Meydan Hotels considers Dubai beachfront property

Meydan Hotels vice president Abdin Nasralla.

Meydan Hotels, the newly created entity that operates the Bab Al Shams and Meydan luxury hotels in Dubai, may open a third hotel in the emirate, this time located on the beach.

The group, a division of master developer Meydan, is also mulling overseas expansion plans, although its focus, at least for its first year, will remain on running its existing properties.

“If we don’t aim for more hotels, then we are in the wrong business,” company vice president Abdin Nasralla said.

Story continues below

“My task now is to deliver. Once we have proved to the owning company we are delivering, they will trust us, and we will either build or run more hotels.”

Nasralla added that a beachfront property would make sense, given that Meydan Hotels already runs a hotel near Downtown Dubai and one in the desert.

“Our next move will be beach,” Nasralla added. “I cannot confirm it, but I can say that is our thought. I hope that our thoughts will be transferred to reality as we did with Meydan itself.”

With regard to international expansion, the official indicated that there were several opportunities being considered, although, again, no firm decision had been made.

However, he specified China and India as possible regions for growth.
Parent company Meydan is currently helping to build an ‘equine city’ in the Chinese city of Tianjin. The developer also has close links with Chinese firms via contractor Guangsha, which won a contract to build the first phase of Meydan’s Metropolis Business Park last year.

Nasralla said that his firm would not be automatically selected to run the other hotels in the Meydan masterplan, which will consist of three main phases after the completion of the racecourse last year.

“We don’t want to be a monopoly business, we want to be a good standard associated business — if we are going to say Meydan will run every hotel here, no investor or developer will come,” he said.

“If the opportunity is there we will bid for it, but Meydan as a group will go with whoever has the best bid.”