Dubai rated among top destinations for holiday season

Busiest day for people jetting around globe will be Friday, December 19

By emirates 

24-7 staff

Published Thursday, December 18, 2014

Dubai-based Emirates airline also expects this week to be its busiest of 2014, as travellers head home or abroad for the holiday season. (Ashok Verma)

British Airways has rated Dubai among top travel destinations this festive season along with other popular holiday spots such as Barbados, New York, Australia and Barcelona.

British Airways’ biggest Christmas operation kicked off with 2.7 million customers flying during the festive period and 267 flights flying around the network on Christmas Day.

The busiest day for people jetting around the globe with the airline will be Friday December 19 with 129,000 people flying.

Dubai-based Emirates airline also expects this week to be its busiest of 2014, as travellers head home or abroad for the holiday season. Over 80,000 people will travel on 19 December with Emirates on over 240 flights, according to the airline's latest booking figures. This represents an increase of almost 23% over last year.

Currently, British Airways operates three flights a day from London Heathrow to Dubai. The airline also offers UAE residents two daily flights to London Heathrow from Dubai and one daily flight from Abu Dhabi.

On December 25, 267 flights flown by 817 pilots will be making their way around the airline’s network delivering loved ones. The 3,500 cabin crew working on Christmas Day will serve customers more than 37,000 turkey dinners and traditional mince pies.

Christmas will be bigger and better for British Airways in 2014. This year, the airline unwrapped its presents early, with the arrival of 20 new aircraft into its fleet since last year’s festivities.  It means British Airways is expecting to fly its biggest ever operation carrying some 2.7 million customers over the festive period.

Festive period calculated from December 12, 2014 to January 5, 2015

source: http://bit.ly/1zK358u 

Real Estate Investing Information You Need To Know

Posted by Clarence Smith

Investments should be something to take plenty of time with as they deal with your hard earned money. If you hurry through it, you’re more likely to lose money. This article provides some great guidelines to help you in this venture.

Protect your growing real estate business by establishing a LLC or other business entity. This ensures that your investments will be protected. An LLC will also qualify you for important tax benefits that come about thanks to your new investments.

Talk to other folks who invest in real estate. Get advice from people with experience. A few friends knowledgeable about real estate investment can be handy. The internet is an invaluable source for finding others. Consider joining groups where you can learn more.

Do not buy properties in bad areas. Know the property before you buy it. Research carefully. If the deal is too good, it might be in an area with high crime. Not only could selling it be a challenge, vandals could ruin your hard work.

Hire a property manager who can screen tenants. This will help you find qualified renters. If not, you may start bleeding money.

Start investing immediately if you are thinking of making real estate a career or side business. One big mistake people make is not immersing themselves in the market immediately and educating themselves on it. The longer you stay on the sidelines is the more time you are missing out with people seizing the initiative.

Make certain that you can afford the mortgage on any property you purchase. The property you choose may have periods of vacancies that you need to account for when you make your mortgage payment. Expecting that your rental income will cover all of the expenses of a property is not realistic.

Is there someone you’re considering as a partner for an investment property? If so, you may want to look into non-recourse loans. This will give you protection due to negligence. You will boost your freedom to earn more money and have fewer risks than other traditional partnerships and loans.

If you possess a vacancy when it comes to the property that you are investing in, be sure to have money set aside in order to cover monthly mortgage expenses. You will feel better until the next tenant comes around when you have the extra money.

With the above tips, you will make wise investments. You have the ability to make smart choices, so do just that. Use this advice to ensure your investing goes smoothly. It will please and profit you in the long run.

source: http://bit.ly/1wx1EtG

whats the relation between landscaping and property value?

DOES LANDSCAPING INCREASE YOUR HOME'S VALUE?

Written by Andrea Davis on Monday, 13 October 2014 3:14 pm

After spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on landscaping, how do you know if you'll recoup your investment? Homeowners may wonder if their efforts are worthwhile compared to interior projects. In actuality, landscaping comes back in resale value more than you may think.

