The Hyatt Regency Dubai has changed the manner in which it operates its back-of-house — a facility within a hotel’s premises that’s frequented by staff to dine and also includes other departments such as sales and marketing and human resources.
The management at the property in Deira decided to give its entire back-of-house not just an aesthetic do-over, but change it functionally as well. Its then general manager Fathi Khogaly — now heading the Grand Hyatt Dubai since April 2016 — believes “if our colleagues are happy, they will make our guests happy”. Khogaly says the idea was to put “human care” at the heart of the operations.
Rationale and objective
“We undertook a massive remodelling project at the hotel by creating a work environment for our colleagues that is modern, fun and creative. We broke the barriers between our guest area (front-of-the-house) and team area (back-of-the-house). They have now merged. It is a pioneering concept in hospitality, perhaps the first in the world,” Khogaly tells Hotelier Middle East.
| Advertisement |
The Hyatt Regency Dubai has been a part of the city for a better part of 35 years and Khogaly has served at the property for a long time, rising through the ranks across Hyatt Hotels in the UAE, while eventually becoming the general manager of the property, an office he held since the year 2014.
Khogaly strongly believes in empowering the staff. “Over the years, I have learnt to believe in people, in the power of being positive and having a vision. All my decisions are centred on motivating my team to achieve our business goals, as well as mentoring them and ensuring their career growth is constant.”
Concept and investment
The project is described as Khogaly’s “pet project” by the heads of other departments, and the concept was seen into fruition over the course of two years. “The plan was to do this project at a minimal cost and in various stages. The entire design has been conceptualised by our colleagues. Team members from each department were encouraged to come up with innovative ideas to design their own work space,” Khogaly says.
He adds: “The engineering team of the hotel then implemented the design. The building material was procured at a minimal cost and was expensed over two years.”
The programme in practice
The result was a staff canteen — The Avenue — at the heart of the project surrounded by several other facets such as a wine cellar complete with large wooden barrels et al, along with a revamped internal briefing room. The sales and marketing department and the engineering departments received a facelift too.
“Things have been done in such a way that the internal meeting room is leased out to clients when there is a high demand for our existing facilities,” he adds.
Our tour begins from The Avenue and changes can be seen all through the revamped departments that traditionally make up the back-of-house operations. Along the way a wall depicts all the past general managers of the property.
Khogaly says guests, and even fellow hoteliers, have been invited to take a tour of the metamorphosis the hotel has undergone.
But it’s not the American diner-style seating booths or the British telephone box (which actually has a functioning phone) that stands out; the engineering department ensured they tied all the loose ends, which included the remote corners of the hotel. We were told that the crowning jewel for the chief engineer was tidying up the phone room, now transformed into a futuristic looking control room mimicking a space station.
Results to date
Analysing the results of two separate surveys, the changes seem to have definitely influenced the vibe in the hotel. “The positivity that this project generated amongst the team members has reflected in high numbers in the 2015 Guest Satisfaction Survey as well as in the Employee Satisfaction Survey. In the ‘Great Place to work’ Survey, Hyatt Regency Dubai earned the highest rank (95%) amongst all Hyatt hotels in the UAE,” Khogaly explains.
He claims that business has gone up as well especially from large groups and meeting planners who fancy the “walk-in policy” of the hotel’s BOH area. “Since The Avenue is also open to public, it has started generating revenue for the hotel as well,” Khogaly concludes.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
