With Burj Khalifa holding the status of the world’s tallest building since 2010, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has come to be associated above all with its mega-tall skyscrapers.
The city’s 1,394-foot Ciel Dubai Marina is the second-tallest residential building after Central Park Tower in New York, while Princess Tower, also in Dubai’s Marina, is now the third (at the time it was built in 2012, it was the world’s tallest for residential).
As they can be calculated by both the location of the hotel inside the building and the height of the entire structure containing other floors with residential or office spaces, the title of the world’s tallest hotel is not as straightforward to establish. The hotel located at the highest point in the world is the Rosewood Guangzhou at 1,738 feet above ground in the Chinese city’s 111-story Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre.
Ciel Dubai Marina opens doors as tallest hotel in the world
Officially opening up to guests last month after a period of construction between 2018 and 2024, The Ciel Dubai Marina is now the world’s tallest standalone hotel at 1,237 feet.
Developed by The First Group and designed by local architect Yahya Jan, the 1,004-room hotel rises 82 floors above the Marsa Dubai marina district into an “eye of the needle” opening meant to both give the building a futuristic design and navigate wind loads at that altitude.
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The area at the bottom of the needle has also been designed as an observation deck with views of Dubai and the Arabian Gulf.
“It was a very challenging project for us,” Jan said to CNN. “It’s an irregularly shaped property. For a tower of this size, the property could have been bigger. But I always say, you do your best work when you are challenged the most.”
The Ciel Tower Dubai tapers off into the “eye of the needle” to navigate wind flows on the top floors.
Ciel Tower Dubai
The Ciel Dubai is open (here is how much it costs per night)
The luxury hotel is open for bookings at rates starting at $375 USD per night and is designed in a futuristic style with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and floors broken into both rooms of different sizes and what the development group calls “social community spaces” of lounge areas, yoga and sports studios, as well as green areas meant to recreate the garden feel above ground.
The building is also home to four high-end dining venues, including the Mediterranean-influenced West 13 restaurant on the 13th floor and the luxury Asian fusion Tattu on the 74th floor. The restaurant space also opens onto an infinity pool that the Ciel Tower team claims is the world’s tallest and a bar space to which it will invite various popular DJs for parties and music events throughout the year.
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A spa on the 61st floor is set to open in February 2026 while the bottom of the building also opens onto Soluna Beach Club in Palm Jumeirah for access to a pool and the private beach.
Local outlet Gulf News reported that, two weeks after opening, at least 800 of the 1,004 rooms are occupied on a given day.