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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 (166)

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

  • MarcB says:
    2 Aug2 August 05:24

    Renaming the W to ‘V’ seems more than a little comical…!

    • Nick (not Arrogant Nick aka “The Original Nick”) says:
      2 Aug2 August 05:37

      Indeed – a giant two fingers (presumably with big V signs on the exterior) to Marriott.

  • Ian M says:
    2 Aug2 August 05:28

    Should we expect points to transfer from the SPG credit card to Starwood accounts as normal or will these be delayed as well? Mine normally transfer over around the 6th of the month

    • DavidF says:
      2 Aug2 August 06:52

      Banner on SPG Amex this morning says – Please note that because of technical issues you may see a delay in receiving your Points, Awards and Status upgrades in your Starwood Preferred Guest Loyalty Account until mid September. If you have any questions please call the American Express phone number on the back of your Card.

      Point in the account have multiplied by 3.

      • Ian M says:
        2 Aug2 August 06:57

        Oh that’s annoying! I’ve got a huge stack of points from July that I was hoping to use for more travel packages.

      • Graeme says:
        2 Aug2 August 08:54

        My points have also multiplied by 3.

      • lev441 says:
        2 Aug2 August 09:57

        My starpoints transferred over as normal yesterday from the SPG card to my SPG account…

  • Johnjohn says:
    2 Aug2 August 05:28

    High end restaurant as Nando’s ?

    • Lumma says:
      2 Aug2 August 06:16

      I think Rob is being a little cheeky with that comment.

      To be fair, £5 off £20 at nandos is something that I’ll probably use, although paying first means that I’ll have to do the maths before ordering to maximize the deal

      • BJ says:
        2 Aug2 August 06:27

        Well, Rob (more likely his kids) seems to love Pizza Express promotions so…

        • Rob says:
          2 Aug2 August 09:07

          Only been to a Nando’s once! My neck of the woods is more Byron, PE, Carluccios …

        • Rebecca says:
          2 Aug2 August 10:19

          Bit disappointed the Nandos offer isn’t available on either of my cards. Its my hangover remedy!

    • Louise Allen says:
      2 Aug2 August 09:51

      That made me chuckle too. My partner and I have a long running in-joke about Nandos, even though he’s never eaten there.

    • TigerTanaka says:
      2 Aug2 August 11:02

      I have never been to Nando’s (not a big fan of chicken) but plenty of people seem to like it. As someone who lives in the North, I prefer this sort of Amex promotion rather than some niche, high end London store that I will never spend any money in.

      • Genghis says:
        2 Aug2 August 20:31

        I find Nando’s to be the best restaurant in my home town in the north east. How sad…

  • Jack Taylor says:
    2 Aug2 August 05:47

    Hi Rob

    Just to correct your article above, the signs actually have already changed to the new brands – I drove past the hotels just of Shiek Zeyeed Road about 20 minutes ago on the way to DXB!

    Best
    Jack

    • the real harry1 says:
      2 Aug2 August 06:21

      What did they do – paint out the left hand side or the right?

  • Ruth4325 says:
    2 Aug2 August 06:05

    I have a stay already booked at the Connaught this month. Room rate £600 so will try to get them to split payment over my BA and Gold Amex cards for double bonuses.

    • Matt says:
      2 Aug2 August 06:28

      Lucky you enjoy! I’ve never stayed there but I adore the bar and Helene Darroze restaurant. Have fun!

  • KBuffett says:
    2 Aug2 August 06:20

    Can we not book a Marriott redemption for later in the year as long as the points are in place before check in?

  • BJ says:
    2 Aug2 August 06:23

    Getting tired of the mushrooming number of brands at all the major chains. I suppose it shouldn’t matter as we are presented with all of them when searching cities on various websites but it has got to the point I can no longer easily distinguish between what different brands are supposed to offer.

    • the_real_a says:
      2 Aug2 August 13:39

      It is nonsensical. A brand should be recognizable and reassure with a consistent product or standard. It feels like we have a brand for every individual hotel building.

      • Rob says:
        2 Aug2 August 14:22

        When I was in Washington the GM of the Canopy by Hilton gave us a tour. This brand DOES have around 10 specific features that ALL Canopy hotels get and I felt, with so many brands, you really needed this.

        You get, for example: a bed with a canopy (OK, gimmicky), a relaxation lounge, free use of pushbikes, lockers and showers to use if leaving/arriving out of hours, breakfast shaped around local produce etc.

        However, when you see my Hyatt Centric Madrid review in a day or so you’ll wonder how it is different to an Andaz or indeed one of the funkier Grand Hyatt hotels.

  • meta says:
    2 Aug2 August 06:30

    O/T but SPG related. All my points on SPG card tripled overnight. I wonder now whether they’ll go across as usual around 10th of the month.

    • Ian M says:
      2 Aug2 August 06:41

      Just checked. Mine have done the same. I hope they drop into my Starwood account in a few days!

      • Davef says:
        2 Aug2 August 06:53

        Nope – Please note that because of technical issues you may see a delay in receiving your Points, Awards and Status upgrades in your Starwood Preferred Guest Loyalty Account until mid September. If you have any questions please call the American Express phone number on the back of your Card.

        • meta says:
          2 Aug2 August 06:57

          Where did you see the message? I can’t see it anywhere on my account. Mid-September seems too vague…

      • BJ says:
        2 Aug2 August 07:11

        Extremely unlikely, that would give somebody getting the signup bonus ovee 33k SPG points to use at current rates. Not going to happen IMO.

        • the real harry1 says:
          2 Aug2 August 07:25

          Yep – nobody will actually end up better off as a result of this. Just an exercise in factoring up as the 2 schemes combine, but so will conversion rates factor down proportionately.

          Been wrong before, of course 🙂

        • tds says:
          2 Aug2 August 08:44

          Yep, I went up from 11700 ish (inc. signup bonus) to over 35000 overnight. I did contact Amex yesterday as my transfer from mid July seems to have disappeared somewhere between leaving Amex and arriving at SPG. She said she would ask for it to be redone, may or may not be related to this, probably just have to sit it out….

    • Alan says:
      2 Aug2 August 20:52

      Yep, my individual statement lines for points show 1x up to 29th July, then 3x from 31st.

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