THE Jumeirah Group has announced its new brand, Venu Hotels. A contemporary lifestyle brand, the company is set to announce the location of its first set of hotels later this year and talks are underway with developers to launch Venu in the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific.
According to Jumeirah Group executive chairman Gerald Lawless: “Driven by demand, Venu Hotels will be highly complementary to our existing portfolio of hotels in look, feel and facilities. A five-star brand, technology will be a key element as we are currently developing a hospitality software, which will be a first for guests.
“We realised the need for lifestyle contemporary hotels, especially for cities that might not have a strong market for a Jumeirah brand and that is a market niche we wanted to capture.”
The company has plans to open 10 Venu and Jumeirah Hotels in the next 12 months in different parts of the world.
“Overall, we have 60 hotels signed up - some will be Venu Hotels and some will be Jumeirah,” said Lawless.
The company reported high occupancy in its Dubai hotels in the months of February to April 2010 maintaining a robust average room rate.
This and the strong growth in its hotels in New York and London gave Jumeirah the confidence to roll out the new brand later this year. “We are looking forward to a busy and exciting period opening new hotels, attracting new guests and introducing a new hotel brand concept to the world. We very much appreciate the continuing support from our parent company Dubai Holding to achieve our objectives,” said Lawless.