The rise in budget hotel chains is a positive thing for the UAE’s leisure and hospitality industry, tourism experts have said.
International budget chains, like the UK’s Premier Inn and Aloft, are looking to enter the UAE hotel market, Adrian Jonklaas, senior consultant at PKF The Consulting House, said.
“Guests at budget hotels in the UAE still have to buy air tickets, and business or leisure travel by air is very much a middle and upper class phenomenon,” he told the Dubai-based website AMEInfo.
He said the average daily spend of budget travellers was about $100 and that the sector’s growth indicated the emirate’s tourism market was maturing.
“Another advantage of branded budget hotels is that they will keep prices of four and five star hotels under control and force the operators of these hotels to focus on delivering an exemplary service and guest experience to counter the value proposition that budget hotels offer guests, which is a desirable and sustainable outcome,” he said.
Currently about 40 percent of Dubai hotels and 30 percent of Abu Dhabi hotels are three stars or less, the majority of which are unbranded.
However, recently the
Dubai-based firm Layia Hospitality
announced it was setting up a new low-cost hotel brand called Day & Night Hotels, with plans for 15 properties across the Middle East.
The UK’s largest budget hotel chain Premier Inn also has plans to expand in the region, AMEInfo said. The company already operates three hotels in Dubai, the first of which opened 18 months ago.
Darroch Crawford, the chain’s managing director in the Middle East, told the website the firm has two more Dubai hotels in the pipeline and was planning developments in Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Doha and Riyadh.
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