There’s a hotel in Dubai shaped like a sail, sitting on its own man-made island, where every guest gets a gold iPad and the staff outnumber guests 8 to 1. That’s not a flex — that’s Tuesday at the Burj Al Arab.
Construction kicked off in 1994, starting with 3,000 contractors spending two years just to build the island it stands on. By the time the doors opened in 1999, the team had used 70,000 cubic metres of steel, covered 1,790 square metres of interior in 24-carat gold leaf, and tucked 29,000 Swarovski crystals into the ceiling of one lounge — arranged as the Milky Way, naturally.
The service is just as over-the-top (in the best way). There’s a Rolls-Royce fleet, a gold iPad waiting in your suite, 60 reception desks so you’re never kept waiting, and butlers everywhere. The spa won Best Luxury Hotel Spa in 2013, the restaurants burn through 10 tonnes of chocolate a year, and the rooftop helipad once hosted a tennis match between Federer and Agassi.
It’s extravagant, it’s iconic, and it’s entirely on purpose — a monument to Dubai’s ambition dressed up as a hotel.
Scroll through the infographic below — the numbers are genuinely ridiculous in the best way.
[Source: Burj Al Arab]