Al Diar Siji Hotel, a five-star business hotel in Fujairah has successfully upgraded its ISO 9001:2000 certification to the latest ISO 9001:2008, a restatement of the hotel’s efficiency with its management systems. The hotel, managed by Abu Dhabi National Hotels (ADNH) under its Al Diar Hotels Division, was first awarded this international certification in 2005.

“Getting the first ISO 9001:2000 certificate was definitely much more difficult than the upgrade to ISO 9001:2008. It also took us longer, like more than 5 months to establish and implement the procedures to comply to international standards the first time. The upgrade was implemented faster because we have been used to the standards required in the first certification. It has been very rewarding to get ISO certified. This is a proof of the hotel’s efficiency with regard to its management systems which inevitably results to better and improved products and services to our guests,” explained Mr. Fouad Melhem, the hotel’s general manager who also heads Siji Hotel Apartments, a luxury serviced property.

“The certification did not come easy especially with the first.  But because of hard work and team work from the staff from all the departments, we were able to comply with all the procedures.  I am glad that all our labor and efforts paid off,” added Mr. Shankar Bharadwaj, Al Diar Siji Hotel’s Director of Sales & Marketing and also the hotel’s Management Representative for ISO.

ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality managements system. It is maintained by the International Organization for Standardization and requires well defined & documented procedures resulting to improved consistency of output, or better service & product quality brought about by better management control.

Among the trainings conducted for the upgrade is the 3-day course for new in-house auditors carried out by Incon Consultancy, an ISO accredited certification body.

Aside from ISO 9001:2008, Al Diar Siji Hotel also boasts of its HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Control Point System) certification, one of most sought-after accreditations in the food service industry, which was awarded to the hotel in 2008.

“The ISO and HACCP are proofs of our commitment to providing world-class standard and excellent service and products. We are proud to be among the first 5-star hotels in the UAE and GCC to be both ISO & HACCP compliant,” continued Mr. Melhem.

Al Diar Siji Hotel is one of the Special Hotels of the World, a niche alliance operated by Great Hotels Organization for first class, independent hotels.