Shaza's pre-launch preview
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.
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?
A lot has been written about whether the hotels will be Shariah compliant.
There are certain things that we will definitely respect because this was our commitment, but we prefer to speak of the oriental spirit and the oriental spirit happens to have Shariah compliance and therefore no alcohol. But we don’t want to make it sound like an absolute rule; it is just part of the culture. We don’t want it to sound negative.
But will unmarried couples be able to stay there, for example?
Today, if you look at the number of people who are not married in Europe, half of the people live like ‘normal’ people with children and a house, but are just not married. If we want to have 40% of customers from the GCC we also have to look to the way of life of the rest of the world.
This is a good example of the Shariah compliance with certain rules that are part of the oriental and Middle East way of life. Like the Hamman; we will have Hamman for the ladies and a Hamman for the men, but we are not living in the 1900s any more. We will have a pool for the men and a pool for the ladies and a children’s club, because children are very precious in the orient. But this is the kind of spirit we wish to have, not necessarily ‘Shariah compliance’ which can be interpreted in many ways, but we will certainly respect it because it is part of the culture.
So in summary, like a normal hotel, we would allow unmarried couples. Who are we to say today that people must be married when they have children? Who are we to check when they come and say they are married? It is a way of life in the orient. Certain things will be respected. I even think that the non-alcoholic beverages can become a trend. If you look at non-smoking for example; 20 years ago if I had said there would be non-smoking hotels, you would have laughed at me. We are going more toward the healthy way of living.
This is not about Shariah compliance, this is all over the world. You want a healthier life, you want to live longer and no alcohol is part of it and no smoking is part of it.
Shaza Hotels was launched at the Arabian Travel Market several years ago and yet there are still no properties to touch and feel. How difficult is it to maintain interest in something that is in many ways still an idea?
It is more than an idea — we now have seven contracts signed. This means that people believe in us. Our biggest investment is from Doha, Qatar, which is from this part of the world so they obviously believe in us. I am not a Muslim and I know a lot of people who are not Muslim, and every time I talk about the idea, everyone is excited about the prospect of creating something new.
The orient and the Middle East have not really created a hotel chain that respects the culture of this part of the world yet.
I went to Iran a few months ago — I was scared to go to Iran — but when I arrived there I found people who were very open with an incredible culture and incredible history. We don’t even have this in Europe, yet nobody capitalises on it.
For example, another thing we are going to do in our hotels is we are going to try to put art from this part of the world.
Where do you see this? Nowhere.
Between this, between the no-alcohol, between the food and different type of rooms, Hamman instead of spa, it is slowly coming together. I think that within four to five months I will have my act together and we will be much more specific on what we are going to do exactly. Then six months later we will start to work on the first hotel and another six months later the first hotel will open.
The interest is also [demonstrated] by the number of people [asking about the brand].
Last week in Geneva two people came to me for hotels in Sarajevo and I had another Italian come to see me for a project in Kazakhstan, where we haven’t even thought of.
They come to us, so obviously the project really interests people. And yet, we haven’t really done much publicity, but there is definitely an interest in doing something new.
You have seven projects signed and under development. Are you focusing on these or looking at further expansion?
The whole idea is to have 30 hotels within the next six to seven years, and the way that it looks, we should have that.
Would you be open to taking over pre-built properties?
To be able to create an interest and cash flow is to be able to take over some existing hotels. On one condition though, which is that the people who come to us to take them over make the necessary changes to be a Shaza Hotel. For example, if you have a hotel and you have only one spa, we will have to create a second one so that you have a Hamman for ladies and one for men. We will also take the alcohol away from the bar.
The other day I was in England talking about non-alcoholic beverages. They are very creative these days and they can create drinks that basically taste like wine. Another day I went to Cairo, I walked in and asked for a beer and they said ‘yes sir’, even though they don’t serve alcohol any more. They didn’t even say anything, just brought me a non-alcoholic beer.
Times are changing, people are more health conscious.
People travel more and more to have different experiences and different cultures. If we do it right we can succeed quite well.