Dubai: Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts is eyeing a second Dubai hotel in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), according to a senior executive of the company.
It will be the second hotel at the DIFC, after The Ritz-Carlton.
“We would love to have another hotel in Dubai, but there is nothing we can announce at this time. We are interested in a bespoke business hotel in Dubai’s business district, and hence the DIFC area,” said Simon Casson, regional vice president and general manager of the Four Seasons Resort Dubai, the Canada-based hotel chain’s first property in the UAE.
Asked if the group is in talks with investors for the same, Casson told Gulf News: “I cannot confirm or deny that.”
Meanwhile, Four Seasons’ first Dubai Hotel — the 237-room Four Seasons Resort Dubai, located on Jumeirah Beach Road (Jumeirah 2), is expected to open on November 16 this year. The company started accepting room bookings effective September 1 from countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, the UK and Germany, according to Casson.
The hotel, which is located on a 270-metre beachfront, will have five restaurants and lounges that are managed by Four Seasons and another five independent outlets, such as Sea Fu, Shai Salon and Mercury Lounge.
When quizzed on the hotel’s expected occupancy rate once it starts operations, Casson said: “It takes time for a hotel to gain traction and momentum and so occupancy will build over the first year, and then I am sure will stabilise at a high level.”
The hotel is owned by Dubai-based Bright Start, and its development is managed by H and H Investment and Development. It was originally scheduled to open in the middle of this year.
Elsewhere in the UAE, Four Seasons has partnered with Abu Dhabi state-owned investment fund, Mubadala Development Company, to develop a business hotel at the capital’s Al Maryah Island, which is due to open in 2016.
Meanwhile, the group is planning to open properties in Bahrain later this year, Kuwait in 2016, Casablanca, Morocco in mid next year and in Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ... however, their opening dates have not been announced yet.
Four Seasons operates 92 hotels in 38 countries, and has more than 60 projects under development worldwide. In the past three years, it has opened a dozen hotels and resorts in destinations that include the US, China, Azerbaijan, and Tanzania.
