THERE’S a good year ahead for Abu Dhabi’s hotels – but certainly, some will see a better year than others. TTN caught up with the ever-quality-concious Moine Kandil, general manager of the Millennium Hotel Abu Dhabi, to find out how he’s looking at 2007 Excerpts:
What are your plans for 2007?
The Millennium Hotel Abu Dhabi has now been opened for four years and has established itself in the market as a premier business hotel. It has also established a good number of repeat customers in rooms and F&B outlets. Our plans for 2007 are to penetrate the market aggressively and capture a greater portion of the resident expatriate community to increase turnover in our F&B operations.
How do you expect occupancies to increase in 2007?
Our expectation for room occupancy in 2007 is very optimistic because our rooms have been labelled as being amongst the most spacious and best equipped in the city, and are therefore in very high demand; our city centre location lends itself to being the best hotel for business people; as well as because of an extensive calendar of exhibitions, coupled with the major developments taking place in Abu Dhabi. This is not to mention the increasing influx of leisure business that is coming into the city and although we are not getting a major portion of it due to the lack of beach facilities, but still, it provides us with a few extra rooms.
Where are your current source markets and what new markets are you looking to tap?
Our current source markets are the Gulf and European countries, namely the UK, Germany, France. We are going to tap the Russian market and the Far East particularly Singapore and Malaysia.
What can the customer expect from the Millennium Hotel Abu Dhabi?
The customers of the hotel can expect very courteous and personalized service from well-trained staff with a ‘Yes We Can’ motto, availability of all facilities and updated state-of-the-art equipment to service their needs, different promotional events and activities to keep them entertained in the Hotel throughout the year.