Although the Sheraton is not completed yet, what are the major services and characteristics of the hotel?
The room base for the hotel is of 290 units, of which 48 will be executive suites are located on the top two floors of the hotel. These are larger sized rooms, around 48 square meters, with an executive lounge and complimentary breakfast. The remainder of the rooms are standard guest rooms, with three suites on every floor, and one royal suite on the top floor.
Looking at the conferencing facilities, the Sheraton will also have the largest ballroom in Jordan, over a thousand square meters, and totally pillarless. It will surely be a unique selling point. We will also have state-of-the-art conferencing facilities, in terms of audio visual equipment and satellite conferencing services, which will also be the first in this market. We will ensure a very high standard of conferencing facilities in the Sheraton, especially since we are looking at generating up to 50% of our food and beverage revenues from that sector.
Restaurants will include the "Spice Garden" restaurant , a relaxed area with a slight Asian twist to it, overlooking the lobby of the hotel which will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have an Italian restaurant, a Lebanese restaurant, a lounge lobby for cocktails in the evening, and we also have a bar, "The Safari Bar" which, as you can imagine, has an African safari theme to it.
Of course, we also have a health club, with a large, Olympic size outdoor swimming pool, a jacuzzi, and we are working with Power House Gym to bring in state-of-the-art gym equipment, sauna, steam bath, as well as a restaurant area at the pool and a wedding terrace on the roof which could be used for wedding parties in the summer.
We are also running the Entertainment Centre, which is adjacent to the hotel. This is a satellite operation which we inherited as part of the project, which we will later amalgamate as part of the hotel operations. We have four outlets there; the "Café de Paris" which is a popular summer venue when the weather gets better and where the high society of Amman likes to come and relax on the patio. Then we have the Irish Pub, "Big Fellows", which we opened a three months ago and is doing quite well. There is the "Piano Piano", which is another club, but we stopped the entertainment due to a lack of demand and turned it into a private function for small parties. We also have the "Alafendi", which is another Lebanese restaurant, which is doing well but maybe not as well as we would like... Attached to the hotel is a shopping mall, which should open sometime in 2003, with 60 outlets and 5 cinemas.
It seems as though numerous hotels are also building shopping malls. Is that true?
This is true. All around these Arabic countries people either seem to build shopping malls, hotels or cinemas. There seems to be huge investments in that kind of operation, and I know that "Le Royal" hotel is also planning on building a huge shopping mall with ten cinemas.
As a matter of fact, numerous other hotels are being built presently, like Le Royal and the Four Seasons. The question on everyone's mind is: Why did everybody suddenly decide to build hotels in Amman? Was it because of the peace process?
We signed the management contract in 1995, and I think this was a time of relative euphoria regarding the effect of the peace process on the area. At this time, the smart entrepreneurs borrowed money and looked into the hotel sector because the peace process would undoubtedly bring a huge expansion of tourism and high occupancy rates. I know that the market is extremely competitive, and there is a huge dilution in the average rate which is brought about by lack of growth in tourism in general, or in incoming business travellers. Now, with an increase in the room base in a market which is, if anything, getting smaller and not bigger, it is not an easy thing for anyone coming into the market in a situation like this.
In this case, what is the strategy of the Sheraton to take some of the market share from other hotels and generate some new business?
We have a strong brand name across the middle-east, and we were the first of international hotel companies to start up in the area. Kuwait was our first hotel in the 1960s. We have always had very good, traditional relationships and brand loyalty with Arab countries, which has been built up over the years. I would expect that we will continue to have that brand loyalty when we open in Amman. Although I was a little negative about Amman, but it is still one of the key destinations in the area. Of course, we will be competing with the others, mainly on quality. Over here the two main players are the Marriott and Intercontinental, and the Grand Hyatt is making some good inroads into the market, and we will hopefully do the same.
| Through our network and sister hotels in the area we will look at putting together some packages purely using Sheraton properties and trying to develop the leisure side of the business. We hope that there will be more confidence in the country, and that the tourism sector will grow significantly in the years ahead. I think Jordan has numerous attractions, and it is certainly a good destination, but it is not doing as well as it could at the moment. We will also be working to market Jordan as a tourism destination.
Is tourism going to be your focus, or will you also be trying to attract business travellers and company conferences and events?
We are going to take business from all areas, but it is true to say that we are more of a commercial hotel than a leisure destination. Traditionally we focus on the business traveller, the conferencing centre market, and we try to position ourselves in the upper road of the market and concentrate on the customers who will pay higher rates for better service, as opposed to the lower end of the market which is the cheap tourist destination market. We will probably have to accommodate some of that lower-end market, because we still have 290 rooms to fill, but we will concentrate more on the commercial market.
The hotel industry is a very specific, detailed-oriented business. As General Manager of the Sheraton, what is your secret to managing a hotel?
It is really a combination of different things. First of all, you have to have the right product. You could have the best service in the world, but if your product is not up to date, this is difficult. I believe that we will have a very good product, it will be an excellent, five-star luxury property. From my perspective, I think a lot of it is service and quality. As a General Manager you have to get your staff behind you, get them going and concentrated on service. Good service counts for a lot, and you always return to place where you have received good service. This is a difficult thing to achieve in this market, it is tough... the mentality of the service sector is not the best, it is not an inherited part of the culture and it is difficult to inspire a service-oriented attitude. That is one of the keys to any hospitality business - to give them great service.
We will be looking at some innovations, try some new things and be more contemporary for the market. Technology is one of the key things for the commercial sector, and we will put in ISDN lines in every room for high speed internet access. We are concentrating on this for the business traveller.
However, when it comes down to it, service is what counts, like talking to guests and meeting with staff to make sure everything runs smoothly.
From your experience, what is your opinion of the hospitality business in the Middle East?
I have been in the Middle East for quite some time; I worked in Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Bahrain, and in Baghdad in the 1980s. So I am familiar with the Middle Eastern culture and the different things that go on here, like the patience needed in certain situations.
Amman is going to be a challenging market, for the reasons I have outlined. To bring in business to the hotel and ensure its success will be a big challenge, but I am quite confident that we will do well here in Jordan.
What would be your final message to our readers?
We look forward to seeing you in the Sheraton sometime after September 2000! |