According to a publication from Virginia Tech, a home landscape has been valued at around 15 percent of a home's total value. Furthermore, certain landscape aspects add more to the home than others, including:

Design: 42%

Plant size: 36%

Diversity of plants: 22%

The study cited that a $150,000 home could go from $8,300 in worth to almost $19,000 more with the addition of a landscape.

That's a lot for just adding a front yard to your home.

Here is more information about these elements and how to increase the value of your home.

Landscape Design

Photo courtesy of Jardin Passion Landscape Con

How you design the landscape is the first step in creating a beautiful and valuable front yard. If you plant shrubs, flowers and trees without a design in mind, you could run into maintenance issues down the road. This is why you might call in a landscape designer to help. Landscape designers have the knowledge when it comes to creating landscapes to match homes and climate conditions. They know which trees, shrubs and flowers mix versus which ones might be troublesome. The end result will be a manageable, uncluttered and beautiful landscape that you can enjoy for little to no hassle.

Plant Size

Photo courtesy of Applegate Landscape Co.

On a visual level, adding different plant sizes will make your front yard look more appealing. Adding different shapes and colors complements your home and the lawn. On a maintenance level, mixing small and big plants will cut down on clutter in your yard. If you have too many bushy plants, their roots and branches could get mixed together and cause maintenance issues. So plant different trees, shrubs and flowers to make your landscape colorful and varied to add onto your home's appeal and save on trouble.

Diverse Plants

Photo courtesy of M&M Garden Designs

Intertwined with the plant sizes you choose are how diverse they should be. You don't want to plant only shrubs and trees with leaves. Vary it up with fruit trees or shrubs that have flowers to add color to the front yard. You also might choose annual and perennial flowers to sprinkle across your yard. You will need to replace annuals every year, but that gives you the chance to try out different flowers. Perennials, on the other hand, will last for many years and can endure harsh winter conditions.

Conclusion

Whether you hire a landscape designer or decide to tackle the front yard landscape yourself, be sure to include these three elements. Adding them to your front yard will pay back dividends in your home resale value, and it will make your home more attractive to buyers.

Photos courtesy of DesignMine

Andrea Davis is the editor for HomeAdvisor, which helps homeowners find home improvement professionals in their area at no charge to ensure the best service in the shortest amount of time.

source: http://bit.ly/ZXIr8r

How Do Hotels Decide Which Room to Give You?

How Do Hotels Decide Which Room to Give You?

Ever wonder what goes on behind the computer screen behind the front desk? Like, how did they decide to put you in the smoking room when you asked for non-smoking? Or how did they give you a deluxe room with an ocean view when you only paid for a standard city view? Our Front Desk Guy, Aditya Rajaram, is here to tell you all about it. Got a question about the front desk? 

Room allocations at a hotel are quite complex. The juggling of different room types, VIP requests, accessible requirements and guarantees can be a very delicate task, which is often complicated by the hotels lay out whether it be oversized (Vegas!), historic (church!) and oddly designed (Berlin!)

Deciding which guest gets which rooms falls to one of the most multi-dimensional roles in the hotel, the rooms controller.

Not only is the rooms controller supposed to manage the inventory of the hotel and ensure that the hotel maximizes its revenue for the day, week, month and year, but also they must know the hotel’s priorities when it comes to their guests, namely which special requests supersede others. After all that they have to make sure they keep a few tricks (rooms) aside in case of any last minute problems and requests.

The rooms controller receives all the input from each department (sales, events, front office, housekeeping etc.) and then works to match all requests to the available rooms in order to maximize room revenue (always Goal #1.)

Most of the room booking is done at least three to five days out, with only minor changes to room blocks accommodated on the arrival day, depending on any last minute issues. For large events like weddings and conventions, the front office, housekeeping, and events teams work together for weeks in advance to ensure all room types are blocked as per the event contract so that there are no surprises from either side when the day arrives.

For a transient corporate/leisure traveller (not part of a group or event) rooms are allocated based on their guarantees, their loyalty status (gold/platinum guests are typically upgraded) and their VIP status (Lady Gaga would not be given a standard, double bedroom, if you catch my drift).

