DUBAI // It is not often you visit a hotel and end up leaving with half the fixtures and fittings. But a mob who gathered outside one of the city's few boutique hotels, La Maison d'Hôtes in Jumeirah, this morning did just that. The owners, Claude Berquier and Julie Renaudie, shut the venue on January 11 after Dubai Municipality decided it was not suitable for a residential area. Today they opened their doors for a final time to sell goods from the hotel shop, decorations and bedlinen. A crowd formed on the street outside the secluded guesthouse an hour before the doors opened while about 100 flocked through its doors to pore over new goods slashed by at least 50 per cent. Stephen Walsh, 64, a retail consultant, had already spent about Dh3,000 on beds, tables and chairs when the French-born hotel owners sold their furniture on Tuesday. They were expecting the sale to last two days but the hotel was stripped bare within two hours. Mr Walsh returned yesterday to finish kitting out his home with La Maison d'Hôtes bedding and tablecloths. He said: "This place is a symbol of originality, inspiration and entrepreneurship and it is very sad to see something so unique in Dubai disappearing. It is very difficult to understand why. "Whenever friends visited me in Dubai, they would always come and stay here. I came today to show my support. It is all very good quality, which must make it more of a bitter pill to swallow for the owners." Brigitte de Thézy, 47, a housewife who spent Dh1,000 on napkins, lampshades and photo frames, said: "Like many of the French community in Dubai, I know the owners and am very sad to see the hotel go. We used to eat regularly in the restaurant or pop in for coffee." Sylvie Ahmed Yahia, 40, a housewife, said: "The tablecloths I bought were reduced by more than half. It is such a nice place and while you might find hotels like this in Europe, nothing like it exists in Dubai." Ms Renaudie is planning to return to France while her business partner is hoping to open a similar venture in Muscat instead.
tyaqoob@thenational.ae
