The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company president and chief operating officer SIMON COOPER paid a flying visit to the group’s property in Bahrain and took time out for a chat with LIZ O’REILLY
How has Ritz-Carlton worldwide and in the Middle East fared during the economic downturn?
It began before the rest of the world in North America, particularly denoted by the cancellation of groups from the banking sector and financial services. It was exacerbated by companies taking funds out of having functions in big hotels.
Then we began to see the rest of the world catching up in early 09.
The Middle East was highlighted by Dubai, occupancies have not been too bad but yield has dropped. It carried on towards the end of the year but now things are starting to come back a little.
One of the good things in Bahrain is that there is limited hotel supply and as a result it is one of the few hotels where we didn’t have to lay anyone off.
North America is going to be slow to recover in terms of individual corporate travel though group travel is starting to come back.
We’re still not seeing credit available, deal making is not happening in the same way as in 2007/08 so you don’t have the groups of lawyers, planners etc travelling to make the deals. With investment comes business travel.
The Middle East is coming along but the challenge is the increase in supply. There’s no doubt that places like Doha, which two years ago had more demand than supply, are changing. The demand has not increased but the supply has.
Is Ritz-Carlton in the region more a leisure or business brand?
The original Dubai Hotel, which is on the beach, is a leisure property whereas the one that is coming at Dubai Finance Centre will be a business hotel, and the rumours of the sale of this property will make no difference to us as we do not own the property, simply manage it. Doha and Bahrain have both and when the Nile Hilton, which is currently undergoing a major refurbishment, reopens as the Nile Ritz-Carlton, it will be a purely leisure hotel.
Any new properties coming?
We are working hard to get into Oman and Abu Dhabi – we have signed two management agreements with Aldar Properties and will be in Abu Dhabi in the next little while. We have another one in Egypt with the Mansour Group at Palm Hills and we continue to look at Saudi Arabia and to lust after Lebanon, Beirut is such a great city we would love to be there. Cairo is also in the top five places we need to be so we are certainly looking at further new properties.
What makes the Ritz-Carlton an award-winning brand?
There are four things to take into account.
The first is the location, our customers expect us to be where they want us to be, the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain is an ideal example of that as it has a great location.
Second is the physical product and the amenities to sell rooms. We have to position for success and a lot of my job is deciding the right location and which product will work best there, that’s decided before we open the doors.
The third is the people you hire. It’s worth taking the time to hire the right people with the right attitude.
And fourth is the leadership. Our hotels are often in remote locations such as Bahrain, I and other members of the senior management team will maybe get here a couple of times a year. Which means your general manager is the Ritz Carlton.
You can have the other three but if you have poor leadership you won’t be successful.
Recruitment and retention is a particular problem in the Middle East, how does Ritz-Carlton attract and retain quality staff?
You have to give them an environment that they enjoy and compensation is important, staff have to know that they are being equitably treated.
We also aim to give employees a social life, specially in a place like this where many of them are on contract, we have employee accommodation across the road and many of them will only go home once a year.
Some of the work will be repetitive but you try to find people who are good at what they do and show them respect for it.
We spend a lot of time communicating our core values and we communicate gold standards both to employees and guests – one of these is that we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.
Every single day our line-up at the start of the day has a theme which comes from corporate office.
For around 15 minutes, before everyone goes on shift, departments get together to talk about what is happening within the group, such as a new opening. This happens in every department of every hotel around the world and also in our corporate office.
It’s a great communication tool, it gives people the chance to ask questions or raise points. We put a lot of energy into line-up.
What’s happening with the Bulgari co-operation, is there any chance of a Bulgari Hotel coming to the Middle East?
Bulgari Bali opened three years ago and there are four we’re working on.
Of course Bulgari wants to be in major cities where it is selling its products and can find and create an exquisite location which will be close to retail.
There are certainly places in the Middle East where this could happen.
Anything to add?
I’m glad 09 is over, it’s not going to rebound as quickly as we’d like but it will.