On any particular day, during the hotel's stand-up staff meeting (a 15-minute briefing of all the days events, VIP’s, strategy etc.) front desk staff are informed of the hotel status whether it's fully sold-out, or a quiet day with many room types available (this is when you could receive unexpected delighters in the form of room upgrades.).

From that moment on, when a guest comes to check in, the front desk agent already knows to what extent they have the freedom to change the room type assigned. The rooms controller would typically have allocated a room based on all the above mentioned statuses and also included specific comments such as ***VIP Do Not Move/Amenity In Room*** or ***Guest must have accessible room Do Not Move*** These comments typically alerts the front desk agent to clearly inform the guest of their room type and ensure them that all effort has been made to give their the best room available.

Sometimes, however, guests have reservations with minimal information, have paid the highest rate for a room type and only mention upon check-in that it is their wedding anniversary or birthday. At this point, the front desk staff, depending on the status of the hotel, would have the ability (if the hotel is serious about empowering their staff) to upgrade and change the room type assigned, assuming that it is not messing with the overall hotel inventory planning.

Many times a front desk staff would reach out to either the rooms controller or the front desk manager to double check that a variation from the original room assigned is allowed and then informs the guest of the last-minute change. This is also true for guests who want to change their view, bed type or even proximity to an elevator. Most front desks do have the authority and the common sense to accommodate each and every guest to the best of their ability as long as they don’t do it at the expense of significant loss of revenue or another guests’ guarantee.

The hotel’s primary job is to ensure complete guest satisfaction and if that means that hotel staff have to go out of their way to allocate the best possible room for the guest, then that is exactly what needs to be done. When hotel’s is sold-out, the ability to be flexible with guests’ requests does become challenging but front desk staff should be creative and honest with the guest and ensure that they are doing their best to manage expectations.

Many believe that room assignments are quite a computerized task. To the contrary, while revenue management systems do ensure the right reservations for the right days, it is actual people in reservations, front office and the front desk staff who use their best judgment to accommodate the best room types and categories in the best way possible. Not to forget housekeeping, who really are able to deliver clean rooms efficiently and give the hotel the most flexibility with room assignments.

source : http://bit.ly/1vko16E

European Hotel Development 2014

Construction Pipeline Europe

European Hotel Development Pipeline For October 2014 at 905 Hotels

• November, 13 2014
• STR Global

Year-to-date 2014, 391 hotels with 61,961 rooms have opened in Europe. In the remainder of the year, 74 more hotels with 8,412 rooms are planned to open. The Upper Midscale segment (19 hotels with 1,973 rooms) and the Economy segment (14 hotels with 1,933 rooms) are expected to open the most rooms.

The Europe hotel development pipeline comprises 905 hotels totalling 142,785 rooms, according to the October 2014 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report. The Under Contract data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Unconfirmed stage. 

Year-to-date 2014, 391 hotels with 61,961 rooms have opened in Europe. In the remainder of the year, 74 more hotels with 8,412 rooms are planned to open. The Upper Midscale segment (19 hotels with 1,973 rooms) and the Economy segment (14 hotels with 1,933 rooms) are expected to open the most rooms. 

In 2015, 235 hotels with 36,788 rooms are expected to open. The Upscale segment is planning to add 10,399 rooms within 60 hotels, the most rooms of all the Chain Scale segments. Three other segments are expecting to add more than 5,000 rooms in 2015: the Upper Midscale segment (6,224 rooms within 41 hotels); the Upper Upscale segment (5,583 rooms within 27 hotels); and the Economy segment (5,045 rooms within 30 hotels).

About STR Global

STR Global provides clients—including hotel operators, developers, financiers, analysts and suppliers to the hotel industry—access to hotel research with regular and custom reports covering Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and South America. STR Global provides a single source of global hotel data covering daily and monthly performance data, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information. STR Global is part of the STR family of companies and is proudly associated with STR, RRC Associates, STR Analytics, and Hotel News Now. For more information, please visitwww.strglobal.com.

source: http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article80771.html

why real estate investors make repetitive mistakes?

