Mirage reflections

The Royal Mirage hotel on Dubai's Jumeira Beach opened in August, 21 months after the first grain of sand was turned on a desert wasteland foreshore. On time and on budget, an $80m (£48.5m), 250-bedroom Arab fortress was created, complete with all the luxuries of a leisure facility - three tennis courts, two swimming pools (one of which, at 2,500sq m, is the largest in Dubai), a golden sand beach and 1,300 palm trees.

The project is the first instance when management contractors Sun International, the company founded by Sol Kerzner and famous for Sun City in South Africa, has not had an equity investment in a property. The company is here at the invitation of the Maktoum family, the ruling dynasty of Dubai. Unlike the situation with many management contracts, Sun International played an integral part in the development of the project.

Standing beside the Dubai International Marine Club, across from the Emirate Golf Club and down the strand from the Jumeira Beach hotel and its latest addition, the Arabian Tower, the Royal Mirage aims to service the leisure market coming to Dubai. The concept of the Arabian fortress is one that general manager Olivier Louis says had not been done before in the region, despite the history of the area.

It is another hotel to add to the allure of the tiny city-state in the southern Gulf, which Louis says is best considered as Dubai Inc. "Dubai is a company and the ruling family are very proactive," he says. "We always complain that governments are too slow, but this family is constantly striving to be ahead of the competition."

So far, the hotel is attracting the punters. In its first three months it generated $9m (£5.45m) in revenue and Louis says there is definitely pressure from the Maktoum family to perform financially - this is not just a showpiece. In its first year, the hotel should achieve sales of Dh90-100m (£14.85m-£16.5m) with an average achieved room rate between $245 and $300 (£148-£181).

In its first month, August, when temperatures in Dubai soar to 45-50¼C, occupancy was 70%, and in November 95%. On average, Louis expects occupancy levels of 75%.

The market is 50% leisure travellers, primarily from Europe. Germans and Swiss make up the bulk of this, with the UK, France and Scandinavia following. A further 20-25% of the market is business, which is higher than the original projection of 15% corporate travellers. The remainder is group incentive and product launches, such as supermodel Naomi Campbell launching her eponymous perfume on the Dubai market at the Mirage. The Maktoum family want to establish Dubai as the Middle East headquarters for many companies.

Of the 250 bedrooms, two are Royal Suites, costing from Dh4,400 (£726), and 19 are executive suites costing from Dh1,650 (£272), while 53 rooms are in the Gold Club, which has its own entrance for the privacy of its guests - a privacy which will cost from Dh950 (£156). This is where the likes of Naomi Campbell, Damon Hill, Grace Jones and, of course, Dubai's royal family stay when they come to visit. De luxe rooms sell from Dh700 (£115).

The hotel has three restaurants. Tagine is a 70-seat Moroccan restaurant, Olive's offers Mediterranean cuisine at 70 seats inside and a further 30 on a terrace, and Celebrities offers international food and also has 70 seats. Olive's and Tagine have their own entrances away from the hotel, as originally the team envisaged that the local market would come to eat there. However, three months after opening, the restaurants are doing 80% of their business through hotel guests, with the remainder coming from the local market.

There is also the Kasbar, a nightclub which caters primarily for the local market. It charges an entry fee of Dh50 (£8.25) at the weekend (which in Islamic countries runs from Wednesday to the holy day of Friday), and club manager Stephen Collison says that most tables are booked well in advance for Thursday nights.

There are 500 staff at the hotel to ensure that everything runs smoothly, although ensuring they are happy is no easy task.

Volleyball is the sport of nations - so says Lynne Bellinger, director of personnel and training at the Royal Mirage, who organises staff tournaments and finds that volleyball is the one sport on which the 34 nationalities of people working for the hotel can agree - otherwise there are arguments about which sport to play.

Sensitivity is needed not only in what games are played, but in who works with whom throughout the hotel. "We try to harmonise the different nationalities throughout the property. You can't force them to love each other, but you can facilitate it," says resident manager Mark Bettsworth with a wry grin.

Bellinger and Bettsworth, both Britons, came to work in the Middle East initially for three years, but they have stayed much longer. Between them, they have considerable experience in juggling the needs of a multinational workforce. Bellinger has the unenviable task of keeping the foreign workers content - there are no Emirates natives working at the hotel. The lack of local workers is partly cultural. "It is not easy to sell the service culture to them," says Bettsworth. "The Arabs are immensely hospitable in their homes but, put that in the service industry as a job, and it doesn't translate."

Because local workers are unavailable, the hotel has looked abroad and employs a large number of Indian, Filipino and Sri Lankan staff. In its Tagine restaurant, all the staff are Moroccan, to reflect the authenticity of the food and the style of service. Although Gulf Arabs are unwilling to work in service industries, the hotel employs staff from the Lebanon, Jordan and Oman, and 80% of the staff speak Arabic. Employees are offered courses in English, although Bellinger admits that it would be good to have a few more German speakers.

There is some hope on the horizon, however. The government is trying to encourage locals to work in the private sector, and now there is a hotel and tourism course at Dubai Women's College. In April, Bellinger will take on her first two work placement students. There was a job fair in Dubai in December, but Bellinger says that it is too early to have accurate statistics on its success.

Elsewhere in the region there are rules governing employment of nationals - Bellinger has worked in Bahrain, where about 30% of the workforce must be local - but Dubai does not yet have the workforce to impose such a rule. For now, hotels must find foreign expatriates to fill the vacancies, a job made harder at times when the government imposes restrictions on the nationalities of those coming into the country. In November, for example, there was a ban on further Indian nationals coming to Dubai to work.

The belief that everyone wants to come to Dubai for the money alone is changing, too. "It is no longer worth recruiting in Manila," Bellinger says, "because the five-star hotels there are paying good money and the staff are close to their families, so they won't move here."

It's not just Filipino staff who stay away when they learn the salaries, but Western expatriates, too. "You can't look at working here as a way to fill the coffers," says Bettsworth. "There is a feeling that, if you work in the City of Gold, you will take home a chest of gold."

So, once Bellinger has enticed employees in, she tries to keep them. "Keeping staff happy is a key challenge," she says. "We must be a home away from home." The cost when the hotel loses staff is high. Since recruiting began in July, the hotel has lost 30 staff at the lower levels out of a total of 500. This isn't a bad ratio; however, losing anyone puts pressure on the rest.

"It's not like we can bring in some casuals to cover the job," says Bettsworth. He says that it takes six to eight weeks from finding the appropriate candidate to getting them into Dubai, and costs about Dh1,500 (£248) per person in visa costs and related matters, such as medicals.

Once they are in Dubai, staff are housed by the hotel, but this can mean four to a room, depending on status. Supervisory staff have their own rooms, and restaurant managers have apartments away from the hotel complex. There is a staff canteen and a TV entertainment centre, and Bellinger organises a social events schedule. Staff are transported to and from work, and the working day is nine hours long with an hour's break. If they work longer, they get overtime pay.

The average length of stay at the managerial levels is two years before staff move on, but the lower ranks will stay longer, many of them sending the money they earn home to their families.

FACTS

Royal Mirage

Jumeira Beach, Dubai, UAE

Tel: 00 971 4 399 9999

General manager: Olivier Louis

Resident manager: Mark Bettsworth

Bedrooms: 250

Average achieved rate: $245-300 (£148-£181)

Rack rates: Dh700-1,750 de luxe room (£115-£289)

Projected turnover, 2000: Dh90-100m (£14.85m-£16.5m)

Projected occupancy: 75%

Staff: 500, coming from 34 nationalities

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 20 - 26 January 2000