Anantara The Palm has had a strong start to 2016, and the general manager Jean-Francois Laurent told Hotelier Middle East at ATM 2016 that the last year was a good one for the company too.
Laurent said: “Since the opening of the resort we have seen an increase in occupancy and our goal is to drive a strong ADR and RevPAR. 2015 was a very good year where we made our budget and did better than it, in fact.”
He continued: “The first quarter of 2016 [has been good] even though there has been a lot of discussion about business in Dubai dropping and we cannot deny that some hotels in certain parts of Dubai have been affected by exterior events. But we have managed to maintain growth in occupancy and our ADR has remained stable. So, not really a growth in ADR but we are at this point doing slightly better than last year.”
The GM, who has been with the property since the pre-opening phase, credits the efforts of his sales and marketing team, amongst other factors such as the brand name and location, to this success.
“Our sales and marketing team ensures we have a diversified portfolio of guests in the sense that we are not concentrating our efforts on one particular market.”
He says that the European markets – mainly the UK and Germany – have been the major feeder markets with a big push coming in from the Chinese markets of late: “We are tailor making packages for the Chinese market,” he said.
He also said that the resort enjoyed a 15% loyalty rate from its guests last year.
There has been a push in recent times from Asian brands to enter the GCC market, and Laurent gave an idea as to how the owners perceive Asian hotel brands: “Owners today are looking at Eastern or Asian brands with a view to diversify their portfolio that’s if they have multiple properties, or simply to bring to the market a brand that is different from brands that we otherwise see in the UAE.”
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