Thursday, Apr 12, 2012

Gulf News

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi National Hotels will be focusing on renovating its existing stock rather than buying or building new facilities, its chief executive officer said in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Strategically, what were doing with the board right now is looking at our older hotels and looking at what we need to do to keep to them competitive, Richard Riley told reporters.

If the right deal came up we will see, but at this point we want to get this hotel [Park Hyatt at Saadiyat] successful, get the Ritz-Carlton [Abu Dhabi Grand Canal] open, he said.

Last November, Abu Dhabi National Hotels held the soft opening of the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island, with the largest number of keys a total of 306.

The contract, which was signed three and a half years ago, is a Dh795 million investment. It was officially opened yesterday in the presence of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

We expected to spend about Dh810 million, but we were able to beat the budget a little bit, Riley said. It took us 27 months from shuffle to guest.

Also coming up in September is the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal, an estimated Dh2 billion project which sits on 232,000 square metres, making it the largest Ritz-Carlton in the world on built-up area. It has 532 rooms including 85 villas, and 13 restaurants.

Asset re-evaluation

The companys assets stood at Dh5.5 billion at the end of 2011, not including the Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi, Riley said, adding that there will be a re-evaluation of the companys assets following the opening of the Ritz-Carlton this year.

Our assets have grown dramatically.

When asked if there are concerns about competition in the market, Riley said that the challenge with growth is expected.

Were going to do fine, he said, pointing out that there is a need to look for ways to work more with Dubai. Dubai is a great brand but we shouldnt do the same things. We should do the things that work and complement each other. Whats wrong with three nights in Dubai and three nights in Abu Dhabi? Its a good set, you get two cities that are different and could work very well together.

Abu Dhabi National Hotels has signed 89 contracts with European wholesale retailers who will feature Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi in their brochures.

We did some of that last year, but most of it will kick in [during[ the third quarter of this year, he said. We believe by October of this year well be doing really well.

Last weekend, we were at 90 per cent occupancy and this weekend were sitting at 50 per cent occupancy, he said.

Riley said that having more hotels on the island would bring more business.

I really wish we had more [hotels] on this island, he said. We need the critical mass in Saadiyat. When you have five hotels marketing Saadiyat, you have something. The challenge now is that its us and St Regis and we have to work together; but it would have been much easier if we were to use their [other hotels] marketing dollars to help us.

By Samia Badih, Staff Reporter

Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.