Ali Hamad Lakhraim Alzaabi, Founder, President and CEO, Millennium & Copthorne, Middle East & Africa
07. Ali Hamad Lakhraim Alzaabi, Founder, President and CEO, Millennium & Copthorne, Middle East & Africa
Ali Alzaabi is on a strong expansion path — all with the aim to hit 100 hotels by 2020. With 13 hotels added to the existing pipeline in the last year, he’s getting there
Responsible for bringing Millennium & Copthorne to the region in 2001, the brand’s president and CEO in the Middle East & Africa, Ali Hamad Lakhraim Alzaabi, an Emirati hotelier, claims he is on track to have 100 hotels by 2020. With 26 hotels and 7,200 rooms in operation in the Middle East, Alzaabi is currently looking at a pipeline of more than 35 hotels and 15,000 rooms in the area.
In the last year, he’s signed just over 6,000 keys and 13 hotels, and opened five. Out of these, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a high growth market, with 4,000 out of the 6,000 keys signed there.
The operator is committed towards expanding across the entire Kingdom, not only Makkah and Madinah, but also in Riyadh, Jizan, Tabouk and Jeddah — across the North, South and Western provinces.
Key hotel openings in the last 12 months include the Millennium Hotel Hail, Copthorne Riyadh, and the Grand Millennium Muscat. While not part of the region, he also was behind the launch of The Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi in Georgia, the debut of the brand under his command. In the Middle East, however, The Biltmore Collection will open doors with the Bab Al Qasr Abu Dhabi — a soft opening is scheduled for this month, and will house 677 rooms, suites and residences. He isn’t stopping there — two more hotels under this brand are earmarked by Alzaabi, with The Biltmore Bateen Marina Abu Dhabi (2018) and The Biltmore Riyadh (2019).
Alzaabi, it would seem, after cementing the presence of Millennium & Copthorne MEA is signing new brands to enter the market. The operator signed the first four-star Millennium Place hotel in May 2016 with The First Group, with a current pipeline of two properties, but with hopes to reach 10-15 hotels.
Millennium & Copthorne currently employs almost 5,000 people, and with the ‘100 hotels by 2020’ target, is set to add another 15,000 to its team, with the corporate office team in Dubai having already doubled in size within the last 12 months.
He tells Hotelier: “The group’s evolution in the region is not only a consequence of our team’s efforts but also importantly very much a reflection of our respect for the culture and traditions in the region. I believe we have a very unqiue identity that provides our owners with the gravitas of an international brand combined with an innate understanding of the region.”
By the numbers:
15 Number of years in role
15 Number of years with company
26 Number of Middle East operating hotels
35 Number of Middle East pipeline hotels
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