The serviced apartments hospitality sector is gaining more prominence in the industry. In this TV show Marcel Lindt discusses Frasers service apartments.

An expanding hospitality sector

So Frasers is a leading operator of serviced apartments, we have about ninety properties and about fourteen thousand units under operation and in the pipeline at the moment, we are from Singapore originally, and so we have a very strong presence in Asia, but we also have a good presence in Europe, and in the Middle East. More recently we have also started to look at Africa as a region to grow. So, I would say the main difference to a hotel is, that you get larger rooms, you have a separate living area, you have a separate kitchenette, sometimes even a full blown kitchen, we often have a separate bedroom, essentially we've giving more space to the traveller. On the other hand, you have less, open spaces, so you have less public areas, typically. So, we are - we tend to be in areas where there's lots of restaurants around, so we feel we don't need to have a lot of F&B offering in our properties. Same with conference and banqueting, you probably find is more in a hotel, for us that’s more sort of, you know, we have a small meeting rooms for - for smaller events, but we are not doing big conferences, like the one here now at the moment.

Hospitality TV will continue to feature shows about serviced apartments and other hospitality sectors. Why not take a look at who else has been featured in the Hospitality250.

Staffing in new hotels can be dealt with by transferring people from elsewhere. However, as Khalid Anib explains in this TV shows, hotels in Saudi Arabia are giving the opportunity to local people.

Staffing new international hotels

Usually these international brands, they do bring people from either sister hotel that is already established in Saudi Arabia or through their other properties that are around the world.  Now, Saudi Arabia have been a bit restrictive in term of lifestyle, so that creates a challenge to bring in certain profiles.  Having said that, today Saudi Arabia is investing in Saudis basically.  All the hotels are really into that .  And we have seen recently this ratio growing.  I remember it was something around 8/10%, now there are hotels with more than 40%.  There is another element that we are noticing recently is that not only rank and file employees but also head of departments to GM’s level.  In fact within our hotels we have four Saudi GMs that are very successful.  And we have quite a number of number two that will soon be promoted to GM positions.  So this combination today allows hotels to run successfully and to provide the quality that is required from a customer.  And we can see that through guest reviews that has significantly been improved for the last five years where you could see really bad reviews with maximum of 7.5 on Booking.com or TripAdvisor, where today we have hotels that are highly ranked in term of quality.  So today, yes, there is a possibility to provide the quality and to have the right people on board.

The Hospitality Channel will continue to share shows about staffing and recruitment. Look out for the next 10 industry experts to be announced as part of Hospitality250.

Hospitality industry development in the Middle East is being accelerated due to the demands of Expo 2020. In this TV show Abdulla Bin Sulayem discusses the challenges of Expo 2020.

Industry development to meet demand

There is a lot of development that needs to take place, which the government themself are implementing as we speak.  I think the only challenge is, you know, one of the challenges we faced, when we opened the Anantara is to find all the staff accommodation in one compound will be a challenge moving forward. I’m sure the government will work on developing  units to cater for the hotels that will be opening during that time, maybe contractors, there’ll be, you know, it will be tough to find a good contractor for some developers.  So there will be some challenges, but I’m sure they will overcome these challenges for the Expo 2020.

The Hospitality Channel will continue to explore issues surrounding industry development in all regions across the globe.

Hospitality careers are new opportunities for many in emerging markets. In this TV show Peter Malone discusses how tourism creates employment.

Hospitality careers in the Middle East

A number of the Middle Eastern countries, because of tourism, because of hospitality, it is providing employment for a huge amount of people.  And there’s a very young population in these countries and tourism is just a great place to build a career.  Nationalisation, if you like, of our industry particularly has been around for a number of years.  It’s not new, but there’s still room, you know, to mix local people from those countries into an expatriate environment as well.  So I think there’s room for both, nationalisation of employment is important, of course it’s important to their countries and to their economy.  But tourism, particularly and our wonderful industry is just adding to that.

Look out for the next 10 industry experts to be announced as part of Hospitality250, in which there will be more videos discussing hospitality careers.

Family office investors are looking for opportunities in hospitality and leisure according to James Innes of Chrystal Capital Partners LLP, who explains further in this TV show.

Family office investors in the MENA region

Family office investors are very similar to institutional investors in terms of what they look for. They are looking for strong management scenes, robust businesses, they’re looking for growth scalability. They’re looking for things within the MENA region specifically which are going to benefit from the overall macroeconomic situation, so those industries which are going to benefit from five percent GDP growth, the boom in population, the expansion of the middle classes, the deregulation of legal financial situations. So in terms of specific sectors I think retail, consumer, hospitality and leisure obviously are all key sectors which the families are looking for.

Hospitality TV will continue to follow discussions around family office investors and other funding sources for the hospitality industry.

