Dubai: TIME Hotels held the soft opening of its much-anticipated TIME Asma Hotel in Dubai’s Al Barsha ‘shopping’ district yesterday, Tuesday 15 June. The new four-star property has a remarkable feature – its management team consists entirely of women, including the hotel manager Alexandra Kelner and 80% of the hotel’s employees.

Commenting, TIME Hotels’ CEO Mohamed Awadalla, said: “It has always been integral to our corporate strategy to diversify our workforce and offer equal opportunities to all members of staff.

“Under the leadership of Alexandra, all areas of the hotel operation will be managed by women, from HR to sales, F&B, finance, front office and housekeeping – even our executive chef is a woman.

“I am sure that this talented all-female management team will provide inspiration to all women who want to carve out a successful career in hospitality,” added Awadalla.

The hotel, which will have its grand opening in September, consists of 232 rooms over six floors with a gym, which has exclusive opening times for women, swimming pool, jacuzzi, four meeting rooms, a business centre and two restaurants, for both male and female guests. Zaytuna, serves Middle Eastern cuisine, with an open kitchen in a market-style setting and La Dolce Vita as the name would suggest is a casual, Italian-themed restaurant.

Moreover, there are floors reserved exclusively for female travellers with dedicated services, including: female room service, a female-only check-in counter and guest relations. Other features include bespoke beauty products, in-room beauty treatments, as well as enhanced amenities in each room. The hotel will also offer dedicated parking spaces for women.

According to Catalyst, a global organisation that promotes women in the workplace, in 2019, the proportion of women in senior management roles globally grew to 29%, the highest number ever recorded and 87% of global mid-market companies had at least one woman in a senior management role in 2020.

Indeed, French national Kelner’s advancement is a classic example of career development. Having graduated from the School of Management in Yvelines, near Paris, she held senior positions in hotels in France and the UAE, leading teams across housekeeping and rooms division.

“Once regional and international travel restrictions are relaxed, more women will be travelling on business than ever before. Many women may well be travelling alone and I believe it will be comforting for them to have the option of staying in a hotel where 80% of the staff are women, with dedicated floors and in-room amenities,” said Alexandra Kelner, Hotel Manager, TIME Asma Hotel.

The hotel is also located just five minutes from Mall of the Emirates and as such is expecting healthy demand from local and regional visitors for short leisure breaks, particularly women and families.

“With the summer heat approaching, TIME Asma is ideally located for a weekend of retail therapy,” said Kelner.