The Hotelier Middle East GM survey is back for 2014, and following last year’s Dubai Expo win, it seems general managers are waiting for huge hotel pipelines to come to fruition, while considering how they are going to hold on to staff and drive revenues to keep owners happy in a rapidly changing market.

With 73.7 percent of respondents UAE-based, it’s not surprising that our first GM survey since Dubai’s Expo 2020 win reports that the major challenge general managers perceive is upcoming competition in the region, and supply potentially outweighing demand in the years to come.

Aside from the UAE responses, 14 percent of those who participated in the survey were Qatar based and 8.8 percent are running hotels in Saudi Arabia, while 1.75 percent each were based in Oman and Jordan.

A total of 57 respondents participated in the survey and they represented a mix across city hotels, resorts and hotel apartments, with the lion’s share managing city hotels (31.8 percent) and 24.5 percent business hotels, while 21 percent run a hotel apartment property.

For the respondents’ hotels, 39 percent of revenue is generated by business from corporate individuals, and 32 percent from leisure individuals; 14 percent and 13 percent comes from business groups and leisure groups respectively, and 7 percent of business is driven by MICE guests.

More than half of the respondents were from five-star properties (56 percent), while 35.1 percent manage four-star businesses and the remaining 8.8 percent are at the helm of a three-star. While almost a third of the participants are general managers at properties with 100–200 rooms (31.6 percent), around half lead hotels that have between 200 and 400 rooms and 8.8 percent head up 2000–3000 room properties.

In terms of entry into their roles, 60.4 percent came from F&B, while 43.7 percent grew into their positions from front office and 37.5 percent from rooms. Housekeeping departments produced 12.5 percent of our GMS, yet just 6.2 percent came from each of finance and recreation.

Performance for 2014 has been positive so far, with 57.8 percent of respondents reporting occupancy slightly or significantly higher than last year, while only 7 percent said it had been significantly lower.

Revealing a similar trend, room rates were reported by 55 percent of respondents as being slightly higher or significantly higher than 2013, which compared to 69 percent last year, suggesting a slightly slower growth rate in 2013—2014 than 2012—2013, perhaps owing to a low starting base in 2012 as a result of the lingering effects of the global economic downturn.

Average rates this year were reported by 19 percent of respondents as being around the $175–200 mark, while 17.5 percent (most likely those from three- and four-star hotels), said rates stood at just $75-100. Just one respondent claimed average rate at their hotel was $500–750.

Among the first three quarters of the year, Q1 was reported as the best performing period in terms of occupancy by 72 percent of respondents; 19.3 percent reported Q2 was the best, and 8.8 percent said Q3 was the most favourable. Flipping this on its head, 80 percent of respondents claimed Q3 was the worst period, while 8.8 percent said Q1 was.

Of the GMs surveyed, results revealed that 67 percent of revenue for their hotels comes from rooms, while 10 percent comes from F&B banqueting, and 17 percent from F&B outlets.

source：http://www.arabianbusiness.com