Olivier P Louis

This December this hotel will add two sister properties, no mere hotel extensions but full and very individual hotels in their own right. General manager Olivier Louis can barely contain his enthusiasm, and spoke to AMEInfo at the Arabian Travel Market exhibition.

'The Residence and Spa is a boutique property, a place for people who want to be private and have their own individual space,' he says. 'There will be three royal villas, 18 suites and 32 deluxe rooms with a very spacious beach front for such a limited number of guests. We also have an extensive spa with full Hammam facilities with towering domes, carved arches and intricate design.

'Then we have the Arabian Court with 162 rooms and 10 suites. This hotel follows an Ottoman Empire theme, as distinct from the main Royal Mirage Palace which is more Moorish in design. It also has a dramatic outdoor amphitheatre catering for up to 300 guests.'

The three properties will together comprise the Royal Mirage Resort, and the idea is that in the evenings guests will be able to choose from any of the eight restaurants in the complex, offering a considerable choice of dining. The idiosyncratic design of the original Royal Mirage is carefully carried over into the new hotels which all have a pleasantly human scale.

'We already have the only real beachfront restaurant which is mainly seafood,' claims Mr Louis, who says that 20% of his present business is from corporate clients. 'Maybe they like to relax on our beach after a hard day's work in Dubai. It is a surprise to us. We expected to cater mainly to the leisure market'.

Perhaps less surprising is the fact that around 20% of guests are from the GCC, with an Arabian ambiance an obvious attraction with or without the beach. 'This number rises to 30% in the summer months,' according to Mr Louis.

For anyone wishing to sample the delights of the Royal Mirage there is a $136 per night special offer over the summer months. Try the largest swimming pool in Dubai, and the superlative buffet breakfast in Celebrities restaurant. It is not hard to see why this hotel's formula has worked so well, and this success should be only enhanced by its new neighbors on its one kilometer long beachfront.