ACCOMMODATION

Dubai hosts – despite all those financial troubles in the recent past – the highest building on earth. The 828 meters tall Burj Khalifa is a symbol for sustained activities in the Middle East hotel investment and real estate sector. The region also accommodates one of the most exclusive hotels in the world – the Armani Hotel with its 160 luxurious suites.

In a glittering ceremony at Burj Khalifa, Dubai, Raffles Makkah Palace was crowned Middle East's Leading Luxury Hotel by the World Travel Awards, the travel industry's version of the Oscars. Votes were cast online by over 213,000 travel professionals around the world, from over 160 participating countries, who distinguished Raffles Makkah Palace above all others in the Middle East.

Ramada Hotel & Suites Ajman and Ramada Downtown Dubai, a premier destination for business and leisure travellers, will participate in the upcoming ITB Berlin Exhibition, an international B2B travel and trade show held in Germany every year.

One of the first new serviced hotels in Dubai to complete will be Burjside Boulevard in the Burj Area with enviable views over the world's tallest tower and world's largest mall. Developed by DAMAC Properties, the region's largest luxury private developer, the 50-storey tower is set to begin handover later this year.

Dubai’s buoyant hotel industry sustained its upturn in the first six months of 2012 with a 10 per cent surge in hotel guests compared to the corresponding period in 2011. Dubai’s hotels and hotel apartments played hosts to 5,027,223 guests in the first half of this year, the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in Dubai has said.

Still haven’t figured out what you’re doing this Valentine’s Day? How typically Dubai! With accommodation in an Armani Suite, the price tag includes breakfast, a bouquet from Armani/Fiori, a bottle of a bubbly, a tailor-made five-course Valentine’s dinner at Armani/Ristorante, and to elevate things a notch or two, a single complimentary access pass to At the Top, Burj Khalifa, the observatory deck of the world’s tallest building.

With a year that saw some hospitality heavyweights facing construction delays, tight financing and cancelled projects, 2010 is ushering in renewed hope to the industry. Burj Khalifa's Armani Hotel, which opens on March 18, is one of the many iconic hotel properties in the UAE that will stretch the vertical limits of the country, changing its landscape to embrace the hotels market with flair and investments.

Giorgio Armani S.p.A., the investment vehicle of Italian designer Giorgio Armani, plans to build a $150 million, 100-room "designer" hotel in the south of Russia, Kommersant business daily quoted a source at developer POP as saying on Friday. The $2,000 a night hotel project is expected to break even in eight years.

Located in Dubai's re-created "Old Town", where an Arabian Nights mood prevails, the 242-room Palace provides a serene and refreshingly un-flashy accommodation option for Aussies enjoying a shop-over en route to Europe. One of five hotels operated in Dubai by The Address group, the sand-coloured Palace perches on the edge of a surreal blue lake (boasting more dancing fountains than Las Vegas’s Bellagio) with views of the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, and easy access to the Dubai Mall, claimed to be the world’s largest shopping centre.

It's difficult to believe that a $1,000-a-night hotel designed by fashion designer Giorgio Armani in the world's tallest building could ever be considered understated. Yet in Dubai, where bars with multicolor fluorescent ceilings are considered classy, theArmani Hotel Dubai manages to fill that niche.