Dubai: The Sheraton Grand Hotel in Dubai, which opened on Tuesday, expects business to pick up in January, driven by exhibitions and conferences.
“We expect a full house at the end of January. [This is] driven by corporate business and convention and trade business,” Heinz Grub, the hotel’s general manager, told Gulf News in a phone interview.
Some of the exhibitions and conferences that are expected to take place in Dubai in January include Intersec, an exhibition for the security industry, and Arabplast, which is for the petrochemicals, plastics and rubber industry.
The 416-room hotel, which is located on Shaikh Zayed Road, predominantly attracts corporate guests. It is the sixth Sheraton hotel in the UAE, and is developed in conjunction with Abdulsalam Alrafi Group. It also features 58 suites and 180 serviced apartments.
Sheraton’s portfolio, which includes 400 hotels in 70 countries, is undergoing $8 billion (Dh29.3 billion) expansion over the next three years.
Sheraton is one of the nine brands in the portfolio of US-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts. The hotel company aims to grow its Middle East portfolio by 75 per cent by 2017.
In the UAE, Starwood has 23 properties. Next year, it expects to open properties under the St Regis, Westin and W brands at Al Habtoor City, a multi-use development in Dubai.
