Anke Glaessing
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The Mövenpick Hotel Deira is keen to expand its corporate segment. The hotel is well-positioned in terms of its location; coupled with it, the right team and strategy works well. Anke Glaessing, general manager talks about the plan ahead.
What is your strategy to boost corporate numbers?
We have a strategy for 2013-14 wherein we have set our plans in terms of growing our market share and average room increase. We have already achieved a 30% growth in corporate room nights as compared to last year.
What are the challenges to achieve your goal?
The biggest challenge we see is that most corporate companies focus on location. Considering this aspect, we have to change their perception. This would be achieved through branding and the right marketing. However, if we look around, this is a common challenge for most properties around this area. Our main aim for this year would be to retain our market share while companies are moving out to new business areas.
Would there be a focus on leisure?
We enjoy a fair share of all segments. In our case, we have a good mix of 30% leisure; 30% corporate and 30% airlines. We would confidently say that we are doing well in the leisure segment. In addition, our guests have access to the Oceana Beach Club. We would like to keep the leisure segment the way it is, but would look at increasing room nights for the corporate segment.
What would be your target markets?
With an average length of stay of around three nights, we are looking positively at the summer months. Our guest mix is cosmopolitan but we are increasingly targeting the India market in big way as well as the Saudi market.
The hotel has a significant percentage of women workers, what are the advantages?
There are no different challenges than a male co-worker. However, the advantages of being a women general manager with many women in my team are that women are more detail-oriented, they can multi-task, which is a big plus. They look at situations and plans from a long-term perspective. We don’t believe in the quick-fix. We thoroughly examine the areas of concern and put a strong action plan in place. The additional challenge, I would say is that women have to work harder to prove themselves. The issue of stereotyping a woman’s role is common in most work places and that needs to be changed.
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