Abu Dhabi rates less than Dubai's says Jumeirah GM

Jumeirah at Etihad Towers — which is expected to open in Abu Dhabi in September 2011 — will be priced in line with other five-star luxury Abu Dhabi hotels, which general manager Doris Greif said generally offered slightly lower rates than in Dubai.

“We need to differentiate between the pricing of something like a Dubai beachfront hotel and a city hotel [in Abu Dhabi],” explained Greif.

“Abu Dhabi is a completely different ball game altogether. Pricing is definitely below Dubai, so we will be pricing ourselves within the Abu Dhabi competitive set, in line with the top. Now that some of the bigger hotels have opened I think we will see a bit of a switch in pricing upwards because the more luxury brands you have in Abu Dhabi the better it is to get price levels up.”

"Our hotel will be targeting obviously corporate travellers, incentive groups, the MICE segment — because we have a very big convention facility — and obviously the leisure market; Germany and the UK are key feeder markets for us, Russia is also coming  more into Abu Dhabi, China is on the way as well so it is a little bit of everything — but pricing is definitely below Dubai," she added.

Greif said that the company was looking forward to opening in the UAE’s capital city.

“It was important to us that Jumeirah has a presence in Abu Dhabi.

“ In terms of the number of new hotels coming onto the market, I think that the more luxury operators there are, the better for the destination — we have international names coming to Abu Dhabi and this will benefit the city,” she concluded.