The Pipeline
That Shaza already has one hotel opening behind it will of course be beneficial to Range Hospitality, which has funds for the development of Al Rawdatain Gardens fully secured. Construction of the new hotel is planned to begin in February 2011, with handover expected by July 2013.
This hotel is the flagship, but a second hotel has actually overtaken it in the development process. Range Hospitality and Shaza are also working on a hotel development in Iran, which is scheduled to open by the end of 2011, Ali exclusively reveals.
“Karbala is our flagship project, which we started on first of all, but our second project, which is in Mashhad in Iran, will be delivered next year,” says Ali.
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“That’s a hotel which is very close to the shrines in a similar situation; a lot of pilgrims visit this destination every year, there are no branded hotels, there are very high volumes and we’re there with Simon and Shaza and this one should be opening in 2011.
“We purchased a hotel which is about 70% complete, which works again because interiors are the only thing that really need to be worked on. The actual shell and core of the hotel is already there so now it’s just a case of designing the interiors, the layout, and this is about 200 rooms,” Ali explains.
“That’s a very good example of our involvement in the technical and the design side,” adds Coombs. “Our team is very heavily involved in that now. By getting in at this stage and reconfiguring the building and looking at the design, we are very hopeful of being able to come up with a very unique and interesting hotel in another location.”
Range is also looking at developing hotels in Damascus, Syria and Mecca, Saudi Arabia, again with Shaza Hotels as the hotel operator, adds Ali.
His aim is follow the examples of Karbala and Mashhad and target religious destinations — including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Mecca, Madinah and Iran — that suffer from a lack of quality accommodation.
“Over the last few years we’ve seen huge increases in the number of pilgrims going to these destinations, however, what’s available is of very poor quality and standard and the prices are extremely high,” says Ali.
“We went visiting a number of these locations and we found that when going for a pilgrimage or going to visit these holy places, the shine is taken away when you’re staying in one of these places which isn’t very nice. You lose the experience of going to visit an old historical mosque or a shrine when at the end of the day you go back to accommodation which is very over priced and very poor in quality.
“What we want to do is to charge a reasonable price but give people a superior experience that doesn’t take away the fact you are going for a religious experience,” says Ali.
Doesn’t the seasonality of the business worry them, though, with occupancies varying between 100% and lower than 10%, depending on the time of the year?
“That’s why we like Karbala,” laughs Coombs. “What tends to happen is very extreme swings in terms of seasonality which makes management far more difficult.
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