Central Hotels in Dubai gears up for rapid growth with xnPOS and protel PMS from Xn protel Systems
Dubai, UAE – global hospitality management software company Xn protel Systems today announced that the newly opened 5-star Royal Central The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE (207 rooms, 6 F&B outlets) and the 5-star Canal Central Hotel Business Bay, Dubai, UAE (278 rooms, 4 F&B outlets) have both installed a protel property management and xnPOS point of sale system. The strong partnership between Central Hotels and Xn protel will see existing and new hotels within the group strengthening the brand through the creation and delivery of exceptional, personalized guest experiences.
Central Hotels, launched in 2015, is a fast-growing hospitality management company headquartered in Dubai, UAE. The company offers a full spectrum of choice in terms of hotel categories and comprises five distinct hotel brands: Grand Central, City Central, Central Inn, Central Suites and Central Living. Central Hotels has rapid growth plans, which could see them reach up to fifty hotels in the next five years.
xnPOS provides comprehensive functionality and scalability that meets the needs of hotel F&B, table service restaurants and hospitality foodservice operations. The product is already proven in a wide spectrum of F&B operations in some 50 countries across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. The pedigree and range of international customers endorses the system’s flexibility, functionality, language capability and simplicity of use.
protel MPE is an on-premise or hosted property management system for group hotels, serviced apartments and other accommodation businesses. It is internationally proven, feature rich and seamlessly connects to all other critical business systems. protel MPE provides the tools needed to support the guest journey, empower staff, and support the growing needs of the hospitality business. Central Hotels has chosen the ‘hosted’ option within Xn protel’s Data Center.
Ammar Kanaan, Group General Manager, Central Hotels said: “Our partnership with Xn protel is key to us providing our hotel teams with the right tools to make sure our guests receive a warm welcome and great service.”
Ammar continues, “Choosing the ‘hosted by Xn protel’ option for our PMS and POS means that we now have all the advantages of centralized systems, supported by people who really know what they are doing. It will allow us to better manage our resources across the Central Hotels Group and enable us to truly understand and meet the needs of our guests.”
Magued Malek, Business Development Director Gulf Countries & India, Xn protel Systems comments: “Many thanks indeed to the corporate and hotel teams for helping us to ensure everything was in place ready for the two openings. We look forward to our continued partnership and working together on future openings.”
About Central Hotels
Central Hotels has very quickly established itself as a reputed hotel management group in the UAE with its flagship property First Central Hotel Suites located in Barsha Heights (TECOM) near Sheikh Zayed Road. Building up on this amazing success, the brand is now poised to expand its footprint targeting the UAE and Turkey as the primary markets for growth in addition to other lucrative destinations in the Middle East. The group has recently added to its portfolio spectacular new 5-star hotels such as Canal Central Business Bay and Royal Central The Palm followed by Central House Citywalk focused on millennials, Novotel The Palm, Diamond Central – Business Bay, and Island Central in Dubai, as well as Valley Central Bursa, and Valley Central Trabzon in Turkey.
For Media Contact:
Hina Bakht
Managing Director
EVOPS Marketing & PR
M: +971 50 6975146 | T: +971 4 566 7355
Hina.bakht@evops-pr.com
www.evops-pr.com
Swiss-Belhotel International Appoints Hotel Manager For Two Upcoming Hotels In Kuwait
KUWAIT – Swiss-Belhotel International (SBI) has appointed Hakan Gencer as the Hotel Manager of its upcoming properties in Kuwait Swiss-Belhotel Bneid Al Gar, scheduled to open in Q4 2018 and Swiss-Belresidences Al Sharq, scheduled to open in Q3 2019. Hakan’s joining will establish the pre-opening office for Swiss-Belboutique Bneid Al Gar.
Making the announcement, Laurent A. Voivenel, Swiss-Belhotel International’s Senior Vice President, Operations and Development for the Middle East, Africa and India, said, “Hakan is an experienced and dynamic hospitality professional with extensive operations expertise in managing luxury resorts and city hotels. He has been with our group since 2016 as the general manager for Grand Swiss-Belhotel Celik Palas Thermal Spa. We are confident under his leadership Swiss-Belhotel Bneid Al Gar will achieve the highest level of performance and guest satisfaction. In addition, Hakan will also oversee the build-up of Swiss-Belresidences Al Sharq, our second property in Kuwait.”
