Majid Al Futtaim currently has 2,900 rooms over 10 hotels in Dubai, making the company the largest hotel owner in Dubai.
That doesn't seem to be enough, however. CEO hotels Simon Barlow has announced "numerous plans" to add more hotels to existing malls in Dubai. "We have an opportunity at the Mall of the Emirates, the Deira City Centre Mall and the Mirdiff City Centre Mall, where no hotels exist currently [on or adjacent to the mall]."
Barlow said MAF's hotel strategy is to build properties near or adjacent to its 19 malls across the GCC and MENA region. “We are [also] planning to take hotels on to Majid Al Futtaim malls in places like Muscat, Oman; Cairo, Egypt; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and these are all in the pipeline at the moment, at the various stages of feasibility to build hotels alongside our mall developments.”
AccorHotels currently manages six of MAF's hotels, while Starwood manages three. Hilton currently manages one, and MAF is "in talks" with other global brands to bring in more hotels.
Source: Hotelier Middle East