Dorchester Collection to Open First Hotel in Dubai

This will be the company’s first hotel in Asia and the Middle East

The booming luxury hotel market of Dubai will have yet another addition by the end of the year as premium hotel operators Dorchester Collection are planning to open their first hotel in the city. The Lana, developed and owned by the Emirate’s Omniyat Holdings, will be the Dorchester Collection’s first hotel in Asia and the Middle East, and 10th globally, according to Omniyat Chairman Mahdi Amjad, who started a partnership with the chain in 2018. Dorchester Collection also operates properties in London, Paris, Rome, Milan and Los Angeles.

“We are trying to identify other regional and global destinations that will work for this collaboration to expand into,” Amjad said. “What we have created together with the Dorchester Collection is quite unique and it’s worthy of a global scale.”

The hotel will include 225 rooms and suites. Nearly 35 per cent of The Lana will be suites with a minimum room size of 50 square meters (538.19 square feet) in addition to seven restaurants and a rooftop swimming pool with panoramic views of the city, said Amjad.

It is connected to a residential tower, which includes 39 serviced apartments. They have been sold in advance of construction for an average of Dh 3,600 ($980) per square foot. Recently, prices have surged to about Dh 7,000 per square-foot, Amjad said.

Privately-owned Omniyat is also building other ultra-luxury residences including Vela, which will include 38 apartments close to the world’s tallest tower and Ava on the Palm Jumeirah. “When we were evaluating the right high-end brand to satisfy our consumers’ uber luxury aspiration, the Dorchester came to our mind,” Amjad said. “They have been delivering high level of sophisticated hospitality since the 1930s but at the same time, they have had a very limited exclusive collection globally.”