In a place already high on superlatives, there's still room for new luxury hotels in Dubai
Dubai has welcomed a trio of top hotels this year, including a couple of brand debuts, but is there a place for even more luxury hotels in the emirate? It would seem so, when they’re this good.
“I must be one of the luckiest hoteliers in Dubai,” The Lana’s general manager Richard Alexander tells me over breakfast at the hotel’s Riviera restaurant. It’s a bold claim, but after spending a couple of nights in residence, I soon see why he’s so happy.
Years in the making, this recently unveiled Foster + Partners landmark in the emerging Business Bay district is the Dorchester Collection’s first foray into the Middle East and its first new property in more than a decade.
Working with local developers Omniyat, the hospitality group has gone all out to ensure it creates a truly distinctive property in a hotel market that can often feel oversaturated.
Interestingly, in a city that’s long been a byword for extravagance and ostentation, one of The Lana’s USPs is its sense of understatement. While bling is absent, subtle detailing that feels considered and expensive is omnipresent. The elevators, for example, are lined in rippled soft-pink leather; in their rooms, guests might be gifted delicate white strawberries or rare black plums as a welcome amenity.
The most showy part of the hotel is perhaps its brand partnership with Dior to create the spa, which is a truly quality product. Trained in Paris, my therapist strikes just the right balance between personable and professional and administers an expert facial. Afterwards, I’m invited to rest in my treatment room’s private conservatory with fresh juice and a cookie. My 29th-floor eyrie faces central Dubai and before me is an unobstructed showstopper sweep of skyline, with the unsurpassed Burj Khalifa slap bang in the middle of it; that view is The Lana’s other USP.
I never tire of taking it in from my suite’s balcony – if you’re booking clients at the hotel, make sure you help them get a room facing this way rather than towards the desert, although the view can also be appreciated during dinner on the terrace at 18th-floor Basque restaurant Jara and over sundowners by the outdoor infinity pool at 30th-floor rooftop space High Society.
Back at breakfast, Alexander tells me the hotel’s owners also own the surrounding land so it will likely remain undeveloped, meaning The Lana’s guests can enjoy it in perpetuity. What a gift that is in a city that is growing so rapidly. No wonder he feels lucky.
Double vision
Between the airport and DIFC, two other new Dubai hotels are the view. Occupying one of the two towers that form the audacious One Za’abeel development, One&Only One Za’abeel and Siro One Za’abeel are Kerzner International’s latest hometown openings.
In this city of superlatives they claim a corker: jutting between the skyscrapers, 100 metres up, the Link is the world’s longest cantilever at 230 metres in length.
On its roof, a 120-metre-long infinity pool is one of the most striking in the city. Within the suspended three-storey structure, various restaurants, bars and an upmarket avenue of food counters combine to form one of the most ambitious new dining districts in the city.
During my visit, a Moorish-themed dinner at Qabu by Paco Morales proves to be my Link highlight. In fact, it’s one of my meals of the year, with faultless service, impeccable presentation, and intensely flavoursome and interesting dishes that include slivers of sea bass with cherry tomato and mandarin gelée, and lobster with spinach and smoked butter.
Such indulgence may be off the menu for guests who fully commit to stays at Siro, however. This new Kerzner brand, with the next in line due to open in Montenegro later this year, is billed as ‘the ultimate active lifestyle hotel’ and every aspect of its offering has been considered through the prism of wellness.
Suites feature integrated massage rooms and punch bags suspended from the ceilings; in place of a bog-standard gym, there’s a sprawling Fitness Lab and Recovery Lab where guests can participate in dozens of fitness classes or test out sundry new-fangled health treatments such as vibroacoustic therapy.
The experience is more conventionally extravagant at the newest One&Only, the brand’s first ‘vertical urban resort’. Designed by Jean-Michel Gathy, One&Only One Za’abeel is ultra-modern and uncompromisingly fancy.
During breakfast in the lounge, immaculately displayed raspberries are lined up like pieces of jewellery. At the Longevity Hub by Clinique La Prairie, staff undertake highly tailored consultations, involving skin and body-composition analysis, before advising on potential treatments.
Though an extended night-time disruption from an oversensitive fire alarm elsewhere in the hotel indicated the team were still dealing with some teething problems, my stay otherwise goes smoothly.
Undoubtedly there’s no shortage of luxury properties in Dubai, but even in such a competitive environment, these three newcomers are all offering something fresh in a city that’s long been setting standards in luxury hospitality.
Rooms at The Lana, One&Only One Za’abeel and Siro One Za’abeel start from £735, £475 and £230 respectively.
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