Crowne Plaza Dubai spurs hotel chain towards new heights

The further development of the upscale hotel brand across the region will be based on the key factors behind the success of the Crowne Plaza Dubai, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary by reporting record business levels.

The hotel has enjoyed an 18 % increase in room revenue over the last two years while annual food and beverage revenue has increased by 52% to Dhs 62 million. Its success mirrors the dramatic developments that have transformed Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road over the last ten years into a major thoroughfare characterised by an impressive build-up of modern commercial, residential and hotel properties.

The hotel will take guest comfort to the next level shortly with the renovation of its 560 rooms, suites, furnished apartments, family rooms and Club floors, while two new restaurants will be unveiled soon. InterContinental Hotels Group, which has tripled the size of the Crowne Plaza chain in the Middle East and North Africa over the last six years, believes what has been achieved in Dubai can be used as a blueprint for the brand's continued growth and success in the region.

"The Crowne Plaza Dubai has enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years while the brand has expanded from four to 12 properties in the region," said Chris Moloney, Chief Operating Officer, InterContinental Hotels Group, Middle East and Africa.

"We're looking to add more new Crowne Plaza hotels and resorts at key locations across the region, and both the new and the existing properties will adopt the same kind of innovative approach to guest satisfaction and comfort which have worked so well in Dubai."

The Crowne Plaza Dubai has more than doubled its F&B revenue, and substantially increased room revenue, by repositioning itself primarily through the creation of some of the city's best restaurants and one of its leading nightspots. Winning a flurry of awards for the quality of its food and service, the hotel has delighted business and leisure guests alike with its policy that a hotel should be a place where people can enjoy themselves, as well as work.

It currently has 26 entertainers working in five hotel outlets. One of these, the Zinc restaurant and bar, has built up a loyal local clientele, and attracts visiting celebrities like Ronan Keating and the soccer stars of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

The hotel has also become a prime meeting location, boasting one of the region's largest banquet, conference and exhibition facilities, as well as a 500-seat auditorium and a top-class business centre.

Since the Crowne Plaza Dubai opened ten years ago, land prices on Sheikh Zayed Road have risen by 40%. "The decision to build what was the first new hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road says a great deal about the foresight of its owners, the Al Fahim family," said Anthony Liddiard, General Manager of the Crowne Plaza Dubai and Director of Operations, InterContinental Hotels Group, UAE and Qatar. "They have placed great faith in us as hotel operators, and in the Crowne Plaza brand."

Crowne Plaza is one of the region's fastest growing hotel chains. Over the past six years. the original four properties in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah and Kuwait have been joined by new hotels in Amman, Bahrain, Beirut, Casablanca and Muscat, and by new Crowne Plaza resorts at Sharm El Sheikh on Egypt's Red Sea riviera, in Oman's tropical oasis destination of Salalah, and at Petra in Jordan.

Added Liddiard: "Crowne Plaza is a modern, young, relaxed brand offering all the facilities guests expect from a five-star hotel in an environment conducive to both work, and play.

"It's a brand that offers quality and style without pretension. It presents a uniquely attractive proposition to the increasingly demanding upscale consumer and is ideally positioned to take full advantage of the major growth expected in this segment in the years ahead."