ABTN quizzes John Beveridge, general manager of Grand Hyatt Dubai and area director, on the peaks and troughs of Dubai’s hotel market in recent years, and what is yet to come for Hyatt in the Emirate...
So you look after the Grand Hyatt Dubai, the Park Hyatt Dubai, and the Hyatt Regency Dubai. What should we be looking out for from these three properties?
Yes. I am general manager of Grand Hyatt Dubai, which is a 674-room city convention hotel. We are very fortunate that we have a large footprint – 26 acres of grounds – and we have the largest indoor garden in Dubai. We’re also fortunate that the hotel was set up with convention facilities, where we have 4,400 sqm of meeting space, with 11 meeting rooms. This has been set up as a separate are in the hotel, so when you come out of the elevators you either turn one way out of the lobby, where the main hotel facilities are, or you turn the other way for the convention centre. This means we don’t have a clash of crowds.
The Grand Hyatt Dubai is currently undergoing a renovation project where we’re putting in a new spa. And even though we’ve got fairly extensive convention facilities already, we’re putting in a new residence concept, which Hyatt has done successfully in many other locations such as Bangkok, Singapore and Taipei. It’s basically like a villa within the hotel – it has various sizes of meeting rooms, within a self-contained unit away from the main convention area, which are accessed through one main door. There’s kitchen where the chef pulls pizzas out of the oven, and cooks fresh brownies. It can be used by one company, or for three or four different meeting parties at the same time. It has proved very popular in the Far East and we see it would work well for groups of between 20 and 100 people.
I am also responsible for Park Hyatt Dubai, which is on the creek. It’s a boutique golf hotel – very much understated elegance, and an anticipated, proactive style of service. It’s a very popular hotel with people who want to choose the level of service that they have and not have it in a totally traditional hotel environment.
Then we have the Hyatt Regency hotel, which is a 414-room hotel. It has now been in operation for 31 years, so it has quite a bit of DNA. It’s built into the culture of Dubai. I would challenge you to find a Dubaian who either wasn’t married there or whose parents or sister weren’t married there. The Regency has a long history of serving weddings for the local environment, so we recently opened a specialised Emirati cuisine kitchen for external catering, where we cook all the traditional dishes, like whole roast lamb, or machboos. It means we can now supply weddings that are not even held in our hotels, so if somebody is having an event at their house or we can cook 100% authentic Emirate food in a five-star hotel environment.
You mentioned the refurbishments at the Grand Hyatt Dubai – what about the other properties?
The Regency is 33 years old and was recently refurbished – five years ago. It’s like a new hotel inside, but still with the old soul. Some of the staff have been there for 30 years. The Park is only five years old so it’s not ready for a refurbishment.
Dubai’s financial difficulties during the recession were widely reported. What’s the situation now?
I think, first of all, that Dubai caught the same cold that everybody else was catching. This wasn’t a Dubai thing, this was a worldwide thing. The fact that there was an accelerated pace of growth in Dubai and an unusual enthusiasm and vigour about everything they were doing. There was no question that projects were under development, but people said, look, hold on, do we really need to continue with this as fast as we are at the moment? Let’s consolidate. Let’s watch the market. There was no question of shelving projects, it was just a question of reorganising the time of when it would be best to enter the market with them.
There’s no doubt there was exuberance in the market in 2005 through to 2008. There was a correction, but this is very positive. If you look at the statistics for Dubai, yes it flat-lined in late 2008 and 2009, but now arrivals are up again, visitors are up and new hotels are opening. There are around 17,000 rooms and serviced apartment units currently under development.
It’s still exciting. It’s not like it’s a ghost town, as some people have said. The hotels are still full, and what it has done, which is exciting, is make it accessible to some markets where it previously wasn’t accessible. Especially during the slower seasons, for example now in the summer, we’re running very competitive packages. We see increased arrivals from south-east Asia and from the Indian subcontinent. It’s not the time of year to lie on the beach unless you really enjoy that kind of heat, although some people do, but the indoor spaces are so well engineered and so easy to navigate that there are a lot of people who come and take it as a four-day shopping spree, or go to the other major attractions. One constantly hears people say: “What is there to do in Dubai apart from visit large shopping complexes or do business?” But, if your agenda as a business traveller allows you to take some time and go into the desert or into the waadis, there are areas of Dubai that are accessible and worth visiting.
It’s a multi-faceted destination I think, and I came from Singapore to Dubai, so I’m used to living in a fairly vibrant environment, and it’s somewhere again where people question what there is to do. There are a lot of parallels, you just have to go out there and not make too much effort and you find it. I love the cosmopolitan feel of Dubai.
How did you end up in Dubai?
Funnily enough it’s back to the future for me. I was a chef in Dubai years ago, at what was the Chicago beach hotel, which no longer exists now. It was razed in a spectacular implosion, and they built the Jumeirah Beach hotel on the site. I was working as a chef there, and the Hyatt Regency opened down on the creek. They had such exciting food and beverage concepts and the exterior architecture and interior design were so interesting, that I wanted to join the company. So I went for an interview, and I was told, yes, I could join Hyatt but not in Dubai. I would have to go to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia – I was there for two years.
Then in 1984 I was appointed as the executive chef at the Sultan’s palace in Brunei, because Hyatt has an agreement with the government in Brunei to look after his majesty’s domestic arrangements. That is still in place. It was independence year for Brunei. I went initially as chef and then went into management and for six years I looked after the food and beverage, housekeeping at his majesty’s palace.
Then I went to Singapore as area director of food and beverage for Hyatt, then Korea for two years as a general manager, then back to Brunei for six years, Singapore for nine years and then back to Dubai in November 2008.
I arrived in Dubai from Singapore as the changes from the recession were starting to take place in the market. People still wanted to come to Dubai – there was still meetings and conference business coming in, and business people that were having to come to Dubai, so we had to adjust to the market very quickly. I think all of the hotels, not just ourselves, took about three months to see that things had changed and there was a new normal. Now there is a solid foundation in place and the business is building back up again.
How does business look for this summer?
What has changed the dynamics about this year is what’s been happening in the surrounding countries. Whereby there may have been other destinations in the Middle East that people would have chosen for their summer break, this year Dubai has been much more attractive. I don’t think the market has been exploited for this. There are still some great deals. With that there are also through Emirates a number of initiatives for reduced air travel, such as kids go free, and we’re partners in that. It’s just a different season for us.
As a chef, food must be high on your list of priorities. Which restaurant is your favourite in Dubai?
Because of my nine years in Singapore, a microcosm of three main cultures – Chinese, Indian and Malay – I enjoy the Peppercrab restaurant very much. We have some excellent south-east Asian chefs there. There is no element of fusion, or confusion as I like to call it, this is true to its roots. Fresh ingredients, authentic cuisine, and passion from the people who are cooking it. I can go in there and enjoy the food that I enjoyed in Singapore.
What do you enjoy cooking at home?
I really enjoy making a good pot of soup. I like to open the fridge door, see what is in there, make a mess of the kitchen and something good for the family.