche insists are charged to the guest at cost, with no mark up and profit made by the hotel for the service.
Hoteliers in the region, Darwiche suggests, have lost their way by focusing on impressing guests with the wrong efforts. “No one cares who has the biggest Christmas tree, for example,” jokes Darwiche.
Article continues on next page...
What guests really care about, he explains, is how fast the internet connection in the hotel is, which he adds, is why Jannah Burj Al Sarab decided to offer the world’s fastest hotel connection.
Guests he continues, care about how long it takes to check in after a long flight, how long porters take to bring the bags to the room, and how much time porters take explaining how TVs and lighting work in the room.
To answer this, Jannah has developed iPad check-in for guests. “I walked into an Apple Store, and there was no cashier. I thought, we could check people in on an iPad, we don’t need a desk.” Jannah staff, he adds, are told not to spend time taking guests through every amenity in the room on arrival. “If the guest really wants to know, there is a video tutorial on the TV they can watch.”
WhatsApp access to a butler and iPad check-in sound like the technology-enabled hotel of the future, and the overnight stay millennials have been dreaming of. That’s why Darwiche has plans for a new budget brand, aimed squarely at the youngest generation of travellers, for which he sees a gap in the market.
With Bedouin hospitality still a key part of the new brand, but combined with a budget-friendly philosophy, the new hotels will be called ‘BedoInn’.
At the time of discussing this project, Darwiche was still weighing up the prospect of launching the first BedoInn in the UAE, Europe, or the US.
“In our research, we found the difference between a junior suite or a deluxe room means nothing to millennials. What makes a difference to them are the facilities available. So we decided to classify the rooms differently.”
As such, he reveals, each ‘pod’ at BedoInn will be classified as a ‘fitness pod’ with facilities such as a treadmill and yoga mat, or for example, a ‘technology pod’ with facilities for playing computer games.
Article continues on next page...
Aimed at travellers 25 years old and under, the BedoInn properties will be located near public transport hubs (“These guys don’t take taxis, they use public transport.”) BedoInn will also focus on ethical operations to appeal to the millennial guest.
“We realise they want to spend money on food, and they want to spend money on seeing attractions. They always seek culture, and they always want to be a part of something. Part of a community that is doing something right for the world. They want to decide on the best deal, but you know how they decide? If there is a hotel that is giving away money to Greenpeace, the millennial will stay in that hotel. BedoInn will represent everything that is ethical. One of its values will be that we do what is good for the world. From amenities, to hiring, to how we engage with the world.”
Darwiche provides examples, such as organic amenities for rooms, sourced from German company Ada, which uses biodegradable packaging. Staff at BedoInn will also be required to sign up for membership to charitable groups such as Greenpeace or Red Cross on joining the hotel. “This will shape the spirit of the team members. What is important is that they join something that is non-profit. Then they are wired to serve the world. Then, every guests that checks in can choose to support one of these groups.”
Darwiche hasn’t stopped at Jannah Hotels & Resorts or BedoInn — he also heads up Andalus Hotels & Resorts, which has one property in Abu Dhabi in the pipeline, the Andalus Al Seef Resort & Spa.
Furthermore, Darwiche Worldwide Legacy is also the parent company of Darwiche Worldwide Restaurants, which launched Moroccan restaurant Kifkif in Dubai, now at two branches.
As Darwiche ploughs on with ambitious plans ahead of 2020, the future of home-grown hoteliers looks stronger than ever.
Article continues on next page...
Jannah Hotels and Resorts: Five key facts and figures about the group
1. Jannah Eastern Mangroves Suites was the first property launched by Jannah Hotels & Resorts. This debut hotel for the UAE-born group opened in September 2013, and offers 88 suites.
2. The internet speed offered to guests at Jannah Burj Al Sarab is 1.2GB per second. According to Jannah, that makes it the world’s fastest internet speed in a hotel.
3. The group’s latest Dubai project is the Jannah Dubai Creek. Expected to open in 2018, the new hotel will have 152 rooms.
4. Jannah’s current rate of growth has seen the group expand to five properties within 2.5 years.
5. Jannah’s current target for growth ahead of 2020, is to open 27 properties. The group aims to increase this number to 33 properties by 2020.
Nehme Imad Darwiche: Five people that inspire me
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan: “He really cared about the people in his country.”
Leonardo da Vinci: “He was very curious and he always learnt from nature.”
Walt Disney: “Because of his ability to imagine.”
Abraham Lincoln: “He was super determined.”
Warren Buffett: “He is very patient, and he does his research all the time.”