Innovation

Grand Hotel, meaning the great hotel, was first conceived as a missing part of the now touristic town of Ifrane. Indeed, in the 1940s, the region was in need of an innovative project to welcome visitors. Since there were no other quality welcoming places at the level of Grand Hotel’s standards, the idea of the construction of the hotel was innovative at the time. After its inauguration by Colonel Difault back in 1941, it started operating as a three-star hotel. Opening a luxury hotel created a place at which even King Hassan II was a regular customer. Indeed, he even preferred the hotel to one of his palaces as a peaceful place in which he could write his thesis.

In 1995, the hotel owner decided to close the business in order to upgrade the hotel’s rating from three to four stars. This transition required eleven years of massive renovation at the level of the hotel’s building and services. It included the idea of building a new swimming pool, opening a night club and adding an elevator. These changes solidified the region as a destination for green spaces, nature, clean air and a calm environment with all of the quality that high-end tourists expected.

As one of the innovative businesses in the region of Ifrane, Grand Hotel continues to be creative in terms of providing its customers with new services. For instance, the hotel introduced sushi in its restaurant menu long before other regional restaurants dared to imitate big city trends. This exemplifies the innovative spirit of the hotel. In fact, the goal of the renovation has been to provide special and exceptional experiences, not just to attract tourists.

Inspiration

When looking more deeply in what the region offered in terms of human resources, we find that the level was below the average. The local population of the region is a combination of unskilled and poor people in terms of education. So it was a little harder to hire a person from the region. The manager proved that this assumption could be wrong in some cases.

Back in 1999, the Story of Omar Ifni, the current vice president of food services in the hotel, was inspiring. When Omar first came to Grand Hotel, he came as an unskilled and poor educated person who was looking for a job. During his talk with the General Manager, Omar confirmed that he only had a baccalaureate level degree, which didn’t allow him to work in such a firm. He also had no previous experience in any business such as the Grand Hotel. On the other hand, Omar seemed to be very motivated and ready to learn. “I found Omar the day of the interview very interesting. He had great communication skills that other people with great degrees didn’t have, and it was so clear during our interview. So I personally took the risk to hire him, but in condition of him showing a solid improvement during four months of working as a waiter,” said the General Manager of Grand Hotel. He also added, “Omar showed so much interest in work during the four months, and he decided to dedicate his free time to study organization in a public university in Meknes. By getting his bachelor's degree in business organization, Omar came up with new ideas concerning the food services in the Hotel. Also, he made so many effective interventions and actions that were beneficial to the core business during the year that he earned the chance to improve his status within the hotel’s staff. Today Omar Ifni, the unskilled person who was looking for a job sixteen years ago is the Vice President of the food services in Grand Hotel.”

Overall impact

Grand Hotel has a great impact on the region of Ifrane. Indeed, the region was in need of a place where the tourists, who are attracted by the region's beauty, could spend a stay in comfortable conditions. Furthermore, the hotel’s customers are not only local or national, but also include international tourists, especially during winter when snow covers the city of Ifrane. Nowadays, the competition level in the region is getting more fierce as Grand Hotel is no longer the only good hotel in the district. For the reason of the upper level of competition, the hotel had to keep competing to stay distinctive by putting effort into coming up with unique and creative ideas.

Business benefit

The hotel's renovation was accompanied by increasing profits of the business. The upgrading that the hotel had known resulted in a new segment of clients who can afford higher fees. Also, the new infrastructures that came with this renovation offered the hotel a diverse benefit of resources; for instance with the opening of the night club, the hotel could penetrate a new profitable market. This means that the hotel is not more oriented toward families who would like to spend their stay in it only, but also it attracts a new segment which is young people and teenagers. People coming from outside to party in the night club do pay a fee in the entrance in addition to what they are going to drink and where they are going to be sited in. So Grand Hotel is generating more profit by opening the night club.

Social and environmental benefit

Grand Hotel is making so much profit socially and environmentally speaking. The social perspective comes as it offers so many work opportunities to the local inhabitants and it helps them improve their living situations. The example of Omar Ifni was one within several cases working today within the hotel. Also, Grand Hotel is offering its costumers a wide range of opportunities including affordable packages and also reductions in terms of the period spent.

Furthermore, Grand Hotel is welcoming so many events and ceremonies like the recent Berber festival which its housing and food were covered by the hotel itself in a very symbolic costs. On the other hand, the hotel makes benefits from the area it was chosen to be built in. The hotel is built in a region known for its green lands, pure air and a very wide variety of trees and plants. So regular customers of Grand Hotel are most of the time nature lovers. Visitors are more attracted by the region as it provides them with all these nature characteristics which are unavailable in big and industrial cities.

Interview

Rachid Abdelhak, Innovative aspects in the hotel