OUR business happens when a customer meets a colleague, and that’s the fulcrum of our business, Guy Hutchinson, Rotana’s new chief operating officer, tells TTN. “Our profitability, our market share – everything comes out of this interaction. And so we measured it and found out that on an average there are about 76 interactions between a customer and a colleague, that’s 76 opportunities to impress or goof up.”
It is basic human nature that 25 per cent of these interactions will go wrong – it’ll never be perfect, concedes Hutchinson. “And the ability of a good team lies in how you recover from those mistakes. How you make it right makes or breaks your business. The customer has to leave feeling that all 76 of those interactions were satisfactory, otherwise one goes wrong and we find it on TripAdvisor.” Hutchinson, who joined Rotana in January this year, brings with him extensive experience in the luxury hospitality industry from markets as diverse as Japan, Australia, China and India, in addition to a previous stint in the Middle East. Apart from himself, what’s new at the home-grown UAE hospitality brand is the fact that it’s spreading its wings outside of the Middle East. “We’re very confident, and sure about how we operate in the Middle East, but to take this outside our comfort zone, to take the Rotana culture outside the Middle East and still operate in the same way, that is the challenge we face this year.”Hutchinson moves to Abu Dhabi from New Delhi, where he served as vice-president operations – India for Hilton Worldwide. He has been welcomed into the Rotana family at a crucial time, to take a successful regional brand and ensure its success outside the region.
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Burgu Kule Arjaan by Rotana, one of six planned Rotana properties in Istanbul, Turkey |
“There’s a lot that’s new in Rotana. It’s hard to put it all in one place. The big property for us this year will be The Burgu Kule Arjaan by Rotana, which will have a total of 222 rooms, in Istanbul, Turkey. This will be one of seven properties planned in Turkey, six in Istanbul and one in Bodrum.Another Istanbul property is the Tango Kule Arjaan by Rotana.These Istanbul hotels, in the heart of the Asian district, are a mark of bigger things to come for Rotana. Next there’s the 400-suite Boulevard Arjaan by Rotana in Amman, Jordan; Rotana’s first Afghanistan property Silk Arjaan by Rotana in Kabul; and Rosh Rayhaan by Rotana in the heart of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. These properties are expected to be ready by the end of this year. “We’re also looking at Tanzania in Africa, we’ve had developers out of Australia who’ve asked us to come to the continent and open shop there but whatever we do, we have to be able to operate our hotels the way they operate today. So, we’re not going to go all over the place all at once.“The worse thing that could happen is if we wake up one morning with 40 hotels abroad and we cannot make out whether we’re a Rotana, a Marriott or a Crowne Plaza. We’re really looking at measured growth.”The culture in Rotana is hands on, explains Hutchinson, in that it stands out from the global brands because it’s a nice hotelier. “This is the main reason I joined Rotana. With the global operators, there is often a disconnect with ownership. For the owner, his development is one of the most important things he does, but when you go to a global operator that manages 4,000 such hotels, often it’s not on the same place in the priority scale.” About 30 per cent of our ownership is repeat, adds Hutchinson, and repeat customers mean happy customers. “If we have this conversation two years from now the situation will be very different. This is just the beginning of our international expansion. The value of the company will multiply.”The recently opened Salalah Rotana Resort is the second hotel to open at Salalah Beach, which is one of the first of its kind and one of the largest integrated tourism complexes (ITCs) in Oman. The hotel’s 400 rooms and suites are set in between an elaborate network of manmade waterways that connect all waterfront hotels and residential areas in Muriya’s Salalah Beach Resort to the Indian Ocean.“This is just a lovely resort and I think it will do really well,” says Hutchinson.
By Rashi Sen
