The Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina, the upscale lifestyle resort in Dubai, has extended its facilities to assist the business traveller with the addition of Chef on Demand.
The ‘couture cuisine’ service is available for all Club guests, who can choose their menus, as well as their place of dining.
According to general manager Michael Scully, the decision came after extensive research with Club floor guests, of which more than 50 per cent are made up of frequent business travellers.
Today’s business traveller is looking for a hotel experience that fits into his schedule and lifestyle as seamlessly as possible in terms of service offering, but is accompanied by service excellence, said Scully.
The Chef on Demand concept allows guests to make use of the privacy of the Club facilities, but with the bonus of full dinner service in the evenings if required, rather than just the standard pre-dinner canapés provided by most hotels.
The service is centred around a personal consultation between the Chef on Demand and the guests over breakfast when they can also make use of the Eggs on Demand facility.
Following discussions with the guests, the Chef can prepare whatever they would like for dinner – and serve it wherever they would like in the evening, whether it’s on their private balcony, in a board room, or on the beach.
He pointed out that frequent travellers often prefer to keep their routine as close to normal as possible when abroad, to ensure minimal disturbance to their working life. Which is one of the principal benefits of the concept, which is like couture cuisine: the hotel can work around what the customer wants, which is becoming vital in an increasingly demanding marketplace.
This move is the latest in a series of market-leading ventures at the upscale resort, which saw its revenue outperform every year in its history for 2003.
The property, which underwent significant landscape extensions in 2003, registered a 10.6-percent year-on-year growth in revenue, and a 16-percent increase in average room rate for the year.
The programme of substantial renovations is now almost complete, with the principal phase, the increase of conference and banqueting and facilities, and the extension of the beach and marina to reach 1,200 metres, already paying dividends.