Dubai’s hotel industry experiences a parallel boom – in makeovers for older properties

Dubai’s hotel industry experiences a parallel boom – in makeovers for older properties

Dubai: Along with the new builds, some of Dubai’s existing hotels and resorts will be up for some major makeovers – and thus creating more opportunities for suppliers to the industry. The Dubai-based Ishraq Hospitality is budgeting a Dh85 million investment over the next two years for the renovation of the group-owned Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza Deira properties. “We plan to relaunch both properties, especially Crowne Plaza Deira, (which has been) a legacy destination in the neighbourhood,” said Richard Haddad, CEO of Ishraq. “We also have a continuous property improvement plan, an ongoing project that looks into enhancing all our properties.” Haddad said that existing hotels would have to invest heavily in renovation and refurbishment to compete against the 15,000 new rooms Dubai will add this year. “We have to give our hotels a face life to stay ahead of the game,” he said. The refurbishments would focus on three core elements: improving in-room and property-wide tech features (guests need superior Wi-Fi connectivity at all times as well as top-notch in-room entertainment), design, and sustainability. “Guests are looking at lifestyle hotels,” said Haddad. “We cannot have plain, classical lobbies with basic design elements anymore. Hotels need to be