"New Hotel Openings Will Mostly be Four and Five Star

New Hotel Openings in the Middle East look to be evenly spread over the next few years: 78 hotels in '07, 90 in '08 and 146 in '09.

Of the 304 projects in the Pipeline, 228 having 81,730 rooms, or 82% will be 4 and 5 Star hotels. Most will be iconic, world class structures designed by some of the world's most famous architects. A few are specifically designed to set new 6, even 7 Star standards of luxury; like Kempinski's Emirates Palace Hotel that recently opened in Abu Dhabi and Jumeirah's Burj al Arab which opened earlier in Dubai."'

Dubai has 101 of the 304 projects in the Middle East Pipeline. Their 41,771 rooms represent 42% of the Pipeline total. The average project size is an astonishing 414 rooms.

Hilton Hotels, owner of the Waldorf since 1949, plans to turn the hotel into a brand that can be spread around the planet, starting with a project now rising amid the slash pines just outside Walt Disney World.

"We are looking at every major city in the world," said David Greydanus, senior vice president for brand management with Hilton's The Waldorf-Astoria Collection. "Our goal is for people to think not only of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, but of the Waldorf-Astoria as a brand."

Extended Stay Hotels, which offers rooms with kitchenettes and primarily serves business travelers, operates under several brands, including Homestead Studio Suites and Crossland Economy Studios. The deal will add 683 properties, with a total of 76,000 rooms, to the more than 18,000 residential units and approximately 30 million square feet Lightstone owns. “With this purchase,” Mr. Lichtenstein said, “we’ll control almost 60 percent of the extended-stay niche.”