Dubai hotels aim for incremental gains in Q4 of 2020

Hotels in Dubai are awaiting increased business travellers in the last 3 months of this year. Or those visiting the city to be part of conferences or exhibitions and want to book a hotel room for the period.

Some of the high-profile events have shifted to 2021, but if enough visitors turn up for those that will open in the next few weeks, that would still be a win-win for hotels. This year, hotels are aiming for incremental gains.

Philip Wooller, Area Director at STR, a consultancy focused on the hotel industry said, “It is still early to predict month-on-month occupancies, but we do expect many of the UAE hospitality submarkets to tip over the 60 per cent occupancy.”

“The UAE [hospitality sector] is fast approaching the traditional season whereupon tourists arrive for the winter sun.

The lead times between making a booking and the guests turning up are reducing sharply, according to Alexander Lee, Chief Commercial Officer of Jumeirah Group. This is an “important shift in booking behavior from key international source markets,” he added.

What this could mean is that the leisure or business traveler are once again making those travel and hotel stay plans in the city. But instead of making those plans well ahead of a future visit, those decisions are being taken almost overnight. The re-launch of exhibitions and conferences from October should see more of that happen.

“In the last month, as restrictions began easing up in Dubai, we have seen a significant increase in enquiries for conferences, product launches and weddings,” said Akshay Bajaj, Group Manager at Five Hotels and Resorts, which operates two properties in the city.