Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter: Wk 50

Good afternoon.

Today’s digest is a slightly different format. Let me know if it works for you (or not)

• 👩‍💻 7 Tips for Snagging Last Minute Deals to Dubai (Or Anytime!)

• ✈️ British Airways to launch Avios-only Dubai Flights

• 🙋 Entertainer 2024: 3 things to know

• 🏰 An arty villa for sale in Dubai

Enjoy.

Cheers, Shaun

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USEFUL TIPS

7 Tips To Help Snag Last Minute Deals to Dubai

We all know all about Dubai and the ‘peak weeks’, where inbound tourism gets to crackers-high levels and hoteliers try to get their rates even higher.

However, all is not lost if you’re looking to travel to Dubai for Xmas and New Year - you just have to work smarter, rather than harder.

This thread on Trip Advisor’s Dubai Forum is a good example. Whilst the thread is a bit long, you can select to sort by ‘most recent’ or newest.

Basically, the poster was looking for some ‘winter sun’, ideally to Dubai, and trying to find a ‘cheap base’ as a hotel or apartment and hadn’t booked flights. They’d spent a lot of time over some weeks, going back and forth, looking at prices, hotels and flights, and then getting frustrated.

Here are 7 tips to help when it gets like this :-

1. Know where the ‘pain point’ is - in this case, it’s flights as they’re more limited and costly.

2. Understand with hotels, it’s often a ‘blinking competition’ at peak times like Xmas and New Year. The only reason prices are artificially high are hoteliers know people are daft enough to pay them. Hotels will raise prices tenfold and ignore occupancy, so if you can keep flexible and wait to pounce, you will benefit.

3. When you’re ‘bundling’ - let’s say a hotel/flights package or just a hotel for a block of time - you’re likely not getting the best ‘pound for pound’ value. That is, you will likely find going ‘on the open market’ and by breaking some of those nights into separate nights, it’s cheaper than an agent or OTA booking you a seven night stay in a hotel at an flat rate.

4. Even at peak times, say Xmas Day, Boxing Day etc they may not the most expensive daily rates (Grosvenor House for instance, on a recent enquiry, had 27 Dec as one of the more expensive nights rather than the ‘Holiday’ days).

5. Often the people who complain about high prices are contributing to the problem .. all those searches, websites etc. are often tracked, the platform sees the rises in traffic and then inflates pricing based on perceived demand.

6. One of the best tips at times of peak demand and ‘surge pricing’ is - do the opposite to what most people do, and think laterally. Despite what the marketers and social media may suggest, not all the flights and hotels will be full.

7. Be aware of all the ways you can get a hotel deal - such as price drop services like Pruvo, Best Rate Guarantees/Price Matching, direct negotiation, ‘blind hotel booking’, sites like Hotel Tonight (£20 off a booking using code SCLARK143) or the ‘selling off sites’ (such as these recent offers for Raffles Dubai or Marriott Palm Jumeirah) etc.

So how does this play out in the example above?

Well, the poster has a budget of £4,000 for two on relatively fixed dates to fly ex-UK. As eagle-eyed readers of last week’s newsletter will be aware, Air France are offering great deals ex-UK at present. So good in fact, the prices in Premium Economy from Heathrow are cheaper than from airports with less charges/taxes such as Dublin and Paris.

So for around the required dates, it was a 10 minute job to find Premium Economy return flights from Heathrow to Dubai for just around £1k each.

For the hotel, it’s then a case of making the search more ‘comparable’ and keeping flexible. Doing a search for the 9 nights in one hotel, found a hotel in-budget but with no breakfast. By taking breakfast out of the equation, it’s far easier to find value. One can always negotiate an ‘upsell’ at check-in for breakfast or just eat outside the hotel.

Also, by being more flexible on areas, one can find less popular hotels or areas that offer far more value. In this case, I’ve listed Fairmont Dubai, Canvas by MGallery (the old Melia in Karama), Radisson Waterfront as decent examples to find value.

