The Address Unveils New Cairo Resort Hotel

JULY 21, 2008.
The Address Hotels & Resorts, Emaar's new premium hotel brand, has signed its first hotel property in Egypt – The Address, Uptown Cairo. The hotel will be the flagship brand of The Address brand in Egypt and is scheduled to open in 2011.The US$2.1 billion Uptown Cairo is located on 1,000 hectares within Mokattam Hills. Uptown Cairo features several residential villages, a Business Park, resorts, spa, sports & leisure facilities, a sprawling shopping mall and a world-class golf course. Uptown Cairo is easily accessible from Maadi, Heliopolis, Nasr City and Central Cairo.Mr Marc Dardenne, Chief Executive Officer, Emaar Hospitality Group, said: “The Address Hotels & Resorts is a truly global brand from Emaar Hospitality, and by managing its first international project in Egypt – one of the fastest growing tourist destinations – we are underscoring our capabilities to offer world-class hospitality services in international markets. Uptown Cairo is a spectacular master-planned community located in the Mokattam Hills and The Address, Uptown Cairo will offer a distinctive hotel experience for guests with our focus on

Nakheel and The Trump Organization to sell most expensive penthouse in Dubai
Nakheel becomes first developer to sign emergency services agreement with Government of Dubai

Jumeirah Village begins to take shape

the Original Post is here.

Jumeirah Village begins to take shape
60% of Infrastructure completed
Dubai, June 26th 2008
Nakheel, a Dubai World company and one of the world's largest and most innovative real estate developers has completed 60% of the infrastructure on Jumeirah Village, marking a major milestone in the ongoing development of the project.
Spread across 811 hectares at the geographic centre of Dubai, Jumeirah Village will be comprised of a variety of residences, offices, commercial property, retail and leisure facilities, with an approximate population of 300,000. Announced in 2004, in the past year the development has made major progress under a new management team.
Marwan Al Naqi, General Manager, Jumeirah Village, said:
"The largest inland project in our portfolio, Jumeirah Village is a major part of Nakheel's vision to transform the desert of Dubai into a series of vibrant communities. Reaching 60% completion of the infrastructure is a major accomplishment and reflects the pace at which the development is progressing."
"In the design of the masterplan, we have used some of the key principles of ‘new urbanism'. A balanced community mix will be achieved through a combination of distinct architecture, extensive landscaping, connected parks and boulevards."
During planning of Jumeirah Village there has been a major focus on the provision of amenities, such as parks, sports fields, schools, mosques, shopping centres, cafes and restaurants, with easy access to community service hubs and public open spaces. All of this will combine to ensure that although Jumeirah Village is the size of a city, it will retain the community feel of a village.
Marwan Al Naqi, General Manager, Jumeirah Village, added:
"Jumeirah Village is designed with the objective of targeting specific shortfalls in the Dubai property market. Jumeirah Village's location at the very centre of the emirate means it has excellent access to the older parts of Dubai, Jumeirah and the new emerging areas such as Jebel Ali. With such emerging areas, there is a huge demand for a wide variety of housing, office space, retail and leisure, and Jumeirah Village will satisfy a significant percentage of this demand. As we continue to develop the project, it is essential that we take into account the changing face of Dubai and as such, the masterplan is designed to evolve with the changing demands."
Located north of Emirates Road and west of Al Barsha Road, Jumeirah Village is bisected by Al Khail Road into triangular and circular portions. The Circle is comprised of commercial, residential and retail components and The Triangle is predominantly made up of villas surrounded by residential towers.

Plaza Hotel is not ready to open. please close it.

I called the Plaza Hotel on 5/15/2008 at 11:55 PM to check if they had any rooms for one of our guests. I expected a PBX operator to answer the phone and then I would asked to be transferred to the Front Office. However, I go a recorded message saying:
“ all of our agents are busy, please stay on the line for the next available agent. Thank you for your patience”
Are you kidding me? Is this luxury hotel or Time Warner Cable?

I waited on line for more than 5 minutes and no one picked up. I listened to all kind of music. I listened all kind of cheesy cheap marketing.
How do you expect me to stay if I even cannot reach someone to make a reservation?

I know the Plaza is just opened, but really, If you are not ready to open a hotel DON’T do it.

Mandarin Oriental to open in Dubai

Mandarien Oriental Hotels Group will open new hotel in Dubai soon!

Blame No One

Blame No one

Expect nothing

Just do it yourself

******

some manager really wants to motivate his/her team:)))))

Middle level management is dying

Department and assistants’ departments’ heads are not getting paid enough in the hotel business. If you are front office manager or assistant front office manager, you make less money than front office supervisor or front office agent. Same thing apply to so many other departments.
Managers don’t earn over time. They can work 15 hours day and they still get paid the same amount of money. In the other hand, supervisor and agents get paid double when working over time. In results to this, the highest turn over rate in a hotel position is in assistant manager or department heads. After spending a year or tow in a position, department heads move on to another company to become assistant division head and that’s where they start making some money.
A general manager of a luxury hotel once said that he knew that his hotel was a training background and he did not mind the high turn over rate!! He said I got my money worth!
How it make you feel, when I night cleaner or banquet waiter, or even a door man comes to you with a problem with his/her pay check, and when you look at the amount paid, you see that he/or she get paid 3 times more than the department head???

Expedia

This is my fourth hotel in New York City where I had problems with all Expedia reservations. Expedia cares about nothing but selling more reservations. They don’t care about making their customers happy.
Fourth quarter in New York City is the busiest quarter of the year. And so many hotels close out some rooms' type for Expedia, hotles.com, and price line. Expedia still sell these rooms types to their guests. For example, we close our double bedded rooms in Thanksgiving, and Expedia still sell their customers the double bedded room. So I have guests coming to the front desk with Expedia confirmation to double bedded room. The Expedia mentality is to sell whatever they can sell and their customer will fight at the hotel to get whatever he paid Expedia for.
I promise you, at my next job, I will allow ZERO Expedia reservation in my revenue numbers.

Travel Agents

Can someone tell me why all travel agents eat while talking on the phone?

The Basic Principles for a Collaborative Workplace

I had a training session at my work place and we learned these 5 basic principles which are very useful:

1- Focus on the situation, issue, or behavior, not the person.
2- Maintain the self-confidence and self-esteem of others.
3- Maintain constructive relationships.
4- Take initiative to make things better.
5- Lead by example.
Try to use these every day, your work life will be very easy
The book we used is product of Achieve Global, Inc