Arora wants both short- and long-term plans to be implemented soon: “We have to show significant results this year itself.” While the entire project might seem overwhelming, Arora has been there and done that. “I did the exact same thing when I arrived at Ramada Downtown. It was two years ago, with the same issues and exactly the same approach [I had to go with]. And we were able to turn that building around. In terms of customer satisfaction, we sat at 210 on Tripadvisor, today we sit at 63. Staff turnover was close to 40%; last year it was 18%, which is good compared to the market.”
He explains: “Yes the market went backwards, but we did not go by that much. The overall market was down 12%, and we were behind by 7%, these KPIs give you an idea of Ramada Downtown. It needs to be the same in this property, undoubtedly.”
There are some fundamental aspects of the property, however, that would need to be reinvented. The Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham’s arrival experience is not as swanky as some of its competitors, he says frankly. “The whole property needs to be looked at in terms of its look and feel. The arrival experience is the biggest challenge.”
“We are going to transform the entire parking lot, which sits in front of our reception,” Arora says.
In the next six months Arora is confident the parking space will transform into a piece of art. “I have told my interior [designer] that we need to come up with something that the person wants to take a selfie next to. We have also bought a few bicycles that we have branded and will be available for guests to borrow. This will enable them to travel around JBR and Marina. So these are a few ideas we have to alter our parking experience.”
He hopes that these alterations will effect a positive change in guest reviews and feedback, and staff involvement in the property. “[in the initial days] it does involve a bit of micro-management, but generally I am not one to [micro-manage].” Arora has a simple approach to hotel management and signs off by stating: “[My aim is to get the] GOP in line and customer service up to mark.”
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Staff quality and service feedback
Samir Arora, cluster general manager, says: “A prime focus is to get the right leadership on board. So, we are evaluating the leadership in each and every area. We have taken some hard calls to determine whether the people are suited to the roles they are in.”
He says: “My only trusted system is my customer feedback, spending quality time reviewing each and every guest comment. So, we pro-actively solicit feedback by picking up the phone and reviewing performance. Each department is supposed to get five feedbacks per day. We scrutinise all the feedback from social media through a software that collates from all websites.”
Arora states an example that he picked up on one of the customer reviews: “A customer complained we do not have wine openers. Yes we are a dry hotel, but guests are allowed to bring wine in their rooms. We did have wine openers but they went missing because we do not have a procedure to get them back. Now we need to get more wine openers in the rooms and have a proper procedure to collect them from our guests. This is an example, of how we can improve [on feedback].”
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