What about leisure facilities?
We have a phenomenal attribute in the pool, which is on the natural seventh floor but on our third floor.
By night it’s quite spectacular and we’ll have a lounge concept attached to poolside restaurant Cabana in the evening, which will really draw the clientele from the outside of the hotel. You don’t expect it from the outside, it’s a pleasant surprise.
The spa is on the third level and occupies the entire floor. It has nine treatment rooms, five for ladies, four for gentlemen, each with a rasul therapy room and relaxation area.
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We have fantastic treatments from Aromatherapy Associates and staff from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Europe. It’s a real urban spa, as they would say in New York.
Why are the serviced apartments an important part of the hotel?
The formula is such that it’s one third rooms and two thirds apartments. Apartments have been sold by individuals who will then opt to place their apartment into the hotel pool if they do not want to live in it.
From those 449 apartments, we will take around 30% into the hotel pool which we sell directly from one night stays up to one year.
The level of service is exactly the same [as the hotel] with the exception of alcohol because serviced apartments in Dubai are not licensed. This part of the hotel is not going to be active until around January 1, 2010.
It is always a part of the formula for The Address. You want people to believe in a home away from home, so imagine that you have a home within an Address hotel, that goes very well. We service the apartments fully and on an à la carte basis.
You live within the hotel but you are not disturbed by the hotel every day. Residents use the same gym, pool and obviously use the outlets.
If you look at the history of the other hotels, I’d say around 20% [of bookings] is long stay of a month and above.
A lot are corporate clients who live here and have their offices nearby. I think we’ll have a draw from Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and from Emaar Square.
What are your plans for the meetings and events facilities?
We will do a lot of banqueting. I think we’ll have a good number of groups, again because of the proximity to Emaar Square and DIFC and that also spills into meetings and conferences.
Evenings will be more for social events. One exclusive thing in the ballroom is that we have car access, so it is the perfect venue for car launches.
What is your target market and how are you promoting the hotel?
We believe the stronger market segment will be GCC, but it will be a mix of corporate and leisure GCC.
Internationally, we are already a recognised brand even though we are only a year old. We have partnerships in the UK and German markets, they are our other feeder markets beside GCC. We also have a presence in China, co-operating with our Emaar office located there and we are putting in a sales point in India.
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