Day in the life: Digital detox in the desert with Arabian Nights Village manager

Running a desert glamping resort halfway between Al Ain and Abu Dhabi means general manager Rashad Koudsi sometimes works up to 10 days away from his Dubai home.

Rashad Koudsi, the general manager of Arabian Nights Village, spends week-long stretches living on site in the Al Khatem desert. Satish Kumar / The National

Rashad Koudsi is the general manager of Arabian Nights Village, a desert glamping resort halfway between Al Ain and Abu Dhabi which opened four years ago. Married to an Arabic teacher, with a six-year-old son, the Canadian-Syrian, 43 – who has lived in the UAE for three years and worked in hospitality for 19 – spends week-long stretches living on site in the Al Khatem desert.

7:30am

I take a 15-minute walk around the village – I can’t miss the beauty of a desert morning. I start with the parking lot and pool then check on the animals – mostly gazelle and oryx. I head to the restaurant to have a coffee; I skip breakfast. With all 65 staff living on-site, we are lucky not to have any commuting stress. We have executive and ordinary staff accommodation (all women have executive, ordinary is for up to four sharing). My room is executive and has en suite and satellite TV. There’s a laundry room for staff, but I take mine home each week to my Dubailand apartment.

8:30am

In the office, I write daily reports for our Abu Dhabi head office and check on today’s bookings. Along the way, I stop off at reception to check on the morning activities and chat to guests. We have both overnight and day guests – our capacity for guests staying is 86; we have had more than 1,000 day guests at large functions. Morning activities include a sunrise camel ride and dune bashing, quad biking and sand boarding.

10:30am

This is the best time for one-to-ones with my heads of department (such as food and beverage and housekeeping), operations and the safety officer to discuss anything urgent – sudden bookings, any incidents or injuries. We’ve never had anything serious happen, but we are remote and must be prepared; we have an emergency team and a nurse on site for first aid.

12 noon

This is checkout time, so I am in reception to say goodbye and take care of any feedback or complaints. Air conditioning issues, for instance, can happen in the desert; we have a maintenance team on standby, so we usually resolve issues in good time.

12:45pm

I head to the kitchen to see what our six chefs are cooking – there is a separate restaurant for staff, serving three buffets all day. Staff food is normally cooked to request but, as I like to cook my own lunch, I normally ask around to see if anyone wants what I’m making. I learnt from some fantastic chefs in Aleppo; my specialities are eetch salad and fateh makdous. There are only three other Arabic staff members: we also have Filipino, Armenian, African, Indian and Pakistani colleagues, and we all like to try each other’s traditional food.

2:00pm

I’m back in reception to greet new arrivals and oversee check-ins. We usually pick up guests from Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Park, but we’ve had a lot of guests driving themselves. Recently, more guests have stayed for two or three days, rather than just overnight. Mostly they’re from the UAE but we get quite a few from Germany and Italy and, increasingly, China. Due to the weather, bookings start to slow down from the end of May until the season starts again in October.

4:00pm

Afternoon activities start now and I help guide guests around the village. They can choose their own activities – outdoor ones (like those in the morning) stop at sunset, while indoor ones such as henna go on until dinner.

6:30pm

Our Arabic dinner buffet starts – salads, mezze and barbecue meats like kebab and kofta. Staff dinners are staggered, before and after guest dinners. Occasionally we do “desert chef” competitions, giving guests the ingredients to have a cook-off.

9:00pm

Back in reception, I say goodbye to day guests. Overnight guests can sit around the campfire with coffee, tea and shisha and stargaze until late – we shut the lights off at 10pm. The stars are amazing to watch, especially if there is no moon. There is no TV or Wi-Fi for guests, what we call a digital detox.

11:00pm

I head to my room and call my wife. By now, I’m tired and don’t want to talk to anyone else. I don’t really get a chance to exercise and sometimes work 10 days in a row, but normally go home every seven. On my day off, I need to disconnect – I’ll go to the mall or movies, do the grocery shopping, cook, pick my son up from school, or have coffee with friends or family. Being “normal” again, even for a short time, recharges my soul.

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