The Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh crowned Hotel Team of the Year 2018

The Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh was crowned the Hotel Team of the Year at the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2018.

The hotel, which was faced with an atypical situation over the last year, rode through the challenges and came out on top. In November last year, the hotel had to completely handover the reign to the government for a period of three months. When they vacated the premises of guests, the staff stay put without any clear indication of an end date.

In spite of this, with perseverance, trust and confidence to the process, the hotel acted as a team and got through an uncertain period together.

Some of the hotel’s accomplishments include playing host to highly positioned dignitaries individuals visiting and staying long-term at the hotel, IT designed a smart and innovative internet solution which generated substantial revenue for the hotel. But before the lock out, the hotel witnessed a 34% growth in website bookings compared to 2016 and even saw a 116% rise in rewards enrolments.

Successful deployment of internet solutions, Wi-Fi, IPTV projects and infrastructures, a project management worth US $500,000. IT designed a smart and innovative internet solution during US president’s visit, an initiative that has generated additional $150,000 revenue for the hotel. The hotel also developed the upselling strategy for hotel internet service to include additional revenue sources through adding an enhanced internet service as an option for guests.

When asked about the win, The Ritz-Carlton Riyadh director of human resources Abdulrahim AlHazmi said: “It’s simple. We take care of our employees and they take care of our customers, that’s our basic philosophy and we have a fantastic team on hand that stayed through the challenges. This helps us achieve the positive outcome.”

The Ritz-Carlton Riyadh team received the award from Kathryn Muirhead, marketing specialist from MMI at the ‘Taste of India’ themed affair on October 24, 2018 at the Le Méridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre.

The Highly Commended nominee in this category is Raffles Dubai.

The full list of nominees in this category are:

• Address Dubai Marina
• Crowne Plaza Bahrain
• InterContinental Hotel Jeddah
• Media One Hotel
• Palazzo Versace Dubai
• Raffles Dubai
• Taj Dubai
• The Ritz-Carlton Riyadh