promoted through compassion, efficiency, attentiveness and endearment
Our focus is not only on the delivery of unique and successful hotel experiences, it is also on promoting our value-engineered service delivery model to safeguard project investments and deliver superior returns.
Smartotels is a hospitality and asset management firm headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, providing comprehensive management services with a focus on developing and operating hotels under its unique proprietary lodging brands.
Smartotels’ leadership has over 20 years of experience in hotel operations, asset management, real estate finance and transactions, development and advisory across four continents, and has proven strategies and achieved results with managing branded and independent limited-, select-, and full-service hotels and resorts.
The Firm has established strategic relationships with leading real estate development, architecture, branding, technology, and digital firms worldwide. The executive team at Smartotels has established networks with global leaders of prominent investment banks, institutional private equity firms, and transaction advisors throughout the Middle East, Africa, East Asia, Europe and North America.
SMART is at the core of our
(H)OTELS management approach:
Specific Measurable Assignable
Realistic Time-related
-- Dr. George T. Doran (1981)promoted through compassion, efficiency, attentiveness and endearment
a focus on fostering creativity, dedication, teamwork and passion
a fundamental business practice that is integrated in all aspects of the Firm
the foundation of the Firm’s professional bearing
Our people are our most important resource. We continuously strive to cultivate and sustain a diverse work environment and workforce, while focusing on attracting accomplished, passionate and dedicated individuals to drive creative solutions.
TAREK M. DAOUKFounder + Managing Partner
An avid traveller and hotel aficionado, Tarek M. Daouk enjoys exploring and discovering hidden gems of hospitality around the world. His career took him from hotel operations to Wall Street, yet his appreciation and passion for the lodging industry remains unaltered. Turning his passion into practice, he founded Smartotels, a UAE-based world-class hotel real estate investment and full-service hospitality and asset management firm that provides a broad range of management services with a focus on developing and operating hotels under its unique proprietary hotel brands.
Tarek is Founder and Managing Partner at Smartotels and is responsible for overseeing the corporate direction and strategy of the Firm, focusing on growth, innovation, customers, and leadership.
Prior to founding Smartotels, Tarek was Head of Hospitality for Goldman Sachs's Realty Management Division in Europe. Tarek was based in Paris and was responsible for hotel acquisition, asset management (over $2 billion USD all-in-cost), and divestment activities with the group across Europe. During his tenure with Goldman Sachs, he developed a hospitality servicing platform for over 90 hotels across five countries aimed at centralizing hotel real estate functions. Further, Tarek restructured the asset management platform from a reactive, solely real estate-focused organisation, to a synergistic, market-driven and strategically-oriented practice. Prior to his time in Europe, Tarek was involved in hotel acquisitions for the Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds in the U.S.
Before joining Goldman Sachs, Tarek worked for InterContinental Hotels Group in the Development & Investment Analysis Division of the Americas’ regional office. At IHG, he worked closely with the Executive Committee and Board of Directors to assess balance sheet equity deals, in addition to identifying buyout opportunities of strategic franchise operating systems of high-profile U.S. lodging brands. Before his role at InterContinental Hotels Group, he was a management consultant in the Hospitality & Leisure Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P.
Tarek is currently President of the Cornell Hotel Society MENA Chapter, serves on the Board of the Columbia Alumni Association UAE, and is the Event Chair of the Dubai Lodging Outlook Seminar, an annual seminar co-hosted with STR. He earned his MSc in Real Estate Development from Columbia University after receiving his BSc in Hotel Administration with distinction from Cornell University. He is fluent in English, French and Arabic.