DUBAI Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai has joined Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s Luxury Collection portfolio.
The 42-suite resort is renamed Al Maha, a Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa, Dubai, with Emirates Group retaining ownership of the resort and Starwood assuming management of the property.
Designed and built following principles of environmentally sustainable development, Al Maha has been at the forefront of conservation-based hospitality in the Middle East for a decade. The resort was designed to recreate a Bedouin encampment spread across the vast dunes, featuring 42 suites with tented roofs, floor-to-ceiling windows, marbled bathrooms, private deck and pool.
“A pioneer in the area of luxury conservation-based hospitality in the Middle East, Al Maha will be a valuable addition to The Luxury Collection,” says Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and CEO of Emirates. “As a leading hotel management group, Starwood’s Luxury Collection brand represents some of the finest properties across the world, and with their extensive network, global infrastructure and history of successful brand management, we are confident that they will take Al Maha to even greater heights.”
Al Maha is within the 225-sq.-km Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, one of the largest formally protected conservation reserves in the Gulf.
The resort is Starwood’s second Luxury Collection hotel in the United Arab Emirates, joining Grosvenor House Dubai, and the brand’s third Middle East property. Starwood operates more than 50 hotels in the Middle East under eight of the company’s nine brands.