The Domain Bahrain team - from left to right: chef de cuisine Bengt Carlsson; interim director of finance Lucky Punzlan; director of HR Shafiq Fernandez; director of spa Lisa Mascoll; chief engineer Ahmed Halim; seated: executive assistant manager F&B Kim Andersen; managing director Patrick De Groot.
Hotelier Middle East gets an exclusive look at the owner-operated Domain Hotel in Bahrain, which aims to bring a social club element to the region’s luxury hotels
Few hotels today pique our curiosity quite the way The Domain Bahrain did. Most hotels in the Middle East tend to be part of large global chains, and while the introduction of new brands always creates a buzz, The Domain Bahrain caught Hotelier’s attention with its social-club/ boutique hotel concept — an idea we couldn’t quite get our heads around.
At the helm of the operation is managing director Patrick De Groot, who has previously worked with the Jumeirah Group and Kempinski Hotels.
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“The owners wanted to develop their own hospitality division, rather than just being an asset management company and letting the management of this property be taken care of by a typical hotel operator. They wanted to create their own brand,” he explains.
Defining the concept for The Domain was a lot of work, says De Groot. While the owner was clear about it being a luxury proposition, De Groot was also wary of the popularity of luxury hotels in the Middle East. Instead, the team took inspiration from new age boutique hotels and focused their efforts on building a social club with a luxury boutique element.
“Knowing that we had quite a large number of suites — in fact we had half suites, half bedrooms — added to the conviction that we were on the right track because a boutique hotel typically has a larger ratio of suites, and creating a social club and a luxury offering works well.
The moment you start focusing on having more suite guests, the guests tend to have a higher than average expendable income, and will typically be looking for more choice,” explains De Groot.
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