Pullman Dubaï Deira City Center Hotel - Accor Hotels
Wednesday, March 18th, we are heading at the Pullman Deira City Center for a conference in a meeting room of the hotel with the Director of Operations.
Directly arrived at the hotel, we can feel the quiet atmosphere of the place where it is located.
The Pullman hotel is spacious, as many hotels in Dubai, but here we feel the tranquility unique to the French brand.
We go to the first floor and have a sit in one of their 11 spacious and modern meeting rooms. Brand new furniture, Plasma TV hanging from the ceiling, yes, we are in a newly opened hotel.
Elias Chakhtoura : Director of Operation
Gratuated from the Institut of Paul Bocuse in Lyon, he began his career in the catering industry in France in several Michelin starred restaurants where he learned the arts of the table. Then he worked for more than 10 years between the United States and Canada within the Sofitel brand. Always in the Sofitel brand, he participated in the opening of two hotels in Morocco and today, in Dubai as Director of Operations in Pullman Dubaï Deira City Center, a 5-star hotel with 317 rooms.
Elias therefore knows really well the global strategy and the worldwide products of the Accor group.
Talking about his experience in North America, “It was a very formative experience in terms of management” he says, “with a more dynamic environment and a contemporary approach of hospitality”. However, he stressed a lack of know-how and professional culture, however which is offset by a more substantial marketing and management.
What does "Director of Operation" involve ?
The conference began and the poise and the simplicity of Elias led to listening and attention.
Curious to know what his position of Director of Operation involved, we naturally asked him.
He is currently in charge of the operational organization of the rooms division and F&B departments. He has a decision-making authority on operational and he is representative of the decisions of the general manager. It needs to have the same management style as the GM. In addition to being a strategic position in terms of quality, action plans or costs, it consists also to motivate, give guidelines to managers of departments and evolve the product, quality and productivity.
To him, this position is complementary to the general manager, because in Dubai, general managers “must deal with private owners or companies and spend 80% of their working time managing external issues”.
What are the main type of management contract here, in Dubai ?
Then we were wondering about the different type of contract for the hotels in Dubai. He explained us that most of the hotels in Dubai were under management contracts and made the connection with the American management model that he knows so well. Indeed, in the eighties, American hotels groups have started to sell their hotels in the context of the asset-light strategy, and nowadays almost all the hotels there are managed under franchise or management contract. And that’s the same case in Dubai. Furthermore, he explained us why the development of the luxury range is so exponentially in Dubai, because Dubai is an empire of entertainment and luxury, and in order to sell hotels to owners, hospitality groups have plenty space, cheap lands available, and built in a majestic way to please the main owners of the region, such as Royal families and Sheikh of the GCC.
The next topic in this conference was the recruitment and human resources aspects. First labor is cheap in Dubai, the base wage is 300 euros monthly, allowing hotels to have large operational teams. More, the legislation regarding the employment contract is very flexible. In this ultra-capitalist context, all lights are green for manager to raise their hotel and be competitive. For instance, Elias stressed the large number of employees making up the revenue management department within and outside his hotel (cluster, regional revenue manager…), but to him, the main change is in the Sales & Marketing department with the explosion of social networks, e-commerce and e-reputation. For figures, the ratio Employees/Rooms for the Pullman is 1,2. And regarding the staff expenses, it’s quite less than in France, but the wage gap is slightly offset by the fact that employees in Dubai enjoy many benefits (accommodation, transport, medical expenses…). Finally, Elias explains that even though the labor legislation in Dubai is very flexible, that there is no union or employee representative, the fact remains that the employees are highly respected and considered as required Accor policies. Indeed, the human resources department is a huge department in this Pullman hotel, they do annual surveys for employees to set goals and career development and a lot of training are set up (8 days before the field: integration and inter departmental rotation).This article was written by Ms. Caroline Bos, Mr. Allan Graindorge and Mr. Arnaud Quinty.
