JOIN USPeople have embraced us wholeheartedly
Nicholas Dumbell and wife Alison with sons Tobias and George have been in the City for a while now and loving their stay here. Nicholas has dual citizenship of Mauritius and the UK while Alison is from the UK. Nicholas, who is the general manager of Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield, enjoys his work and has only the best things to say about his workplace.
“Bangalore has been wonderful to me. For someone who works in the hospitality industry, it is a great place to work in. The City is hospitality-oriented,” he says. “My job includes motivating the staff to be hospitable and here, people do it naturally. I think the general manager of any hotel would love to work here,” he adds.
The work ethics in Bangalore are incredibly strong, he notes. “People are ready to work at all hours. There is a genuine wish to please.” Nicholas adds that there is also a healthy competitive spirit. “My colleagues are the happiest when the hotel get recognised for an achievement or is appreciated for being the first to do something,” says Nicholas. He says that he has never worked with a team where basic jobs are done by people with hospitality degrees. “It’s rare to find room attendants who have the desire to become the executive house keeper or even a general manager. But here, it’s possible,” he says.
Having worked in various branches of Marriott, Nicholas says that the experience here has been positive. “I was in Ukraine before this but I never had a team there. But now, I have a brilliant team. It’s also great to work with a team, where everyone wants the guest to be happy,” says Nicholas. “It is also refreshing to work with people who listen to you and respect where you come from,” he says. He adds that people here are not open about how they feel and that’s one of the challenges he faces. “Sometimes, it’s tricky to find out what the reality is. I think this is due to their desire to please. But it’s different when you work with people who have already worked with expatriates before,” he says. Nicholas also feels there is a lack of a systematic way of doing things at times.
“It could be due to less planning. But the drive and eagerness of the employees to perform well outweigh them all,” he smiles. “People make things happen at the last minute. Just when I’m wondering why something hasn’t happened, it gets done. The task is finished, it just takes time,” he says.
Like the others in the City, he too struggles with the traffic. “It’s saddening that one has to sit in a car for one-and-a-half hours, just one way, to attend a 30-minute-long meeting,” says Nicholas, to which Alison, adds, “I find it hard to move around since I have to depend on the driver.”
The family agrees that they have made many friends and enjoy their time in the community they stay in.
“The people around our home and at the hotel have always been welcoming. They always want us to be a part of everything. People here have embraced us wholeheartedly,” say the couple together.
The two love to play golf at the different courses and clubs. They also love the markets in the City.
“When I wanted to get our furniture repaired, I went to the different markets. I needed some wooden frames for paintings and found a small shop in Chikpet which does it well,” says Alison. She adds that one can get things fixed here compared to the West where the ‘throwaway culture’ is huge. “If your mixer breaks down, you can get it fixed,” she says. Alison, who held a photo exhibition in the City recently featuring images from Ukraine, says that people of the City enjoy looking at art with a message.
The children, Tobias and George, love their school — Stonehill International School. Tobias loves the fact that everyone can speak English. “That’s a big change from Ukraine. I love my teachers here too,” he says. George says that he loves the weather in the City as he can play football all day. “It’s easy to make friends,” says George.
“It has been an educative and enriching experience in Bangalore. We feel privileged to be here,” say Nicholas and Alison in unison.