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Habtoor’s three Marriott-managed Dubai hotels are rebranded by Hilton

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We recently wrote how the St Regis, Westin and W hotels at Al Habtoor City in Dubai were to be deflagged on 31st July.

From yesterday, Hilton is now operating the hotels – although I doubt the signs have been changed yet.

The St Regis becomes ‘Habtoor Palace Hotel, part of the LXR Hotels & Resorts collection’ – the hotel site is here 

The W becomes ‘V, part of Curio Collection by Hilton’ – the hotel site is here 

The Westin becomes Hilton Dubai Al Habtoor City – the hotel site is here 

LXR is a new Hilton brand.  It is designed to be a home for independent luxury hotels who want to join the Hilton ‘system’ whilst still remaining outside Hilton control.

There are now THREE Hilton brands for independent hotels:

LXR – for five star properties

Curio – for four star properties (Ibiza reviewed here, Boston reviewed here, Hamburg reviewed here)

Tapestry – for three star properties (Washington DC reviewed here)

I am very positive about these moves because they are attracting very good hotels.  I was very keen on The Graham in Washington.  We were also back at the Reichshof in Hamburg last month which is much improved on its chaotic opening which I reviewed.

Whether this can be enough to save the Al Habtoor City hotels, which suffer from a blighted location next to Sheikh Zayeed Road – see photo above – and chronic over-development, is a different question.


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Comments (168)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Munch says:

    Newbie help please. I was going to book a 5 nights for 4 SPG hotel but it seems I’ve missed the cut off date for transferring AMEX points to SPG. The problem I have is that the hotel increases in points after Aug18th? So is it possible to book a 5 night travel package after the 18th Aug?
    Currently I have 140,000 Marriott points but need 250,000 points (Cat 6) for the 5 night travel package so would require to convert an approx. 74,000 Amex points but I would then receive 120,000 Avios points.
    Is my maths correct (I would probably end up converting the Amex points to Avios anyway) so I’d be 46000 avios points up?
    Is it possible to book a 5 night or will they insist on a Vacation club membership?

    • Peter K says:

      It is not possible to book a 5 night travel package. Apparently it used to be possible if you got lucky with a phone agent who didn’t know what they were doing but not any more. It’s 7 nights only.

    • guesswho2000 says:

      My opinion – clutching at straws. Aeroplan is a dead duck, highlighting that, whilst frequent flyer schemes can indeed be incredibly profitable, their value becomes worthless if the main airline partner severs ties.

      Qantas points are a good example, they’re like a second currency in Australia, you can earn them doing almost anything. If QF spun of QFF, which has been mooted previously, I doubt the value (to consumers, and hence shareholders) would remain, especially in the light of the Aeroplan saga, once bitten, twice shy, and all that.

      Also, look at the disaster that Nectar is – seemed like a good idea at the time (Sainsbury’s Rewards), and probably was for J Sainsbury, but it’s a pretty useless scheme now.

  • Alex B says:

    About to book two weekends away with Hilton in August but sadly I don’t seem to have been selected for the Amex offer in any guise.

    I’ve got Thistle and Melia instead 🙁

  • Daniel says:

    As I’m based in Dubai, I can confirm that the W sign has been removed and now a very similar looking “V” is in it’s place…. So it does seem like the Habtoor group has had the sign on order for a while 🙂

    Not sure about all the others, but things are moving quick to change to Hilton I think

  • guesswho2000 says:

    *SPG obv

  • Tony says:

    I’ve just received the SPG Amex Sign-up bonus (11k SPG points) into my Amex card – but, Amex had already converted the pending values by multiplying by 3 for the new scheme points. The bonus points weren’t multiplied and have come in as 11k new scheme points – which I presume is wrong! Presumably unless Amex fix this I’ll get the wrong amount transferred into the new scheme next week.

    Anyone have a similar experience or heard anything from Amex? I tried on web chart but the support person had no clue…

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