Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott International, which recently opened its 8,000th hotel, has opened its first resort in the United Arab Emirates.
The Marriott Resort Palm Jumeirah Dubai is on one of three manmade islands on the coast of Dubai.
The 608-room hotel will eventually have a total of 10 restaurants and lounges, including Japanese, Peruvian, Italian, Korean and Levant. The resort’s flagship restaurant, Smoki Moto Dubai, opens in 2023, and will be the first high-end Korean steakhouse in the city.
The rooms and suites have floor-to-ceiling windows with ocean views and private balconies.
Among unusual amenities are a “pillow menu” (which includes choices such as buckwheat hull, memory foam, anti-allergenic and a v-shaped pillow called a Boomerang) and room mood lighting.
The resort also has more than 20,000 square feet of events space in 11 venues, and a 10,000-square-foot outdoor terrace.
“As one of the world’s most lively leisure destinations and a hub for business travelers, Dubai is an ideal location for a flagship Marriott Hotel property,” said Marriott vice president Drew Iddings.
Marriott opened 77 new hotels in the third quarter of 2022, adding more than 14,000 rooms. It ended the quarter with more than 3,000 hotels in its development pipeline.
The company, the largest hotel operator, had $5.3 billion in third quarter revenue, compared to $3.9 billion in the same quarter a year ago, reflecting the hospitality industry’s pandemic recovery. Its quarterly year-over-year net income nearly tripled to $630 million.
