Earlier this year, Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai began a US $19 million (AED 70 million) renovation across its 302 guest rooms and public areas — including the hotel’s lobby, Lobby Lounge and Dunes Café. While the renovation of the lobby, Lobby Lounge and Dunes Café is completed, the renovation of the guest rooms is being implemented in a phased approach until April 2018, with the first set of rooms set to be ready this month. The serviced apartments and the ballroom will be revamped after that, with the club lounge part of the 2018/2019 programme.

The hotel’s general manager Gerhard Hecker, has been with the property for three years and while the conversation about the refurbishment began before his tenure, he has been at the helm of the operations during the makeover this year.

Hecker tells Hotelier Middle East that the hotel opened 13 years ago and that it was time to “lift the whole outlook” and “position the hotel for what’s the future in the 14 years to come”.

The owners were, Hecker reveals, completely supportive of the project, and in line with Shangri-La’s preference of working with Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA), agreed to work with the international interior design firm.

The choice of interior design consultant, Hecker says, was very important. “Shangri-La has its own style and flavour, so our project division likes to work with HBA, in particular with the Atlanta office, and at the end the owners agreed to use them as design consultants. They are very professional and it was a pleasure to work with them. It’s all about feel and welcome and warmth. You want to be trendy and you want to come out with a product that’s competitive and creates a wow factor. At the same time, you want to give the guest a sense of welcome, warmth, comfort and ‘you’ve arrived’ after the journey, and that was the idea we discussed with them,” explains Hecker.

The work on the lobby began in June 2016, which was hermetically sealed from the rest of the building. The Shangri-La Dubai team then set about operating the hotel from other side, and created a secondary ‘lobby’ and front desk. He says: “We isolated the entire renovation, and in hindsight, it was the smartest thing we could have done.”

Obviously, an ongoing renovation while operations are still live presents a challenge, but Hecker says because the hotel created an alternative for guests, it managed to retain projected business. He comments: “In my years of experience and projects that I’ve managed, as long as you have appropriate alternatives to offer and that the service ambience is there for the guests to appreciate, they buy into it. We didn’t lose any business — people came knowing that there’s a renovation.”

During the refurb, the arrival experience took place at the back of the building, which had red carpets and the concierge team on-site to usher the guests towards the elevator, to take them to the third floor (or the 41st for the Club Lounge) where the temporary lobby was created. With that, the colleagues in the hotel were instructed to be extra careful with managing guests and their expectations.

Hecker says it was important for the colleagues to continue showing personal warmth and welcome to the guests. He adds: “We said to the team, this is your service charge walking through the door despite the renovations, and so we need to be more grateful — and this really hit the core with them.

“I can’t say that we totally got away without little grudges — you can see it on TripAdvisor, people are commenting but it still remains a minority, and the majority was still rating it very highly. This has proved, plus the fact that we kept our business, that we took the right measures.”

When it comes to the lobby, Hecker confirms that it’s a complete overhaul with the exception of buffet features in Dunes Café and the marble flooring. Contemporary art and warm neutral tones are completed by flashes of gold and ruby red detailing, which reflect the jewels of traditional Arabian souks. Glass and gold chandeliers suspend from the ceiling above the Lobby Lounge, above the blue tiger’s eye stone table tops. The blue tiger’s eye stone, which are also placed on the walls near the elevators, have been hand-pieced together.

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