Three Fairmont hotel opening dates postponed

Three Fairmont hotels have had their scheduled 2013 opening dates postponed with the Fairmont Riyadh, Business Gate and the Fairmont Ajman hotels both being moved to 2014 and Fairmont Fujairah slipping to 2015.

Speaking exclusively to Hotelier Middle East, FRHI senior vice president for development, EMEA, Francois Baudin outlined the details of the hotel group’s Middle East pipeline, including the news of the three opening delays and updates on FRHI’s other properties.

“Across the whole group of Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel, we are signing between eight to 10 management contracts in EMEA every year.

"This year we will be opening the Fairmont Baku in June, and following next year will be the Fairmont Riyadh, Business Gate which is in a great location not far from the airport on a huge business park with 200,000 sq m of office space. Beyond that there will also be the 254-room Fairmont Ajman and 309 Fairmont Amman hotels in 2014,” said Baudin.

In total Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI) has nine Fairmont properties in development across the Middle East with the Fairmont Amman still on schedule for 2014 and the Fairmont Abu Dhabi Marina, a 563-room hotel with 13 food and beverage outlets, due to be completed in 2016.

“One of the advantages that FRHI has is that unlike some of the very large hotel groups who are publically listed, we don’t have to only focus on the number of rooms we are bringing online. Instead, our focus is always on the performance of the local market and whether that market is economically viable for us.

"Next is whether we have a strong location within that market which will be successful; and finally whether we have the right local partner,” added Baudin.