Katara relaunches Murwab Hotel Group

Qatar-based Katara Hospitality has relaunched its hotel operator arm – Murwab Hotel Group. The group has already announced it will operate the 221-key Saraya Corniche Hotel in Doha when it opens, while the Grand Murwab City Centre will open at the end of the year.

Commenting on the development company’s move into hotel management, Katara Hospitality chief operating officer Christopher Knable told Hotelier: “We’ve gained a lot of experience over the years with our third party operators in terms of the best practices on how to operate hotels, and we believe that we can be effective operators going forward of both branded hotels, which would be Murwab, and unbranded hotels.

“So Murwab Hotel Group will operate hotels that are actually branded as Murwab, which will be a soft brand, and it will also operate hotels for owners as independent white label hotels, and Saraya Corniche is an independent hotel that we are operating for a third party owner.

Knable also revealed the Murwab Hotel Group has up to six other hotels in the pipeline, all of which will operate in Doha. The group is also looking at “co-branding” exercise with its Bürgenstock Selection hotels in Switzerland.

“Essentially we have two soft brands. And under both soft brands, we operate hotels as well. The idea is that Murwab Hotel Group will be our mother brand globally for all of our operated hotels,” Knable explained.

He also said the group will be focused on the Qatari and Swiss markets until the team is “satisfied that the brand is where it needs to be”.

The brand, previously called Merweb before the relaunch, used to operate Merwebhotel Al Sadd Doha, and Merwebhotel Central Doha – both of which the group no longer manages.

“We are relaunching the hotel group with a deeper connection to the Qatari heritage in terms of tourism and hospitality, and we’ve spent the last year reworking the graphic identity, the brand pillars, and essentially the entire brand infrastructure so we could put forth the best possible offering for the owned hotels we operate, and those that are owned by others,” Knable added.