By Most guests looking forward to their stay at Reethi Beach Resort may see the name “Ali Nasheed” being appreciated by guests in nearly every website and app. That pretty-much sums up the character and dedication of Reethi Beach’s Room Divisions Manager and most recently acting General Manager, Ali Nasheed.
“To be honest, I don’t know how I would describe it”, he said humbly when we indicated the reviews. Nasheed initially dipped his toe in the industry in 2002 and has been in it ever since (except for a brief 3-year break). Looking back, he added, “I think because I started off in a time when we were very junior staff and went out of our way to make sure guests felt welcome. So I think it comes naturally even now, no matter which position or title you hold, you still go out of your way to make sure that these guests feel they are very special”
Nasheed believes that the most unique thing about working at the property can be summed up by the staff. He referred to Reethi Beach being considered an older property and noted, “I always say this to many people, that our hardware is old, but our software is very new, updated and strong. I think it’s actually the staff (as the software) who makes it so unique or special”.
Serving excellency in the most effortless manner is a matter of conscious choices. Nasheed begins his day with delving into what is going on in the world and checking the news before his emails and morning meetings. He believes this is vital in engaging with different guests from all over the world.
When he is not busy tending to the demands of his position daily, the self-declared movie buff says he likes to turn to a diverse helping of cinema from all over the world like Indian, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian.
“When you’re interacting with guests sometimes, they might say something and you might be completely in the dark.That would not happen if you are a fan of what’s happening around the world. One thing is really news.The other thing is you watch in movies, reading books”
Nasheed believes that although the proudest moment in his career hasn’t happened yet, he is the happiest when he sees the people he has been able to help, grow and go forth in the industry.
“It’s because of their hard work, no doubt. But then even the little part I could have played in that actually makes me, I wouldn’t say as far as calling it very proud and I don’t want to patronize them. But that actually makes me happy when I know some of these guys are doing very well in their careers”
The acting GM of Reethi Beach advises any who are thinking of newly venturing into hospitality, to truly love the industry, “Because you need passion and then you need a sense of responsibility when you’re joining the hospitality industry. One is passion, the other is knowledge”.
He also believes that the love and passion has to be born internally and shouldn’t fluctuate with the service charge offered at a property. “I think one of the saddest trends in more of this now. When we joined in 2003, we never looked to see where the highest service charge was. It was never important for us.There are other incentives, maybe like how that property was in terms of environment friendliness or how close it was to Male’ maybe? These kinds of things”
“You also need to have a passion because this is one industry where you’re dealing with human beings and you’re actually representing the country. I always say this, you don’t need to be in the Maldives Police Service or the Maldives National Defense Force in order to represent the country… We don’t need a badge on our arm, or patch in our arm to serve this country.”
When it comes to mentorship, those that have been fortunate enough to work with Nasheed have most likely heard the saying “Just know that at the end of the day you will be able to finish work and go to sleep on your bed”. When the going gets tough he refocuses his staff with the fact that no matter how bad a day, you’ll still be able to end it and start fresh the next day.
In terms of the future of the Maldivian tourism industry, he believes that it is the unique service offered to guests by Maldivian hospitality that sets it apart. He credits the pioneers who have been here since the beginning of the industry.
“They made such a great effort that we were able to follow the footsteps and I hope it continues like that, whether it is foreigners or Maldivians who are working
in the industry… I think the service is very unique … It’s very detailed and there’s no room for mess ups in Maldivian hospitality since we have been doing it for so long that I think we’ve kind of almost perfected it, not maybe perfect, but almost perfectly”