Al Barsha to get two new French hotels shortly

26 June 2006

Dubai: French hotel operator Accor has signed an agreement with UAE group Al Ali Property Investments for Hotel & Resorts (API H&R) to operate two new hotels in the Al Barsha area of Dubai.

Al Ali is investing Dh1 billion in the Novotel and Ibis properties, chief executive officer Jasem Mohammad Abdul Rahim Al Ali said.

Al Ali Property Investments for Hotel & Resorts, launched by Al Ali Property Investments, has plans to invest in projects throughout the UAE.

The four-star Novotel Barsha will be a 34-storey building comprising 437 rooms. The complex will also have a block of 90 serviced apartments. The hotel will be ready in 2008.

Expected to open in January 2008, the three-star Ibis Barsha will be a six-storey hotel comprising 480 rooms.

Accor's current Dubai portfolio includes one Novotel and one Ibis, both located at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The French group is set for a massive regional expansion by 2009, when it will have 29 hotels in the UAE with an inventory of 9,000 rooms.

"We are responding to demand for three and four-star hotels in the Middle East," Christophe Landais, managing director for Accor Middle East, told Gulf News yesterday.

Low-budget

He said there was a huge gap in the market between five-star hotels and low-budget hotels and Novotel and Ibis were offering business and leisure customers an alternative to five-star hotels. "The economy sector of the hotel market in the region is largely dominated by individual hotels that may offer variable standards and lack the consistency of service and facilities," he said.

Accor's family of brands includes Sofitel, Mercure and Suitehotel. Landais said a Suitehotel property will be launched in Dubai in 2008. He said expanding the network of economy hotels was a strategic move as these hotels were "less susceptible" to adverse political events and economic fluctuations.

By 2009, there will be 23 new Novotels throughout the Middle East, offering a total of 6,681 rooms. At present three Novotel hotels are in operation in the Middle East, 14 are under construction.

The Ibis portfolio will grow to 22 hotels offering 5,000 rooms in the same year. The number of Ibis hotels under construction is 14 and seven are under negotiations.

By Shakir Husain

Gulf News 2006. All rights reserved.