I would like to share a particular experience , where i had the best work years of my life in the period that goes between 2006-2009 , and during that period i have worked in #AlManzilhotel that is located in Downtown #Burjkhalifa , in fact that was the first hotel to open in the whole Downtown area , even #Burjkhalifa and #Dubaimall were still under construction and all architects hold their meetings in AL Manzil which in fact translates to "The home" .
The hotel back then was managed by #Southernsun hotels" which is a #Southafrican chain . Now coming to the reason why i am talking about this Era of my career , mainly it goes back to some aspects that were followed by this management which was successful and valuable for anyone that worked with this management .
What was really particular is that the whole #Management from top were #Caring and putting their #Staff #welfare first and we never felt that we were managed by what we call a #Commercial #Mentality .In fact , the #Chairman of the company used to work from the lobby , spending hours on his lap top and he greets all #Guests #Staff and #Management teams and he recalled the names of every single staff working at the hotel , that also applies to the GM and all other management members , #Smile was always a #Standard , however , what was really particular in the way that this management have treated their #Employees was the fact of splitting 80% of #Servicecharge with their staff on a monthly basis , so as a result #Linestaff were making in service charge almost 2 to 3 times more than their basic #Salaries , this has resulted in the highest #Retention rate among all the hotels in the city , so this part was really particular and appreciated by all staff who have worked for this company .
My #Personal experience which i had , in addition to the fact that i have enjoyed working in a friendly and caring environment started when once i was offered a job as #Hospitality consultant for almost double salary by a reputable company in Dubai , and when this news has reached to the chairman he called me in and listened to my motivation and told me the following "In life we get carrots, we can take them and they will be short term gain but it will turn to long term pain later " which i have appreciated and decided to stay with the company and never regret this decision , as i was promoted at a later stage and climbed up in my career to higher positions .
Another lesson was , working with an experienced GM , who used to say " Give me a complaint i give you a guest " , where he ensured that every complaint was an opportunity to gain the guest to become a loyal guest , so receiving complaints was something positive for us and not like other companies where i have worked and the GM or Management turns the day up side down just for the reason that a guest has complained !
The training and development that was given to the staff and Management was tremendous as a result we had really efficient team and this has resulted in the fact that this small #Boutiquehotel has won as many awards that someone might wish to win in their first year of operation , the most valuable training course that i have received was and still "Results coaching" where i have received a certificate after completing a coaching test online with SA experts.
This was an ideal #Boutiquehotel and also this is another taken from those years is that working for a boutique style hotel results in creating an experience where everyone becomes a family , even repeated guests do get more attention and recognition as it is easier for all staff to remember them and go the extra mile while serving them Vs working in big luxury hotels where staff and guests become a number -more of less . with small hotels with less than 200 rooms , the whole experience of staff, guests and management becomes more interacting and more service oriented which creates an overall relaxed feeling for everyone in such an environment .
At last but not least , my lessons gained while working with this particular management were many but the best part was the part of caring and valuing the staff , respect & recognition , which all became hard in our days due to fact that Owners and Management companies became more commercial than ever , however i will be happy to know about fact that some staff or colleagues do manage their businesses in the same way . let's not forget that Profitable companies are results of satisfied customers and customers satisfaction is mainly result of satisfied staff ! and this is the main goal of writing all of the above .