Hakan brings with him over two and a half decades of outstanding experience in the hospitality industry working with some of the world’s most successful and prestigious hotels in Turkey and London in various capacities. Prior to joining Swiss-Belhotel International group, Hakan was the complex director of food and beverages in two leading business hotels in Bursa, Turkey.
Dual nationality holder from Turkey and the UK, Hakan has a long list of accomplishments and accolades during his distinguished career. Upon joining the Swiss-Belhotel Bneid Al Gar, he commented, “I am delighted to lead the team at this superb hotel and really grateful to Swiss-Belhotel International for having given me the opportunity to continue with the group. It is truly exciting to take up this challenge and be entrusted with the responsibility to open the brand’s first hotel in Kuwait.”
The steady growth of tourism in Kuwait, with a vision to welcome 440,000 visitors annually by 2024 is fuelling demand for quality hotels. Swiss-Belhotel Bneid Al Gar will be a comfortable and stylish address for both business and leisure travellers offering a home-away-from-home experience. Featuring rooms equipped with top-notch facilities, the hotel enjoys an exceptional location in Kuwait City. Included in its facilities will be a multiple choice of leisure and recreation facilities such as two superb restaurants, lobby café, spa, health club and swimming pool.
The second property, Swiss-Belresidences Al Sharq will serve as a great base for corporate travellers being strategically located in the business district near Souq Sharq. It will offer guests a choice of one and two bedroom hotel apartments with fully-equipped kitchen facilities. The hotel will also feature an all-day-dining restaurant, a deli corner in the lobby, kids club and a swimming pool.
Kuwait is pressing ahead with multiple plans to boost tourism that will see billions of dollars being invested in projects such as the expansion of Kuwait International Airport, reaching 25 million passenger capacity annually by 2025; and development of cultural attractions like Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Islamic Centre. According to figures from the World Travel and Tourism Council, travel and tourism investment in Kuwait is set to rise 1.5% per annum over the next ten years to KWD135.6 million in 2027. Performance is forecast for strong recovery in 2018 with continued growth until 2026, reaching values of KWD501.3 million.
For further information visit http://www.swiss-belhotel.com
Notes to Editors:
About Swiss-Belhotel International
Swiss-Belhotel International currently manages a portfolio of more than 150* hotels, resorts and projects located in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy and Tanzania. Awarded Indonesia’s Leading Global Hotel Chain for six consecutive years, Swiss-Belhotel International is one of the world’s fastest-growing international hotel and hospitality management groups. The Group provides comprehensive and highly professional development and management services in all aspects of hotel, resort and serviced residences. Offices are located in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, China, Europe, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. www.swiss-behotel.com
For media contact:
Hina Bakht
Managing Director
EVOPS Marketing & PR
Mob: 00971 50 6975146
Tel: 00971 4 566 7355
Hina.bakht@evops-pr.com
www.evops-pr.com
Fashion forward with Fcube & Romy Collection
Edgy, sultry and Oh so feminine! ( ..and oh so me) how could I not have done a collaboration with Romy’s collection. I loved putting these edgy looks together and had a lot of fun shooting them, goes to show how fashion forward they indeed are. So get shopping and snapping in these super Instagramable pieces.
Fcube Instagram
Romy Collection Instagram
Marriott International Announces Release Date For Second Quarter 2018 Earnings
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) will report second quarter 2018 earnings results on Monday, August 6, 2018, at approximately 5:00 pm Eastern Time (ET). The company will hold a conference call for the investment community to discuss its second quarter 2018 earnings on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 10 a.m. ET. Mr. Arne Sorenson, Marriott International’s president and chief executive officer, and Ms. Leeny Oberg, Marriott International’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, will discuss the company’s performance.
The conference call will be webcast simultaneously via Marriott’s investor relations website. Those wishing to access the call on the web should log on to http://www.marriott.com/investor, and click the link for the second quarter earnings call under “Events and Presentations”. A replay will be available at that same website until August 7, 2019. A transcript of the call will also be available on the company’s website.
The telephone dial-in number for the conference call is 706-679-3455. Please use conference ID 6288233 when dialing into the call. To help ensure you do not miss any of the conference call, please dial-in or link to the call on the web 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. News media will be able to access the conference call in a listen-only mode.
