Visitors to Dubai rapidly become accustomed to superlatives. Home to the world’s largest shopping and entertainments complex, the world’s largest indoor ski slope and, in a few months’ time, the world’s tallest skyscraper, this is a city that wears its ambition to be the biggest and best on its sleeve.
But however spectacular and extraordinary future projects in Dubai might be, there is one structure that will undoubtedly remain its most iconic - the Burj Al Arab hotel, which is managed by the Jumeirah Group. Built on a man-made island and connected to the mainland by a short causeway, the Burj Al Arab is, at 321 metres above sea level, the world’s tallest all-suites hotel and calls itself the world’s most luxurious. The ratio of staff to guests is eight to one and each floor has its own reception and butler, who will carry out check-in in the privacy of the suite.
To prevent an invasion of gawping tourists, non-residents can only visit if they have booked at one of the hotel’s restaurants. Certain parts of the hotel, such as the pools and private beach, are entirely off limits to non-residents.
In the eight years that the hotel has been open, the customer base has become more broadly international in line with the democratisation of wealth. “The highest proportion of guests comes from Europe, and primarily the UK,” says Luc Delaflosse,
General Manager of the Burj Al Arab, “but visitors from countries such as China, the Middle East, the Commonwealth of Independent States, North America and others are rapidly becoming more commonplace. Our customer demographic tends to be centred around those countries for whom luxury is an important consideration.”
Keeping track of a changing customer demographic requires careful monitoring and analysis of customer feedback to ensure that the expectations of a demanding clientele continue to be met. Mr Delaflosse says that the Burj Al Arab, and the Jumeirah Group as a whole, uses this feedback to guide new innovations and services at the hotel. He cites as an example a new authentic Asian restaurant, called Junsui, which opened at the Burj Al Arab in November 2007. “Our decision to open this restaurant was guided in part by customer feedback that we received, and in part because we recognise that Asia is becoming an increasingly important market for us. We expect to see 100 per cent growth in Asian guests over the next two years.”
“Our customer demographic tends to be centred around those countries for whom luxury is an important consideration.”
In billing itself as the world’s most luxurious hotel and awarding itself seven stars, the Burj Al Arab certainly sets the bar for service high. To meet these exacting standards, the hotel invests heavily in training and management education. It has developed its own e-learning modules to provide guidance for customer-facing employees, and grooms future managers at the Emirates Academy, a hotel management training college operated by the Jumeirah Group. The company also uses an intranet-based tool, called Voices, to solicit suggestions from employees for improving the customer experience. “This generates around 5,000 suggestions a month,” says Mr Delaflosse, “of which we aim to implement around 20 per cent of ideas considered.”
It is impossible not to be impressed by a first-time visit to the Burj Al Arab. The scale and innovation of the building itself, with its towering lobby and sail-like structure, along with an opulent interior that combines traditional Arabian elements with a futuristic sheen, are enough to impress even the most jaded consumer of luxury.
“The biggest challenge for us is to deliver on our promise to guests each and every time,” says Mr Delaflosse. As one measure of success in that regard, he points to the hotel’s repeat occupancy rate, which runs at about 25 per cent on average, but can rise to 80 per cent at certain times of the year, such as during the Dubai World Cup. In the notoriously fickle world of luxury services, this is a statistic that the Jumeirah Group will certainly find reassuring.