If they are looking to be ‘around’ Marina, looking at the south part of Marina which is quieter and a bit ‘cheaper’, there are hotels like Wyndham Dubai Marina, Rove Dubai Marina, Stella di Mare in that neck of the woods in budget. Also, by pushing out to JLT, hotels like Movenpick JLT, Voco (the old Bonnington) and Pullman JLT are even better value - though factor in transport/taxi costs.

So, in summary, it’s possible to find deals in Dubai any time - if you know how and where to look.

FLIGHTS

British Airways Will Fly ‘Avios Only’ Flights to Dubai

According to Simple Flying, British Airways are lining up their first long haul ‘Avios Only’ flights, and they will be to Dubai. According to Sean Doyle, it could be by October 2024.

This could be particularly interesting for UK-based travellers, given the focus on Avios earning opportunities there. Depending on cash rates, using Avios for redemption flights and upgrades can work out to be ‘worth it’.

The obvious downside is , well, you have to fly with BA 🚨

If you’re not already doing so, do read Head For Points to learn all about loyalty programs, especially BA and Avios.

More info about ‘Avios Only’ flights here 👉 British Airways to start ‘Avios Only’ flights

If you’ve missed an earlier issue, or just want to read again, here’s the link to the issues archive 👇

Also, if you know someone who’d love to subscribe to be kept in the loop, they can also sign up on that link.

ENTERTAINER

Entertainer 2024: 3 Helpful Nuggets

What Does 2024 Have in Store for Entertainer?

I know I keep teasing this, but I know ‘some things’ and can’t say everything just yet. Please be patient. But here’s are three teasers I will expand on in future issues:

1. Tourist has gone the way of the Dodo (that is, it’s no more)

2. It will revert back to a calendar year product, rather than a rolling subscription.

3. There will be a consistent product offering, both in terms of merchants and product value.

There is much, much more to come. Pinky promise.

What to Do if You Ever Have Issues

I always recommend calling a hotel in advance to check things like do they need bookings, any particular rules or things to be aware of. In this case, a user experienced an issue at Atmosphere (Burj Khalifa) despite checking everything in advance. Unfortunately, they suffered a service issue with the management restricting their redemption.

At times like this, first step is ALWAYS to contact Entertainer (see the thread linked previously for more info) as they should be able to help. As it turns out, Entertainer saw the thread and responded but do email customer services as suggested.

For reference, last year some merchants tried applying their own ‘blackout dates’ (see post #91 specifically) - and it didn’t work out well for them. Sometimes it’s ‘bad faith’, other times it can be innocent mistakes but the main takeaway is - if nobody reports issues to Entertainer, then nothing will be resolved and it will likely keep repeating.

Entertainer Customer Services contact 👉 [email protected]

Promo Codes

They won’t be out for Entertainer 2024 anytime in December. January - who knows? Hopefully.

As soon as they are released, they will be published on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, on Eat Drink Stay Dubai at this link and this newsletter.

I will send a special edition of the newsletter as soon as they are available

PS. One of the best sources for info and updates about Entertainer (though I say it myself!) is my thread on Trip Advisor 👉 Entertainer AMA

“THAT’S SO DUBAI”

Who says Dubai has no art?

Probably because it’s all stockpiled in this Um Suqeim villa that’s going to auction.

Previously listed for sale at a cool $125 million, the ‘fixtures and fittings’ list on this makes for an interesting read.

It’s billed as an “immersive and cosmpolitan sanctuary” - hopefully from the “Jumeirah Janes”.

FAVOUR TO ASK YOU

This would really help me - and perhaps you too!

(other than begging you for a tip earlier! 😀 )

If you could please spare 3 minutes of your time, would you mind answering a few quick questions about this newsletter?

It’s just to help develop this newsletter for future editions and readers. It’s your chance to tell me the things YOU like, or perhaps I’m not covering enough, or just how it can help you in the future.

With big thanks ! Click here 👉 quick survey to feedback for newsletter