The French hotel management company Accor plans to almost double its presence in the UAE within three years. Much of its development is concentrated in Abu Dhabi, with five hotels to open the emirate.
The hotel group, whose brands include Ibis, Novotel and Sofitel, said yesterday it is aiming to open an additional 11 hotels by 2014, with about 3,500 rooms. It already runs 14 hotels in the UAE, with about 4,000 rooms.
Accor has five properties under development in the UAE - two Novotel properties, an Adagio hotel apartment building, a Sofitel on the Corniche, expected to open this year, and a hotel under its Ibis budget hotel brand.
Accor this month rebranded its 32-year-old Novotel hotel in Abu Dhabi to its Mercure brand.
"We will open two new Novotels next year, and we felt at this stage it would be better positioning," said Christophe Landais, the managing director of Accor, Middle East.
The company said that it has enforced strict standards for its modern Novotel hotels and that it would be difficult to alter the property to allow it to meet this standardisation.
The market conditions in the UAE had been challenging. "We've been suffering for the past two years," said Mr Landais. "The trend now is much more now stabilised and upward. What we hope is in September is that we will start to increase prices again."
However, he added: "I don't think we will reach the kind of rates we had before in the UAE."
Revenue per available room in Dubai and Abu Dhabi has declined more than half in the past two years.
In Dubai, Accor plans to open a Pullman hotel in Jumeirah Lake Towers and a Sofitel on the Palm Jumeirah, among other properties in the emirate.
It has three hotels under development in Fujairah.
Accor manages 55 hotels in the Middle East, with a further 21 under construction that are expected to open by 2014.
The company intends to launch a website in Arabic this year.
rbundhun@thenational.ae
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Etihad (etihad.com) flies from Abu Dhabi to Mykonos, with a flight change to its partner airline Olympic Air in Athens. Return flights cost from Dh4,105 per person, including taxes.
Where to stay
The modern-art-filled Ambassador hotel (myconianambassador.gr) is 15 minutes outside Mykonos Town on a hillside 500 metres from the Platis Gialos Beach, with a bus into town every 30 minutes (a taxi costs €15 [Dh66]). The Nammos and Scorpios beach clubs are a 10- to 20-minute walk (or water-taxi ride) away. All 70 rooms have a large balcony, many with a Jacuzzi, and of the 15 suites, five have a plunge pool. There’s also a private eight-bedroom villa. Double rooms cost from €240 (Dh1,063) including breakfast, out of season, and from €595 (Dh2,636) in July/August.
The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
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