Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa is a property that has created a distinctive identity in Dubai’s luxury hospitality space, due its architectural highlights, the many unique experiences that it offers to its guests and of course the brand’s celebrated service excellence By Sudipta Dev
Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa stands out among the many luxurious resorts in The Palm Dubai. The Thai architecture, an expansive lagoon, creates a distinctive atmosphere inside the resort, which is very different from the surrounding environs and the city. The property that will complete two years this September has become popular in Dubai’s hospitality market, not only because of its location in The Palm, but also as a result of its many unique features and design.
The property opened in 2013, and according to Jean-Francois Laurent, general manager, Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa, it has became very popular among international and local clientele as well. “Our hotel is quite unique because while we are in Dubai, we are also outside – we have the tranquility of a resort but a few minutes away from our hotel you can immerse yourself in shopping, restaurants, and different activities,” he says.
Lagoon access
There are 293 rooms in the hotel, 18 over water villas and 12 beach pool villas. A particular feature of the resort is that it has over 10,000 sq mt of swimming pool. It also means that all bedrooms situated on the ground floor have direct access to the swimming pool, so the guests do not need to go out, from their private terrace they can step into the pool. “Currently there are 120 lagoon access rooms. As the lagoon covers a wide area, there is also a canoe that comes to the rooms and serves drinks and ice creams to the guests. We are the only hotel in Dubai to have a lagoon and give our guests such a unique experience,” states Laurent. The resort also has a unique way of transportation – electrical tuk tuks. There is a long tail boat to take the guests from the hotel to the marina by sea.
The over water villas are fully private, these feature large living rooms and spacious bathrooms overlooking the ocean. In the living room there is a glass floor through which guests can see fish swimming below. “There is also an outside deck with lounger where they can enjoy the view on The Palm and not to forget an amazing sunset everyday,” says Laurent. The beach pool villas are with a private pool right on the sea front and from the living room guests can literally step into the pool. “Lately we have added some privacy screen which means that once guests are in their villa, if they want total privacy they can close the shutters and they will be in their own environment,” mentions Laurent.
The Anantara residences are a part of the resort, though some have private owners, these apartments are considered as part of the hotel, with similar services. There are 66 one / two bedroom apartments.
The spa in the property is closed currently as 900 sq mt of Turkish hamam is being added to it. When it reopens in September it will be a unique feature. “The spa already has 17 treatment rooms. We will have another 13 treatment rooms and of course the Turkish hamam with different sections for ladies and gents and a couple’s treatment room as well,” informs Laurent.
For families there is a spacious Teen Club and a Kids Club. The children are well looked after in these clubs. The fact that the resort has extensive pools naturally makes it family friendly – the pools are not too deep – under 1.20 metre maximum. There is no risk of drowning. There are as many as over 30 life guards to watch over these lagoons (climate controlled pools).
F&B offerings
The resort has four main restaurants – Crescendo is an all day dining restaurant where breakfast/ lunch and dinner is served. For dinner, every day there is a different theme – Arabic / Italian / India, etc. “However, for instance, during Indian evening, while about 70 per cent will be Indian food, the rest will comprise international cuisine. When it comes to deliver the right kind of food and genuine food then we have the perfect combination,” he mentions.
Bushman, the Australian restaurant has chef and staff from Australia. It offers unique dishes from Australia with ingredients from the bush. Mekong is the Asian restaurant serving Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese with chefs from these three countries. The Beach House is situated right at the sea front where guests can enjoy the sunset with delectable dishes from the Mediterranean. “We do not just Italian, but also a lot of mezze, Lebanese and of course, being on the sea front, sea food,” points out Laurent.
In April the property had hosted the Anantara Food Festival. All Anantara hotels in UAE participate in the food festival at the same time. Celebrity chefs are invited during the festival and special evenings are organised in every outlet. This year five leading chefs came from UK, Australia and Thailand, in the week-long culinary event.
Diverse market
Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa caters to a large market and attracts guests from across the world. “Of course Germany and the UK are the main ones, however more and more we have seen guests coming from China and India. I believe that India is becoming a strong and emerging market for us,” states Laurent. Pointing out that Dubai is not far from Mumbai and Delhi, he adds, “We strongly believe that we have everything for the India market. By everything I do not just mean amazing rooms, over water villas, but also in terms of F&B. We know that in India a lot of people are vegetarians so we focus a little bit more in our offering on this kind of cuisine. Our chefs are very flexible and are more than happy to serve the guests the food of their liking.”
Laurent and his team have been working with a few tour operators in India. “Our business partner in India is very active in selling Dubai and selling our property,” he asserts.
The property has hosted a few high end Indian weddings. The location, the beach front, the quality of service all attribute towards making Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa a unique property for weddings. “We are now getting a higher demand from India. I believe that friends and families who were here during the weddings want to come back, not only as individual travellers, but also to celebrate special occasions at our resort,” states Laurent.
Giving his views on the Dubai hospitality market, Laurent says, “We have seen Dubai developing over the last 10 years and there is no reason why it should stop. There are many ongoing projects. Everybody is now looking at Expo 2020, the government is also focusing on it. Now we will see more developments, not only hotels but residential, theme parks, leisure activities.” In the future he sees Dubai reaffirming its position as a leading destination, not only in the Middle East, but in the world in terms of tourism. “Let us not forget we are only six-seven hours from Europe, three hours from India, three to five hours from major cities in Africa. So Dubai really is a hub,” he states.
The hotel has 600 employees from 46 countries. Not surprisingly, a large part of the employees, informs Laurent, are from India.
