In focus: Copthorne Lakeview Hotel

Q: Tell us a bit about Copthorne Lakeview Dubai Investment Park and what sets you apart from your competitors in the hospitality sector?

Malik: Copthorne Lakeview Dubai Investment Park is a resort-style property with quintessential Arabesque interiors, nestled within a unique, self-contained mixed use community and offers a great social destination experience for business and leisure travelers. This 4-star hotel is conveniently located in the center of Dubai Investment Park, with easy access to Dubai Investment Park Metro Station, Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai Sports City, Dubai Production City, Jumeirah Golf Estate, The Green Community and Expo City Dubai.

Q: Can you highlight some of the facilities and amenities that you provide which enhance the guest experience?

Malik: The property sits alongside a picturesque manmade lake and surrounded by lush natural landscapes of the Green Community which give our guests a unique view from their lakeside windows. The hotel offers multiple indoor and outdoor spaces to relax and socialize. Guests can spend the day by the lakeside pool, workout indoors in the fitness center or take a leisurely walk along the running track around the lake. Children of all ages can be entertained through the property with an allocated children’s pool, indoor and outdoor kids’ areas, as well as ping-pong and pool tables for the older kids. The hotel connects to a market style shopping mall, with a large grocery store, nail and hair salons and other convenient shops.

Q: Please share with us the customer journey at your hotel from the moment a guest enters till they check out?

Malik: From the moment people step into our lobby, our guests can experience a resort-type, city escape. The property’s natural landscapes and calm surroundings are the perfect getaway from the fast paced life we live in our day-to-day. Throughout their stay, our guests will experience one-stop-shop-service, our team members are empowered to effectively resolve and turnaround the guest’s dissatisfaction through empathy, communication and teamwork.

Q: What is your philosophy when it comes to ensuring customer happiness?

Malik: At Copthorne Lakeview, we believe that comfort brings happiness. Customer comfort is our top priority. In order to achieve maximum comfort, our guests must trust our ability to handle all their needs. To do so, we ensure the communication lines are open by actively collecting guest feedback, sharing it across our teams and taking the necessary actions to match our guest’s expectations for comfort.

Q: Do you offer any loyalty programs or discount packages for your customers?

Malik: Millennium has a global guest rewards program called My Millennium. This program has over 100 participating hotels 6 regions, including ours. My Millennium is a two tiered program, Member and Prestige, where members are able to accumulate My Points for qualified room nights, F&B and other revenue spent and redeem for range of exciting rewards from 1^st party (Hotel room nights and F&B) and My Millennium Mall (Apple Store, Google Play, and Amazon) catalogues.

Q: What feedback mechanisms do you have in place and how do you deal with the negative feedback from your guests?

Malik: We collect feedback through all different channels, whether it is post-stay emails, reviews, social media platforms and most importantly through our team’s interactions with each guest. The feedback loop is always in motion and when negative feedback is received, we make it our priority to address it and figure out a way to turn it around.

Q: Do you offer online customer support on your digital platforms and is this support 24/7?

Malik: We are always available to our guests through social media and the hotel main line, we are also looking at expanding our online customer support using AI technology.

Q: How are you incorporating the latest technology to make the customer experience better?

Malik: We are always looking for ways to upgrade and improve our services to create a better guest experience. As a property catering to young professionals and young families, we have to be able to keep up with the trends. We also value the efficiency that new technology brings, we look not only to please our guests but also to ease the load on our colleagues so that they can focus more on real guest interactions and not spend too much time on monotonous tasks.

Q: Do you have any staff training programs in place and what key soft skills do you focus on?

Malik: As part of our values, we focus on creating a positive environment for our colleagues to work and grow. We pride ourselves in our employees’ ability to multitask and work as a team. All team members are encouraged to participate and attend cross departmental trainings, where they can learn how things work around the hotel and therefore be more confident when dealing with any challenges or guest requests.

Q: How do you plan on making customer experience better in the future?

Malik: We aim to become the preferred destination for cityscape, staycations and social events. To do so we are upgrading our product to increase comfort, accessibility and connectivity as well as introduction of automation and AI technology to increase speed of service and response time.

About Malik Meziane

Meziane has hospitality experience working in Europe and the Middle East for various hospitality brands, including Radisson Blu and Montgomerie, with key accomplishments, such as receiving “the Gold Medal award of Professional Merit” at the Foro-Europa, Madrid in 2001 and launching various business ventures and gastronomic concepts.