Dorchester Collection to open first Dubai hotel by year end

Image: Omniyat | Instagram

Dorchester Collection will open its first hotel in Dubai by the end of the year, adding another luxurious offering to the city’s lineup of high-end lodging.

The Lana, which will be developed and owned by the emirate’s Omniyat Holdings, will include 225 rooms and suites. It will be the Dorchester Collection’s first hotel in Asia and the Middle East, and 10th globally, according to Omniyat Chairman Mahdi Amjad, who started a partnership with the chain in 2018. Dorchester Collection also operates properties in London, Paris, Rome, Milan, and Los Angeles.

“We are trying to identify other regional and global destinations that will work for this collaboration to expand into,” Amjad said in an interview. “What we have created together with the Dorchester collection is quite unique and it’s worthy of a global scale.”

Dubai’s hotel boom

Dubai is cashing in on a hospitality boom that started during the pandemic when the city opened its hotels and restaurants as other cities across the world were still in lockdown. Since then, hotel revenue and occupancy rates have surged on an influx of newcomers, including Russians looking to protect their wealth, Israeli investors, crypto millionaires, and hedge fund executives.

Average occupancy rates for hotels in the city were about 83 per cent in the year through March, while the average daily rate in the first quarter reached 783.8 dirhams ($213.45), according to real estate adviser CBRE.

About 35 per cent of The Lana will be suites with a minimum room size of 50 square meters (538.19 square feet), Amjad said. The hotel will have seven restaurants and a rooftop swimming pool with panoramic views of the city, he said.

The hotel is connected to a residential tower, which includes 39 serviced apartments. They have been sold in advance of construction for an average of 3,600 dirhams ($980) per square foot. Recently, prices have surged to about 7,000 dirhams per square-foot, Amjad said.

Omniyat’s Vela residences

Privately-owned Omniyat is also building other ultra-luxury residences including Vela, which will include 38 apartments close to the world’s tallest tower and Ava on the city’s man-made island, Palm Jumeirah.

“When we were evaluating the right high-end brand to satisfy our consumers’ uber-luxury aspiration Dorchester came to mind”, Amjad said. “They have been delivering high level of sophisticated hospitality since the 1930s but at the same time they had a very limited exclusive collection globally.”