Industry development has been halted by the global recession in many places. However, the market in Saudi Arabia has grown as Sameer Kazi of SEDCO Holding explains in this TV show.

Industry development through the global financial crisis

The last 10 years. The market has been on the uptake for sure. There was a blip during the global financial crisis which everybody witnessed. But focusing on Saudi Arabia, where we come from, that market on the real estate side did not see a downturn, it just kept moving up. That was for a combination of reasons, because one – there was, given the Sharia compliant nature of that country, people didn’t invest in real estate structured products rather than in assets directly. So that helped them weather the storm very well. Also not a lot of debt was taken on so people were not distressed from a cash flow or an operations perspective to exit. So people held on very well. And given that the public equities were not doing very well, that liquidity came out and went into real estate into Saudi Arabia in particular. So Saudi has done phenomenally well over the last 10 years. Within the region, although there have been certain countries where there have been political unrest or local scenarios, other than that the region has held up and grown very well. UAE is a fantastic example, so is Qatar in terms of infrastructure that they’ve created and the benefits that they’re going to reap and are reaping from that, is really going to help them well for the coming 10/20 years.

Keep browsing videos on the Hospitality Channel for more on industry development. Look out for the next 10 industry experts to be announced as part of Hospitality250.

Industry development in the Middle East will be hugely influenced by 2020 plans, as Sven Doliwa discusses in this TV show.

Industry development in the Middle East

Well World Hotels run currently 12 hotels in the Middle Eastern area including the GCC. We see great potential for further development in the GCC market and especially in the UAE market, Dubai as a trendsetter for new hotel developments which are fancy hotels, which are new lifestyle hotels, which is compared to the Central European market. And more creative new concepts, with new designs which we really want to be part of. And we’re going to see and put emphasise on the Middle Eastern market to develop our brand. I think for the next 10 years that’s going to be fine. The question is what comes after 2020 and it would be a shame if the Middle Eastern market runs into let’s say more A massive tourism market which then rather brings rates down. And you know, there’s too much supply in the market, that really could harm the business in the future. But I’m very positive about the next years to come.

The Hospitality Channel will continue to follow industry development in the Middle East and other global markets.

Growth drivers in the Middles East are money and security, which affect where people can build and were tourists will go. Ben Martin explains further in this TV show.

Key grow drivers

I think essentially there are two key drivers that we are always very sensitive to.  There’s always the message about FOIL – Follow the Oil.  But of course that has changed with the introduction of fracking.  And the perspective on where that’s going to go in the next decade will be fascinating to see, because already the landscape or investment is starting to change a little bit.  The other thing of course to look at is with regard to security and certainly with regard to tourism, people want to be safe.  And people will follow what it says on the foreign office websites for Brits and that affects where they choose to go.

Keep browsing The Hospitality Channel for more great free content and more expert discussion on growth drivers.

 

Institutional investors have not taken as much interest in Dubai as they could. In this TV show Joe Sita discusses changes in Dubai over the last four years.

Institutional investors prefer developed markets

The UAE or in Dubai in particular has been always, you know, is essentially an emerging market.  So you know, we to a large extent behave like a developed market but you know, essentially we’re still a developing market.  You know, that said, so that tends to, because of that status, institutional investment is probably still not quite ready to come to this market to the extent that, you know, I think we would like it.  But beyond that sort of pure institutional investor, we’re seeing lots of interest from, you know, real estate investment trusts that are looking to set up here through private equity investment.  We’re seeing lots of debt now coming into the market which, you know, five years ago wasn’t there.  So you know, generally speaking the whole investor sentiment for the UAE and Dubai in particular have improved dramatically over the last three to four years.

Keep browsing The Hospitality Channel for more discussion on institutional investors and Middle East regional markets. Look out for the next 10 experts added to the Hospitality 250.

Developing talent is important as part of industry development. In this TV show Kees Hartzuiker discusses the importance of talent and why the Middle East market needs more differentiation.

Developing talent is vital

There’s still a lot of same same going on in terms of the type of developments that are there.  So I think it being that lifestyle that I mentioned earlier, it being more family orientated or entertainment orientated.  I think we need more differentiation and so it’s maybe more the opportunity rather than the challenge that I see.  Then any growth industry, and I’m sure you’ve heard it from many other people already, people, people, people and of course at the end of the day we can all develop beautiful structures, but it is the experience that is being delivered through people still.  In that sense, hotels have not changed over decades.  And of course there’s such an expansion that we saw in the mid-2000, now we’re seeing it again.  And for the hotel companies, the brands that continue to supply the right talents to deliver that is a real challenge. And I don’t think anyone is - we’re all talking about it but a lot more real strategic work needs to be done to get people motivated, to work in the hotel industry and then taking their careers forward and not just sometimes is they see it as a transition.

The Hospitality Channel is very interested in discussions around developing talent and industry development.