Yas Hotel full ahead of F1 weekend

The Yas Hotel

Ahead of the grand unveiling of Abu Dhabi's F1 circuit this weekend, it has been revealed the Yas Hotel, that straddles the circuit, is completely full with other hotels in the area boasting 'enormous waiting lists'.

Fully booked

Managing director of the hotel Paul Bell said that all rooms at the luxury hotel had been booked months in advance of the F1 race on Yas Island. "We are full in the hotel over the race weekend; there are no rooms available in the hotel," he said speaking to Hotelier Middle East.

"For the other hotels, I can't tell you that everything is full, but I know that we are almost there and I know there are enormous waiting lists in some of the hotels," he added.

"I guess it depends what you mean by full occupancy, but from our perspective we've got 2,250 rooms on the island, assuming all of the rooms are available - you get the odd room out of order in new hotels now and again as you know - [it is]."

He said: "As far as our hotels are concerned on the island, the demand is significantly more than the supply."

The Yas Hotel famously sees the F1 track going through it, with two towers one of which sits on the land side of the track and the other one at right angles to it sitting in the marina on the other side of the track.

"You've got a building which effectively expands the track itself; the cars go through the building and the two towers are linked by a two-storey bridge," Bell said.

"Effectively you can see the track from every room, we have pool decks on both of the towers; you can see up to 70 percent of the track from there. It's the only hotel that has back-of-house access, we have a bridge that goes directly into the pit area of the track so it allows access which is unprecedented anywhere else."

The Yas Marina Circuit

The Yas Marina Circuit project has been on of Abu Dhabi's biggest construction projects with over 25,000 workers been hired to work on not just the track, but the 5-star hotel, a 15-lane tunnel, highways and the world's first Ferrari theme park.

With over US$1 billion spent on it, 25 million man-hours put in and 140,000 cubic metres of concrete utilised, The Yas Marina Circuit could be the grandest F1 track the sport has ever seen.

Designed by the man who created the Bahrain, Sepang and Valencia tracks, the Abu Dhabi circuit features 20 turns and a pit lane that runs under the track. It can also hold 50,000 spectators with every seat covered to offer protection from the sun or on the rare occasion, rain.

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