Four independent hotels in the Middle East belonging to WORLDHOTELS have achieved high rankings in the group’s Performing Excellence Programme (PEP), for their public areas, restaurant outlets and guest rooms. One of them, the Marina Hotel Kuwait, was ranked third best hotel world-wide, with a 91 percent rating.
WORLDHOTELS introduced Performing Excellence last year in a bid to maintain high standards for its hotels across the globe and further strengthen its position as the largest and longest established Europe based hotel group for independent hotels. It sets criteria for each hotel category, 827 for members of its Deluxe collection, 751 for the First Class Collection members and 629 for those hotels belonging to the Comfort Collection, and outsourced anonymous visits to the properties to evaluate standards.
More than 350 ‘mystery shops’ were made internationally, since April 2006, with overwhelmingly positive feed-back. Average ratings for the Middle East was 81 percent, which is two percent higher than the global average rate of all WORLDHOTELS properties.
The four Middle East high achievers include the Marina Hotel in Kuwait, the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain, The Metropolitan and The Metropolitan Palace Hotel in Dubai.
“WORLDHOTELS stands out from hospitality industry providers by offering individual, independently managed hotels in the five, four and three star segment. Despite such individual supply of more than 500 hotels around the globe for travelers seeking uniqueness, we need to ensure guests can always rely on internationally established facilities and standards,” said Ingo Guerges, Senior Director, Business Development & Relations.
“Our 2006 results of the WORLDHOTELS ‘mystery shop programme’ Performing Excellence showed consistent high ratings of 79 percent across our three portfolio collections, which we are striving to further improve this year, aiming at 83 percent ratings.”
The WORLDHOTELS portfolio achieved the same overall PEP average rating as major international chains.
Earlier this year the group launched WORLDHOTELS.academy, making it the first hotel group to offer a full range of training modules designed to meet hospitality industry demands.
Michael Ball, CEO of WORLDHOTELS, underlines the importance of tailor-made staff training. “Hoteliers face two major issues in the current climate: a fast-moving commercial environment and a high level of staff turnover. These are especially challenging for independent hotels,” he said. “The comprehensive training portfolio of WORLDHOTELS.academy enables our members to meet these challenges.”
For the Performing Excellence Programme as well as WORLDHOTELS.academy, WORLDHOTELS is tied up with IFH, one of Europe’s largest service and hospitality industry consultancies, providing training and ’mystery shopping’ services, with offices in Dubai.
WORLDHOTELS has returned to the Arabian Travel Market this year, following its successful debut in 2006. The company’s stand is located in hall GV178.
Some 2,600 exhibitors from 60 countries are participating in Arabian Travel Market 2007, the Middle East’s leading travel and tourism fair, organized by Reed Travel Exhibitions. The exhibition is running from May 1-4 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The trade and consumer exhibition is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and under the auspices of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai.
About WORLDHOTELS:
WORLDHOTELS is the largest and most established Europe based global hotel group for independent hotels and regional hotel brands. The company's strong emphasis is on properties with character and distinction.
Under the banner “Bringing Unique Hotels and People Together”, WORLDHOTELS offers business and leisure travelers a wide choice of individualistic accommodation options in three distinct collections – Deluxe, First Class, and Comfort. WORLDHOTELS' guests also benefit from an extensive portfolio of partnerships, including frequent flyer programs from 18 of the world's leading international airlines, including Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air China. To its member hotels, WORLDHOTELS provides a wide range of sales, marketing, distribution and related services. The company has about 500 member properties in more than 300 destinations and 70 countries worldwide.
For further information and reservations in the region please contact WORLDHOTELS by calling toll free: Bahrain: 800 41 62, Saudi Arabia: 800 865 6004, UAE: 800 0650 573, or visit worldhotels.com. Photographic material available on the website worldhotels.com, news section or from press@worldhotels.com.
For more information, please visit: www.worldhotels.com
About IFH®:
IFH®- with its corporate headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, operates regional offices in Dubai, Miami, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company has been delivering measurable service success to the hospitality and service industry since 1989. Through actively advising, training and implementation, IFH® has established itself as a market leader in hospitality management training and development. Services include sales support solution, mystery shopping and quality management, employee training and development and revenue optimisation.
For further information contact: Sony Elias, MCS/Action, Dubai, UAE. Tel: + 971 4 3902960 ; Email: sony.e@actionprgroup.com
