City of Arabia owners Looking for the Best of the Best to manage 500-room Hotel in Dubai

Leading hotel operators pursuing the management contract for the 500-room five-star property being built at City of Arabia in Dubai are being told that nothing but the best in service will do.

Many leading hotel names are competing for the chance to put their brand on the luxury rooftop hotel at Mall of Arabia, one the world’s largest shopping malls and a key element of the spectacular US$5 billion City of Arabia development.

But City of Arabia owners, Ilyas & Mustafa Galadari Group, have said they are in no immediate rush to sign a management agreement and will call on a wealth of family experience in the hotel business to make sure the operator chosen can match their ambition.

The Galadari family, which has been doing business in Dubai for more than 50 years, opened the city’s first five-star hotel, the InterContinental, beside the Creek in 1975 and also created another landmark hotel in Dubai, the Hyatt Regency.

“Most of the big hotel operators have contacted us because they know City of Arabia is a very attractive location for a five star hotel,” said Ilyas Galadari, Chairman of Ilyas & Mustafa Galadari Group. “Our priority is to select a company which shares our vision to create a hotel which stands out by offering genuine five-star quality when it comes to service.”

 “It’s all very well having a five star name and facilities, and charging five star rates, but these have to be matched by service levels throughout the hotel. As many more new hotel properties open up here, increasing competition, service standards will become even more important to attract guests and build customer loyalty,” Mr Galadari added. “Our family has a wealth of hotel experience, and we’ll be using all of that to make sure the hotel, like City of Arabia as a whole, excites people and exceeds their expectations.”

City of Arabia’s other key elements are Elite Towers, a group of 34 impressive commercial and residential buildings, Wadi Walk, a waterfront community with stylish apartments, outdoor cafes and attractive retail outlets, and Restless Planet, a US$300 million theme park, earth science museum and planetarium.

With all infrastructure work now completed, visible construction work has begun on the US$5 billion dollar lifestyle development, and a much broader picture is emerging of City of Arabia as a key destination and urban community within the new Dubai.

Lying at the gateway to Dubailand and covering a 20 million square foot site beside Emirates Road, it is creating a new business and commercial district while offering many desirable residential options supported by just about everything those who live and work there, and those who visit, could want or imagine.

With business and administrative offices, schools and clinics, luxury apartments, shops, galleries, restaurants and unique attractions, the project will have a phased opening starting towards the end of 2010. On completion, it will house 32,800 residents.

A self-contained community designed to minimise the use of cars, City of Arabia will be served by its own 5.1km monorail system which will transport residents and visitors to and from a designated Dubai Metro station and around the site.

The monorail will be served by six sets of two-car trains running every six minutes between 14 strategically located stations.

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