Dubai: Centro, the three-star hotel chain from Rotana, is the fastest-growing brand in the company’s portfolio, according to Omer Kaddouri, president & CEO of Rotana.
“We have seven Centro’s operating today, and we have 17 under development. That’s a sizeable part of our inventory,” Kaddouri said in an interview with Gulf News.
He went on to say that Centro was competing with brands like Holiday Inn Express and Ibis. Once the hotels under development are completed, the Centro brand will represent close to 25 per cent of Rotana’s entire portfolio.
“We have opened four in Saudi Arabia this year, we’re opening up in Africa, we’re opening up in India, and they’re coming up fast because there aren’t that many mid-scale hotels in this region,” Kaddouri said.
In 2014, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, introduced a raft of new laws that made it easier to open a hotel, and incentivised the introduction of more three- and four-star hotels.
“The message from His Highness was: ‘I don’t want too many five-star hotels’... And we took that on board in an aggressive way,” the senior executive said.
He added that there was still a long way to go for the market, but it was “a big focus”.
Separately, Kaddouri confirmed that the company was in advanced negotiations to open an Arjaan by Rotana, one of the company’s serviced apartment buildings, in Karachi, Pakistan.
“We met a couple of people in Karachi recently, they’ve got a top-notch location near one of the best malls in the city, but we haven’t finalised the deal yet, we’re still negotiating. But we’re at an advanced stage,” he said.
The CEO went on to say that he wanted to be in all the key cities in Pakistan, including Lahore and Islamabad.
“We want to be all over Pakistan. We’ve also got eyes on KL and Jakarta too, many of the major cities looking east. There’s nothing solid and finalised yet however, other than Mumbai in India where we are opening two hotels,” he added.
