Hotel news tips

A man-made island four times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park may not sound very “eco,” but the Palm Jebel Ali in Dubai is promising to house an “eco-resort,” a wellness resort, and a wellness club and various other facilities.

Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts is now just “Jumeirah” as the state-owned hospitality brand undergoes a rebrand. Jumeirah announced this on Tuesday at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), Dubai’s biggest travel tradeshow.

Marriott International has dressed one of its top general managers as Lawrence of Arabia to promote its new resort along the Red Sea. Nujuma, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve is expected to be the most expensive hotel ever operated in Saudi Arabia – commanding rates of more than $3,400 a night when it opens on May 26.

Luxury hospitality brand Raffles has a new operations vice president for the Middle East. Ayman Gharib, who was earlier the managing director of the brand’s flagship hotel in Dubai, moves up to the role.

Nurai Island was the gem of Abu Dhabi hospitality, a favorite among the rich and a featured location on the Real Housewives of Dubai. Now it says it is shutting down temporarily – though it’s unclear when it will reopen.

Ennismore’s Delano brand will open in Dubai this year on Bluewaters Island, the location of the former Caesars Palace. Delano is the same upmarket flag already found in Las Vegas and Paris.

Football icon and Al-Nassr player Cristiano Ronaldo is currently staying at – and promoting – The Red Sea. The coastal destination is a flagship project of Saudi Arabia’s tourism dream, expected to house 50 luxury hotels by the end of the decade.

Oberoi Group — known for its luxury hotel brands Oberoi and Trident — is quietly developing new hotels close to nature, the company’s top boss revealed on Wednesday.

$3,431: That’s how much it will cost to stay at the new Ritz-Carlton Reserve hotel in Saudi Arabia for a night. The super-exclusive, small key-count resort opens for bookings on May 26, hitting the market with the highest rates in the region.

During the unveiling of the Aman Dubai this week, chairman and CEO Vlad Doronin said it will “probably” be the most expensive hotel in the UAE.

Jumeirah Group has appointed a chief brand officer to “spearhead the evolution of the brand,” the luxury Dubai hotel chain said Thursday.

Partly-owned by one of the richest Saudi royals in the world, Four Seasons is on its way to becoming one of the most dominant luxury hotel chains in the country.

Hilton has signed deals for three new hotels in Saudi Arabia: There are two Curio Collections, one focused on “eco” and the other on adventure. And an LXR resort will be an “agritourism” property as part of a tie-in with Saudi’s new farming tourism organization, Dan Company.

Dubai’s booming restaurant sector has its own 50-minute episode in a Netflix show out Friday: The seventh season of ‘Somebody Feed Phil,’ a travel show where Philip Rosenthal (creator of the sitcom ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’) tours restaurants across major global cities.

Abu Dhabi hotel group Rotana has a casino project in the works, and investment in the resort is open to anyone, starting at US$89,400 for a hotel room.

The proposed multi-billion-dollar Atlantis resort in Hawaii shows no signs of life after the company entrusted to build it went into liquidation last month, according to a filing on the Hong Kong exchange.

Dubai is one of Marriott’s largest markets for branded residences outside the U.S. – an upmarket segment of real estate that has boomed over the past decade. Today, Marriott has nine branded residences in Dubai, as well as two more in Ras Al Khaimah and a string of ultra-expensive Bulgari properties.

Red Sea Global, the project developer in Saudi Arabia, is building up its hotel business, and it’s backed by a fund with more money than the market values of Hilton, Marriott and Accor combined.

Maltese independent hotel firm Cornithia has hired a new CEO, Simon Casson, the previous Europe, Middle East and Africa president of Four Seasons. Casson steps into the luxury hotel owner-operator while it is still feeling the sting of the pandemic four years ago.

IHG will take over the management of Dubai’s Côte d’Azur Monaco Hotel, the only operational property on The Heart of Europe project. The Heart of Europe dates back to 2008 and remains committed to opening all its 20 planned hotels, even 16 years later.

Dubai’s tourism authority has issued 70 ‘Dubai Sustainable Tourism Stamps’ to hotels across the emirate. With more than 800 hotels in Dubai today, that means that just under 10% of operating hotels were recognized for adhering to Dubai’s sustainability requirements.