Abu Dhabi Week chats to general manager Ashwini Kumar

So when will Hyatt Capital Gate open?
We really wanted to open for the Formula One weekend this year, but due to different reasons we missed the date we were all working towards. From our side we’re all ready to open operationally, but we want to make sure that everything is up and running before we have our grand opening.

We’ll still try to open before the New Year, but it still depends on the completion formalities. If that doesn’t happen then we’ll be open in early January, before the 15th for sure.

In a way it’s good for us to sit and watch the other hotels open; perhaps we can learn from some of their mistakes.

What’s been your biggest challenge?
It’s been a long journey for us. We spent our first year educating the market, explaining that this building is not only a tower but a hotel. Because of the shape of the building we couldn’t stick a Hyatt sign on top of it so when we went for our first sales calls, people were surprised that we were actually inside the Capital Gate tower.

There’s a lot of curiosity surrounding the building as it’s already in the Guiness Book of World Records for so many structural firsts.

The building is stunning, but how are you planning to differentiate yourselves as a hotel?
People are looking for something different, and we can offer that. In terms of food and beverage offerings we’re planning to have two main outlets: one on the ground floor, which will offer an upmarket casual dining concept with coffee, juices, sandwiches and salads called Profiterole and on our 18th floor we have our main restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. This will have an eastern and Mediterranean theme and is found at the heart of the hotel, where there’s also a beautiful outdoor terrace.

On the 19th floor we have our very cosy spa, which has turned out better than we’d hoped. We have five very different treatment rooms that will give the local elite something to talk about.

The guest rooms then start from the 20th to the 33rd floor of the building. We have 189 rooms, including 22 suites. Then we have a helipad on the roof for VIP use.

We think the terrace outside the restaurant on the 18th floor will be something of a talking point when we open. Nothing will be built opposite the hotel so the 360-degree panoramic views will never be spoilt.