One of the biggest hotel firms in the world, US-based Wyndham Hotels Group, is in talks with prospective investors over plans to introduce some of its as yet unrepresented brands to the UAE.
In particular, discussions have been held with interested parties over launching Dolce Hotels & Resorts, which provides meetings accommodation and conference space, in the UAE.
While Ramada is the most typical Wyndham brand in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, as well as serviced apartments brand Hawthorn Suites, the New York Exchange-listed Wyndham Worldwide’s hotels division has other brands not yet represented or underrepresented in the Gulf, including Baymont Inn & Suites, Days Inn, Howard Johnson’s, Knights Inn, Microtel, Super 8, Travelodge, Wyndham, Wyndham Garden Hotels, and Wingate by Wyndham.
In an interview with Arabian Business, Geoff Ballotti, group president and CEO of Wyndham Hotels Group, revealed that talks have been held with interested parties to introduce some of these brands to the Gulf.
Among the brands with the biggest potential in the UAE, Ballotti said, are Dolce, acquired by Wyndham last February, midmarket hotels brand Days Inn and budget chain Super 8, which has also been successful in China having just opened its 888th hotel in China this year.
Ballotti said: “We were in a meeting with Dubai real estate developers just today. They were looking at which brands we already have here. Eight of our 16 brands are in this part of the world and they were curious about our other ones.
“One property owner saw Dolce and a light went on because he is looking to invest in hotels with a meeting room component. Dolce has indisputably the nicest meetings destination hotels across Europe and the US – that’s why we acquired it, we saw such a niche in our brand portfolio and meeting planners are a very particular breed who know exactly what they need (state-of-the-art technology, all-day destinations where they’re not going to get nickled and dimed to death) – but it doesn’t yet operate here.
“It’ll be up to [the regional team] to progress those talks but Dolce is an example of a brand we would love to introduce to this part of the world.”
Super 8, which has 2,200 hotels across the world, is another brand for which Ballotti sees enormous potential in the Gulf – especially with the UAE attempting to target the emerging middle class Chinese tourist. “The Chinese love Super 8,” he said. “It’s a very big brand with mass consumer appeal and the democratisation of travel means that group is looking for consumer brands they trust.
Howard Johnson Hotels and Days Inn are two other examples of brands with regional growth potential. There is already one Howard Johnson in Bur Dubai, but Ballotti says both brands resonate with Asian travellers in particular – the group has identified 10 sites for new Howard Johnsons in India and he says the brand has a strong appeal for value-seeking families who, “if coming on a family holiday with four kids, would not want to be paying a $450 average room rate when they need four rooms for a week”.
Ballotti says he is not concerned about the GCC hotels market in general – despite the fact that revenue per available room (RevPAR) was down on average 10 percentage points earlier year-on-year in January across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, according to analysts at STR Global, and the low oil price and global economic slowdown is tightening consumer purchasing power.
“We look for long-term partnerships and we and our partners know there will always be blips in cycles,” he said.
Read the full interview with Geoff Ballotti in Arabian Business on Sunday
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