Five-star Sheraton Grand being added to Dubai’s ever-growing hotel offerings

The Starlight Ballroom. The Sheraton Grand Hotel will have an introductory price starting at Dh999 a night. Rendering courtesy Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Dubai’s high street keeps getting more hotel rooms – but the operator of one of the newest says there is still room for more.

“Dubai is building more hotels, not only five-star but also four and three-star and the market is going strong,” said Heinz Grub, the general manager of the five-star Sheraton Grand Hotel Dubai. This is the fifth Sheraton in the emirate.

“Unless there is a recession it will continue,” he said of the sector’s growth.

The Sheraton Grand, from the US hotel operator Starwood, is to open on Sunday on Sheikh Zayed Road across from the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). With 474 hotel rooms and 180 serviced apartments, it is to be fully operational in January.

With all those DWTC conventions nearby, at least 30 per cent of guests at the Sheraton Grand are expected to be corporate travellers, with the rest from group travel, including business travellers and leisure guests.

“This stretch has a lot of fabulous branded hotels but if you look at our competition and the influx in Dubai, this area is still growing,” Mr Grub said.

With more supply coming into the Dubai market, room rates are slipping.

Last month, the average daily room rate declined 1.6 per cent year-on-year at Dh1,034.57 across the luxury to economy segments, according to STR Global.

There was a 7.3 per cent increase in supply last month, outstripping demand at 6.3 per cent, it said.

The Sheraton Grand Hotel will have an introductory price starting of Dh600 a night, according to its website.

“The room rates for next year will depend on how we will ramp up and the market rates,” Mr Grub said.

With slow growth in the euro zone and recession in Japan, travellers from the emerging markets such as China, India and Latin America besides those from rest of the Arabian Gulf region are expected to drive the growth in tourism here, according to Mr Grub.

Starwood’s three luxury hotels, St Regis, Westin and W, are expected to come on stream in Al Habtoor City in Business Bay next year. The complex will have a theatre and a tennis academy among other entertainment facilities.

“We are positioned differently from these hotels and will have a different category of clientele and business,” Mr Grub said.

Dubai is the biggest market in the Middle East when it comes to the number of meetings organised by international associations, according to a report from the International Congress and Convention Association.

In the latest figures available, DWTC pulled around 275,000 visitors to 12 trade shows, consumer shows and conferences besides six live events in September. This month’s line up has 15 conventions, exhibitions and entertainment events.

DWTC won the bid to host 10 new international congresses at the venue between 2015 and 2018 in sectors such as healthcare, energy, aviation, engineering and insurance. These are expected to attract around 28,000 delegates from overseas, and are expected to deliver around Dh275 million in economic benefits to the emirate.

Among the major crowd-pullers this year were January’s Arab Health Exhibition. Some 212,454 visitors and participants attended the show, up from 193,683 the previous year. The four-day Arabian Travel Market in May drew 23,000 visitors, up by more than 2,100 on the previous year. Gitex Technology Week in October is expected to have attracted about 100,000 visitors.

Last year, DWTC counted 2.2 million visitors to its 373 Mice and other events, up from 302 in the previous year.

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