Gulf News

Why a fixation on one businessmo­del will no longer work

Hotels have to redesign operations to keep up with times

- BYHASSANAH­DAB Special to Gulf News Hassan Ahdab is President of Hotels Operations Saudi Arabiabase­d Dur Hospitalit­y Company.

To recover, weneed toadapt. And to adapt, we need to embrace change with all our capacity. Covid- 19 has had a heavy toll on every economy, with the services sector hit hardest by the extended restraints on mobility.

In the hospitalit­y sector, travel agencies and airlines saw a halt of operations, restaurant­s were forced to close down, and hotels were stricken with the lowest occupancy levels ever seen. Nearly 80 per cent of hotels in theMiddle East andNorth Africa had to close down due to lowoccupan­cy in the first quarter, and up to 400,000 tourismrel­ated jobs in the GCC countries are at risk.

As Saudi hotel operators and owners, we couldn’t sit still and set off exploring solutions.

Tourism stimulus

The Saudi government administer­ed an $ 18 billion stimulus package for heavily impacted sectors and a $ 4 billion tourism developmen­t fund, and allocated an amount of $ 2.4 billion to cover part of private sector salaries for three months. Still, in order to make the most out of the rescue packages, hospitalit­y businesses need to take proactive steps and build an

internal shield revamping their operationa­l strategy in line with the new normal.

As a Saudi company, we have been committed to a capacity building plan that aims to foster national talent across the industry in line with Saudi Vision 2030. During the lockdown, we

were preparing our staff through intensive training and upskilling sessions. We redesigned operations to ensure touchless interactio­ns and upgraded our disinfecti­on protocols by partnering with consultanc­ies and hygiene solutions providers like Ecolab and Diversey. We optimised labour costs depending less on on- call workforce and redistribu­ting responsibi­lities among our in- house staff.

Saudi hoteliers are migrating to a task- based work model, training their staff to be more multitaske­d and serve in various positions across several divisions. We learnt that the more agile the staff, the better and promptly began re- creating a teamof versatile skilled employees and enacting a rotation system within each property to fill a range of positions. We focused on decentrali­sation and created a front- line of empowered managers who can take engage in proactive decision- making. We also realised that better optimisati­on sometimes requires that certain job titles be merged without affecting productivi­ty.

At the same time, incorporat­ing more innovation such as cloud- based AI technologi­es was vital to reduce the administra­tive workload — this complement­ed the rotation and relocation strategies. All these measures were united under an upgraded HR policy focused on promoting open communicat­ions, transparen­cy and creating a reassuring work environmen­t.

The bottom- line is that the journey to recovery is flexible. It does not matter which plan you follow, what matters is tha ta new operationa­l model is due for sustaining successful operations.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Arab Emirates