World’s Tallest Hotel Overcomes the Tallest Challenges with Diversey

 

Easily recognized by its golden facade that comes to life when the sun shines on it, Gevora – World Tallest Hotel is another jewel in Dubai’s crown.

 

Filed under
Housekeeping
 
December 5, 2022
 
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World’s Tallest Hotel Overcomes the Tallest Challenges with Diversey
 

The tower rises above the clouds. At a height of 356 meters and 75 floors, it’s one of the tallest skyscrapers in Dubai as well. It’s now the 7th tallest in Dubai, right between JW Marriott Marquis Dubai Towers (355 meters – 1,165 ft), which was the previous title holder of “world’s tallest hotel”, and Almas Tower (360 meters – 1,180 ft). The Gevora Hotel boasts a total of 528 rooms and suites, has four restaurants, a health club, and an outdoor swimming pool with a bar and spectacular Dubai skyline view.

However, we look beyond the features that give the Gevora its recognition, and dig deeper into its cleaning operations, challenges and best practices. We also discuss how Diversey recognised the hidden and apparent challenges in Gevora’s room care and kitchen care processes and helped the world's tallest hotel overcome the tallest challenges.

HOW IT STARTED

It all started when the Gevora team started recognizing the missing links in their hygiene processes, especially in their kitchen and housekeeping operations. Ms. Amala Emmanel, Hygiene Officer at Gevora, shines a light on the kitchen hygiene challenges at the time of her joining. “Proper kitchen care chemicals were not available at the property when I joined. Existing company’s chemicals, dilution ratios were very high and inappropriate. They didn't have updated municipality approvals for their chemicals,” she says.

In addition to this, the stewarding team constantly faced challenges with plates washed in the dishwashing machine, as they were not properly cleaned resulting in residues like protein and detergent. Grill cleaner was not effective which resulted in grill and oven surfaces turning black over a period of time.

The operations team was unhappy with the service response time and training support received. Amala realized that hygiene was not something she could compromise on, especially in the kitchen, which should ideally be a high quality, efficient, and professional environment. This could be easily achieved if standards of cleanliness and sanitation were taken seriously and implemented on a daily basis. All of these concerns boiled down to choosing a hygiene partner who would not only provide proper kitchen care chemicals, but would also make efforts to understand Gevora’s hygiene processes and help rectify them where necessary.

Parallely, another set of challenges emerged in the housekeeping department. Some of these were so major that they could tarnish the hotel’s reputation. Mr. Minar Hafiz Aliyar, Executive Housekeeper at Gevora, explains the challenges of the housekeeping department, particularly on the chemicals side. “When I joined the property, I immediately noticed that we have major issues with cleaning chemicals. Due to improper training, the team was not really using the right product for the right surface and the basics of having properly labeled spray cans were missing. As the team had insufficient spray cans, they hardly used any chemicals in bottles. On the contrary, sometimes the concentrated chemical gallons were brought to the areas and used undiluted on to the surfaces. Due to this untutored cleaning practice, several surfaces got damaged and some to the extent of beyond repair. I had an immediate meeting with the supplier to notify them of these issues and I was told that the agreement was to provide limited spray cans and it is replaced on an exchange basis against the return of damaged cans Due to such conditions i.e. to reduce the price and win the contract, the team used less chemicals which indirectly compromised the life of the assets. Several other local chemicals were randomly being purchased and used frantically without understanding its impact on the surface and their end result , this was also destroying the look of the property and its reputation in the eyes of the customers,” he shares.

If you have seen the beautiful Gevora, you would know that it is a gold themed hotel with many gold powder coated fixtures and metal surfaces in the public areas. Because of inappropriate use of chemicals, there was noticeable discoloring of all these metal surfaces as the chemicals used were with high ammonia/chlorine/Acidic content.

