Editor, Hotel & Catering News Middle East
Would it really be the month of love in Dubai if it weren’t for AED 8,000 staycation packages, luring us in with the promise of a romantic helicopter ride or gold-crusted steak with a pinch of Salt (Bae)? It certainly would not…
However, you can read all about those magnificent (and totally accessible) offerings in the magazine, and on our brand-new website. Today, I have decided to discuss something entirely different.
Aimlessly browsing Netflix for the next big watch, I stumbled across Voyeur – a documentary which tells the story of a journalism icon, as he reports on Gerald Foos, the owner of a Colorado motel who allegedly secretly watched his guests with the aid of specially designed ceiling vents, peering down from an “observation platform” he had built in the attic.
There’s no denying that Foos is a very disturbed individual and that his behaviour was unacceptable on all levels. What I found to be very interesting about the whole story, in reality, was how it has brought together the worlds of media and hospitality – uncovering the many ways through which the industry produces amazing content for the pages of newspapers and magazines.
It has also made me think of myself as an insider, looking into each and every hotel lobby, room and restaurant (not literally, like Foos, but figuratively). What I observe as I visit different properties and delve deeper into what makes them unique is very different from what people think when they envision what it might take to do my job.
I have a friend who is a senior IT director at one of the city’s biggest hotels. He once told me: “Hotels are smart buildings; everything is connected through a very advanced system, from the smallest of details, to the biggest of security setups.”
According to him, what we know is only half of the story; there’s a whole world inside each and every property, and this mysterious aspect of these wondrous buildings, where guests come and go every single day, leaving bits and pieces of their lives behind, is precisely what makes this sector one to explore.
Foos may have been delirious in his pursuits, but truth is, this is an industry that we’re not afraid to love unconditionally, caviar chocolate and Rolls-Royce rides included…
