Sneak Peek: Nikki Beach Resort & Spa Dubai

Nikki Beach Resort & Spa Dubai is set to open its doors in December 2016. Located on Dubai’s Pearl Jumeira, it will be the brand’s fourth hotel property to open worldwide — and the largest in the world. Developed in partnership with Meraas, the resort spans over 52,000m2 on a private beach, offering views over the Arabian Gulf as well as the Dubai skyline.

Inspired by the vision of Jack Penrod, founder and owner of Nikki Beach Worldwide, Nikki Beach Resort & Spa Dubai has been designed in collaboration with DSA Architects International with interiors by Gatserelia Design. The five-star resort features 132 keys comprising 117 rooms and suites, alongside 15 villas. Additionally, there are 63 residence units ranging from one to four bedrooms and two penthouses.

The property is situated on a 450m beachfront, with amenities including Nikki Spa, Tone Gym, Café Nikki, Key West, Nikki Privé, and the Nikki Beach Dubai Restaurant and Beach Club.

Its general manager, Alexander Schneider, joined earlier in 2016. “Contrary to popular opinion, it was a good time to join a pre-opening team because I could bring in a fresh set of eyes and evaluate the things that have been done and compare these to the overall brand intent — because this is what I feel gets lost in the opening process,” he says.

He continues: “We have been spending a lot of time in further driving the brand intent of Nikki Beach Resorts not only for Dubai, but in general, to ensure that all the services we are planning to implement are right on. This is one of the most important disciplines these days: is what my operation going to bring to the guest really reflecting my brand promise? Here we have really achieved a fantastic mix of quirky elements, unique services which have one common denominator: the look, feel, tone, touch of Nikki Beach.”

Schneider also discusses his focus on recruitment and finding the right people for the project.

He reveals: “We have around 250 employees on-board but we already have 57 nationalities. We feel that Dubai is a global destination and people want a cosmopolitan experience.

“We have a very strong persona which defines the sort of talent that we’re looking for — the backgrounds and the skillsets. We were successful in attracting people not only from all over the world but also from a range of hospitality-related industries.”

Schneider is also against poaching, and says candidly: “Usually when people open hotels, they poach from the neighbouring hotels. In our case, only 20% of our staff have previous UAE experience. There’s a strong European influx [in the team] but it’s a global mix and I have personally interviewed each and every candidate that joined.”

He adds: “What made this mission special is that we opened our beach club in March. You have this interesting tension between having one part that is operating, and one part that is still in pre-opening. You need to split your brain in half — one operational half, one pre-opening half. That has been an interesting part of my everyday life.”

Schneider is keen to ensure he hires the right talent. He says: “In every good hotel, it always starts with talent, training and empowerment of talent. If you get this right, you can make yourself as a GM almost obsolete. In this way I’m trying to create a system where every individual has the skillset, the knowledge and the empowerment to be able to run his operation like an entrepreneur.”

He likens this to standalone restaurants with an entrepreneurial edge where the “battle for every customer is genuine”. He adds: “In many hotel restaurants you still have this feeling that guests come and go. I feel this happens very often because in hospitality, especially in hotels, we try to squeeze people in such a tight corset of standard operating procedures, dos and don’ts... and with this we lose the spirit — and spirit is usually what guests are coming for.”

The general manager is convinced Nikki Beach Resort & Spa has this spirit. He says the team and the brand are focused on intuition and soft values. “This makes us so successful. We have hosted just short of 100,000 guests at the beach club in six months. When you look at the feedback we’re getting, it’s not that it’s one of the most luxurious propositions from the hardware but that it’s a meaningful place when it comes to genuine interaction between guests, staff members, music, entertainment and product. This is what we will also see at the overall resort.”

Focusing on people is the hotel’s director of talent resources & development, Yvonne Wang, who joined the team at the beginning of October 2016. She says she is keen to continue the work carried out in the pre-opening stage when it comes to recruitment and training. She says: “In the post-opening stage, we need to focus on retention and engagement to make sure that the best talent that we have acquired will be engaged and stay with us. We have a really diversified talent force from different backgrounds and different experience.”

One of the challenges she faces is the breakdown of the employee demographic. “When we look at the age demographic, we have over 50% millennials and our leadership is unique where around 80% are Gen Y. So we need to keep them interested and passionate about their work.”

In addition to creating 360-degree engagement overviews for each employee, Wang says she will focus on tailored training based on people’s roles — especially for those not used to the lifestyle service offering — and behavioural training.

