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FEATURE

reaching for the five-stars

a new breed of global business travelers has spawned a new attitude among cairo’s elite hotels

by ashraf khalil

rajiv kaul doesn’t have to worry too much right now about in-room faxes, video conferencing facilities or the latest issue of the wall street journal. as general manager of the mena house oberoi hotel, kaul estimates that over 90 percent of his clientele consists of that classic egyptian staple: plain old pyramid-loving tourists. but the ratio might be changing soon.

as the commercial and industrial developments around sixth of october city continue to grow, the mena house and its neighboring hotels are in good position to start drawing a very different kind of guest — a kind which, as kaul puts it, "simply doesn’t care about how nice the view of the pyramids from the balcony is."

the days when kaul has to cater to these clients may be a decade away, but elsewhere around the city the courting of the new (and demanding) class of business traveler is already in full swing. egypt’s gradual entry into the global economy during the past few years has already brought an increasing number of laptop-toting business guests, who care far more about speed, efficiency and communications than nile cruises or daytrips to khan al khalili.

"you have to be able to focus in both directions now," said heinz grub, manager of le meridien cairo. "all hotels in egypt have to have a focus on the business traveler."

establishing that dual focus may be the greatest challenge cairo’s hospitality industry will face in the coming decade. the requirements of the business guest are so radically different from those of the traditional vacationer that cairo’s top-end hotels must cater to two virtually opposite sets of customer needs. "cairo is not a fun town to do business in anyway," kaul said. "it creates a lot of tension." while tourists might get a buzz off the local atmosphere, the business guest "is looking for a hotel that makes life simpler and easier — one that doesn’t create more problems and stress. if his meeting went bad, then one mistake from us can make him think this is the worst hotel in the world."

the competition for a slice of the growing expense-account pie is already stiff — and certain to get more heated down the line. the city’s newest elite hotels, the conrad and the four seasons, are both aggressively marketing themselves as business-friendly. "we are built to be a business hotel," said conrad public relations manager ghada abdel khalek, who estimated that more than half of the one-and-a-half year old hotel’s business comes from travelling executives.

the four seasons, which partially opened in may and is set for a full opening in october, issues an even stronger challenge. "our main target is the corporate market," said four seasons general manager john o’sullivan. "we’re definitely targeting the executive floors of the other hotels in the city."

the newcomers maintain that they represent a level of service far beyond that offered in cairo’s other five-stars. the conrad describes itself as "five star deluxe" – a polite way of saying that it’s a real five-star, rather than another place offering the decidedly half-baked five-star service to which the city is accustomed. the four seasons, meanwhile, boasts in its promotional materials of introducing to egypt "an unprecedented level of five-star service and elegance, and the most sophisticated business facilities offered in any cairo hotel."

despite cairo’s status as one of the world’s top tourism destinations, the city is notorious for charging five-star prices while offering service far below the global standard. one local hotel executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, rated local five-star hotels as somewhere in the neighborhood of three-and-a-half by international standards. "cairo five-star is not at the level of what you’d call five-star in north america or asia," the executive said, adding that local service even lags behind that of other less tourism-oriented arab nations.

what’s worse, the specific needs of business travelers — efficiency, prompt service, a hassle-free environment — play right into some of egypt’s traditional weaknesses. a tourist may be content to wait a half-hour for a coffee refill while gazing out over the rippling nile waters — but not your average business traveler on a deadline. "he has no time to wait for his breakfast in the morning," grub said. "the service has to operate within his schedule. if you can do that, you will be a great business hotel."

but time management and attention to detail aren’t exactly strong points in modern-day egypt, and overcoming that cultural roadblock may be the biggest challenge to keeping business travelers happy. "business people count on time, and time is a problem in egypt," said four seasons chief concierge tony meimary.

marketing the latest standards of hospitality without sounding smug or insulting is a challenge in its own right. o’sullivan toes a fine diplomatic line, promising a level of service that "won’t be diluted regardless of the country you’re in." translation: yes, we're in egypt, but we offer non-egyptian service.

into the somewhat open five-star playing field comes a host of new challengers to cairo's old-guard hotels. in addition to the conrad and the four seasons, there's a massive new le royale meridien tower nearing completion right nest to the old meridien hotel. also in the works are a new hyatt just down the corniche from the conrad and yet another four seasons across the street from the meridien.

the long-standing hotels, as much as the newcomers, must face the question of how best to serve the new breed of customer. the answer comes down to a combination of facilities and staff training.

for starters, there’s the need for easy access to communications — a hotel has to be able to let its guests stay in touch. "today a business traveler has to have access to the internet, and the hotel needs to have an efficient voicemail system," grub said.

