Fairmont plans music-themed rooms with EMI tie in

Dubai’s Fairmont The Palm, plans to create 'music suites' in collaboration with EMI’s Abbey Road, spurring a significant refurbishment project of its rooms, GM Martin van Kan has confirmed.

The music-inspired renovation will get underway once another cultural initiative, the Art@Fairmont program, which will install artists in residence at its hotel, is fully operational – estimated to be in a year's time.

Both programs are being developed in response to the cultural sensitivities of GCC travellers and a recent Fairmont survey of some 2000 people, which showed 55% of respondents were interested in engaging with local artists with a further 73% stating that cultural attractions influenced their selection of destination.

Speaking exclusively to Hotelier ME, Martin van Kan said the Fairmont The Palm will be developing a concept with Abbey Road – the UK's London studios made famous by The Beatles – based on the group’s existing partnership with its parent, music giant EMI.

The EMI tie-up has already given guests at London’s Fairmont, The Savoy a chance to record a track at Abbey Road, while its guests worldwide have access to bestselling EMI artists through its 'Sounds of Fairmont' program where new and emerging artists perform live at select properties.

Van Kan said: “We are working on designing suites that will feature music paraphernalia, great sound systems and a phenomenal choice of music. People who are genuinely interested in music will book those types of rooms.”

“It won’t be a Hard Rock Café style approach but will certainly create a destination within the hotel. Dubai is an incredibly attractive force for anything unique, so I can see this being really popular,” he added.

Asked when the EMI/Abbey Road tie-up would be given the green light, the GM said that it would be the next challenge after completing the hotel’s artists-in-residence program. “It will be at least a year and will require a substantial amount of work on the guest rooms,” he confirmed.

The hotel will collaborate with Dubai’s Cuadro Fine Art Gallery to source local artists for its cultural arts program. Van Kan says the hotel’s artists will genuinely reside at the hotel ‘24-7’ over a three-month period giving guests direct access to them and their work.

Where possible, the artists will set up in the public areas of the hotel but will also be given a workshop, where guests can visit to get a real sense of the craft involved.

“We trialled this in Abu Dhabi with UK artist Sue Blackwell, who got enormous response to her work, which we could actually work out in dollars in terms of what it would have cost if we had paid for that amount of advertising for the hotel and the brand,” van Kan added.