40 colleagues from Meeting Point Hotel Management met in Ras al Khaimah from April 1st until April 8th 2017 to discuss the future of LABRANDA Hotels & Resorts
LABRANDA Hotels & Resorts was established in September 2015 to enforce FTI Group with a portfolio of hotels. 19 months later and after the rapid growth of the hotel chain that now sits on more than 40 properties spread across seven countries, the team met in Ras Al Khaimah to define the roadmap and to standardize structures and procedures, from accounting systems to finance, insurance, operations, pricing and sales strategies. The word “powwow” was chosen by Dietmar Gunz especially for this event. It is an old Indian word that describes a social gathering held by many different communities. With this in mind, he wanted to involve all participants to actively create the future of their hotels and resorts.
Topics amongst others have been brand definition, hotel categories, room categories, brand standards and unique selling points (USPs). Unique selling points identified are a pizzeria and a gelateria concept which will be rolled out in all hotels by November 2018. A unique spa concept will be created especially for LABRANDA Hotels and Resorts and implemented in all hotels that have spa facilities. The fourth USP will be to incorporate Malaika linen in all hotels, the project that combines a social cause as well as comfort sleeping. One of the workshops that mainly involved operations focused participants was about dispensers, beverage in general and beer in particular.
In addition to long days of meetings and lots of discussions, the participants of the powwow also visited many hotels in Ras al Khaimah to experience the different food concepts and get new inspirations from five-star hotels in the U.A.E. Other highlights of the week were excursions to Fujairah including an Éclair competition organized by Le Meridien Al Aqah in Fujeirah, in addition to a day in Dubai, visiting The Palm, Dubai Parks and the office of Meeting Point UAE.
All participants of the powwow enjoyed the exchange of experiences with colleagues, some of which haven’t met previously which is an additional reason for the all to get together on one table. “This is long due, I’m very excited to see how this powwow is proceeding and the real work is just starting now. We have industry experts on the team and each is assigned a task to develop within a timeframe that will shape the identity of the hotels there on.” said Dietmar Gunz, CEO of FTI Group.
A special thanks goes to Aysha Omar of Meeting Point UAE and Ahmed Zaki from the Ras al Khaimah office with their teams, that took care of the powwow and organized all hotels, transfers as well as excursions.
May El Souki, Head of Marketing LABRANDA
