Hard Rock to take the hotel stage in Dubai

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Horwell: people come and stay with us for an experience.

Hard Rock International is set to open a 350-room five-star hotel within the Dubai Trade Centre district, after signing a deal with a the Tasameem Group to develop the property.

Hard Rock Hotels chief hotels officer Trevor Horwell said the hotel would be open by 2010 or 2011, and would probably collaborate with high end names like Nobu and Randy Gerber to bring in the celebrity crowd.

"The way we see the celebrity angle working here is that firstly we are going to be bringing in these high end restaurant names - which in themselves bring in their own celebrities - and if celebrities come into Dubai and they know the brand then they will choose to stay there," he said.

"The intent is to have a music component to the location, so that will also attract a celebrity angle. The bar component, with high-end food and beverages, will also attract celebrities."

Hard Rock Hotels has previously brought in celebrity designers - anyone want to stay in a room designed by the Black Eyed Peas? - with great success, but it is unclear yet whether this strategy will be employed in Dubai.

But behind the big names there is a solid business model, as Horwell lists the achievements of the company's USA-based properties.

"We are sitting at 150% of RevPAR [revenue per available room] market share against the likes of Hyatt, Marriott, all of the chains," he said.

"We are outperforming our peers in a big way. What happened was Las Vegas was very successful, Orlando is number one in the market, so we started looking at gateway cities [in the USA]."

And now the push is on to take the brand international.

"We are looking internationally - 75% of our total development is going to be international," he said.

"We are looking to do five hotels as a minimum for the next ten years, so that will take us to 50. We don't want to be a hotel company with 300 hotels - that's not our system. People come and stay with us for an experience."

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