Marriott adding to Dubai's hotel supply despite performance lag

Marriott International has agreed to launch two new mid-market hotels in Dubai's Jumeirah Village Circle development. The new 150-guestroom Courtyard and 100-guestroom Residence Inn locations, which are slated to open in 2020, will share facilities, Albawaba Business reported.  

Marriott International has appointed WSW Architects to lead the project and WA International to manage the interior design of the hotels. 

“Not only does this agreement illustrate our commitment to growing Marriott International’s portfolio in the UAE, but it also reinforces the demand for mid-market hotel development in the market,” Jerome Briet, VP of lodging development, Middle East at Marriott International, told Albawaba Business. According to Marriott, the hotel group is the largest hotel operator in the UAE with 50 operational hotels and plans to increase that number to 80 with more than 20,000 guestrooms by 2021. The group has added 12 more Courtyard properties and 11 new Residence Inn properties to its pipeline for the UAE. Marriott has six Courtyard locations and three Residence Inn locations currently operating in the UAE. 

Marriott International announced in 2016 that it would add 60 hotels with 17,000 guestrooms to its portfolio by 2022—just in time for Dubai’s 2020 Expo. The emirate’s goal is to draw in 20 million visitors for the event. Therefore, it has been offering incentives for hotel development to accommodate those visitors.  

However, the booming hotel development and guestroom stock in Dubai hasn't enhanced industry performance as expected. In July, Dubai hotels saw a significant drop in rates as demand failed to meet the increased hotel supply. The emirate's ADR decreased by 11.5 percent to Dhs471.25 and experienced a 14.7-percent drop in RevPAR to Dhs309.76, a report stated.