Joe Batshoun, the general manager of two Rotana hotels opening for this weekend's Formula One race, has spent the past 10 months preparing for the occasion. He couldn't quite believe the facilities were completed. "If you were here a month ago at Yas Island, you would have thought that there was no way on earth that this place is going to be ready," he said. Still, tomorrow both the Yas Island Rotana and Centro Yas Island will be full.
The hotels are part of a cluster of seven that opened their doors this week and have already received their first guests. It took about 20 months to build the Rotana properties, with as many as 3,000 workers on site at any one time. "I think that the planning has been done very, very well," Mr Batshoun said, referring to the Yas Island racetrack and its surrounding infrastructure. "I have never seen anything - so gigantic that comes together at the last minute, so that you see the final picture a few days before the race. It's mind-boggling."
The hotels are fully operational, a rare situation for any new properties. They usually go through a "soft opening" where the business is only partially functional. That was not an option in this case. The Rotana properties had "to be fully open and ready for the race and we have gone through a lot of work to prepare for this event", Mr Batshoun said. The company will have 420 permanent staff on Yas Island, augmented by 80 people from other Rotana hotels in the UAE. The four-star Yas Island has 308 rooms, while the three-star Centro has 259.
Rooms at the Yas Island were priced at Dh2,250 (US$612.57) a night, the maximum rate the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) allowed Rotana to charge. Room rates in the capital are capped for major events to prevent prices from spiralling out of control. The Centro was being booked at Dh1,450 a night. "It makes a lot of sense," Mr Batshoun said of the pricing policy. "I think ADTA is looking long-term rather than short-term."
Asked whether he was nervous about this weekend, he shook his head. "I'm very confident," he said. @Email:rbundhun@thenational.ae