WHY REAL ESTATE INVESTORS CONTINUE TO MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES OVER & OVER AGAIN?

posted by Shelly Roberson, 3rd August 2014, Categories: beginning investor, Blog, Brokers, Cash on cash return,
 Downsizing, Hard Money Loan, Investment Strategies, Investors, Real Estate Investors, Realtors, retail investor
, Retirement, Return on Investment,sophisticated investor, Tags: 1031, investment property, property managers,
Real Estate, real estate investing, real property investors, realtors, tax strategy

DUE DILIGENCE WILL REDUCE MISTAKES FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTORS

Any time of day you turn on your television you can find several infomercials or shows which depict investing in real estate as an easy path to riches and wealth.  Every day you get in front of your computer screen you will run across ads and coy and clever marketing programs which also suggest that you should quit your job and begin a high-powered career in real estate investing.  The truth is that real estate investing, like every business requires significant education, due diligence, and perseverance.  Importantly, most new real estate investors make many mistakes along the way which are sometimes avoidable, but do help with the education process and learning curve.  Here are some very important topics which you need to become familiar with before you begin your journey down the path to real estate investing.

1)    “Cash flow, cash flow, oh no, where did my cash go?”  It is estimated that 8 out of 10 real estate investors use estimated numbers to calculate cash flow when purchasing real estate.  Positive cash flow for the current owner, now seller, is going to be dramatically different for the new purchaser.  The new buyer will have a substantially different cost basis than the seller and will most likely have debt.  This will result in a different cap-rate than the seller currently has.  A cap-rate, or capitalization rate is the gross rate of return on investment as a percentage of the value of the asset.

 

For example, if an investor paid $1,000,000 for an investment property and it produces $150,000 in positive net operating income (which is the dollars remaining after fixed and variable costs are subtracted from gross rental income) during a 12 month period – in this case $150,000/$1,000,000 = 0.15 the investor has a 15% cap rate.  If the owner/seller has a cap rate of 15% then the buyer will most certainly have a lower cap rate because of increased costs due to debt service.  Cap rates can also be used to determine how quickly an asset can pay for itself.  A 10% cap rate will pay off an asset in 10 years.

This is a simplistic way to look at asset investments and there are many details not discussed here, but it is a general broad brush approach to understanding cap rates.  The bottom line is that a new real estate investors needs to know precisely the costs involved in the purchase of the asset, the rents the tenants are paying, the potential for increased costs, the potential for tenants leaving, etc.  Without these details it is impossible to know what an investment is worth, what you should pay for it, and what it can become.  Take the time to do the due diligence and research the facts surrounding the investment before closing escrow.

2)    Don’t underestimate the real numbers.  Those investors who undertake the process of due diligence, research, and investigation still have a tendency to understate the true costs.  They also have a propensity to be optimistic about future rental increases and vacancy rates, and overlook the potential maintenance required.  For example, for a single-family home the homeowner’s insurance costs more than an owner-occupied home.  In commercial buildings the vacancy rates can be higher than the assumptions the investor used when calculating the original cash flow projections.  Be conservative with your estimates and always provide an extra buffer for contingencies.

3)    Investment properties are like kids that require constant attention, require constant care, and consume resources.   Even if you hire a professional property manager you still must be analyze the monthly statements and stay on top of the issues, the rents, the expenses, and any future events which might change the income and expenses.  Stay in constant contact with the property manager and keep apprised of any upcoming tenant issues like lease extensions, etc.  If you are planning on any improvements or remodeling make sure you add a 20% contingency on each item so that there are no surprises.

4)    The location of the investment property is also critical to success.   A seasoned real estate professional who knows the market and location of where you are looking for properties is tantamount to your long-term success.  Make sure the real estate professional knows more about what you are looking for than you do.  The last thing you want to do is hire someone who knows less than you about your investment.  Due diligence on and about the location of your investment property will pay dividends in the long-term and you will not second guess yourself when you go to sell and exchange the property into a bigger building.

