After more than 40 years as a solo operator Bahrain’s Gulf Hotel will launch a sister property later this year and is looking to further expansion.
Though Gulf Hotels Group opened the Ocean Paradise Resort in Zanzibar six years ago, the Gulf Hotel has been the group’s only property in the Middle East since it was established in 1969.
Now though the company is to launch K Hotel in Juffair, Bahrain, in September and is actively pursuing other management projects.
CEO Aqeel Raees said: “We as a management team have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience of the industry. If you look at the Gulf Hotel, everyone is talking about it as having the most popular food and beverage outlets in Bahrain and also the most popular banquet operation for weddings and outdoor catering.
“This is something that did not happen on its own, people make these things possible and I believe that our wealth of experience is something that can be used in expanding our management outside the boundaries of The Gulf Hotel.
“It is not difficult to transfer knowledge, that’s what we did when we opened our operation in Zanzibar, where the food and beverage is also very good, and that’s what we intend to do in the K Hotel.”
The K Hotel will be a four-star-plus property with 230 rooms. There will be an all-day-dining facility, a bistro and an Asian restaurant serving dim sum, noodles and Chinese specialities.
It will also have an outdoor swimming pool and terrace and various other facilities including a gym, banqueting hall and conference areas.
Raees added: “We are looking at tackling the four-star market as we already have a very successful five-star brand. The K Hotel will be the place our customers turn when they visit and find the city is busy, we will be at the very top end of the four-star market so I would expect the K Hotel to take the Gulf Hotel’s overflow. We are ensuring that the rooms are of a five-star standard but it is classified as a four-star because there are various other very strict criteria required by the authorities for five-star accreditation such as the size of the banqueting areas etc.
“Also the owners did not want to position the hotel as a five-star and we are, of course, guided by them.”
The company, which will host its own stand at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) for the first time, is also looking at plans for a resort hotel in Bahrain and is in early stage discussions to take on management contracts in other areas of the Gulf and further afield.
“It is about the right time for us to grow our portfolio. I am now confident that we are running the island’s leading hotel and am also confident that we have the resources to sustain growth. There had to be a day to take this decision and now is the right time.
“It’s a strategic decision, not something that you make on your own, it requires board commitment and outlay,” concluded Raees.
“If you are running the best individual hotel, owners who are looking to award management contracts need to trust that you are able to transfer that over to 10 or 20 hotels so it’s a question of gaining trust within the market place.
“I remember when groups like Rotana started out with one hotel and I hope you will see that one day The Gulf Hotel, like those other groups, will become an international chain.
“The K Hotel is our second hotel in Bahrain and we also have the property in Zanzibar.
This year for the first time we are having our own independent stand at ATM which I hope will enable people to see the Gulf Hotel Group as a small but growing chain hotel company.
“If you can make this success happen in one place, I don’t think you will have a problem finding the right people to make it happen in others providing you have the right base to start from and to fall back on.”