Abu Dhabi: Time Hotels Management, a Dubai-based hospitality company, is set to expand in the region with the opening of new Time Express hotels in Egypt, its chief executive officer, Mohammad Awadalla, told Gulf News.

“In Egypt, we are negotiating opening in Cairo and in Ain Sokhna. We haven’t signed anything concrete yet but we are discussing entering the market with hotel apartments and one three-star hotel (Time Express),” Awadalla said.

The hotel apartments in Cairo are expected to open in the first quarter of 2015 whereas the project in Ain Sokhna is still under negotiations.

The developments will be an addition to the luxury hotel currently in the pipeline in Egypt’s coastal city of Hurghada.

The company, which manages various hotels, hotel apartments, and residences in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah, is currently in negotiations with a Saudi company to open five hotels in the kingdom within the next five years.

Time Residences

Time is also in negotiations to open two new residences in Abu Dhabi, bringing its total residences in the capital to four.

“We find a lot of demand for the [furnished residence] market in Abu Dhabi. We are in negotiations, which are 90 per cent finalised. Hopefully, one of them will open by the end of this year, and the other in the last quarter of 2015,” Awadalla said.

He added, “We also signed two in Dubai; one in Al Barsha, which is Oak Villas, and one in Tecom, which is 270 apartments called Oak Residence. We are trying to approach more owners to do this because this is what Dubai needs for the Expo 2020 — to have more furnished apartments.”

Last Monday, Time announced the opening of a second Time Residence in Abu Dhabi, offering 68 fully-furnished one-bedroom and studio apartments on Najda Street. The residence is the second by Time in the emirate, and follows the launch of Time Pearl Residence, a 72-bedroom unit near the Corniche.

Awadalla said that furnished residences and hotel apartments are met with a lot of demand especially from Arab customers as they tend to travel in large groups, and thus, require several rooms, which can be an expensive option in hotels.

Another selling point towards Arab customers is the fact that none of Time’s accommodations serve alcohol.

“We find not serving alcohol an opportunity in the Middle East rather than an obstacle. This is how we set up our company, and this is how we train our team,” the CEO said.

In fact, Time reported a year-on-year rise in occupancy levels for the January to July period this year with occupancy touching 84 per cent — a six per cent increase. The company also saw a nine per cent increase in revenue, which reached Dh367 million.

Such demand came primarily from UAE nationals and residents, followed by India, the UK, Germany, and the US. Awadalla said that GCC nationals also registered high numbers at Time hotel apartments.

He expected demand to be buoyed by new people coming to live in Dubai with the Expo 2020 offering more job opportunities.

“The Dubai government is very smart on encouraging investors to build three- and four-star hotels by making them exempted from paying municipality fees for three years. The government is doing this for the Expo 2020, and to stabilise the market because almost 60 per cent of the hotels are five stars, so that’s not right,” Awadalla said.