Abu Dhabi Week catches up with general manager Sascha Bartz

What’s been the secret of Park Rotana’s success to date?
I think it’s the fact that we’re constantly working to improve ourselves. From the opening of the hotel, the arrival of the first guest, the first fully booked event to the first burst water pipe. We see every experience as a challenge to be overcome.
We’re a mixed-use development with Arjaan, the residences and the offices have allowed us to be diverse and innovative in terms of our promotions. We’ve been able to appeal to a real cross-section of people.
The trick now is to keep the momentum and not get complacent. We have to continue refining the product.
Our team is our real selling point. Most of them have been with us from the start and have built a very strong relationship with our clients. 30 percent of our guests are repeat visitors; the majority in Abu Dhabi for business reasons.

How do you continue to innovate?
We ask for constant feedback from our guests so we can see where the demand is. We have celebrated a lot of firsts. The most recent was the introduction of our lobby check-in system. Guests can now check-in for their flights before they’ve even left the hotel.
We’ve also introduced a full concierge service for our office tenants. This isn’t just limited to providing cleaning and catering services. We can also book them hotels (even when they opt not to stay in a Rotana property), flights and restaurants – it’s a one-stop-shop.

What’s new at Park Rotana?
Our outlets continue to be very successful, particularly Coopers and Teatro. We’ve tried to appeal to a range of nationalities and I think that’s the reason why we’ve been so busy.
Soon we will open our new restaurant Amador, run by three-star Michelin chef Juan Amador. We’re really excited about the opening, which should be early next year during Gourmet Abu Dhabi. We’ll be offering a full menu but also inviting guests to join us for light tapas and aperitifs. It’s situated above Ginger on our second floor.
We also have some pretty exciting plans in the pipeline to expand our offering to more leisure visitors, but as we’re just in the planning stages I’ll have to keep quiet about that for now. Watch this space!

Are you looking forward to more competition from new hotels in Abu Dhabi?
The arrival of so many international brands in Abu Dhabi can only be a good thing. It elevates business and will force those older hotels that are out-of-fashion or out-of-date to step aside. Hopefully the newer hotels will help to keep room rates steady and in time elevate them to a similar level to Dubai.