Centara reveals recruitment plans for Doha hotel

Nikhil Pereira, July 9th, 2016

Centara Hotels and Resorts has confirmed it will open the Centara Grand West Bay Doha in Q4 2016, and is focusing its efforts on recruiting Thai and Arabic-speaking team members.

The group announced the appointment of James Robert Wilson as its pre-opening general manager, who shared its pre-opening recruitment strategy with Hotelier Middle East.

“We have appointed the resident hotel manager an internal candidate, the director of human resources another internal candidate, director of engineering and our financial controller who has preopening hotel experience in Qatar,” Wilson said.

The director of sales armed with experience in Qatar will come on board in August 2016, while the executive chef, director of food and beverage will also come during the same time.

He added: “In September 2016 our front office manager and executive housekeeper will come on board and it’s estimated that other line managers will be hired around September 2016, while line staff will be hired by October 2016.”

Along with local experience, Wilson said the focus was on to appoint Thai nationals in the hotel. “We are looking to hire around 20% Thai staff to deliver the culture and service reflective of an international Thai brand while seeking to deliver Thai authenticity in many of the things we do.”

Wilson said the focus will also be on recruiting Arabic-speaking staff, since “we also need to embrace the demands of the local market”.

The hotel has partnered with an agency but continues to receive a number of CVs directly on a daily basis. “We receive, on average, 10 - 12 applications daily from people who have seen our hotel under construction or those who have seen announcements on the internet and social media.”

“We haven't yet started a hard drive to recruit, but so far we have interviewed and shortlisted around 18% of our manning requirement,” he added.