The City Seasons Group of Hotels recently unveiled a total of 120 stylish rooms and 60 luxurious suites in Abu Dhabi as part of the group’s extensive expansion and refurbishment plans.
The City Seasons Al Hamra, located in the capital’s centre, just completed phase one of its extensive refurbishment. With the second phase, the hotel will get a new lobby and a new Asian-themed restaurant and position itself as a boutique property.
Speaking to TTN at the recently concluded GIBTM, newly appointed group general manager Thomas Tapken commented: “The City Seasons Group has been in the market for more than five years and entered the hospitality business at a time when business was healthy and missed the opportunity to set up defined standards and procedure for the brand. Today the scenario is different. To keep the staff moving ahead in a common direction, it is essential to establish a brand identity and standard. This is what I hope to bring on board for them.”
Presently the group has four hotels under operation in the UAE, City Seasons Al Ain, City Seasons Hotel Dubai, City Seasons Suites Dubai and City Seasons Al Hamra Hotel.
“Our next opening will be in Muscat, which is set to open by the end of the year. We are now looking at options for management contracts as well. We are looking at the GCC market at large, but would also like to look at options of expanding the brand overseas including Switzerland and Germany. We believe this is the right way ahead for the group. We want City Seasons to be known as an upmarket four-star property with international exposure, but with its roots in the Middle East. This would be our biggest challenge, our biggest aim,” said Tapken.
“2009 has been a rough year for the existing properties. We have had to cut our average room rates by half and our occupancies were at 62-65 per cent. This has improved and today we are running at an average of 89 per cent occupancies.
“I am a bit worried about the summer months. I think we will all have occupancy, but the rates will be dramatic. I hope to close the summer months at 50 per cent occupancies and for the rest of the year at 80 per cent.”
Europe is expected to continue as the group’s strongest core market and Tapken said it will continue to tap the Europe, CIS and Asian markets including India and China throughout 2010.
And he added: “We participated at ITB Berlin for the first time this year and saw interest, thanks to our location as well as the fact that we are still relatively very young. Our biggest challenge at this stage is our food and beverage offerings. We want to introduce new Asian and Far Eastern cuisines.”
In-house, the company has plans to introduce major staff training programmes with Tapken explaining: “I firmly believe, if you do not empower your team members, they will fail. So we have set up two in-house training programmes, one in Dubai and the other in Abu Dhabi.”
And the parent company, Bin Ham Group, recently signed a Dh125-million ($34-million) contract for the completion of a third property in Dubai as part of its ongoing expansion.
“The 200-room City Seasons Hotel Bur Dubai will boast magnificent interiors and a unique architecture and will set the standard for three other new projects,” added Tapken.