Mama Shelter brings its joyous hospitality and accessible style to Bahrain with a new hotel, restaurant, and sea view rooftop pool to open in 2020 in the capital city of Manama. This milestone agreement was signed between Accor, the world-leading augmented hospitality group, and GFH Financial Group (GFH), to manage the Kingdom’s first Mama Shelter brand.
As part of GFH’s commitment to expanding the Kingdom’s lifestyle and tourism sector in partnership with world leading brands like Accor, Mama Shelter Bahrain, opening in 2020, will command an exceptional waterfront location at GFH’s Harbour Row development within the US$1.5 billion Bahrain Financial Harbour project, as one of the Kingdom’s most prominent mixed-used projects located within the heart of Manama, Bahrain’s capital.
Mama Shelter Bahrain has all the chic of a boutique hotel and the affordable ease and openness of the home that we’ve all dreamed of. Effervescent, provocative, while both completely warm and totally chill is emblematic of Mama Shelter. In keeping with the brand’s playful philosophy, it interprets the spirit of its location through the design, while offering guests a well-priced option from which to explore the city.
Mama Shelter Bahrain will house 160 rooms with an emphasis on comfort and simplicity with style, focusing on king size beds, plush bedding alongside cutting-edge design elements by MAMA’s Design Studio, led by Benjamin El Doghaïli. Each room comes complete with complimentary films and WiFi as well as a selection of products from the MAMA SKIN range of organic amenities, designed in partnership with French skincare brand Absolution and available to purchase in the Mama Shop.
Serge, Benjamin and Jérémie Trigano, co-founders of Mama Shelter, which has already revolutionized the hospitality industry in places as far apart as Paris, Prague, London, Los Angeles or Rio, recently visited the island and returned thrilled by what they had seen. The company’s Chairman, Serge Trigano says, “When we visited Bahrain for the first time, we found men and women who were open to the cultures of other people and who were tremendously excited at the prospect of welcoming the MAMA experience to the city.” MAMA’s CEO, Jérémie Trigano adds “We also discovered a beautiful site in the city of Manama on the banks of the Arabian Gulf and a modern, forward-thinking partner, GFH properties, brought to us by the Accor team. The chemistry was there and we therefore decided to bring the MAMA magic to the country, with the hope of opening in 2020”.
Making its home in the prime waterfront area, Mama Shelter Bahrain enjoys unobstructed views of the harbour and is set to become the place to gather, meet friends and make new ones in the financial and diplomatic district. “Mama Shelter Bahrain is the first MAMA which will face the sea. The design has been thought out in two ways. Firstly, the relationship with the sea as it is a waterfront hotel. The second is to propose a lifestyle experience which refers to the nomadic aesthetic and the hospitality from the inner part of the region. Just like a chic camp that just stopped in front of the sea to play table football and dance with our artists!” explained Benjamin El Doghaïli, head of MAMA’s Design Studio.
“Our partnership with GFH continues to flourish with the signing of Mama Shelter Bahrain as well the debut of the Raffles brand, which was announced earlier in the month,” said Mark Willis, CEO Accor Middle East & Africa. “Accor believes that Mama Shelter marks a definitive first in lifestyle hotels in Manama and has the potential to be a global showcase for this dynamic brand.”
“Accor has the intuition and self-awareness to enable lifestyle brands to flourish by preserving their DNA and culture and by encouraging its founders to continue on their growth and development story. The Trigano family under Serge, Benjamin and Jérémie are a testament to the fiercely novel approach to hospitality with Mama Shelter of which we are proud to be associated with in the Middle East.”
Hisham Al Rayes, CEO GFH Financial Group said: “Our projects continue to move from strength to strength with the partnerships we are forging with world leading hotel and lifestyle brands. We’re extremely pleased with this partnership with Accor and the value proposition it creates not only at Harbour Row but for the Kingdom of Bahrain, where GFH continues our focus on supporting development goals in the lifestyle and tourism sector, which is set for continued expansion. Debuting a Mama Shelter branded hotel in Bahrain crystalizes our commitment to introducing cutting edge brands that resonate with both local residents and the community at-large as well as appealing to the needs and helping to attract an even greater number of regional and international travellers to Bahrain.”
Bahraini hospitality is legendary and Mama Shelter Bahrain sets the same standards when it comes to welcoming travellers and locals, making them feel at ease, and remaining accessible to all. Mama Shelter Bahrain is a place to live in, a sanctuary where the notion of sharing is a fundamental value. And don’t forget – MAMA takes care of absolutely everything.