It's a wrap

H?ssy sits in Toshi, the hotel?s Asian restaurant.
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Millennium Hotels and Resorts owns some of the most coveted addresses in the world, including the Mayfair in London and the Millennium Broadway, New York. It recently opened Abu Dhabi’s largest gym and spa at the Grand Millennium Al Wahda.

Millennium Hotels and Resorts has opened its second property and first Grand Millennium in Abu Dhabi. The 850 room Grand Millennium Al Wahda comprises 585 hotel rooms and 265 residences and is the largest hotel in the capital.

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David Hüssy is director of engineering for the venue and is in charge of all facilities management. He started the job less than two weeks before the hotel opened, in October last year, after the existing general manager and his predecessor were let go because their work did not meet company expectations.

“My role in the first few weeks was to familiarise myself with all the systems, the property, all its equipment and the level of expertise of the employees. Two weeks later it opened.

“It was a very challenging and tough time but it makes the job all the more interesting,” he said.

As part of his job title, Hüssy covers the maintenance of all technical equipment including the AC, kitchen, laundry, fire alarm, fire fighting system, telephones and BMS.

He lives on the third floor of the building, with his wife and two sons, as do all the other senior managers who work at the hotel.

“I was on call 24/7 and didn’t get a lot of sleep, but that’s normal. “It was the smoothest opening in my entire career. I wouldn’t change working in this industry for anything,” he said.

“Before, the hotel business was predictable, but here it is unpredictable because you don’t know what each day will bring, who will be coming in to meet you, what disaster you are trying to avert or which contractor you will be meeting. Not one single day is the same and you never know what it will bring or if you will finish on time.”

Originally from Zurich in Switzerland, Hüssy reports to the general manager and their joint focus was on opening the hotel on time, preparing everything for the launch and taking over everything from the contractors.

“Normally you would come a year prior to opening but there was a change of staff and the owners took on a new GM and director of engineering.

“I was pre-warned about the opening date on the phone but this is my fourth hotel opening so I had a lot of experience. When I worked at the Mövenpick Hotel in Doha, the whole management team arrived three weeks before it opened. It is good to remain positive. Where there is a will there is a way.”

Hüssy trained as a mechanical engineer and has worked for a number of hotels. He started at the Al Faisaliah Hotel, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia before moving to the Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel in Tripoli, Libya.

After this, he worked for Le Royal Meridien, Abu Dhabi, before joining the Sheraton Jumeirah Beach Resort & Towers, Dubai; Safir Suites Hotel Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt and the Mövenpick Hotel, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

He has assisted in the openings of the Mövenpick Hotel, Doha, Qatar; Swiss Inn Stella Di Mare Hotel, Ain Soukhna, Egypt and the Mövenpick Golf Hotel Jolie Ville, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

“I spent seven years in Egypt. I don’t speak Arabic but I can understand it and I often know what people are saying around me,” he said.

His first job was working for Sulzer-Escher Wyss Ltd., which develops and applies solutions to solve the problems of thermal turbo machinery operations. He used to work in the turnkey repair and restoration of industrial and utility gas turbines on oil and gas sites.

“One of my friends was the director of engineering for the Mövenpick Hotel group. I asked him how I could get a job in the hotel industry and he said I was too young, I was 27 at them time.

“I asked him every year about jobs until one day, on my 30th birthday, I found an advert for a chief engineer at the Mövenpick Hotel, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. I applied for it and received a job offer. My career grew from there.”