Team spirit lands Ahmed Masoud Hotelier Express’ Housekeeper of the Year

The Housekeeper of the Year title was awarded to Ahmed Masoud, who works on the housekeeping team at Premier Inn Dubai International Airport and as a pre-opening housekeeping manager at the Premier Inn in al Jadaf set to open in 2018.

While Masoud wasn’t able to make it to the award ceremony himself, his general manager, Pawel Guminski, collected the award on his behalf.

After collecting the award, Guminski told Hotelier Middle East that Masoud went above and beyond and turned the hotel’s room checkers into actual leaders.

“He took us up on TripAdvisor rating and even on social media. People keep mentioning how great the housekeeping and he says this is not my achievement, this is my team’s work and I think this is why he deserves the award. Because he understands that his job is to motivate the people with him and the people will follow him wherever he goes,” Guminski pointed out.

Since joining in August 2016, Masoud has promoted a team leader into a housekeeping manager at a sister property, a housekeeper into a receptionist and two room attendants into department supervisors; he saved costs through innovative methods via recycling and effective management of housekeeping inventories. Guminski added in the nomination for the awards, in addition to cutting all department costs by 2% compared to last year.

“Ahmed was the person that prepped me and made sure that I was ready to become a manager. As my mentor, he believed in me and always pushed me to never be comfortable, telling me that there is always something new to learn. I will always be thankful to Ahmed’s leadership and for instilling belief in myself,” Alexi Antoniou, operations manager at Premier Inn Dubai International Airport said in the award nomination.

Masoud, who currently mans a staff of approximately 40 people in his team at the at Premier Inn Dubai International Airport hotel will be adding up to 60 more people through the opening of the hotel’s sister property in Al Jadaf. The total room count Masoud is looking after is 670 bedrooms, Guminski noted.

The award, which was picked up on behalf of Masoud by Guminski, was presented by a representative from Diversey, and highly commended was Renzil Colaco from Rove Hotels (see the full shortlist here).

The Hotelier Express Awards 2018 took place at the Grosvenor House Dubai on February 28, 2018, and was supported by a range of industry partners including: A. Ronai, Duni, Diversey, Guest Supply, MMI, OSN For Business, and Tint.