Rezidor to debut in Qatar with $18m hotel takeover

Rezidor Hotel Group, the European hospitality chain, plans to invest $18m in taking over the Ramada Plaza Doha, marking the company’s first entry into the Qatar market.

The Brussels-based hotelier will convert the existing 583-room Ramada Plaza Doha to the Radisson Blu brand in the third quarter of 2012, the company confirmed on Monday.

The hotel chain has 40 hotels in operation or in development under the luxury brand, said Kurt Ritter, president and CEO of Rezidor, in an emailed statement.

The deal will see Rezidor make its debut in the Qatar market, as it seeks to take advantage of the Gulf state’s tourism drive ahead of its hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

Doha has pledged to spend some $88bn on infrastructure and hotels over the next decade as it gears up to hold the world’s most-watched sporting event.

Rezidor said in November it plans to add around five hotels a year in the Middle East, as it seeks to grow its footprint of the region’s growing tourism industry.

The company expects to see a rise in hotel takeovers as operators bid to secure existing properties rather than building new hotels, Ritter told sister publication Arabian Business.

“If you look at the States it has become crazy. Every time I go there are new names on the buildings; they change brands like you change shirts,” Ritter said.

Brussels-based Rezidor said in July it had taken over the management of the 471-room JAL Tower on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road and the 257-room Hotel JAL Fujairah Resort & Spa.

Both properties are now operated underneath Rezidor's Radisson brand.

“You promise [owners] the blue from the sky and then at the end of the year you blame the market or oversupply or whatever… you failing to reach that level and you are history,” said Ritter. “It has become much more strict and competitive.”