A telephone replay of the conference call will be available from 1 p.m. ET, Tuesday, August 7, 2018 until 8 p.m. ET, Tuesday, August 14, 2018. To access the replay, call 404-537-3406. The conference ID for the recording is 6288233.
About Marriott International, Inc.
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) is based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and encompasses a portfolio of more than 6,500 properties in 30 leading hotel brands spanning 127 countries and territories. Marriott operates and franchises hotels and licenses vacation ownership resorts all around the world. The company also operates award-winning loyalty programs: Marriott Rewards®, which includes The Ritz-Carlton Rewards®, and Starwood Preferred Guest®. For more information, please visit our website at www.marriott.com, and for the latest company news, visit www.marriottnewscenter.com. In addition, connect with us on Facebook and @MarriottIntl on Twitter and Instagram.
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Contacts:
Felicia McLemore
Marriott International Corporate Relations
(301) 380-2702
felicia.mclemore@marriott.com
Betsy Dahm
Marriott International Investor Relations
(301) 380 3372
betsy.dahm@marriott.com
A New Level of Transparency for Ads and Pages
Today we’re making significant steps to bring more transparency to ads and Pages on Facebook. Giving people more information about any organization and the ads it’s currently running will mean increased accountability for advertisers, helping to prevent abuse on Facebook.
- View Active Ads: You can now see the ads a Page is running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and our partner network, even if those ads aren’t shown to you. Just log into Facebook, visit any Page and select “Info and Ads.” You’ll see ad creative and copy, and you can flag anything suspicious by clicking on “Report Ad.”
- More Page Information: You can also learn more about Pages, even if they don’t advertise. For example, you can see any recent name changes and the date the Page was created. We’ll be adding more Page information in the coming weeks.
Flydubai marks first direct flight between Dubai and Sicily
A senior delegation from Dubai, including H.E. Liborio Stellino, the Ambassador of Italy in the UAE, Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for flydubai, Thierry Aucoc, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations (Europe & Russian Federation) for Emirates, arrived at Catania International Airport (CTA) to mark the start of direct flights between Dubai and Sicily. The delegation was met on the ground by Muhannad Alnaqbi, Deputy Head of the UAE Mission to Italy, and by Nico Torrisi, Chief Executive Officer for Società Aeroporto Catania (SAC). On arrival, the flight was met with a traditional water cannon salute.
Emirates encourages customers to arrive early to airport during busy summer season starting tomorrow
Emirates expects high passenger traffic on its flights this upcoming weekend, starting from Friday 29 June as travellers journey out for their summer holidays and long breaks. Over 220,000 travellers will be passing through Emirates Terminal 3 during the upcoming two weekends. The busiest weekend day for the airline is expected to be tomorrow, Friday 29 June as well as the following weekend starting 6 July.
Emirates reminds customers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before flight departure, and customers are encouraged to plan extra time to avoid potential delays. Passengers can physically check in at the airport as early as six hours before departing on their flight. They are requested to check in no later than 90 minutes prior to departure, regardless of class of travel. Customers who check in less than 60 minutes prior to their scheduled flight departure will not be accepted for travel.
Customers can also check in online on both their desktops and mobile devices from 48 hours to 90 minutes before flight departure. In addition to these online check-in services, Emirates also offers check-in facilities near its car park area. Customers can use these to check in and drop off their luggage from 24 hours to six hours prior to departure. Along with checked in baggage, passengers are strongly advised to adhere to carry-on baggage weight limits, which are 7kg for Economy Class and 14kg for Business and First Class. Staff will be checking the weight of carry-on bags at various touch points before passengers board their flights.
For a more convenient way to check-in, especially for families, groups and passengers with tight schedules, Emirates also offers home-check in, allowing customers travelling across all classes to check in for their flights from anywhere in Dubai. The service allows customers to complete check-in from the comfort of their home, hotel or office and have their luggage transported to the airport prior to their flight and then straight to their destination. An Emirates check-in agent will arrive at the preferred location to weigh and tag the bags as well as check-in the customers and issue boarding passes. Customers can then make their own way to the airport and head directly to immigration, bypassing the check-in desks at the airport. All customers travelling should be present with their passports. Cost is AED 350 for up to 7 bags with an additional charge per bag after that.
For families, Emirates has designated special check-in areas consisting of 20 economy check-in counters in Terminal 3 at Area 2. For passengers accessing Emirates lounges in Dubai Airport, kids will be able to enjoy a dedicated play area. Across all classes, families can benefit from priority boarding to the aircraft.
