Meet Mr MENA

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Kamal Zayati.

Al Raha Beach Hotel general manager Kamel Zayati reveals the hotel's expansion plans, the strategy of catering to all market segments, and why now is a great time to be in Abu Dhabi.

I've been here for about three years; I joined the hotel just three months after it opened. I've actually been in the business almost 30 years now.

I worked with Hyatt International for 20 years as a general manager in various locations, from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait to Dubai to Malaysia to Tunisia, so I am familiar with the MENA region and have spent a lot of time in the Middle East - I know the culture, the language and the way things work.

What facilities does the hotel offer?

The hotel has 110 rooms, including 11 suites and 24 royal villas. These villas are two-, three- and four-bedroom. Our hotel rooms are the largest in Abu Dhabi at 65m². The property has a unique concept, because it caters equally for both business and leisure.

It has all the necessary facilities for leisure guests: almost 900m of sandy beaches; indoor and outdoor pools; two spas, one private spa on the third floor for hotel guests and a spa downstairs for general use; large gardens; all necessary business facilities with state-of-the-art banquet facilities with a capacity of up to 600; two large meeting rooms for groups of between 50 and 400, plus eight small meeting rooms for small meetings, conferences and so on; and a wide range of restaurants and entertainment facilities - we have an international restaurant, a Mediterranean restaurant, we have a pool restaurant-bar, and we have the Clubhouse restaurant, which is part of the villas.

Our location, of course, has become the best location in the city. We are only 10 minutes from the airport, around 25 minutes form the city centre and only 40 minutes from the edge of Dubai and the Jebel Ali Free Zone and Media City. Plus our setting, on the beach, is fantastic.

We are the first five-star boutique hotel; because we've got 110 rooms we can provide a very detailed, personalised service to customers.

How suitable is the hotel for corporate bookings?

Our facilities and location are ideal for incentives; unfortunately at the moment we can't do big groups because of the limited number of rooms. That's why we are now in the process of starting a big extension of the hotel, with 150 new rooms set to open in 2009 in time for the Formula 1 event.

Plus there will be three more speciality restaurants, and eventually we will have a signature spa as well in the extension.

So ultimately we will have a completely new product, which allows us to really meet the demand from the conference and meetings business that we are a little bit limited in catering for at the moment.

Our hotel has become a destination for leisure, meetings, training and seminars, and that's the reason why our owners decided to go for this extension: to meet the very high corporate demand for Al Raha Beach Hotel.

Have you faced any particular challenges during your time here?

Retaining staff is basically the challenge, and I think it's going to remain because the expansion here is going to continue. Every day we hear new hotels are opening. And packages are more favourable in Dubai.

If people come to make money, no matter how much we do to retain them in terms of trying to secure a future career for them, motivate them, provide them with the best welfare possible, still a little more money can get them to change their allegiance.

I don't think we're the only ones suffering; I think it's going to be a huge challenge in the future in Abu Dhabi, especially with the planned expansion here.

And the same applies to other places in the region where there is a lot of development going on. We're going to see staff moving around, and some of the countries from which we sourced staff originally will no longer be helpful, as there is so much demand, and such competitive salaries and benefits.

What strategy do you employ to encourage staff loyalty?

We do a lot of training activities, focusing on training to motivate and encourage the staff. Also we do ongoing succession plans, so if someone leaves there is someone internal who is trained and can be promoted into their place.

What do you enjoy most about your current job?

One of the best aspects of the job is meeting people, facing challenges and achieving goals. For the time being it's a comfortable market because the demand is very high; the main concern of any general manager is to fill up his hotel, and our hotel is almost full constantly.

So the challenge here is not to fill the hotel, it is to be creative, innovative, to retain staff, to exceed guests' expectations, because in the long run we're going to see a lot of hotels springing up in Abu Dhabi, and therefore there will be a great deal of competition.

What we want is that any guest who comes here will never think of going anywhere else, even in two years when there's a lot more choice for them.

We want to retain our customers, and to do that you have to exceed their expectations. And that's a challenge in this moving market, to always remain on top and have a long-term vision. We are leaders and we want to remain leaders.

What are your personal ambitions for the future?

I'm very glad and blessed to be in Abu Dhabi and indeed the UAE at this time. It's the best time to be here because we're going to see all this development.

My aim is to be part of this, to contribute to the promotion of regional tourism in whatever way I can, whether that be by managing one hotel or many hotels, and by projecting the right image. I look forward to being here in ten years' time and seeing the result of all these plans.

I think we're going to see something we can't see anywhere else and learn a lot of things. You have to feel part of it, committed to make Abu Dhabi what is being planned.

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