Atlantis The Royal (a Dubai hotel that opened in 2023 with a private Beyoncé concert) cost well over $1 billion to build. Atlantis The Palm, also in Dubai, cost $1.5 billion when it opened in 2008. Operator Kerzner now says it aspires to build as many as 15 such Atlantis mega-resorts worldwide.
The owner of One&Only Resorts is playing a delicate balancing act. Kerzner International wants to nearly double the ultra-luxury brand’s count while maintaining the exclusivity that commands premium rates. Meanwhile, it’s accelerating the development of newer concepts like wellness-focused Siro.
Kerzner currently operates 14 One&Only resorts. It’s opening another in Montana this year — its first Alpine resort — and has 10 others in the pipeline.
“We’ve grown exponentially lately, and we have to keep an eye on our strategic philosophy,” said CEO Philippe Zuber.
The Dubai-based company will cap its One&Only portfolio at about 35 properties, prioritizing exclusivity and maintaining high service standards over geographic ubiquity.
“To be true to our DNA and to do what makes our brand so special, you need to be consistent,” Zuber said. “If you go to too many, you will be compromised, and potentially, one will look like the others.”
Across its brands, Kerzner now manages 21 hotels, with 19 more properties in development. While it takes a measured approach to growth in the ultra-luxury segment, it plans to accelerate the expansion of its newer lifestyle brands, Siro and Rare Finds.
“High-end luxury is profitable, but you need to have a certain size in order to have the bandwidth to be able to consistently invest in your brand markers and stay innovative,” Zuber said. He noted that achieving scale enables some efficiencies in marketing, distribution, and operations that benefit owners.
One&Only’s Measured Growth
Not everyone sees a ceiling. Rival hotel developers like Aman, Four Seasons, 1Hotels, and Ritz Carlton anticipate larger portfolios, suggesting the ultra-luxury segment has room to run.
Zuber said Kerzner’s plans to double One&Only and add more properties for its other brands have required it to reorganize its leadership to ensure it has dedicated brand leaders to oversee quality control during expansion.
“To take the company to the next level of success, I needed the organization to evolve,” Zuber said.
This month, the company installed Mark Kirby as president of One&Only. Mattheos Georgiou has become a senior vice president overseeing Siro and Rare Finds. In August, Paul Baker became president of Atlantis.
Atlantis
For its Atlantis brand, Zuber envisions expansion, too.
“We clearly believe that the world can take 10 to 15 Atlantis resorts, no issue at all,” Zuber said. “So we currently have three within our portfolio. We can easily add 10.”
The goal of 15 is ambitious, considering that each takes years — and billions of dollars to build. Former Atlantis president Timothy Kelly said at a Skift event in 2023 that the costs to build are so high that Atlantis may require financial support at a government level when it chooses some locations.
As recently as May 2023, Kelly told Bloomberg he had “just” four future Atlantis projects in his sights.
In 2016, Kerzner signed to operate a new-build resort in Hawaii, Atlantis Ko Olina. However, after years of no progress and after the development company for the resort liquidated in 2024, the project has not been mentioned again and has been removed from Kerzner’s development page.
Zuber emphasized that Atlantis Dubai remains strong even without gaming amid uncertainty about potential casino licenses in the UAE.
“Our Dubai property is an extraordinary success,” Zuber said. “I don’t think we need gaming to sustain that. We’ve proven it’s one of the most exclusive integrated resorts in the world.”
Kerzner’s two Atlantis resorts in Dubai have seen some key leaders move to other integrated resorts. Kelly left last August to join Melco in Macau, while Atlantis The Royal president Tom Roelens moved in late 2024 to Wynn Al Marjan Island — an upcoming integrated resort in Ras Al Khaimah.
New Brands
Kerzner’s aspirations come as Zuber acknowledges the need to stay on top of shifting trends.
“Prices are not going to go up plus 10% a year anymore,” he said. “The new cycle we are in is about serving guests’ needs for longevity, sports, fitness, and wellness.”
The company is betting its wellness and lifestyle offerings, like Siro and Rare Finds, will resonate with this mindset.
Maintaining and expanding the length of stay of existing guests is instead a major focus. One&Only properties boast an average length of stay of 4.5 nights, Zuber said. He characterized that as among the highest lengths in the industry and a testament to the brand’s focus on curated experiences and privacy.
The company’s newest brand, Siro, which focuses on fitness and wellness, opened its first property in Dubai last year.
Zuber described Siro as “one of the most disruptive brands in the market,” citing how each hotel has a theme of “ultimate fitness and recovery.” The brand has properties under development in Saudi Arabia, Montenegro, and Los Cabos.
“The travel sector is in an incredible moment now,” Zuber said, highlighting post-pandemic shifts in luxury travel preferences. “No one is willing to compromise their lives anymore. This common ground is about health and how people are aware of their wellness needs. It’s a phenomenal change happening in the hospitality world.”
Rare Finds, Kerzner’s fourth brand, remains in the early stages as an opportunistic conversion play, while Siro targets urban destinations with significant business traffic. This collection of resorts debuted in February 2023 with the Bab Al Shams in Dubai.
In late 2023, Kerzner said it was “looking” at signing 15 new hotels between Siro and Rare Finds over the next three years. Per Kerzner’s websites today, Siro has three upcoming openings. Rare Finds debuted in 2023 in Dubai at Bab al-Shams, a desert resort that reopened under the new branding, but no other projects have been officially announced.
There’s an upcoming project in Montenegro known as “Ivo,” according to the development page of Porto Montenegro, where Kerzner’s One&Only is located. A website is advertising a plan for “25 residences managed by IVO, a Rare Finds hotel.”
The One&Only cap shows Kerzner recognizes a truth about luxury: Scarcity creates value in premium pricing power. Maintaining that principle of exclusivity while finding new growth drivers for One&Only and Atlantis will be a tricky needle to thread. Newer brands like Siro and Rare Finds may help expand into adjacent customer segments.
More on Ultra-Luxury Hotels & Resorts
Accommodations Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date
What am I looking at? The performance of hotels and short-term rental sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets, including international and regional hotel brands, hotel REITs, hotel management companies, alternative accommodations, and timeshares.
The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more hotels and short-term rental financial sector performance.
Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.