In addition, all Emirates customers can enjoy complimentary Emperor ice cream during peak departure times every day this summer. Emirates is serving the frozen treat via its branded carts to all its customers at Dubai International Airport, and ice cream cups are being distributed to customers at Terminal 3 departure and transit areas. The Emperor branded ice cream is hand made locally by EKFC in five flavours: Chocolate, Vanilla, Date & Arabic Coffee, Mango Sorbet, and Lemon Sorbet. The Emperor ice-cream is also served to all First Class and Business Class customers in Emirates lounges in Dubai and onboard certain flights.
After checking in, passengers are also advised to make sure they get to their boarding gate on time. Boarding starts 45 minutes before each flight and gates close 20 minutes before departure. If passengers report late Emirates will not be able to accept them for travel. Check-in and gate closure timings will be strictly followed to ensure flights depart on schedule. These time checks are in place to minimise flight delays out of Dubai.
Emirates NBD convenes UAE youth at discussion on money management for millennials
Titled ‘Manage your Money, Build your Future’, the session tackled how better personal finance management today can help create stronger financial futures for UAE youth. As Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB)’s credit scoring gains momentum, the session aimed to highlight the importance of an early start to creating and maintaining a positive credit report.
Young customers of Emirates NBD, and its mobile-only lifestyle digital bank, Liv., engaged with speakers at the interactive session, moderated by Ambareen Musa, Founder and CEO of souqalmal.com. Panelists included Hussain Al Balooshi, Acting-Senior Programs Manager, Esref Sah and Kayani, Emirates Foundationfor Youth Development; Daniele Lavalle, Head of Product Development & Data Operations, Al Etihad Credit Bureau; Jayash Patel, Head of Liv. and Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Executive Vice President and Head of Wealth Products & Advisory for Retail Banking & Wealth Management at Emirates NBD. Panelists also answered queries from the bank’s social media followers as the event was livestreamed over Emirates NBD’s social media platforms.
Reiterating Emirates NBD’s commitment to financial literacy, Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi, Executive Vice President and Head of Wealth Products & Advisory for Retail Banking & Wealth Management at Emirates NBD said, “Money management is an essential part of life, and as a market leading bank, we believe it is our responsibility to educate the community, in particular our youth on creating a healthy financial foundation.”
Speaking at the session, Ambareen Musa, Founder and CEO of souqalmal.com commented, “”Financial literacy is an essential skill that allows people to make informed choices about how they manage their money. From a personal finance aggregator point of view, financial education is not merely a campaign, it’s an ongoing process that is integral to our existence. Through our financial education blog ‘The Money Doctor’ we aim to demystify financial jargon and simplify complicated financial concepts for our users. Our end goal is to help individuals make sound financial decisions, be it related to using credit responsibly, budgeting, saving, investing or otherwise.”
Daniele Lavalle, Head of Product Development & Data Operations at AECB said, AECB is committed to the development of a responsible lending culture and to providing all borrowers in the UAE the right tools to be credit smart. We believe that learning how to manage your finances, understanding how credit works and knowing your credit score are all key aspects of responsible personal financial management. For the youth, who approach credit for the first time, adopting the right practices will build the foundation of their credit history, which will enable them to get easier access to credit in the future.”
Hussain Al Balooshi, Senior Manager at Emirates Foundation said: “At Emirates Foundation and since the inception of our ‘Esref Sah’ program in 2013, we have been committed to the empowerment of youth with the right knowledge and skills to enable them to make informed and responsible financial decisions which contribute directly to the sustainability of our economy. Today, Esref Sah has engaged and trained over 40,000 youth from across the nation and continues to reach out to a wider audience addressing the challenges of personal finance management and, most notably, debt amongst youth.
“I am honoured to be here at this important event sharing our learnings and best practices as part of our collective responsibility to eradicating financial illiteracy and ensuring the root causes are permanently resolved.” Al Balooshi concluded.
Jayash Patel, Head of Liv added, “Our approach has been that of a ‘financial buddy’ to empower our customers with intuitive and easy-to-use tools to manage their lifestyle and finances all in one app. We want to show customers that managing money can be fun and can help you live the life you want.”
