Hotelier Middle East Awards 2016 goes Hollywood

The theme for the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2016 is now official: ‘Old Hollywood Glamour’. The theme is suitably fitting for the “Oscars of the Middle East” for the hospitality industry. The night is set to glitter with a red carpet and walk of fame, as we celebrate the stars of ‘Hotelierwood’.

All entries for this year’s awards need to relate to achievements during the 12 months ending August 2016, and entries in the ‘people’ categories must be supported by up to five customer and colleague testimonials. The deadline for nominations is 11.59pm on Wednesday, August 31. After this date, submissions will no longer be accepted.

Nominations are only valid when made through Survey Monkey using the links provided on the awards website — nominations in any other format will not be accepted by the editorial team.

The nominations will be judged by a jury of industry peers — who will be announced in the next issue of Hotelier Middle East.

As nominations are now open, we present another handy guide, on filling in your entries. Good luck!

Tips for entering

Think quality

The Hotelier Middle East Awards 2016 invites nominations from individuals and companies across 17 categories. But don’t employ a scattergun approach. No matter how big an organisation, it will be stronger in some fields than others; and the same can be said of its employees.

With this in mind, take a selective approach to nominations. Choose categories that best represent the key strengths and achievements of your company or nominated individual. It’s better to submit five nominations that play to your key strengths rather than enter every category in a haphazard manner.

Of course, if you feel that you have multiple staff members who merit a particular award, feel free to nominate them all. Naturally, quality will always beat quantity but if you’re in the fortunate position of being able to submit several high-quality nominations, please do. We want to celebrate your achievements, so this is no time for modesty; instead this is your chance to tell the Middle East community exactly what you’ve been doing and how well you’ve been doing it.

Don’t enter on the last day

Entries that have been thrown together at the last minute stand out for all the wrong reasons. No matter how impressive a concept, team or individual is, their excellence will not shine through unless the information is presented in a clear manner. The final decisions of our judges will be based primarily on the factual information offered, but the approach that you take to the nomination process should mirror the thorough, methodical strategy that you take during your day-to-day business activities. In planning and compiling your submissions, include every piece of pertinent information — you wouldn’t want to lose out to a competitor because you neglected to mention something that they remembered.

It’s business

Take a moment to think about the types of detail that would impress you if you were presiding over the entries. What is it about your company, concept, team or individual that makes it stand out from the competition? Remember that we are a business magazine, and these are business awards. We care about how well your property is doing, and how individual team members are contributing to its financial success. Any figures shared will stay anonymous, but information such as percentage change in revenue due to the implementation of a new policy, for example, will help judge how successful you are as a business.

Don’t get penalised!

After putting in all this effort, you do not want to risk missing out on a technicality. Make sure you stick to our word counts to ensure fairness among the vast number of entries. Over-long entries will be penalised or disqualified. Please remember to only submit entries via Survey Monkey and read the entry guidelines beforehand at www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/awards. If you follow these instructions, you can rest assured that you have given yourself the best possible chance of winning a coveted Hotelier Middle East Award.

Award categories

1. Fitness/Spa Person of the Year
2. Concierge/Guest Services Person of the Year
3. Housekeeper of the Year
4. IT Manager of the Year
5. Hotel Engineer of the Year
6. Safety & Security Person of the Year
7. HR & Training Person of the Year
8. Procurement Person of the Year
9. Finance Person of the Year
10. Sales Person of the Year
11. Marketing & PR Person of the Year
12. Executive Chef of the Year
13. F&B Manager of the Year
14. Young Hotelier of the Year
15. Unsung Hero of the Year
16. GM of the Year
17. Hotel Team of the Year