The Client

Royal Commission for Al Ula, a division of the Saudi Arabian government established in July 2017 to preserve and develop a 3000 year old archaeological and historical site in the north west of the country.

What did Hotel Solutions Partnership achieve for the client?

Our work enabled our client to welcome international dignitaries and influential guests during the Festival and be confident that guests would have a positive experience staying in the tented camps.

Our consultant’s time was divided equally between the two camps and included:

• Detailed site inspections on preparedness to welcome Festival guests with feedback on actions required and recommended purchases to raise the quality of the guest offering
• Daily observation of operations, feedback and follow up on completed recommendations
• Advising all operating managers on the prestentation of their areas and assisting them to develop departmental service standards, checklists and other supporting tools
• Working with managers to customise the initial guest journey service standards to be relevant for their operation
• Delivering bespoke guest service training modules focusing on foundation service skills, with support from an English Arabic translator
• Delivering customised departmental on-job training sessions for staff on the preparation and presentation of their areas, and interacting with guests
• Preparing and communicating detailed operational and training action plans leading up to the arrival of the first guests

At the end of the visit the consultant was invited to join a client team to monitor the guest experience for the first arriving Festival guests, providing daily reports to the client representative and feedback to the camp owners. The camps had a successful Festival and are ready to embrace our further recommendations for future guest experiences.

Background

In accordance with an overarching strategic development plan to welcome 200,000 annual visitors to the wider region by 2020 and 2,000,000 visitors by 2030, the client is assessing the availability and quality of the accommodation offering at the destination.  A key objective of the development plan is to utilise the existing tented camp facilities and staff where possible and increase community engagement and ownership.

Hotel Solutions Partnership (HSP) prepared an initial report assessing the existing service levels and facilities at the tented camp sites. This highlighted a number of short and long term objectives and identified the need to train the staff in welcoming and serving an international clientele.

Client Need

In November 2017, HSP were asked to address the short-term operational and training recommendations given in their initial site visit report for two tented camps before the planned Winter at Tantora Festival.

Scope of Work

Hotel Solutions Partnership’s process would focus on reviewing progress on the development of the facilities at the camps and raising the level of service.  To do this, HSP completed the following steps:

Phase 1 – Desktop Design, Development and Organisation : in order to meet the client’s readliness for the Festival, HSP’s organisational development consultant undertook detailed preparation for a site visit, which included designing and developing:

• A format and guidance notes for camps to develop staff organisation charts with clear reporting lines, and eventually clear outlines of job roles
• Initial broad service standards, based on international best practice and knowledge of the current operating environment in the camps, following the guest journey from arrival to departure. This included reservations, airport arrival and departure, resort arrival and check in / check out and departure for groups and individuals, room and public area cleaning and presentation, restaurant set-ups and service.
• English language guides / scripting for key guest facing roles – initially simple conversational phrases, questions and answers.
• An interactive one day bespoke guest care training programme, divided into two modules
• Departmental training sessions for Front Office, Housekeeping and Restaurants

Phase 2 – Site Visit : our consultant conducted a two-week site visit to assess the operational readiness of tented camps and the quality of the facilities, and deliver face to face training for staff.

Phase 3 – Report recommendations – HSP produced a detailed report within 2 weeks of the site visit which summarised the findings and actions taken, and highlighted recommendations for the next phase to take the guest experience to the next level.