Elizabeth Broomhall
Abu Dhabi-based hotelier Rotana plans to open 25 mid-market hotels across the Middle East by 2015, creating about 3,000 jobs, its CEO said.
The company, which this month launched its third budget hotel in the UAE, plans to use its low-cost brand Centro to tap into a growing demand for high-quality but modestly-priced rooms.
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“There has not enough been enough supply of branded, three-star hotels in this region,” president and CEO of Rotana Selim El Zyr told Arabian Business.
“In the UK you have got thousands of budget hotels, but in the Middle East, the only option for travelers has been four or five-star hotels which a lot of people can’t afford, or three star hotels that are individually operated and mostly run down.”
Industry experts have predicted a boom in cheap but chic hotels will help revolutionise the Middle East’s hotel industry in the same way budget airlines have shaken up aviation.
The rapid growth of mid-range hotels in the region is set to mirror Europe’s budget hotel growth two decades years ago, with Saudi holy cities Makkah and Medina leading the way, Jones Lang LaSalle said in May.
“I see huge potential [for budget hotels] especially in places like the holy cities in Saudi Arabia; phenomenal potential,” Thierry Loué, CEO, MENA, Jones Lang La Salle said.
Rotana’s Sharjah Centro was launched in partnership with local no-frills airline Air Arabia. The hotel brings the brand’s number of budget rooms in the UAE to 800, including two Centro hotels in operation in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The brand is banking on a rise in demand from money-conscious business travellers and mid-market tourists to fuel its expansion, said El Zyr.
“More people are traveling and looking for budget hotels. Now they have got the option to go to a branded three-star hotel, where they are guaranteed to get a clean room and to the minimum standards that they would expect.”
Sharjah Centro is the company’s 28th property in the UAE, and one of 70 hotels managed by Rotana across the Middle East. Rotana has signed deals for 15 Centro properties around the region.
The next two properties to open will both be in Abu Dhabi, one of which will launch this July and the other in January 2012, El Zyr said.
Privately-held Rotana said in December it would launch seven properties in 2011 representing an investment of $800m and making it the UAE’s largest single hotel player with 33 hotels under management.
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