Baig says: “We have been successful in working with selected DJs and promoters who host special events and each have a following of guests not previously familiar with our bar.”
“Dubai has changed, that much is true, but compared to other countries in the Gulf, it has always been more liberal. Dubai is also a happening place — it always was, even 25 years back, but now it has been taken to a new level. Tourism is growing and growing; naturally we have to keep upgrading our bars and nightclubs suit the different tastes of the arriving markets,” says Astoria Hotel food and beverage manager Russel Johnson.
With seven bars and restaurants, the Astoria Hotel in Bur Dubai has developed a positive reputation for entertainment.
Grand Excelsior Bar 24 operations manager Junaid Baig agrees: “Evening entertainment is very important, quality entertainment is one of the main reasons our guests are coming back week after week. Our largest segment of guests in the bar are not guests of the hotel, but the entertainment in the bar certainly helps drive occupancy in the hotel — it’s a team effort, we send new guests to the hotel and they send existing guests to the bar.”
Citymax hotel Al Barsha general manager Shibu Baby adds, “Guests today are looking for unique experiences rather than just a venue for a meal or drink. Entertainment in any form adds to this experience and is a fantastic way to drive footfall and increase the dwell time of customers in the venue. This not only helps with in-house guests staying in the hotel but also attracts many local residents from around the community.”
Operating a bar in the Middle East is not without its challenges, Baig says: “It is a highly competitive market and a key challenge for us is to constantly do better than other bars in terms of entertainment and overall experience. A key way we do this is through our promotions such as ladies night, cabin crew nights and drinks offers to drive footfall.”
Johnson adds: “We have to keep upgrading our bar nightclubs to suit different tastes. That can be a challenge. The only restrictions from the leaders in Dubai is that you have one family restaurant that serves no alcohol — and we have that at the Astoria so there’s no real challenges in operating a bar here. Dubai is rocking, it’s very liberal — there are many restaurants without alcohol so if that’s what you want you will have great options in Dubai.”
Baby suggests: “Dubai has a trend of seeing a new restaurant or bar opening almost every week. This adds tremendous pressure on the existing outlets to do business and retain customers as people are now more spoilt for choice than ever before. This also affects attrition rates in outlets as the service staff tend to move among jobs for a few hundred dirhams.
The increasing beverage costs due to the duopoly of suppliers in this region also poses some challenges.”
Attracting guests to a hotel bar can prove difficult, but with a little ingenuity, there are steps that can be taken to attract non-hotel guests into the venue. Johnson says: “In this area we have a great number of people who are perhaps living on a certain budget —we will cater to these people as well as those who have a higher budget — it’s a buyers’ market so we don’t dictate what happens here, our guests do. We get big-time repeat business from outsiders — they determine what the market provides in this part of Dubai, and we simply cater to their needs.”
Baig says: “We have been successful in working with selected DJs and promoters who host special events and each have a following of guests not previously familiar with our bar. We also have dance lessons by professional dancers, followed by salsa nights, this has proven highly successful in attracting new guests — it’s important to think outside the box and keep your offerings original.”
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