At the end of the process before you close escrow you should know everything there is to know about the building or asset you are about to purchase.  You should spend every waking moment analyzing and investigating the asset so that you are an expert by the time comes to make an offer.  Without this attention to detail you will end up making some mistakes and wishing you hadn’t purchased the building or worse having an asset that actually loses money.  Don’t make mistakes that others have already made, or at minimum make less mistakes.

source: http://bit.ly/1BAJhsk

Dubai Tram could boost some nearby property prices by up to 150%

Dubai Tram could boost some nearby property prices by up to 150%

By Neil Halligan

• Tuesday, 14 October 2014 12:44 PM

An artist's impression of the Al Sufouh tram project

Dubai’s new tram could add significant value to properties in the vicinity of the new mode of transport, according to property agency Chestersons.

The Dubai Tram is due to open on November 11 this year and consists of a 10.6km-long track starting from the Dubai Marina and stretching up to the Tram Depot near Dubai Police Academy.

The tram is expected to transport about 27,000 passengers per day at the start of operations, increasing to 66,000 per day by 2020.

“The proximity to high-capacity transit halts has proven to increase property rates, a phenomenon known as the ‘transit premium’. This has been true in the case of Jumeirah Lake Towers, which is in the limelight and a much sought after destination after getting connected with the Dubai Metro network," said Simon Gray, managing director, Chestertons MENA.

He said the tramway is potentially poised to change the dynamics of property prices, particularly in Jumeirah Beach Residence and Dubai Marina areas, where residents rely heavily on taxis for commuting purposes.

Robin Teh, Country Manager, Chestertons Mena, said the ‘transit premium’ has historically seen property prices increase by up to 150 percent in some areas.

“The increases in property values near transit were most dramatic for office and retail spaces,” said Teh.

“The price swings for property located near and around the tramway will be triggered by the new infrastructure as per general consensus, but the facts would emerge once the phase one of the network opens in November,” he added.

He said businesses will also benefit as a result of increased volume of people travelling to JBR and Marina.

The tram network will feature 17 passenger stations and a fleet of 11 trams in the initial phase. Fourteen trams will be added in Phase 2 to make a total of 25 operating trams.

Each tram has seven coaches, including a gold suite and one cabin dedicated to women and children. It will be operated by Serco, the same company that manages the Dubai Metro.

source: http://bit.ly/1EUSdYF

UAE economy recovering at fast pace, says IMF

© AFP/File | Containers at the Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi on September 1, 2012DUBAI (AFP) - 

The United Arab Emirates economy, the Arab world's second largest, is recovering at pace from the global financial crisis but remains threatened by low oil prices, the IMF said Wednesday.

"Economic recovery has continued at a solid pace, supported by construction, logistics and hospitality," a team from the International Monetary Fund said after visiting the Gulf country.

Growth was underpinned by ongoing public projects in oil-rich Abu Dhabi and continued strength in Dubai's services sectors, it said in a statement.

UAE, the fourth largest OPEC supplier, was hit hard by the global financial crisis, strongly dampening economic growth which averaged just 1.5 percent between 2007 and 2011.

The IMF projected the UAE economy would grow 4.25 percent this year, down from 5.2 percent in 2013 with non-oil growth forecast at 5.5 percent.

The decline in oil prices, if sustained, could have a significant impact on revenues, the IMF warned, adding however that the UAE had sufficient fiscal buffers to minimise the fallout.

The IMF welcomed stable real estate prices in Dubai as sales in summer moderated.

"The slower momentum in the market is welcome news following a period in which prices had increased at a fast pace," it said.

Dubai and its government-related entities (GREs) have continued to improve their debt profiles after the major debt restructurings from the 2008-2009 crisis, the IMF said, adding that several GREs had begun to make early repayments.

While debt levels for some GREs remained significant, stronger financial positions and lengthened maturity profiles had further reduced debt-related risks.

Dubai said this week it has repaid $1.93 billion raised from Islamic bonds known as "sukuk" and renewed its commitment to pay back billions of dollars worth of debt on time.

In August, the emirate's real estate giant Nakheel repaid all of its $2.15 billion bank debt almost four years ahead of schedule.

Dubai in March managed to delay for another five years the repayment of $20 billion worth of debt it received from Abu Dhabi that had been due to mature this year.

© 2014 AFP

source:http://f24.my/1xGRg1V