ACCOMMODATION

Buyers are homing in on branded residences managed by big hospitality brands offering year round services associated with the hotel brand. Many Indians are shopping for branded residences after getting a taste of it in the US and Europe. After Trump Tower in Mumbai and Armani Residences in Delhi, Bangalore too will soon have branded homes backed by big hotel brands.

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani categorically denies press reports that the luxury hotel brand is planning to develop a hotel in Russia's Caucasus region, a company statement said Monday. Investment in the project was estimated at over 150 million dollars (109 million euros), the report said.

On March 18—just over a month and a half from now—the world will have its first Armani Hotel on the first 37 stories of the newly-opened world's tallest building—the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. But this won't be the end of Signore Armani's hotels. In fact, it's only the beginning, what with Giorgio signing a contract to have ten Armani Hotel properties around the world by 2019.

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.

Armani, which also designed residences in Burj Khalifa in Dubai is setting up its first-ever gallery in India on the World One premises in Lower Parel. And, to announce the studio’s impending arrival, the developer is offering a select group of potential buyers the opportunity to book flats and get furniture from the studio for a single room complimentary, up to September 15.

A team from Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) went on an inspection tour of Armani Hotel Dubai in Burj Khalifa on Monday ahead of the luxury property's scheduled opening in March. Armani Hotel Dubai, the first hotel to open under the collaboration between Giorgio Armani S.p.A. and Emaar Properties PJSC, is getting finishing touches.

After all, Fashion TV will be up against the likes of the new Burj Khalifa Armani hotel, not to mention plans afoot for hotels in Dubai from Elie Saab and Karl Lagerfeld, the latter on Isla Moda, with uniforms designed by Victoria Beckham.

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.

Located centrally in Downtown Dubai, described as ‘The Centre of Now,’ The Address Boulevard Dubai features 196 rooms including 35 one- and two-bedroom suites. A sterling addition to Dubai’s...

A senior executive at real estate firm DAMAC Properties has urged Dubai residents to stop complaining about rising rents, specifically those who live in luxury developments that are above their pay-grade, such as the Burj Khalifa.