the new meridien tower, unlike the regular meridien, will offer in-room internet access and accommodations specifically designed with the business traveler in mind. with 714 rooms and 72 suites, the tower is hoped to open by new year’s.

the role of a hotel’s business center continues to be of paramount importance too — but in a much different way than in the past. a business center used to be mainly a place to make international phone calls, send faxes and maybe check e-mail — but today’s business traveler has different, more complicated needs. "they want to do as much as possible in their rooms," said four seasons training manager pernille baumann. with many of the more basic needs such as internet and faxing now taken care of by the average laptop, up-to-date business centers are striving to provide secretarial and translation services, office space and conference-room facilities.

conrad officials point to their high-tech and meticulously designed business center, but some veteran business travelers can be very hard to satisfy. one frequent visitor to cairo, who now stays only at the conrad after one disastrous stay at a different hotel, still managed to find room to gripe. "the business center is very badly designed," he said. "the chairs are uncomfortable, and the desks that the computers sit on are also absurdly designed and should be ripped out and done over. working there for even an hour gives you major backache."

but the visitor stressed that he has always been pleased by the hotel overall. "they just need to iron out these kinks."

older hotels are at a significant disadvantage in competing for this discerning customer base. built a generation ago, when the city’s hotel clientele was almost exclusively leisure-oriented, the older five-stars simply weren’t designed with the business guest in mind. issues such as adequate desk space, proper lighting and having data ports on the telephone simply weren’t considered.

rewiring an existing hotel to add a data line to each room would be a massive undertaking - whereas newer hotels like the conrad and le royale meridien are simply built that way from the start.

kaul, the mena house manager, said the expected influx of guests doing business around sixth of october city — which is now much more accessible from the pyramids than from downtown or zamalek — will soon require him to rethink the whole layout of the hotel. he’s considering setting aside a certain percentage of the mena house’s 523 rooms exclusively for business guests — which would require a complete redesign.

other aspects of the hotel’s service will also receive greater emphasis, with business guests expecting faster dry cleaning and butler services as well as a more extensive room service menu.

kaul admits that his hotel’s business center was put in as an afterthought — as was the largely unused exercise room. but these facilities, as it turns out, are a high priority among businessfolk. "the tourist is tired from sightseeing. he wants to have a drink and sit by the pool," kaul said. "a business guest wants to take a shower, rest a bit and then hit the gym."

business guests also place an entirely new set of demands on hotel employees — creating a greater need for intensive staff training. kaul said his staff — long accustomed to dealing almost exclusively with leisure guests — will soon have to be trained on how to serve the new kind of customer. "right now, our staff will help you with your sightseeing options or shopping," he said. soon, however, mena house staffers will be expected to differentiate between the needs of vacationing honeymooners and stressed-out businessmen.

differentiation requires constant adjustments in the manner of service. the average tourist "wants staff members to be friendly and chatty," kaul said. "someone who’s trying to negotiate a deal over breakfast just wants you to put down the coffee and let him work."

attempts to raise standards of service has placed a burden on hotel human resources departments, which must recruit and properly train employees to meet all customers’ various expectations. in the end, human resources issues such as staff motivation and attention to detail might be the five-star hotels’ greatest challenge of all.

apathetic service has, in recent years, become one of the unfortunate trademarks of many high-end cairo hotels. perhaps most telling is that the four seasons — which charges far more than any other hotel in the city and promises highly personalized service in return — has recruited only a small number of employees from cairo’s other hotels.

four seasons executives emphasize that 80 percent of their staff had never worked in a hotel before. "we like to get fresh graduates and train them from the start," meimary said. that way, there are no bad habits to break.

despite the extra hassles involved in adjusting to different sets of demands, business travelers remain one of the most coveted customer bases in both the local and global hospitality industries. the reasons are simple: they spend more money and they keep coming back.

business guests — typically travelling on expense accounts, or at least able to write off all costs as tax-deductible expenses — care more about the quality of service than the costs. they make greater demands on the staff, but don’t mind paying for the extra attention. they also spend more time in their rooms working, which means higher room service bills.

happy business travelers create repeat business, often visiting several times a year and recommending good hotels to colleagues and associates. and most importantly, they will develop fierce brand loyalty to whichever hotel chain provides the most comfortable working environment.

"you don’t get the same people coming back for leisure every three months," kaul said. "once you get a business traveler to feel at home in your hotel, he not only comes back to you every time, but he looks for another member of your hotel chain in the next city he’s travelling to."

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