Emaar mid-market rebranding with Rove Hotels

Handout of Rove Hotels exterior, Dubai’s smart new hotel brand for the modern traveller to roll out in 10 central locations by 2020. Courtesy of Rove

Emaar has rebranded its mid-market hospitality brand Dubai Inn as Rove Hotels.

The Dubai developer plans to open 10 Rove Hotels by 2020 in collaboration with Meraas Holding in the city and across the region.

The company declined to specify the category of Rove Hotels under the Dubai government’s star classification but said its target clientele would be younger guests.

When first announced in 2013, Emaar had said Dubai Inn would be its budget brand.

The first Rove property, with 420 rooms and spread over 14 floors, is expected to be ready by the end of this year.

“We have made significant progress with our first project – Rove Za’abeel,” said Philippe Zuber, the chief operating officer of Emaar Hospitality Group.

Others would be located in the Al Wasl, Port Saeed, Al Jafiliya, Oud Metha and Dubai Marina neighbourhoods.

Rove Hotels is Emaar’s second midscale brand after Vida Hotels. In 2013, it opened its first 156-room Vida Hotel and Resort in Downtown Dubai.

Rove Hotels will have self check-in stations and e-concierge mobile application, besides being located within the vicinity of Dubai Metro, bus and tram stops.

Emaar entered the hospitality segment with the luxury Armani Hotel Dubai in Burj Khalifa and The Address Hotels and Resorts.

Dubai’s tourism agency has set a target of 20 million visitors by 2020, and is underscoring the diversification of the hotel landscape in the emirate.

Most of the supply is in the luxury and upscale segment. Of the 639 hotels and hotel apartments in Dubai, about 180 are four and five-star hotels, according to Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM).

Room inventory in Dubai stood at 92,396 during the first 11 months of the year.

During this period, 27 new hotels and 17 hotel apartments accounting for 7,232 rooms opened in Dubai, Marc Bennett, DCTCM’s senior vice president for international operations, told the Hotels Innovate conference in Dubai on Wednesday.

The half-day conference discussed the rise of mixed use properties in the UAE and sustainability issues for hotels.

There are 83 five-star hotels and 96 four-star hotels in Dubai compared to 69 that are classified as three-star, 54 two-star and 124 one-star properties. There were 213 hotel apartments.

Saudi Arabia retained its top spot as the source market for the emirate, followed by India, the UK, the US, Russia, China and Iran during the first 11 months of last year.

The length of stays in Dubai also rose during the period to 3.8 days, up 1.8 per cent from 2013.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter