The luxurious and relaxing amber king room at Cristal Hotel, ranked fifth in Abu Dhabi on Trip Advisor.
He adds: “One advantage we have is that we have two hotels in the city. One is dry, and one has alcohol, so we can get the best of both markets.”
However, Blackburn admits that recently, business has been a little rougher than usual in the emirate: “Business so far this year has been quite slow. It’s not as busy as last year, as there are more hotels in the market, of course. Everyone is trying to get a bite of the same cake.”
He says that it has not been the occupancy levels that have worried him, but the prices. “The new hotels that are coming in are coming into a hard market, and they might be five-star, but they are dropping their rates below the standard. A lot are coming down almost to the four-star level, which is quite scary, really.”
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Expansion
Despite this, there is a lot of cash being invested into Cristal’s new properties. It has just signed a deal to open a hotel in Lebanon by August this year, on which his partners, businessmen Elias Badr and Edmond Marjaba, are spending US $2 million on renovations.
Blackburn is also eyeing three hotels in Saudi Arabia, with one already being signed. There are two around Riyadh and one in the eastern province. One on the outskirts of Riyadh, which will be rebranded, is a “very high calibre, prestigious, futuristic hotel,” he says. “Very contemporary.”
“Saudi Arabia is probably one of the biggest markets in the region with regards to internal tourism and religious tourism,” the hotelier explains, “and there’s such a shortage of hotels there, and international chains.
I just came back from Riyadh and their occupancy levels are 100% from Saturday to Tuesday, and Wednesday to Saturday around 65%. It’s fantastic. And rates are higher — you’re talking almost double the UAE.”
While the biggest opportunities he is seeing currently are in other areas of the region, Blackburn notes that he hasn’t given up on the prospect of more hotels in the UAE. “I think Abu Dhabi is fine for now, but we are still focusing on Dubai, because we have our board of directors in Abu Dhabi, so we have them actively looking for properties in Dubai, Al Ain and maybe Ras Al Khaimah.”
The story so far seems to echo that of the company Blackburn used to work for himself – Rotana, which started in the same emirate in 1992. “We’re doing it slightly differently to Rotana,” he explains, adding that Cristalis an operator, partnering with various other companies in regional branch offices – it has announced one tie-up in Lebanon and another in Qatar this year already.
“We feel more comfortable having local partners in each country for added support. And I think that’s the secret. They give you local knowledge, which is an advantage, and they help us get moving faster as a company.”
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