Nightclub expert urges hotels to refocus venues

Richard Haddon, club operations manager at Movida Dubai.

There is a gap in the UAE hospitality and F&B markets for more nightclubs and later entertainment, according to former nightclub operator turned designer Aidan Keane.

Speaking at last month’s Caterer Middle East Bars & Nightlife Forum in Dubai on a panel, ‘Designing concepts that deliver bottom line results’, Keane said: “I see that a return is going to come to purer nightlife, where people don’t open until 10pm and go until midday the next day.

They’ll sell when licensing allows perhaps. But I think there will be a movement when people break away from this kind of catch-all bar-club-restaurant and into a nightlife-focused concept”.

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Keane explained: “Look at the big cities, the interesting people don’t go out until 11pm. That’s an international trend that is gathering pace hugely but people are saying I’m going to only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I’m going to open 10pm-7am, until midday whatever, and operate on that. I think there’s possibly a really good and exciting market for much later entertainment."

Jumeirah Beach Hotel assistant food and beverage manager Andrea Zampolini, who has recently relaunched the 360° bar, questioned whether it was realistic to design a venue that would only open for three days.

“If you have a venue which looks great, which you invest lots of money in, I don’t think that your plan would be to operate three days a week only. You can’t afford it. Even if you keep it closed for four days and just open Thursday, Friday, Saturday – it’s impossible to run,” asserted Zampolini.

In response, Keane asked whether this came from a “hotel mentality” prevalent in a market which until very recently, relied upon hotels for all its F&B.

“We seem to have tied ourselves to this ‘let’s be open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch, dinner...” Keane observed.

“As a nightclub operator I’m going to go ‘there’s half a million dollars, get me a funky sound system that makes my ears bleed, let me sell something out of a hole in the wall and let me only open for three hours, three nights a week. Perfect.

“It’s just trying to break the moulds — we’ve got into a pub mentality, this is bars and nightlife but the night doesn’t seem to go on long enough for me in a lot of respects,” said Keane.

Media One Hotel Dubai director of operations Luke James acknowledged that sometimes hotels were “too safe” when it came to F&B. “We all think too much as hoteliers... I’m guilty of it,” he admitted.

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