InterContinental Hotels Group will manage two hotels in the capital, including a 184-room waterfront property.
The InterContinental Abu Dhabi -Grand Marina is expected to open in 2016 beside the existing InterContinental. And Sands Hotel, one of the oldest in the city, as another locally branded hotel is turning to an international operator to increase competitiveness.
Standing between ageing skyscrapers in downtown Abu Dhabi, the Sands will be rebranded as a Holiday Inn.
Initially established in 1978 as a Holiday Inn, the property changed hands to Abu Dhabi National Hotels, and in 2010 Abu Dhabi-based Danat Hotels and Resorts took over.
The two properties will become the New York-listed company’s second InterContinental and second Holiday Inn in the city.
The four-star, 257-room Sands is owned by Abu Dhabi-based Pearl Azure Hotel Management.
It will target the conferencing crowd. Currently, corporate clients comprise 60 per cent of the hotel’s guests, said Khaled Khedr, the director of sales and marketing at the Sands.
“I don’t think the hotel will remain closed for the transition,” he said. The property employs 180 people, and it was not immediately known whether all will be retained.
The occupancy rate was around 65 per cent for the first half of the year.
A branded property means it could demand higher room rates.
This month weekend prices at the Sands start at Dh193, compared with Dh270 at the Holiday Inn.
“With the growth in demand for midscale hotels in the UAE it is also a good time for us to add the Holiday Inn brand into our portfolio,” said Mohamed Mounib, the group chief executive at National Corporation for Tourism and Hotels (NCTH) and Pearl Azure.
NCTH owns the hotel management company Danat Hotels, and the Abu Dhabi InterContinental. It also manages assets for Pearl Azure, and Emirates Hotels Company.
Danat Hotels manages six other properties in the emirate. That includes the four-star Tilal Liwa Hotel and five-star Danat Jebel Dhanna Resort in Al Gharbia besides the Al Raha Beach Hotel.
For independent hotels, access to global reservation systems such as Booking.com, Agoda and Expedia, is limited unlike international chains, said Filippo Sona, the head of hotels at Colliers International’s Dubai office.
“[International brands] have strong distribution systems and can increase the ability to drive additional volume and revenue to the asset,” said Mr Sona.
The demand for midscale hotels in Abu Dhabi is also increasing, along with a rise in the meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (Mice) segment and the government’s overseas marketing efforts.
“The mid-market hotels in Abu Dhabi are performing extremely well in terms of occupancy and room rates,” Mr Sona said. “[Where] five-star hotels are suffering in room rates, midscale ones are consistent in their room rates.”
Of the 75 hotels in Abu Dhabi, 53 per cent are internationally branded, 18 per cent locally branded and 29 per cent unbranded, according to Colliers.
InterContinental Abu DhabiGrand Marina will be located close to embassies, ministries and conferencing venues such as Jumeirah Etihad Towers, and would also target the Mice market.
IHG signed it under a 20-year agreement with the National Corporation for Tourism and Hotels.
Pearl Azure owns Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi, Crowne Plaza Dubai and the Sands, besides a shopping complex, residential tower and a commercial tower in Dubai.
IHG manages 17 hotels in the UAE with 4,970 rooms. Of these five are in Abu Dhabi with 1,418 rooms, including two Crowne Plaza hotels. The group has nine hotels in the pipeline in the country. With the new announcements, three of these would be in Abu Dhabi, including a Staybridge Suites expected to open by 2019.
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