There has been a general sense of unease within Qatar’s economy, mainly due to the dwindling oil and gas prices. Food and beverage revenues have taken a slight dip, given the redundancies in the private sector, which has impacted spending power at restaurants.
However, for W Doha, the story is quite different; its four F&B outlets and two bars/lounges have reported consistently high footfall. Spice Market, the hotel’s largest F&B outlet, for example, located on the mezzanine floor, has seen strong numbers. “We can seat up to 200 guests at a time at Spice Market and, in all honesty, it’s full every night,” says W Doha’s B&F director, Arun Narayanan, as he replies to Whatsapp messages and takes calls to confirm bookings across all of the hotel’s outlets.
Narayanan confirms reservations for more than 20 guests in the short time we spend with him. “I am in touch with our regular guests and patrons, sometimes even taking their messages on other social media channels.” The process is seamless, as Narayanan, who has been with the property for five years, passes the reservations on to the relevant outlet managers.
The hotel’s executive chef, Kim Hyung Gyu, joins us at Market by Jean-Georges, and the two explain how operations have gone well-beyond the hotel premises.
Gyu, who was promoted to his current role from executive sous chef last year, says: “In January and February this year we had the Moto GP, for which we were doing 1,000-1,500 covers per day. That’s just [outdoor] catering; at the same time, all the restaurants [in the hotel] were fully booked. Then, after the last day of the Moto GP, we had the W World Summit happening in the hotel.”
Narayanan adds that during this time, three F&B outlets in the hotel — Market by Jean-Georges, Spice Market and La Spiga — averaged 750 covers every night between them. He says: “We did the Jewellery Show thereafter, in which we were averaging about 1,000 covers daily, both lunch and dinner. At the same time, we catered to each exhibitor’s requirements. All of them had their own menus, and they could order and we would deliver to their individual requirements.”
As if all of this wasn’t enough, in March this year, the F&B team took on the task of transforming the Emir’s Palace into a hotel “complete with housekeeping, check-in, concierge, F&B services and operations”, Narayanan says.
The challenges were abundant for this type of project. Gyu says: “I’ve never had a busier time than I did for those few months, and I’ve worked in some of the busiest places in the world. [Here] it’s not just busy at the restaurants; we also have logistical challenges. We have to transport food, and satisfy all the organisers.”
Another feather in the team’s cap was opening and successfully running standalone outlets in two separate locations in Doha. One is La Spiga by Paper Moon located in Umm Ghuwailina, an outlet that also has a presence in the hotel. Initially, the restaurant within the hotel was managed by a third-party company. “We asked them to leave because we were capable of managing it, and brought in the Italian concept,” Narayanan says. The success prompted the management to open the standalone outlet in 2014.
The second standalone outlet is a café that W Doha manages and operates at Hamad International Airport. In operation for nearly a year, Narayanan says: “In the entire airport, we are the only outsourced café, and probably with the best location. That’s definitely an indication of the hard work we have put in.”
“And, we are not done yet,” Gyu laughs as he reminds Narayanan about another operation the team is involved in. “We started doing in-flight caterings for the Emir’s flight – the royal jets,” he says.
They also reveal to Hotelier Qatar that 45 butlers from W Doha work at the Emir’s royal airport. “This is a different unit, and a different approach, which is seen as a different business unit altogether,” Narayanan says.
Narayanan says diversification of operations was the way forward for the hotel. “Qatar went through difficult times with the oil prices. I think what kept us as industry leaders were all the things we started,” he says. “All our partnerships and growth plans — the airport café, the standalone La Spiga restaurant we opened outside the hotel in 2014, events and so on .”
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