Old-school hotel still learning

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According to van Opstal, efforts by the Dubai government to put the emirate on the map, as well as the hotel’s own campaigns, have driven strong growth this summer.

Sheraton Dubai Creek Hotel general manager Thomas van Opstal tells Hotelier Middle East the property is still doing great business, despite the ever increasing competition in Dubai.

How has business been this year? Has it been a particularly good summer for the property?

We have been running at an occupancy of 90%, but it is not just occupancy that is good, rates have also increased. It has been a good year in general, but it has also been a very good summer, surprisingly. We didn't anticipate we would have as much business as we did.

I think it has a lot to do with the effort of the government of Dubai to promote the city, as well as our property attending travel trade shows like ITB in Berlin and the upcoming World Travel Market. The combined effort to put Dubai on the map is paying off.

This hotel is located in what many people call the "old" part of Dubai, on the Deira side of the Creek. Are you worried about people not wanting to come here anymore, and wanting to go to the "new" Dubai area instead?

In a way Dubai is splitting into two cities. But on this side we are the only hotel directly next to the Creek, and we are well placed for business - we are in walking distance from the National Bank of Dubai, the Dubai Municipality, the Department of Economics, the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, and we are close to the airport. While there are obviously a lot of things happening on the other side of the Creek, on this side we have a good location.

I think we are going to continue to be one of the finest properties in Dubai.

Where do you see most of your guests coming from? Where are you going to be concentrating your future marketing efforts?

We are predominantly looking at business travellers, mainly from the GCC. There are also a lot of European guests from the UK, Germany and France. We are seeing more bookings from emerging markets like China, Australia and South America - and that will no doubt pick up with Emirates starting up direct flights to Sao Paulo [in Brazil].

Being part of Starwood Hotels and Resorts means we can work very closely with our Starwood Preferred Guest programme [to target guests]. It puts us in a great position to market the property. If we want to target people in Sao Paulo, we are able to send a mail-out to them telling them about the property.

There are a lot of things we want to do too.

Which properties do you see as being your biggest competitors?

Probably the other hotels on the Deira side, like the upcoming InterContinental [Dubai Festival City] property, JW Marriott Hotel Dubai, and Le Meridien Dubai near the airport, which is one of our sister Starwood properties - those would be our closest competitors.

Are you worried about the increased competition? Do you think Dubai's "bubble" is going to burst soon, or do you think the demand will continue to grow?

I worked at this hotel between 1982 and 1986, and they were talking about the bubble bursting then.

But I don't think there is any indication it will stop any time soon.

There are still a lot of new markets out there that we haven't explored yet.

The other side of increased competition for guests is increased competition to find staff - is this a big issue for you?

This is probably one of the biggest challenges we face in the Middle East hotel industry, so it is definitely a big issue for us.

[Because Sheraton is part of Starwood] we have enough power to offer employees a chance to build a career, and go to different properties.

But the [competition for staff] is becoming an issue for sure.

What plans do you have for the property in the future?

We are not a typical leisure hotel, but we are looking at redoing the gym.

In 2008 we will be looking at [revamping] the restaurants, the Tower Lounge and the ballroom as well.

Is it hard to keep a property such as this one, which has been around for decades, up-to-date?

We have to keep up with guest demands. It's like with wireless internet, where five years ago we would have had a very low percentage of guests needing it, compared to now where most guests need it. [Offering new services like this], these are things that we have to do to keep up, otherwise we will go out of business.

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