The Metropolitan Hotel Dubai has a new address — still on the Sheikh Zayed Road but closer to the ‘new Dubai’.
Business magnate Khalaf Al Habtoor made a conscious decision to demolish the Metropolitan Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road in 2012. Dubai, as a rising tourism destination, was evolving and the site eventually gave rise to the Al Habtoor City project, which is adjacent to the newly opened Dubai Water Canal. At the time, Habtoor promised that he would re-build the old hotel, which had opened its doors in 1979.
Indeed, the success and popularity of the Metropolitan brand name was such that the hotel had to be revived. The hotel’s GM Sanjay Luthra talks about the family’s promise. “The Habtoor Group is a very committed company. They work with strong commitments and have been in the market for a long time; they value their word. So once our chairman has made a statement, he is very conscious of accomplishing whatever it is.”
“This is what triggered the whole project to start very quickly and the Metropolitan brand is where it all began [for Al Habtoor]. Today we [The Habtoor Group] are much bigger in hospitality but it all originated from the first Metropolitan Hotel that was built in 1979,” adds Luthra, who has worked with the Habtoor Group’s hospitality arm for several years.
Luthra was with the property for close to a year before it opened in December 2016, and reveals more about the pre-opening strategy: “The strategy involved creating a good hotel, which defines great value for money — a quality product at affordable prices.”
The 320-key (302 rooms and 18 suites) four-star hotel is planning to pick up where it left off, and become the go-to community-centric hotel. “We want to be ‘the neighbourhood hotel’. The location is such is that we have all of Jumeirah behind us and we want to give the people a feel that it’s a nice, user-friendly, comfortable and cozy hotel next door.
“To add to it, we are located on the Sheikh Zayed Road, which makes sense from a guest’s point of view. We are catering to the corporate guests as well as those living in the vicinity,” Luthra adds.
Connecting the dots and missing links is important for a property that’s making a comeback; with Manu Madan as director business development, the hotel seems to have the right man for the job. Madan is the only ExCom team member, and possibly one of the only associates at the new Metropolitan hotel, to have served at the old property.
“I started with the Metropolitan Hotel in 1988 and worked there until 2006, following which I was transferred within the group,” he recalls. Describing the Habtoor family’s “open door policy to employees who have served the group for a long time”, Madan reveals what attracted him back to the hotel that he “grew his career with”.
“Definitely, it was the memories. It’s a brand I worked with in the past, and a brand I wanted to be part of when I heard the news of its re-opening,” he tells Hotelier Middle East.
Like Luthra, Madan is cognisant of the hotel’s location. “Our location is key, we are at the epicentre [of Dubai]. Most of the entertainment has moved on to this side of Dubai — Wild Wadi, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai Marina, JBR, Dubai Parks and Resorts or the IMG Worlds of Adventure for that matter.
“MICE will also be a key driver for us — and we have the facilities to back the demand. In the first week of operation itself our meeting rooms and ballrooms have been occupied,” he adds.
Room rates are another factor in driving occupancy. Luthra says: “We have rates starting from AED 450 (US $123), but it depends on market segmentation. Today the web creates a massive influence on the market mainly with online bookings. We keep an eye on what others are doing and position ourselves correctly.”
He adds: “The Metropolitan is a four-star hotel with a different class because four-star hotels don’t generally have such high ceilings, the look and the feel etcetera, for which we want to get our fair share. We are not going out there with a big-bang price, but we are pricing our product with what the property deserves.” Madan agrees: “The product that we offer is of five-star quality and we surpass the four-star tag that we wear.”
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