LM: How many members does the club have?
Cordero: Griffins Health Club is limited to 375 to 400 active members.
Kenyon: We have around 1000 members.
Franzen: Club Olympus has more than 300 yearly memberships and a host of day visitors, especially on the weekends; including families and children.
Besides the permanent members, hotel guests are using the facility on a very frequent basis. There are many different types of members at Club Olympus; fulltime regular members who reside in Muscat, hotel guests and occasional users mainly on the weekends.
Brom: On average we receive around 300 to 400 visitors daily during the week and about 600 during weekends or public holidays. All of our Sports Club members have access to the fitness centre and other resort facilities, including the private island.
Weerasiriwardena: We have around 1000 members including single-, couple- and family memberships.
Advertisement
LM: Is the hotel spa part of the recreation facilities?
Cordero: The spa services available are a part of the recreation facilities to provide convenience for guests and members.
Kenyon: Zen, the spa at Rotana, is a separate department to ensure we meet guest expectations as the Beach Club and Zen have specific clientele and therefore specific needs, so we must tailor our services and facilities to fit these.
Brom: The spa is seen as a separate department mainly because of the size and volume of users on each side.
The decision to separate the two gives us the possibility to provide better services and respond faster to the demands of our guests and members.
Franzen: Star Salon is incorporated into the overall experience within the hotel grounds, but it is operated by a professional spa company, whereas the hotel runs the Club Olympus facilities. We feel that the running of a spa requires the dedication of a specialised company providing professional, up-to-date treatments.
Weerasiriwardena: The spa is part of the sports and leisure department. When Jumeirah Beach Hotel opened 11 years ago, the spa industry had not yet reached the high popularity that it holds in the UAE region today.
As such, the health suite functioned under The Pavilion Marina and Sports Club and not as a separate department. We have found the spa facilities often go hand-in-hand with recreational facilities and physical activity for our guests and members.
LM: Is it difficult to find properly-certified staff?
Weerasiriwardena: We have strict requirements and go to great lengths to ensure that we only hire the most qualified colleagues possible. We are fortunate that as a reputable sports centre and through associations with Jumeirah — an employer of choice — we attract professionals of the highest calibre.
Franzen: Finding the right staff is a challenge. We look for internationally-recognised accreditations in physical education; some of our staff have a Bachelors degree or even a Masters. A must for all employees is to have an up-to-date first aid certificate; a course we repeat annually for staff at the hotel.
Cordero: Certified fitness professionals are readily available. Our trainers and lifeguards are certified and we are making sure their certificates are current by sending them for continuous training. International Certification is a must.
Kenyon: Ideally internationally-recognised qualifications are best, but they’re not always possible to find and with standards still not set by the government, it’s still very much a grey area. However experience also counts for a lot. There are now internationally-recognised training organisations in the UAE, which provide the qualifications needed to develop individuals and therefore improving on the services offered by hotels.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
