BRAND UPDATE: Dubai's Landmark Hotels & Suites

Dubai-based Landmark Hotels & Suites has opened its eighth hotel and entered its first franchise partnership with Wyndham. Deen Sadiq, group director, Landmark Zenath Group and Peter Janssen, CEO, Landmark Hotels & Suites reveal the brand’s potential

Dubai-based Landmark Hotels & Suites, part of a privately-held family company called The Landmark Zenath Group, started 2013 with a bold new opening. Ramada Deira, a 173-room hotel opposite Al Reef Mall, is the hotel management company’s eighth hotel, but its first to be run as a franchise.

Until now, the company has run all of its Middle Eastern hotels under the Landmark flag, but the franchise deal with Wyndham Hotel Group could mark a new route of expansion for the firm, whose leaders are confident of future growth in the UAE and beyond. That’s quite an achievement for a brand that only emerged 13 years ago.

The Landmark Hotels brand was conceived back in 1996 with a specific purpose in mind; to appeal to the three- to four-star family market, seeking a safe, alcohol-free environment.

The first hotel, Baniyas Square, in ‘old’ Dubai opened in 1999 and since then, Landmark has gained a firm foothold in the area around Deira, newly boosted by the launch of Ramada.

Peter Janssen, CEO, Landmark Hotels and Suites, explains why the brand has been so successful, with occupancy averaging 90% and average rate between AED 400-450 (US $109).

“We are concentrating on the local GCC market and we are family market, alcohol free, that traditionally goes better with the three- and four-star market than the five-star market.

“That’s why we are very attractive to visitors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, in particular families looking for this type of accommodation. On the other hand with Ramada we are able to attract airline crews; Libyan Airlines, Yemen Airways, we are now working on Australian Airlines [Quantas], so crew segment is important.

"If you go to Nasser Square there’s the traders. The creek is still the lifeline of Dubai, many traders from Africa, from Russia use our hotels. Then we have a little tourism from Germany also looking for this area, then we have the Iranian business — it’s a little bit down at the moment, but Iranis like this area in particular because of all the shops,” observes Janssen, adding that the corporate segment is also important in Deira.

Janssen says the company is now looking for more hotels in the UAE beyond the group’s traditional Deira boundaries.

“We are looking now at one more property in Naif Road, that should be open by the end of this year. We’re looking at Fujairah and at other states in the Emirates,” he says.

The hotels in Naif Road and Fujairah are expected to open this year, but Landmark Hotels is also “very close” to signing a large property in the Tecom area of Dubai and “negotiating another contract” in Dubai Investment Park.

“We are confident we can have at least two to three more properties this year,” says Janssen.

Deen Sadiq, group director of owning company Landmark Zenath Group, says new hotels could be franchised, as with Ramada Deira.

“We will look at which hotels will fit into Landmark and which hotels will need an international brand. In that case we will look at Ramada with Wyndham because we’ve established a good relationship with them.”

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Growth Further Afield
Landmark is also looking for a hotel in Jeddah, where it already operates Landmark Suites Hotel Jeddah, and at opportunities in Libya and Angola.

“Africa is another market which is on our radar, it is tremendously under supplied by decent hotels,” says Sadiq. “We’re not even talking about five-star hotels, just decent three- or four-star hotels. And because of the lack of supply the prices are sky high — like Dubai in 2006/07.

“[We are looking] at Angola and Libya because some of our other companies had interests there. We are following that up more closely,” reveals Sadiq, acknowledging he has been advised to wait to return to negotiations in Libya.

“The Angola plan is still on, we made a few visits last year, we are talking to a few people, taking some hotels on lease,” he adds.

Landmark Hotels also operates a hotel in India, under the Always brand, created to offer a three-star value for money product to the Indian market.

“Instead of creating a good budget brand under Landmark we thought we should go in with completely new branding under Always,” says Sadiq.

“Right now we’re in talks with a few other owners in India and are also looking as developers at properties to develop under the Always brand,” he reveals.

“We’re certainly looking at expanding the Always brand — we created it specifically for India but as we are expanding, as we are looking at properties in the Middle East and in Dubai, if there’s a property which would fit into the brand profile of Always we will be using it,” he reveals.

Fast facts
Company name: Landmark Hotels & Suites
Launched: 1996
Owned by: Landmark Zenath Group
No. of operating hotels: Eight
No. of hotels in pipeline: Two signed, one in Dubai and one in Fujairah, with hotels under negotiation in Dubai and Jeddah.
Latest opening: Ramada Deira in January 2013, operated under franchise.
Brand vision: To appeal to the three- to four-star family market, seeking a safe, alcohol free environment.