Flashy, fun and slightly surreal

With six properties in the UAE, Jumeirah really has some clout. The Burj al Arab is the
top of the range. Cost was clearly no object when building this hotel. Styled after a
billowing sail, it is taller than the Eiffel Tower. It has its own helipad that can transport
groups from the airport to the hotel. With 202 suites, each with their own laptop, and
more than 1,200 staff, service is never anything less than personal. The circular ballroom can hold 220 people for a sit-down dinner with breathtaking views of the Arabian Ocean capped under a gold-leaf ceiling.

Sister property Jumeirah Beach Hotel has renovated its convention centre at a cost of
US$6 million, adding new fixtures and boosting the venue’s audiovisual capability.
The ballroom seats up to 900 guests and can be divided into four separate rooms. The
property has eight individual conference rooms, three purpose-designed boardrooms,
and outdoor beach and garden areas that can hold between 100 and 2,500 guests.

In the shadow of the Burj, the Arabthemed Madinat Jumeirah is a huge hotel complex that combines the ambiance of old Arabia with Venetian-style waterways. The complex houses three hotels, 75 boutique shops and 22 restaurants. There is 2km of private beach and an arena with a capacity of 6,000 people. All three properties have the use of private yachts, which can also be used for corporate events.

Le Meridien has three Dubai properties – two near the beach and one near the airport.
Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina, which has hosted events for the likes of UBS, HSBC and Nokia, has 211 rooms and suites. Next door, a Westin will soon open with 14 meeting rooms for up to 1,200 people and an enormous snake-shaped pool.

A few minutes away from the airport, Le Meridien Dubai is a resort-style city hotel set in 15 hectares and with 383 rooms.

Grosvenor House West Marina Beach has 217 rooms and 205 apartments. This is the
fashionable place to be when the sun goes down. Celebrity chef Gary Rhodes is soon to open his own restaurant here, Mezzanine. Then there is Bar 44, which has incredible views of Dubai and offers 44 different types of champagne. The famous Buddha Bar is also part of the complex.

The Sheraton Jumeirah is undergoing a soft renovation of all rooms, as well as an extension that will add an extra 175 rooms to be completed next year. The new tower will be connected to the main hotel by a skywalk. There are lush lawns and gardens that can hold up to 2,000 people.

After an extensive renovation, the Sheraton Dubai Creek is once again a prime Creek-side address. There is flexible meeting space here for ten to 500 people.

The Grand Hyatt Dubai near the creek is a 225-room oasis overlooking the wide Persian Gulf channel. Sitting on a 14-hectare site, the blue-domed, whitewashed exterior conceals a contemporary interior with an Arabian Zen ambiance. It is ten minutes from the airport.
The conference facilities here are superb, with two pillarless ballrooms and 11 meeting rooms.

The Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates does not target big groups but in its favour it
has Cezanne – a restaurant that seats 1,000 people and looks out onto Ski Dubai’s slopes, as do the property’s 15 ski chalets. Shangri-La Dubai is one of the newer generation of hotels on Sheikh Zayed Road, where many hotels are located. This chic hotel has comfortable rooms with views of either the city or the sea.

On the ninth floor there are two ballrooms and on the third floor there are four meeting rooms.