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Emirates Airline and Group has partnered with Marriot International to develop a new luxury $490 million 1,614 hotel in Dubai. Emirates is currently constricting the Park Towers twin tower property near Dubai’s Business Bay district on Shiekh Zayed Road. The two companies signed a contract for the development and Marriot has been appointed operator of Park Towers, which will be under Marriot management and…
Vice executive chairman for Rotana Hotels in Dubai said their profits, occupancy, and rates fell 25% last year. Imad Elias said hotel prices became too high as a result of hoteliers arrogance, and they should now come down to a more competitive level. Rotana Hotels has 16 hotels in Dubai. Hotels.com Hotel Price Index shows in the fourth quarter of last years Dubai hotel prices were the second most expensive…
Kingdom Hotels and Investments (KHI) sold its 39.3% stake in the Four Seasons Resort at Sharm El-Shaikh in Egypt for $70 million. KHI is chaired by Prince Alwaweed bin Talal. Implications of the agreement are that KHI will realize $178 million from the enterprise value of the resort and ancillary real estate. Four Seasons continues to manage the Four Seasons Resort at Sharm El-Shaikh. Kingdom Holdings and…
A senior executive with Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) said 40% of their 37 planned new hotels will be delayed. IHG Vice President for Development in Middle East and Africa, Kirk Kinsell said some owners and developers are retendering their projects due to land issues and this is causing delays. He said many projects are not delayed, including the one on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, and they are confident many…
CEO for luxury hotel Ritz Carlton, Simon Cooper, said on Monday they will likely delay the opening of their new hotel in Abu Dhabi by one year. Simon said the new hotel is relatively on schedule and will probably open in 2012. He said their second hotel in Dubai at Dubai International Financial Center will open by the end of the year. Tourism in Dubai accounts for nearly 20% of GDP and has been under more…
Online Hotel agency Hotels.com is ready to launch its first Arab language web site in order to increase business in the Middle East. The new site will bring their number of foreign language sites to 37. Hotels.com is one of Europe’s leading online hotel agencies and registers about 60 million hits on its network of websites. They take a cut on every transaction booked using their website. Managing…
Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI) announced it will open a new hotel in Makkah showing again the resilience of the booming hospitality sector in the region. They will partner with Saudi construction giant Bin Laden group to open the Raffles Makkah Palace Hotel in Makkah. The hotel operator currently employs more than 35,000 people and owns 92 hotels globally. The new Raffles Makkah Palace Hotel…
Marriot Global Sales announced that it achieved an impressive 20 per cent sales growth in the Middle East and Africa region despite the economic downturn, which has slowed many other sectors. The increase in sales is due to the astounding 42 percent surge in online bookings through the Marriot Global Reservations Center. The positive sales growth demonstrates the resilience of the hospitality sector and its…
Pullman Hotels and Resorts has partnered with Accor Hospitality Middle East and Majid Al Futtaim Properties to launch its first hotel in Dubai. Pullman, the prestigious upscale hotel brand, recently signed an agreement with its partners to complete the hotel by the second half of 2010. It will have 481 rooms, including 94 suites. A second Pullman hotel, the Deira City Centre Hotel is scheduled to be announced…
A new report by STR Global shows that revenue per available room (RevPar) for beach hotels in Dubai fell to about AED 500 in March. This decrease in RevPar exceeds any by other hotels in Dubai, and is about half the RevPar figure for the same month last year. STR Global compared rates at 22 properties in the Jumeirah Beach area with 82 others in Dubai. Global Chief Executive of a property consultancy, Jones…
Hotels in the Middle East continue to perform better than hotels in other parts of the world, although there is a fall in revenue per available room (RevPar) and occupancy rates. Among Arab cities, Abu Dhabi has the highest RevPar, occupancy and average room rates. Deloitte advisory firm reported that a nine percent decrease in occupancy levels caused RevPar in Middle East hotels to fall 12.9% to $142.…
Occupancy rates are surging in hotels and furnished apartments in the central area of Haram Mosque in Makkah, and the Mosque of the Profit Mohammad in Madinah. The occupancy rates are nearly 95% which is similar to the rates seen during the peak Umrah season in the holy months of Ramadan or Haj days. The sudden increase in occupancy rates is attributed to the short mid year academic school vacation which…
The three day Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) that starts in Dubai on Saturday will focus on financing trends for hotel projects and developments in the Middle East. Jonathon Worsley, the conference organizer said the abundance of local funding has been instrumental in the surge of hotel development over the past few years. Worsley said continued liquidity in order to finance investment is essential…
International hotel chains are using social networking sites, blogs, and twitter to market themselves as a cheaper alternative to traditional more expensive methods. Managing Director of Premier Inn, Darroch Crawford, said the use of hotel blogs is growing and so are the number of hotel bookings. Mr. Crawford said more than 50 per cent of hotel bookings are automated and in the GCC the number is 15 per cent…
Hospitality and property consultancy firm Viability reports the Middle East has record number of upcoming hotel projects planned, despite the global economic downturn. Viability released its annual GCC future hotel survey showing 325 projects equating to 92,036 rooms are in the pipeline. However the survey showed that 42 projects, equating to 10,000 more rooms, are on hold with no timetable for…
A top official reported that Abu Dhabi National Hotels (ADNH) is ready to increase its equity four times to Dh22.5 billion within 5 years. CEO Richard Riley said the company recently made management changes and is now in the process of restructuring in order to grow its hotel portfolio and other business. During their recent annual general meeting, ADNH approved the restructuring, appointed a third party to…
Year on year room margins in Dubai dropped 43% last month due to steep discounts offered by hotels in order to attract visitors. STR Global’s figures show that Revenue Per Available Room (RevPar) for Dubai hotels plummeted from $348.66 in March last year to $199.97 (Dh734.48) this March. STR Global is an industry research firm based in London that was created last year by a joint venture between international…
Two employees of a five star hotel on Shaikh Zayed Road were detained by police in connection with the loss of Dh 100,000 of a Bahranian businessman guest. When the businessman attempted to change rooms because of a malfunctioned lock on his door, the hotel staff returned all the items from his room's safety deposit box except the Dh100,000. The safety deposit box was secured by a secret pin number. He called…
