The opening of Al Ghurair Rayhaan by Rotana and Arjaan by Rotana complex, slated for December, will see the UAE-based group overtake Starwood as the operator with the most properties in Dubai. But it’s not just a numbers game for Rotana, as Hotelier discovers on a tour of its most splendid properties yet
In December, if all goes to plan, Rotana will open a two-hotel complex in the heart of Deira comprising Al Ghurair Rayhaan by Rotana Dubai and Al Ghurair Arjaan by Rotana Dubai. The openings will see Rotana overtake Starwood as the dominant hotel chain in Dubai with 15 operating properties.
It hasn’t been an easy race to win. The two properties form part of a 12,540m² extension of Al Ghurair City — one of the Middle East’s oldest shopping centres — the completion of which has been pushed back several times and is now slated for the first quarter of 2013.
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Problems with contractors led to a five-month standstill of the construction and fit out of the property smack bang in the middle of the preopening, which meant the executive team had to, in effect, go through the recruitment process twice.
“It was going along very steadily then we demobilised for about five months because they went through a construction stoppage and change of contractor — so we’ve been remobilised since May or June this year,” explains GM Mark McCarthy, who came onboard for the preopening last March.
“Our issue was we hired everyone last year then it stopped, but we were fortunate as everyone we had sent an offer to we offered alternative positions in other Rotanas, so a lot of people took them and then we started again this year,” says McCarthy, who himself went to manage The Cove Rotana Resort in Ras Al Khaimah during the five-month delay.
“We went our separate ways, director of spa Afrah Hamdy went to Iraq and opened a spa in Erbil,” he adds.
“It was a very exciting experience, and quick — three months went like three weeks,” says Hamdy on her Iraq experience.
Armin Weller, director of F&B adds: “For me and chef we only mobilised in June, but our
predecessors went to different [Rotana] properties and did not come back”.
But the wait has been worth it for those who came back to the two properties — Rotana’s most impressive yet in terms of scale and style.
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