New Shaza Hotels chief executive Michel Novatin gives Hotelier Investor a sneak peek on the work going on behind the scenes to deliver a regionally specific hotel brand with local flavours

What are your immediate priorities for the Shaza Hotels brand?
Since I have joined a couple of months ago, I want to make my first priority to create the story for Shaza. We have ideas, but we have to develop them.

We have been in London to speak to some specialists for the non-alcoholic beverages, to invent a new way to serve drinks without alcohol. I have contact with a great chef to look at the food we are going to serve. As you know in this part of the world we have a lot of history and food but it has to be re-looked at and be adapted to today’s presentation and today’s views.

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We are [also] designing rooms that are different to what you can [find elsewhere]. Right now we are going around the Middle East with focus groups to find out what people really expect and want in an oriental style way of life. We are looking at the Hamman [for example] — we would like to go more to the Hamman idea like the Syrian type of Hammans that used to exist many years ago - these are the types of things we are working on.

What has been the history of Shaza to date?
The story is quite nice. Four and a half years ago the chairman of Guidance Financial Group [Mohamad Hammour] came to see me and said ‘I have a dream — I would like to create a Middle East hotel company that respects the culture of the orient and the Middle East’. So I said yes. There is really no hotel company that does this. There are very famous companies here like Jumeirah, which are big machines that basically run the hotels in the American style. What we would like to do is create the hotel chain that respects the culture and the spirit of this part of the world. A bit like Mandarin Oriental [for the East] — it is something that doesn’t exist in this part of the world. You have Rotana and Jumeirah, which are very good companies, but their hotels are basically like normal hotel chains, very good but you do not find a special spirit when you walk in there in the fragrance, the music, or the food.
We have many ideas that have to be developed in the next six months.

So when are we going to see the first Shaza Hotel?
At the end of 2010.

Where will that be?
It will probably be in Dubai or Marrakech, one of the two. Or probably both together at the same time. Then immediately after we will have five hotels following which will be Cairo, Bahrain, another one in Dubai, Marrakech and probably Geneva. There is a big business of Arab speaking people from the Middle East in Geneva and even London if possible. Why not?