After an agonizing wait and 5 long years of development, the world’s first Armani Hotel finally opened on April 27, 2010 in the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. 

Giorgio Armani cuts the ribbon to open the Armani Hotel Dubai

Giorgio Armani personally cut the ribbon along with Mohamed Alabbar from Emaar Properties – partners in Armani’s first foray into hospitality. Let’s take a peek inside the Armani brand’s flagship fashion hotel.

The Burj Khalifa is currently the world’s tallest building, and the Armani Hotel Dubai occupies floors concourse to 8 and levels 38 & 39.

The hotel offers 160 guest rooms and suites, along with eight restaurants, branded retail outlets and a spa. Everything from furnishings to restaurant menus and in-room amenities has been exclusively designed by Giorgio Armani himself.

The ‘Armani experience’ includes a personal Lifestyle Manager assigned to each guest to serve as a personal contact from reservation to check out and even afterwards.

Marc Dardenne, Chief Executive Officer of Emaar Hotels & Resorts, explained that the hotel’s opening was a “culmination of a journey of innovation in hospitality, design aesthetics and style.” That would be the design elegance of Armani and the aesthetics of the Burj Khalifa coming together in a functional and very swanky hotel.

Not just hype, as you can see in the pictures below. Read More »

 The opening of the world’s first Armani brand hotel in the world’s tallest building has been delayed again – from April 21 to April 27. This time the blame lies on the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland.

Giorgio Armani & Burj Khalifa in Dubai

Apparently Giorgio Armani is unable to get to his own hotel’s opening in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, since the volcano’s eruption sent a dark cloud of volcanic ash over Europe, resulting in the cancellation of thousands of flights to and from Europe.

With the ash cloud preventing Giorgio Armani and invited guests for the opening from making it to Dubai, a spokesman for Armani Hotels & Resorts put out this statement:

“Due to the unforeseen closure of European Aerospace and the subsequent cancellation of international flights, the much anticipated grand opening of Armani Hotel Dubai has been postponed.”

Much anticipated is right, and the grand opening better be grand, after all the hype and delays.

This is the third date in the last two months that Armani Hotels and their Dubai based partners Emaar have announced for the opening of the Armani Dubai.

The launch was initially scheduled for March 18, then postponed again to April 21 because Dubai was facing some financial woes and the building apparently wasn’t as ready as they thought it was. Now they tell us its been pushed back to April 27.

Note to Armani - We understand your pain, since Dubai going bankrupt or a stupid volcano that chose this particular moment to wake up and start burping ash is absolutely not your fault.

But this dog eat the homework routine isn’t fun anymore, and if your hotel doesn’t open on April 27.. let’s just say we’re about ready to give up on the opening of the world’s first Armani Hotel which refuses to open.

Giorgio Armani photo by Jan Schroeder; Burj Khalifa picture – Joi

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As the needle shaped Burj Dubai – the world’s tallest building, opens with a grand launch party, it also clears the decks for the opening of the world’s first Armani Hotel, housed inside the Burj.

Burj Dubai

The Armani Hotel Dubai is now all set to open on March 18, 2010. The hotel is the first project for Armani Hotels & Resorts, developed jointly by Italian fashion house Giorgio Armani and Dubai’s Emaar Properties.

Exclusively accessed through its own Grand Entrance, the Armani Hotel Dubai occupies eleven floors of Burj Dubai. The guest rooms are on floors 5 to 8, and the suites on levels 38 and 39.

No one ever accused Giorgio Armani of playing down his brand in the fashion world, and he’s not about to let it happen in the Armani Hotel either. He personally designed all the rooms.

Spread over 40,000 sq metres, the hotel features a luxury Armani Spa, an Armani Dolci chocolates and sweets store, the Armani Fiori flower shop, the Armani Galleria, and the Armani Club and Armani Privé.

There’s also a swimming pool, library, fitness center, business center and eight restaurants. 12,000 people are expected to be working in the building, which is the centerpiece of Downtown Burj Dubai.

(Note: The Burj Dubai has been renamed as the Burj Khalifa, after Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan - the ruler of Abu Dhabi, which recently bailed out Dubai to the tune of $10 billion. Now you know what $10b gets you in the middle east -the world’s tallest building named after you.)

Nearby hotspots include the Dubai Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destinations, which already has an Armani café. There’s Emaar Boulevard, flanked by more boutiques and more designer brands, and also the Dubai Fountain.

So it’s assumed that the hotel won’t be short of clientele. Not that the world’s first Armani Hotel needs to worry about pesky things like recessions, but it always helps when your hotel is right in the middle of all the action. Even if it is in the middle of the desert.

More Armani Hotels & Resorts are all set to open in Milan, Marassi and Marrakech, followed by even more Armani hotels in New York, Shanghai and London. But until then, the Armani Dubai remains the only Armani Hotel in the world.

Burj Dubai photo by Joi