First & Foremost targets signing within six months

First & Foremost Hotels & Resorts is looking to sign its first project in the world in Dubai or Egypt within six months.

The operator will aim to fill the family-friendly hotel gap – with a CSR element, to help children and adults with autism.

The company, which is the brainchild of Michael Scully, former GM of the Westin and Le Meridien Mina Seyahi complex, has been developed in partnership with major golfer Ernie Els and Austrian operator Leading Family Hotels & Resorts.

During an interview with Hotelier Middle East, Scully said: “We’re currently working on projects – we haven’t got any yet but we’d still like to be singing our first contracts within six months with our target markets being the Middle East, North Africa to launch our first hotels.”

The operator is working on projects in Dubai’s Sports City, which Scully said “is a location we really like”.

“There’s a huge shopping mall coming to that area and you’ve got extensive sports facilities and the Els golf club. For us, that type of property would really service the local community and the Middle Eastern market.” he added.

Additionally, the operator is looking at resort hotels, which Scully believes would attract the European market.

“We also really need a beach property so we’re looking at developers for that. That would be in Dubai – anywhere along the beachfront. We’re working on projects in Egypt – Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada – they will be new builds.”

First & Foremost is looking at two types of management agreement for its properties, with one being organic management deals with developers and owners, and the other being to develop properties and link in with another developer to sell off individual units.

“We’re working with one main company at the moment, so we’re becoming a real estate developer and selling to the private market,” Scully revealed.

He added that the profitability of build price per room is an attractive proposition for developers.

“The profitability of our build price per room is US $330,000 per room from an investor point of view and our ROI is double figures,” he said.

“Our hotels in Europe [in the Leading Family Hotels & Resorts portfolio] do an ROI of 20 – 30% generally, which is huge, and in this part of the world depending on real estate price it will probably be a little less but in that ballpark figure.”

“So our USPs are high ROI, our own product market and we won’t dilute the tourism market that we have in the city already – we bring a new tourism base. We should be supported by the government in order to bring our own client base.”

First & Foremost will target families with children in the 0-5 age group, meaning they will not be reliant on school holidays and will aims to achieve high occupancy levels and rates throughout the year.

Meanwhile, the hotels will be autism friendly, with staff trained to take care of children on the spectrum, and a limited number of rooms in each hotel customised for families with children with autism. Els himself is the father of a son with autism and founded the Els for Autism foundation.

The hotels will also aim to offer employment opportunities to adults on the autism spectrum, across departments such as accounts, maintenance, sport and play, and administration.