Hotelier Confidential: The West Crescent

On 10/10/10, I was one of a privileged few people to get a first look at Sol Kerzner’s third hotel in Dubai — One&Only The Palm.

Hotelier Middle East was among a handful of business media attending the exclusive travel trade preview of the property, which One&Only has billed as “Dubai’s most intimate new beach resort”.

The hotel is as you would expect: beautifully designed by WA International, private and luxurious, and no doubt set to be the new destination for Dubai’s elite.

That is, providing they are ready to brave Palm Jumeirah’s West Crescent. For as well as being one of the first potential guests to enter the One&Only, I think I may also have been one of the only Dubai dwellers to have driven along the deserted West Crescent.

It’s quite a journey from Dubai’s mainland, an extra 10 minutes drive from Atlantis, but this as yet undiscovered part of The Palm is set to be Dubai’s next hotel haven. First up on the left, its green domes shining in the blackness, is Kempinski’s Emerald Palace, expected to be opening early next year, if not before. From the outside, it looks well on its way to being finished.

Next door looms a much darker, more ominous figure, the Taj Exotica, a monster hotel from the looks of it, although it resembles a building site at the moment. Admittedly, it was hard to see much detail in the dark, but we haven’t yet heard of an opening date for this property.

The third hotel, again on the left, is the much talked-about Zabeel Saray, now operated by Jumeirah and half hidden by what seemed like miles of ‘Zabeel Saray’ flags. One source told us a couple of weeks back that the hotel was due to open on October 1, but she didn’t know what the new launch date was, while a new team member — who snuck into the One&Only launch — gave a rather coy smile when asked about the opening. He did, however, reveal that the spa has a whopping 55 treatment rooms. That’s one hotel we can’t wait to see.

Finally, right at the end of the West Crescent, you reach One&Only, a low rise paradise whose position at the edge of the crescent should mean it escapes the problem of stagnant water familiar to some villa owners on the fronds.

From the hotel’s 450-metre beach, you can see the Dubai Marina skyline — now all we need is the boat service to start between One&Only The Palm and One&Only Royal Mirage, and we’ll be opposite Hotelier Towers in five minutes.