Layia Hospitality CEO Daniel Hajjar said the market was mature enough for budget hotels. Layia Hospitality CEO Daniel Hajjar said the market was mature enough for budget hotels.

Layia Hospitality is setting up a new budget accommodation brand, Day & Night Hotels.

Expected to reach a new audience of customers, Layia management is hoping the brand will appeal to “trendy, modern and young at heart budget conscious travellers”.

Layia Hospitality CEO Daniel Hajjar said the Middle East market was “now mature enough to accept the concept of budget hotels”.

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“Thanks to the low cost carriers, the perception of budget airlines and budget hotels is slowly but surely spreading into the minds of the travellers,” Hajjar said.

“It is evolving from a curiosity factor to a serious alternative when deciding on a trip. Day & Nights Hotels will be slick properties where extreme attention to details and cost efficiency at all levels will be the raison d’être of this new brand.”

Layia Hospitality chairman Ahmed Al Yousuf added that despite global financial challenges, “we are very upbeat with the launch of Day & Night Hotels”.

“We are confident that the market will welcome this new initiative the same way it has supported our Layia brand and Living Courts concept. The design team is currently finalising a couple of options that will ensure a modern and slick appearance, cost effective properties to build and to maintain by using state of the art technologies,” he said.

“Room sizes will be generous (between 25m² and 32² dependent on the location) and the main focus will be on the needs and requirements of the new generation of business travellers.”

According to majority partners of Layia Hospitality GGICO managing director Mohamed Al Sari said the most challenging aspect would be to offer a room rate that would not exceed US $100 to $150.

He added that the company had begun negotiations with several parties in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran with an objective to reach 15 Day & Night properties within the next five to seven years.

Layia Hospitality also announced its partnership with CAPM Invest to develop five properties in various parts of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

CAPM Investment is planning to establish “CAPM Hotel Investments Company”. The L.L.C Company shall be registered in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and shall focus its efforts on developing and operating its own branded properties of economy style hotels and serviced apartments in the Emirate.

The Company’s business plan calls for the funding of several hotels across the next five years.

In its capacity as the Company’s Manager/Placement agent, CAPM Investment will be inviting institutional and individual investors to subscribe to the initial required capital of AED 125 million for 125,000 shares priced at AED 1000 each.

The offering is expected to close on or about June 7.

CAPM chairman of the board Khaled Almass said Abu Dhabi had seen tremendous growth in the hospitality travel and leisure sectors in the last few years and that the company believed the Day & Night product would “be able to present itself as a complimentary investment opportunity to UAE investors and will result in the diversification of the range of hospitality products offered to visitors of Abu Dhabi”.