Al Habtoor Group is opening the doors of its Dh740 million five-star hotel, Habtoor Grand Resort and Spa, to visitors and tourists tomorrow.

Spread over an area of nearly 30,000 square metres, the 442-room hotel overlooks Dubai Marina, Arabian Gulf and the Palm Jumeirah Island.

The new hotel combines two towers connected to a foyer that houses the lobby, reception, restaurants and the ballroom. All the rooms and suites are equipped with broadband wireless network that gives instant access to the internet.

Due to its location, it is expected to serve both business and leisure travellers. It has its own private beach for the guests, swimming pool as well as well-equipped spa.

The hotel was built on the same site of the erstwhile Metropolitan Beach Hotel and Resort, retaining the challets.

The new hotel is the first opening after the group rebranded its flagship Metro-politan chain to Habtoor Hospitality in March this year. It also houses 13 restaurants, a 1,000-capacity ballroom, meeting and conference facilities and other amenites.

The group owns and manages four hotels in Dubai, two hotels in Lebanon and one in London. It also owns a shopping mall and a theme park Habtoorland in Beirut.

It has invested about Dh1.5 billion in Lebanon.

The group, which has been in Dubai's hospitality industry for the last 26 years, is not planning to venture into hotel management, except for its own properties.

Khalaf Ahmad Al Hab-toor, chairman of the group, said, "We are not going to manage hotels that we do not own. We will continue to build and operate our own hotels and manage them.

"The Habtoor brand has been synonymous with quality and excellence in service for the last 25 years. Naturally, this latest addition to the Habtoor hospitality portfolio will further enhance that reputation."

He said, his company is in an ambitious expansion mode. "We are looking at various projects and will make some announcement soon," he said during the opening of the hotel yesterday.

Work on a 300-room Habtoor Grand Resort The Palm, scheduled to open in 2007, will start before the end of this year, said Rahim Abu Omar, chief executive of Habtoor Hospitality.

"We will soon finalise the design work, following which construction work will start. We hope to open the hotel in time by 2007," he said.