05. Omer Z. Kaddouri, President and CEO, Rotana Hotel Management Corporation PJSC
After heavily investing in digital platforms, Rotana is confident of hitting the 100 operational properties mark by 2020
Home-grown hotel operator Rotana Hotel Management Corporation has had a good year, adding seven new hotels to its portfolio of 50 operational properties.
The pipeline stands at 42 (from 56 last year) bringing the total number of hotels in operation and under development to 99.
The operator’s president and CEO Omer Z. Kaddouri remains confident of hitting 100 operational properties by 2020. Kaddouri has not shied away from admitting the difficult times the industry has faced, but in adversity he has turned to new source markets — resulting in a rise in numbers from GCC, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.
Rotana has also intensified its digital investments. Kaddouri says this has resulted in an “overall online production by 14.08% in occupancy and 2.40% in room revenue (2015 vs 2016)”. Along with developing its own booking channels, Kaddouri has been a fan of OTAs, which led to a 25% rise in occupancy across Rotana’s regional properties and a 9.6% increase in room revenue in 2016 (January–June), versus the previous year.
Kaddouri also persisted in getting Rotana’s F&B outlets on an online booking platform; 56 of its restaurants are on the platform today. He says: “Since its launch in early 2015, we have received online bookings for more than 16,936 covers, a significant majority of which are made via our own websites and mobile app.” Rotana, in the past year, has revamped several F&B outlets and opened new concepts at many of its hotels.
By the numbers:
2.5 Number of years in role
19 Number of years with company
57 Number of Middle East operating hotels
42 Number of Middle East pipeline hotels
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