Address Boulevard: ‘Where Life Happens’

Dubai’s newest lifestyle address, the Address Boulevard has been receiving rave reviews ever since its opening just a few months ago this year. The city lifestyle resort is set in the prestigious Downtown Dubai area, close to the cultural Opera District, The Dubai Mall and the iconic Burj Khalifa. It presents a fresh, exciting concept, which uses impeccably dressed spaces to mirror a luxurious home living space, allowing you to dine and savour the international cuisine. Aviamost met its General Manager Pascal Dupuis during ATM 2017 to know more about its plans for Russian and Chinese guests

There are several Address Hotels and people could mix it with other Addresses in Downtown. So how do you deal with this?

I think we have established ourselves after 9 yrs as a very solid luxury brand. We have different locations. We have the Dubai Marina, then the Downtown flagship, then the Address Dubai Mall and then the Address Boulevard which is at the beginning of Boulevard so I think the confusion should not be there.

We are very different from each other. In style and design if you take Address Boulevard its design is an iconic bldg in the middle of Downtown. We are the second tallest in Downtown after Burj with 71 floors, the 7^th tallest in Dubai and the 37^th tallest in the world, at 368m. We are an iconic building at a great centre. We are connected to the Dubai Mall by the bridge in a ten minute walk.

It’s a very good destination for the family, for tourism and for leisure. It’s very unique. It’s a lifestyle city resort. Address Boulevard offers world-class views of the magnificent and astounding Burj Khalifa - the world’s tallest building and an iconic symbol of Dubai.

We have three outdoor swimming pools, one pool for the spa and we have the main pool and then we have the family pool with cabbanas, very shallow waters, water jets, slide a waterfall. It’s a very nice relaxing area facing Burj Khalifa. So for a hotel in a hotel in the middle of Downtown to have three swimming pools……connection to the Dubai Mall is very great.    

We have a full spa floor on the 4^th the full floor is dedicated to spa and fitness and wellness…….. we have yoga studio, yoga classes, we have relaxation rooms, treatment rooms, sauna Jacuzzi, and we have a new Tropical shower it comes with bird sound, Sandstorm, everything, which is great.

We have launched the new dining concept called The Restaurant at Address designed around a French apartment, ensuring your signature dining experience is one to remember. So you have 11 different rooms, you can sit wherever you want as per your mood and whoever you are with. We have the Library, Game Room, Dining Room, Music Room, Living Room, Kitchen, the Dressing Room, Collection Room, Outdoor Terrace, the Study Room and the Secret Room.

Could you tell us about the art showcased at your hotel?

As a hotel we have a very big and nice collection of 250 pieces of handcrafted art, In the middle of the courtyard we have the Wings which represents the two wings of DXB, and we also have beautiful chandeliers in the lobby from Latzviz. My favourite is ‘Time is now’, recycled …….so it’s a beautiful walk.

How many rooms do you have?

We are a mixed property hotel and we have 196 rooms and 532 residences in total. So it’s great we opened on 1^st of March then we welcomed the owners of the buildings. So basically at any point we have 1000 people coming to live in Address Boulevard.

How do you plan to stand out from competition, not only Emaar but from international chains?

Our reputation….is built around guest engagement and guest services which is the most important aspect of what we do. When one size fits all, then customized service and attention to detail is what we do very well and do best in all the Address hotels. This is how we focus on, of course design, location is very important, but I think service is one thing people will come back for it. It has to be a magnetic hotel……I think service is the most important thing people will come back and talk about it.

Our magazine’s targets are Chinese and Russian. So what kind of marketing strategies you employ after the VOA?

Before we went to Russia to Moscow and St Petersburg especially for Russia. They knew about Address hotels. But the fact that we have three pools, dedicated to family, kids club. The reaction was very amazing. They were intrigued. They are looking for resorts. It’s not another city hotel. We received a few delegations and fun trip…we are starting to see a bit of Russians. They still like beach hotels but want to spend the last day or two shopping. Same with the Chinese. We went to Shanghai and we made very good relationship with one of the biggest tour operator and when we told them about our USP they are giving us amazing relationship, partnership with them ……and they put Address Boulevard in 80 different travel agencies and it’s really paid off and we are beginning to see Chinese guests. And small details matter, like TV channels…Chinese channels matter.……………we have fax sheets translated in Mandarin and in Russian as well.

What do you feel about the mid market hotels, which your group too has? Are they competition for you?

No. I think it’s an opportunity for the Emaar group to cater to different budgets. Some would like to spend more on shopping and excursion and visit than on the hotel so we have a third brand Rove we offer our guests a choice in the same location whether it is Downtown or Marina and we have eight Roves coming up all over Dubai. So its non-competition as it’s from the same hospitality group.

So what do you expect in your first year?

Most of my expectations have already been exceeded in terms of the feedback of the design, about the hotel and the service is phenomenal, which is an important aspect for me. The feedback in the last two months of opening is phenomenal. ‘People tell me ‘I’m happily surprised that it’s still an Address hotel but it’s fresh, new and different. But we can still feel it’s an Address hotel’ So guest expectation obviously and occupancy and average room rent so has been exactly what we want to position the hotel. So I think expectations will be exceeded and the summer too is coming up. So forecast looks good for the rest of the year.  

That’s great! We wish you all the best!

Thank you.