Emirates NBD’s #moneywise is a diverse financial-literacy platform, aimed at educating and empowering employees, customers and the local community to efficiently manage their personal financial affairs. The platform conducts regular workshops to offer learning opportunities on financial essentials such as personal finance essentials, savings, budgeting and debt management.
Apple’s free Schoolwork app now available for teachers
Millions of teachers around the world choose iPad as the best tool to help personalize learning and inspire creativity. Now with the free Schoolwork app, available today, teachers can easily create assignments, collaborate one-on-one with students, tap into the power of apps for learning and view and understand student progress. Schoolwork, along with Apple’s Classroom app, provides teachers around the world with powerful tools to enhance the learning experience and help both educators and students get more out of the technology they use in the classroom everyday.
The all-new Schoolwork app empowers teachers to take full advantage of the power and creativity of iPad to create new learning experiences for their students. Schoolwork makes it easy to create and send announcements and assignments with almost any type of content, from web links to PDFs and documents, and even specific activities in apps. Students can use Schoolwork to stay organized and keep track of the work they need to complete and when they need to hand it in.
Teachers can use Schoolwork to easily assign a specific activity right within an app to guide their students directly to a challenge or lesson. Popular education apps including Explain Everything, Tynker, GeoGebra and Kahoot! work directly with Schoolwork to bring useful educational content and tools to teachers using iPad.
Schoolwork and the apps supporting it give teachers new insight into how their students are performing, helping them tailor their teaching to the needs and potential of each student. Teachers have a snapshot of class performance and can check on an individual student’s progress across activities — progress within apps or projects they’ve created. As with every Apple product, privacy and security features are built in so schools get to create, own and control the accounts used by their students and decide when student progress information is shared.
Schoolwork works alongside the Classroom app, which turns iPad — and now Mac — into a versatile teaching assistant, putting teachers in charge of the technology used in the classroom. Classroom on iPad helps teachers keep students focused on a specific app or website and lets them view student screens during class, share documents with students, assign shared iPads and even reset a student’s password.
For more information on Apple’s tools for teachers and how to set up Schoolwork and Classroom, please visit: www.apple.com/ae/education/teaching-tools.
Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai Hosts Special Iftar for Orphans from AMAF
This Ramadan, in keeping with its corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy, the Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai hosted a special Iftar at DXB Grill on 6th June 2018 for over 100 orphans from AWQAF & Minors Affairs Foundation. The annual event was organised by Emarat Al Youm and included various entertainment activities for children from ages 5 to 15 years old.
Mr. Simon Moore, General Manager of Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai, said, “At the Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai, we are committed to serving the local community through our social responsibility and community engagement initiatives. It was a great privilege to welcome the children from AWQAF during the Holy month of Ramadan. We are truly grateful to Emarat Al Youm for having given us the opportunity to do so. By cooperating with community partners such as Emarat Al Youm, we seek to contribute to the well-being of our society.”
For hotel marketing contact:
Sheryl Aquiatan
Assistant Marketing Manager
Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai
Mob: 00971 56 506 0983
Tel: 00971 4 702 8888
sheryl.aquiatan@millenniumhotels.com
For media contact:
Hina Bakht
Managing Director
EVOPS Marketing & PR
Mob: 00971 50 6975146
Tel: 00971 4 566 7355
Hina.bakht@evops-pr.com
www.evops-pr.com
Millennium Hotels and Resorts, Middle East and Africa
Millennium Hotels and Resorts is a dynamic, global hotel company, which owns, asset manages and operates over 130 hotels worldwide. With almost 40,000 rooms and a portfolio of brands; including The Biltmore, Grand Millennium, Millennium, Millennium Place, M Hotel, Copthorne, Agarwood, Kingsgate, Millennium Executive Apartments and Studio M, that serve different market segments, representing quality and value in every class.
Currently operating 32 hotels in the Middle East and Africa, the Group has an extensive expansion strategy in place, with 40 hotels in the pipeline. Each property in the region is unique, catering to the varying tastes and needs of the international business and leisure traveller but with a consistent promise to provide a first class service and a rewarding experience for guests. Millennium Hotels and Resorts is committed to differentiating itself by embracing the true spirit of diverse traditions, with a sincere respect to historical heritage and local culture.
With the motto “More than Meets the Eye”, Millennium Hotels and Resorts is committed to a customer-centric philosophy and complete guest satisfaction.
For more information, please visit www.millenniumhotels.com