Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter: Wk 45

The news worth knowing this week about Dubai

Dubai hotels are getting busy, busy

With Diwali, COP28, Dubai Airshow and the ‘peak weeks’ of December upcoming, Dubai hotels are ‘having a moment’ with occupancy hitting the heights.

Dubai’s ‘available keys’ (i.e. hotel rooms) expects to be more than 154,000 hotel rooms available from December.

No doubt a large part of the rate rises is due to business travellers, who aren’t paying out of their own pocket.

Possibly the best way to get the cheapest hotel rates online?

Which makes one wonder, how far in advance of travel would you normally book your Dubai hotels? Do people still do that thing from the pandemic times of booking a few hotels and then waiting to see which (if any) go cheaper?

If you’re one of those who likes to book well in advance, or are just interested in how to get the best hotel rates, have you considered Pruvo?

Pruvo’s a fantastic service I use a lot (see examples below). How it works is you make a booking (that MUST be cancellable), email your booking to Pruvo and they’ll continuously monitor and compare all prices for the same booking across the internet and sales platforms. When they find a better deal, they email you the details, such as which site, how much you can save etc. Best of all, it’s completely free to use, as they make their money on commissions via the rebooking at no extra cost to you.

Here are some tips how I use Pruvo

• Saving over $100 within 24 hours of booking on a one night stay in Cape Town.

• Keeping track of ‘gettable rates’ when I’m looking to do a Best Rate Guarantee with chains like Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton etc.

• Validating if that ‘best’ price an agent is ‘offering’ really is the best deal.

• Try to choose the most ‘comparable’ room categories.Remember when agents ‘throw in’ those benefits they’re often doing it so you can’t work out the ‘true’ price of the room. By choosing the most common room categories on Room Only or Bed and Breakfast (rather than Half/Full Board or All Inclusive) you’ll stand the best chance of a deal as it will open up the widest range of sales channels and platforms to compare on.

Why not try Pruvo for yourself, click here 👉 Pruvo

Want more tips like this?

Would you be interested in a separate newsletter for Dubai Deals (eg flights, hotels, dining out, drinks etc.)?

Just click 👉 [email protected] to send an 📧 

🛬 Etihad add third A380 LHR-AUH

Etihad have added a third A380 to their four daily London Heathrow/Abu Dhabi flights.

Ed Fotheringham, Etihad vice-president of global sales, said: “Our third A380 on flights to London is great news for our guests. 

“The aircraft adds increased capacity between Abu Dhabi and London Heathrow and is ideally timed to further connect people between the UK, the UAE and onwards across Etihad’s growing global network.

A ‘Heads Up’ on flight & holiday deals ahead of Black Friday

Although Black Friday isn’t for a couple of weeks, it seems some travel providers are trying to get ahead of the game by offering sales and deals.

For instance, British Airways has a worldwide Business Sale for bookings made by 13 Nov 23.

Click here for the sale 👉 British Airways Business Class Sale

As to whether they’re the best deals, who knows? If you see a good deal, snag it - and stop looking. If you don’t, keep checking back on these links & if anything else comes up I’ll post in future editions.

Virgin Holidays Special Offers

Don’t forget last week’s news that My Emirates Pass is out now for heaps of great deals around Dubai (and further afield). 👇

My Emirates Pass: Emirates Boarding Pass Discounts around Dubai

or the two superb deals for Marriott Resort Palm Jumeirah and Raffles Dubai

🌍 Dubai’s the city that the rest of the world wants to move to

According to this study, Dubai is far and away the city the rest of the world appears to want to move to. Including 37 states from 🇺🇸

Even if these surveys are a bit ‘two a penny’ and often based on spurious criteria (eg Google Search data), it’s still a nice map worth looking at 👀

Wish it could be Christmas every day?

Oh no, the ‘festive shows’ are doing the PR rounds. Here’s a ‘quick’ roundup from What’s On.

On a similar note, Emaar have announced news for tickets for Burj Park New Years Eve fireworks.

Or why not have your message displayed on Burj Khalifa at News Years Eve?

Has this newsletter proved of interest or helped you?

If so, would you consider buying me a ☕ (or other drink!)?

Click here 👉 Buy Me a Coffee with Ko-Fi

Cheers! 🍻

🚨 FCDO Update for COP28

Following on from last week’s update about security, the FCDO have updated their UAE travel advice w.r.t. the upcoming COP28 summit.

“ The COP28 Summit takes place in Dubai 30 November to 12 December. If you are attending COP28, check the COP28 website for attendance requirements, including information on accreditation and visas.

All visitors to Dubai during this time can expect to see an increased security presence and road closures. The high number of attendees may create a pressure on availability of accommodation and transport.

Pre-planned and authorised demonstrations are likely, including within the summit area. Spontaneous or unauthorised demonstrations are illegal in the UAE.”

PS. Even if you’re not 🇬🇧 it’s still worth signing up for FCDO foreign travel advice alerts for anywhere you’re interested in.

❓️ Something to Ask You:

My aim with this newsletter is to make it the go-to weekly ‘quick hit’ for the best news worth knowing about Dubai.

To that end, how was this newsletter and the info it contained? What was good, not so good, or what would you like to see more of?

Or, have you any ideas what you’d like to know about Dubai that future issues that I could cover in future issues?

Or, what’s the one thing about Dubai that you could do with help with?

Do let me know please, I’m open too all advice, suggestions, complaints or whatever - just drop me an email on [email protected]

If this digest was of interest to you, or you’d like to show your support, please consider buying a coffee via the link below… cheers!