Aleph Hospitality, a new third-party hotel management company founded by industry veteran Bani Haddad and headquartered in Dubai, has marked its official launch with the unveiling of the company’s new website, alephhospitality.com.
In addition to providing prospective hotel owners and business partners with an overview of the company’s services, the site seeks to help demystify the concept of third-party management, which, despite being relatively little known in the region today, is tipped to fuel significant future expansion within the Middle East and African hotel industry.
An established model in the U.S. where in 2014, the top ten third-party management companies alone accounted for more than 260,000 rooms(1), third-party or ‘white label’ hotel management allows a hotel owner to appoint a specialist hotel management company to operate their hotel, in addition to taking a franchise from a major hotel company in order to secure an international brand above the door.
An alternative to the most prevalent asset management structures in the region today where hotels are typically operated by a hotel brand under management contract with an owner or are operated independently by the owners themselves, often without an international brand, third-party hotel management presents many benefits to both hotel companies and investors alike.
“By establishing a credible third-party hotel management solution for the Middle East and Africa, our aim is to open doors that were previously closed,” explains Bani Haddad, Founder and Managing Director, Aleph Hospitality. “We want to create opportunities both for hotel companies, by providing a trusted intermediary with whom they can grow their franchise portfolios, and for owners of hotels of all shapes and sizes who wish to benefit from a combination of dedicated operational support and the advantages of an internationally-renowned brand.”
Having already signed its first management contract and with its first hotel opening, the 116-room Best Western Addis Ababa, just three months away, Aleph Hospitality is already experiencing strong demand for its services.
“With some regional owners historically locked out of a market where management agreements were largely the preserve of upscale developments in established destinations, we truly see this as an exciting new beginning for the regional hotel landscape,” said Haddad. “Hotel companies, consultants and owners that we’ve spoken to right across the region have all been extremely positive about the accelerated growth this model could bring.”
Founded by industry expert Bani Haddad, whose career history spans all aspects of hotel management and roles at major industry players including Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Wyndham Hotel Group and Disney, Aleph Hospitality’s name was inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of the ancient Phoenicians, widely credited with revolutionising the way the world communicates through the development of the ‘Aleph-bet’, or alphabet.
(1) HotelManagement.net, 2015 Hotel Management Survey, March 2015