MULTIPLE ISSUES, SINGLE SOLUTION

When these issues came under the scanner, the hotel decided to take action. They decided to choose a supplier who was known for its reliability and quality of chemicals - Diversey. Thus, the partnership between Diversey and the world’s tallest hotel took flight. At the outset, Diversey analyzed Gevora’s kitchen and housekeeping cleaning processes. After a thorough screening, they identified the major problem areas such as:

PROBLEM AREAS IN KITCHEN HYGIENES:

  • Proper chemicals were not in place. For example, there was no detergent for pot washing.
  • Surface sanitizers were not in use.
  • The chemical quality being used was very poor.
  • The hand sanitizers being used were very sticky and left a residue on the hand after each use.
  • Grills had blackened and were not in a good condition.
  • Basic sanitization was missing in kitchen areas.
  • The vegetable sanitizer that was in use had a dilution ratio of 2-30 ML per liter, resulting in high consumption of chemicals.
  • Problem areas in housekeeping:
  • Housekeeping dispensers were not working properly.
  • Housekeeping team was using chemicals directly from the gallon without diluting them.
  • The staff had little to no knowledge of the chemicals and lack of training was evident.
  • Proper chemical bottles, stickers and caddy's were missing
  • Staff was using the wrong chemicals for different areas. For example, floor cleaners were used as air fresheners.

HOW DIVERSEY RESOLVED THESE ISSUES

Diversey immediately acted and took matters in hand. A wide range of changes and training soon followed.

For instance, a new range of dispensers were installed in all the different areas of the kitchen with Diversey’s range of Kitchen care chemicals. Diversey team conducted adequate trainings and practical demonstrations on site to train the team on proper use of chemicals like:

  • Vegetable sanitizers
  • Grill cleaner
  • Room care cleaner and rinse free surface disinfectants, etc

Diversey also realized that a lot of errors were being made because of the lack of training. Hence, the team was also trained on COSHH standards. Diversey understood that knowledge is power and by training the housekeeping staff to be confident and knowledgeable in what they do, they would be powering a whole host of benefits.

For the housekeeping team, Diversey chemical Dispensers were installed on 4 different locations to ensure the team has easy access to these stations. Diversey provided an adequate number of microfiber cloths and caddys to the team.

Diversey also customized lape brackets in golden colors to match clients' interior and installed them in all guest washrooms of the public areas of the hotel.

These changes were noticed by the guests. Housekeeping managers started receiving positive guest feedback and reviews. The positive experiences created loyalty and repeat customers. Simple steps by Diversey ensured that housekeeping was at the top of Gevora’s game.

Minar was clearly impressed by Diversey’s efforts and commented, “I have worked with Diversey in the past and I am well aware of their products and service support.I had a property survey done by the representatives of Diversey who were able to clearly suggest to me the required solutions to overcome the issues that I faced. Correct chemistry using optimum dilution ratios, support with spray cans, caddies and microfiber dusters, backed by ample training sessions really put the cleaning team back on track with the expected standards.

A PARTNERSHIP THAT WORKED FOR THE BENEFIT OF GEVORA

By the end of the day, what really matters is the result. The world’s tallest hotel gained a lot from its partnership with Diversey.

  • The team was provided with the right equipment and solutions to perform their basic cleaning jobs effectively. They were also trained on the proper chemical usage. Providing certificates to the team really motivated them to take initiative and perform well, boosting productivity. The results were almost instantaneous wherein the areas improved pertaining to cleaning standards.
  • Diversey had also gone an extra mile in recognizing Gevora’s gold theme and provided the customized stainless steel powder coated dispensers in gold color for public areas, as a signature item providing a royal look for Gevora washrooms.
  • Diversey added value to clients’ operation and exceeded the expectations of the hotel by digging deep into its problem areas and going an extra mile to ensure their problems are met with a long term solution.

To conclude, Minar Hafiz Aliyar says, I would definitely relate the famous old quote for our current situation “BEHIND EVERY PROBLEM THERE IS A SOLUTION”, for us it turned out to be Divesey. I would like to thank you all for being our partner and supporting the busy business operations here.