Everything is set to gold standard at Emirates Palace hotel

The National spends a day at Abu Dhabi's luxurious Emirates Palace hotel to see how operations are kept running smoothly.

A team of eight laundry staff clean guests' clothes, processing up to 10 tonnes a day when Emirates Palace hotel is working at full capacity. Christopher Pike / The National

Abu Dhabi's luxurious Emirates Palace hotel is renowned for its opulent interiors of gold leaf, its service and its facilities. Here, The National spends a day at the hotel to see how operations are kept running smoothly during Ramadan.

10am

It is mid-morning and the lobby is quiet aside from a group of Chinese guests who have congregated in a seating area near reception. But in a network of corridors running behind the marble and gilded-gold walls, the hotel is a hive of activity. In a kilometre-long corridor lined with remarkably ordinary grey tiles, dozens of employees go about their morning duties. Their boss, Moussa Merzouk, a Moroccan-American executive housekeeper, sits behind his desk and sets about his morning tasks. "It's a large team and my job is to make sure that everyone is happy and taken care of," he says. Mr Merzouk manages more than 300 people responsible for the upkeep of the sprawling hotel. "Everything is manageable. Sometimes the challenge is the human being, especially if you have a large team. The image of the hotel is always in front for me. If one colleague makes a mistake it will ruin my day sometimes."

10.30am

Off the corridor, a team of eight laundry staff clean guests' clothes, processing up to 10 tonnes a day when the hotel is working at full capacity. "When we have a delegation the [pressure] on the laundry is huge," says Mr Merzouk. Down the corridor, florists are making up the day's arrangements. "On the busiest days we make 1,000 arrangements, but daily about 400," says Eizabeth Docto, the head florist from the Philippines, who designed the world's most expensive Christmas tree for the 2010 festive season. It took 30 people three days and two nights to assemble the tree in the hotel and was reported to have cost some US$11 million. Mr Merzouk shows off a pantry stocked with sheets, dressing gowns and toiletries. "Our linen is 340-thread count in the rooms and 600-thread count in the suites," he says. (The more threads there are, the more expensive the sheets.)

11am

Anabelle Guevarra, the acting housekeeping supervisor, is doing her rounds. "Normally, I first attend the briefing [where we learn about] what the preference of the guests are," she says. After the team meeting is over, she sets about the rooms. Each housekeeper makes up 10 rooms a day. A standard room takes 45 minutes, while the Khaleej suites take around 1 hour and 10 minutes to do. Knocking on the door three times, she announces herself before proceeding to enter a standard room, which is anything but standard inside. Going about her routine she opens the curtains, collects the rubbish and then turns her attention to linen and maintenance matters before going to collect the fresh sheets. "We do not have any trolleys here. The wood is sensitive and the wallpaper is very expensive. I think it is the only hotel that does not use trolleys," she says. After collecting the linen, she sprays cleaner in the bathroom giving it time to do its work while she makes the bed and carries out the dusting and vacuuming.

12 noon

On the seventh floor, Mr Merzouk proudly shows off a Pearl Palace suite, a 140 square metre room costing Dh15,000 a night with a bathroom the size of a small apartment and a large walk-in wardrobe. "We have had some guests who book one suite just for their clothes," says Tanja Lange, the German junior housekeeping manager.

12.25pm

In the Le Vendome, an international buffet restaurant, one of the few to open during the day during Ramadan, the dishes, sauces, salads and desserts lie prepared for the guests. Ahmet Onay, the restaurant manager from Turkey, gives his staff a briefing on the service before the doors open. "It is not like it was before [Ramadan] but it is still busy. We have had mostly Chinese groups for lunch," he says. "Yesterday was very busy for lunch. We had around 150 people from Chinese groups." Another Chinese group pours in as the doors open at 12.30pm. They line up to fill their plates with dishes such as braised oxtail, pulse cassoulet, sweet and sour fish and vegetable spring rolls.

1.30pm

Sandra Newman, the South African chief concierge, is manning the desk. "Your day is very much unpredictable. You can either get a telephone call, which is for transportation, or anything a guest wants. The inquiry might be it's their first time in Abu Dhabi and they want to know what to do." A concierge has to know everything, she says, from the opening and closing times of shops and restaurants in the hotel to contact details for dentists and doctors. "I always say to them it's not a normal concierge service. It's an emergency room. Everything is impromptu." Requests can range from restaurant recommendations to Louis Vuitton luggage repairs and even help to locate lost passports. The strangest requests included a man who wanted to surprise his partner with a view of a yacht with a banner attached displaying the words Happy Birthday, and another who wanted a bouquet of cream roses with scorched-looking petals. "These things can be done," says Ms Newman. "We just have to have the right numbers and the right contacts."

2pm

Two men carefully stand aloft gold scaffolding reapplying 22-carat gold leaf to the ceiling above the cafe in the lobby - a tiny portion of the approximately 6,000 square metres covered in gold leaf throughout the hotel, which costs about Dh2.4 million every two years to maintain. Manoj Kuriakose, a public area engineer with responsibility for the lobbies , says the upkeep is an ongoing process. A team of six people is dedicated to the task full time. "If you're starting from one side and reach the other end, we have to start from the other side again."

3pm

Alexander Haebe from Germany, the executive pastry chef, is overseeing the pastry kitchen. "Today we have 1,500 for Iftar," he says. "We prepare three [pastries] each for people. At breakfast we have 38 items on the tray. We bake three times a day: for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's like a real baking shop in the UK or Europe. People think it's only a hotel but a hotel is a city in itself." Small cakes are laid out awaiting the finishing touch of the hotel's characteristic gold leaf. "We use quite a lot of gold leaf as well, probably $2,500 a month because it has to be 18 carat otherwise it's not healthy to eat," he says.

4pm

Daryn Berriman, a recreation manager from South Africa, who oversees the hotel's extensive leisure facilities and activities, which includes a paddle court, squash court and adventure pool, is in his office, taking a break from his rounds. "I walk around the whole beach club … to check for potential hazards, cleanliness and set up," he says.

5pm

Bouchra Souizi, a so-called Lady in Red or Kempinski "ambassador" dressed, appropriately, in red, is in the lobby. "[A lady in red] is a lady who is seen when people enter the hotel. We take care of VIPs and have to know what's going on in the hotel," she says. They are also the first point of contact in the event of a complaint. "We might face some angry people that we have to deal with so no complaints will go to Kempinski. If it goes to the head of Kempinski, it will be a big problem. We have to charm them," she adds with a smile, before returning to her position in the lobby.

Later, the hotel is still quiet but it won't be long until the public areas are as busy the corridors running beneath. As the sun starts to dip, the excitement and tension rises with staff preparing to man the vast Ramadan tent, believed to be the biggest in the capital. Waiters have set the tables ahead of the fast-approaching Iftar when guests arrive to break their fast. It will be a busy few hours before Mr Merzouk and his dedicated staff can relax again.