The JW Marriott Marquis will be the tallest hotel in the world once it opens in Dubai in the fourth quarter of this year. Here, Rupprecht Queitsch, a German who is the general manager of this Dh1.8 billion (US$490.2 million), 1608-room property, talks about a typical day preparing for its grand opening.
5.30am
I wake up. I've had a pretty good routine for many years - I have a coffee and one banana. [While] getting ready, I always have the news in the background on the TV, and I read one local paper and one international paper. Then I'm off to work. I drive from the Palm Jumeirah, where I live.
7am
Once I'm at work, I catch up with my emails and I plan my day. I believe a lot in planning, being German. I think good preparation is 50 per cent of winning the battle. I always like to be ahead of the game.
Morning
Right now we're doing a lot of hiring. I hire my key team - all the heads of food and beverage, of the human resources, sales and marketing, finance. I'm putting those teams together so they can then hire their people. We're also starting food and beverage concepts. We have nine restaurants. This is a very exciting time, so we decide on what concept that should be, what might be the menu, then comes the uniform, then the china, the glassware. We have a budget of $2m just for china and glassware. We're also doing sales jobs. I'm in contact with key clients to ask for their business. Our clients come from the main feeder market, which is Europe, America, Bric [Brazil, Russia, India and China] - one of the most growing areas. You can't do sales without relations. We are getting all these relations established in those different markets, so they can get to know us and get excited about us and start sending us business prospects. We also have meetings with the owners.
Afternoon
I actually don't eat lunch, unless I'm taking somebody out. Every Monday, we walk the construction site, the buildings, the restaurants, certain areas, with the builder.
2pm
I have meetings with clients and with my food and beverage guys in the afternoon.
7pm
My evening is my "second day" I always say. I've started to play night-golf. My wife packs a sandwich and off we go to the Emirates Golf Club. I do it maybe once or twice a week. It really takes your mind off things. Golf is like a mini-vacation for me, because you have no phones. You really disconnect from the day.
11pm
I go to bed, unless I go out for dinner, in which case it's usually 1-ish or 2-ish.
