The Copthorne Hotel Dubai had had some challenges over the past year, starting with the hotel rebranding and repositioning right before the opening in January 2008.
“Repositioning from hotel apartment to hotel made some challenges especially in the first half of the year,” said Reda Moukhtar, general manager, Copthrone Hotel Dubai. However, the plan for this year was to maximise the sales revenue and marketing impact for the hotel to ensure high occupancy with a decent average room rate for the entire year.
There was not much of an impact in occupancies for the last quarter of 2008 due to the financial crisis, he said, but did appreciate that business travellers were getting more budget conscious and looking for cheaper rooms.
Leisure travellers however, were being affected by the crisis and exchange rates especially within Europe, and were turning towards Turkey and Asian destinations.
“We’re hoping to have a lighter impact as a four star property comparing to five star hotels within the region,” he said.
“The forecast of the first half of 2009 still hasn’t shown a massive impact, but we are getting ready as much as possible to reduce any expected or unexpected impact.”
Plans for this year are to opening the club floors and the executive club lounge offering personalised services to business travellers, increasing the number of standard room by June due to higher demand from corporate, groups and individual business travellers.
Copthorne Hotels is managed by Millennium Hotels & Resorts, and the Dubai property is the first Copthorne to open in the Middle East.
It has attracted and catered to many GCC clientele in the past few months and plans to do more in this market.
“As we have executive suites and executive deluxe suites with options of one or two bedrooms it makes us desirable for GCC clientele,” says Moukhtar.
He hoped that in the coming year the hotel would be upgraded from a four star property to a five star one.
