The Hotelier roundtable took place at The Westin Dubai. The Hotelier roundtable took place at The Westin Dubai.

A major challenge for Dubai hotel catering and conference managers is sourcing casual staff for events and functions, according to hoteliers speaking at a recent Hotelier Middle East roundtable.

Director of catering and sales events at Mina Seyahi Complex, Dubai, Lama Semaan, said: “The quality is really bad”.

Raffles Dubai director of conferences and events Corinna Erken said that the standard of casual staff had gone “really downhill”, with no training given to the workers and poor grooming standards.

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“Even holding a plate straight can be a challenge,” said Erken.

Seeman said this was even more challenging for fine dining ballroom events.

“Agencies are just getting people who have no experience in this and people in desperate need of money and taking advantage of them,” she said.

Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek conference & banquet manager Russell Nazareth agreed that the quality of casual staff was “really bad”.

He said one issue was that agencies tried to make hotels sign monthly contracts but that this was not possible because “business is not supporting that”.

“No company right now is ready to supply you on call basis. So it’s very difficult when you need people, there is no ample time to train them on how to hold a tray so it is a challenge,” said Nazareth.

Erken said that there was “a handful of agencies” worth using with two or three coming up over the last year, but said they only had a “certain supply” of staff.