When it comes to the target market, while Schneider says the customers will be a global mix, there is a “unique buy-in from the GCC”, especially from the UAE. “We were, for instance, not expecting to be so family-centric, but we see a lot of demand from young families.

“It feels like you’re checking out of Dubai when you come here. With this getaway factor being so close to the heartbeat of Dubai, staycations will become huge for us,” he adds.

Another element for the resort will be working with corporate luxury brands, reveals director of sales Lena Wantjer.

In addition to working with key DMCs in Dubai with overseas traction, Wantjer says many other beach resorts in the city don’t focus on corporate demand, “whereas we get such a great demand from corporate, especially luxury brands that want to be associated with Nikki Beach”.

“So we have quite a focus on the corporate market. We didn’t want to go with big volume operators, rather we chose partners who deal with clients directly — more the B2C approach and lifestyle agents,” Wantjer says.

She adds: “When it comes to MICE, we have a limited inventory, so it’s small incentives, it’s high-end. We can’t do a lot of corporate meetings but we can do social events, destination weddings. That’s where we position ourselves in MICE: high-end and boutique.”

Schneider is also convinced that the brand will actively drive guests to Dubai because of the loyalty to the Nikki Beach brand. He gives an example: “For the first White Party we had people flying in from Majorca, San Tropez, Marbella, and even from Miami. So I think we really contribute to the demand of Dubai. We give it a certain element that we create visitors — obviously not in a way that you will see an increase of 10% in arrivals to Dubai — but at this stage it is super important for Dubai to bring brands that draw customers in and not create propositions that are forced to steal from the existing pie. With our size, we are not forced to steal. We have a good amount of new visitors coming to Dubai who come due to the brand, and we will have a very good positioning in the market overall.”

Schneider acknowledges the growing supply of rooms on the market, but says with 132 keys, he has a property that’s ideal for current market conditions. “Is it going to be easy? Probably not. But it is important that the industry and the rates stick to the brands, and this is the most critical part right now, especially in F&B. If you sell cheap, you need to buy cheap. If you buy cheap then you just don’t give the real thing anymore to the guests.

“And that’s my biggest fear when it comes to a buyer’s market — some propositions might get a little bit desperate and they drop the rates and that’s dangerous for the destination. It’s very good that we have this influx of mid-market now in the destination because it takes the motivation away from luxury brands to try and dip into the mid-market — because now somebody’s there to slap them across the wrist and tell them that you have no reason of being here.

“If you provide a great experience, if you provide great food and great service, you can literally charge no matter what the market says. But if you become mediocre and comparable to the rest, then you need to go with the flow.”

Sticking to his guns, Schneider says the team doesn’t believe in a ‘soft opening rate’, because it’s important to educate clientele on long-term rates rather than starting off with lower prices. And since the hotel is opening in a strong demand period, rates will start around AED 1,500-2,000 (US $410-545).

Schneider terms social media and digital strategy as “vital” and “essential” to the property. Assisting with that remit is Nikki Beach Resort & Spa, Dubai public relations & communications manager Claudia Olaru who on-boarded in November 2015 from Doha.

She has since been in charge for the marketing strategy for pre-opening and the media plan, booking advertisings, and securing editorial for the pre-opening. Since the beach club opened in March 2016, she has also been working extensively for marketing the events, and organising photoshoots on-site.

Discussing social media, she says: “We are focusing most of our digital marketing strategy on social media, online marketing, and SEM. With Instagram being super powerful, we will also continue focusing on Facebook and Snapchat. We launched Snapchat recently and we have received so many mentions on it from social media influencers and bloggers.”

Schneider continues: “Our entire marketing environment is upside down in a positive way right now. We can now create content that would have been too complex to share through classic media. But with things like Instagram Stories, Facebook Live feeds, we can create spontaneous and very human videos and contributions and share them across social media channels — we have been handed a golden opportunity to explain our brand much better.”

He is open to working with influencers as he believes their subjective opinions lend credibility to their followers.He shares an example: “For our Nikki Privé Ladies Night opening, we shot a Boomerang video sequence which, within 12 hours, received 15,000 likes. These are obviously things that also fit our brand. If I was in a super-conservative cookie-cutter brand with 10,000 hotels worldwide, would I have difficulties doing the same? Yes, because I don’t have this organic brand I can use.”

Schneider returns to his talent base as a key element of the property’s operations, and says he is confident they will lead the resort to success. He concludes: “We are in the people’s business and that will always remain — no matter how smart I make my TV, how fancy I make my check-in process. Look on Booking.com or TripAdvisor, you name it, what do people write about? Amazing interaction with amazing people, or amazing food, which is still produced by people.”