Your property, looked after, the way you would look after it yourself.
Most owners hesitate over short-term rental for the same reason: they do not trust what happens to the property once someone else has the keys.
Unreported wear. Deferred maintenance. Guests nobody actually vetted. A holiday let managed for volume may improve the income line while quietly weakening the asset. For an exceptional residence, that risk is reason enough to leave it empty.
Dubaldo Collection is a holiday home operator in Dubai, built around a deliberate limit of twelve residences. We take responsibility for the letting, the guest journey and the condition of the house. The aim is a better return than a long let, without giving up the use of it.
I know the position, because I have been in it. Before running residences for other people, I ran one of my own. I paid for its condition, carried the cost of keeping it to standard, and lived with the consequences of how it was run.
Dubaldo Collection exists for those owners. Twelve residences, no more, held to one hospitality standard. A residence that joins does not become one listing among hundreds. It becomes one of a dozen, each personally known.
Owners deal directly with Alessandro, from the first assessment through to ongoing operation. The size of the collection is what makes that possible.
Where the house allows it, she lives on the property.
Each residence in the collection has its own housekeeper. Where the property allows it she lives on site, in her own quarters with her own entrance, which is the arrangement we aim for. Not a cleaner sent by an agency, different each week, but one person who knows which surfaces mark, which fitting is temperamental, and what the house looked like before anyone arrived.
She is in the residence at least twice a week, whether or not a guest has asked for service. Stone and marble do not forgive delay: a stain attended to within hours lifts, and the same stain in a week is permanent. The same visits mean nothing goes unseen for long, and a residence in the collection is never left to itself.
Maintenance, repairs and periodic refurbishment are planned before problems arise, and the residence is inspected between stays with small issues corrected before they become expensive ones.
If it is available, it remains yours to enjoy.
The standard arrangement includes up to thirty nights of owner use during each twelve month term. Up to fourteen nights may fall during Dubai’s main season from October to April, including no more than seven nights over Christmas and New Year, 20 December to 5 January. Owner stays remain subject to confirmed bookings and to the notice periods set out in the management agreement.
Where more extensive personal use is required, we will agree an alternative arrangement before appointment.
Vetting is not a policy page. It is a person at the door.
- No stay is accepted under four nights. Shorter bookings are what attract parties and celebrations, and a four-night floor removes most of that before it reaches your door.
- Gatherings and events are not permitted, and smoking is not permitted indoors.
- Identification is taken and verified for every adult staying, not only the person who books, and every stay carries up to fifty thousand dollars in damage protection instead of a cash deposit.
- Guests are met at the residence in person, whatever the hour, walked through an inventory they sign, and told plainly which surfaces are delicate and what the house does not allow.
The residence is readied before anyone arrives and reset completely afterwards. When something needs resolving, we resolve it rather than referring it back to you.
Twenty-five per cent, and why.
Our share is twenty-five per cent. It is higher than the conventional management fee, and it is worth being plain about what the difference pays for.
Calculated on revenue net of OTA commission, before property operating costs, which sit with the owner as they would in any managed hospitality asset. The full schedule is set out in the management agreement.
A lower commission is only possible at volume, and volume is what damages a house. It means one inspection a month instead of one between every stay, a cleaner sent by an agency rather than someone who knows the residence, a maintenance issue noted rather than fixed, and a property competing on price because nobody has the time to position it properly.
The standard described on these pages costs money to hold. Twenty-five per cent is what it costs.
We do not chase occupancy at any price
We define the right guest, position the residence selectively, choose the appropriate channels and protect the rate with human judgement rather than allowing software alone to dictate it. Professional presentation, selective distribution, enquiries, pricing and calendar management are ours to carry, with the rate and guest profile protected rather than occupancy pursued at any cost.
What we will not tell you
We will not promise you a yield. Occupancy cannot be guaranteed by any operator, in any contract, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a forecast rather than a service. That was true when I first wrote it in Gulf News in 2005 and it is true now.
What we will do is look at your residence, tell you honestly what we think it can achieve and what it would take, and let you make the arithmetic yourself.
Does your residence qualify?
- The collection is built primarily around substantial private residences with three bedrooms or more. An exceptional two-bedroom residence may be considered where its design, privacy, setting and commercial potential clearly meet the standard. One-bedroom properties are not considered.
- Private staff quarters with an independent entrance from outside are a significant advantage and the arrangement the collection aims for. They allow a dedicated housekeeper to live on the property and care for it without passing through guest areas. Exceptional residences that cannot provide this arrangement, as is often the case with the finest apartments in the city, will still be considered.
- Some are already at the standard and need only preparation. Others reach it through selected improvements, identified and supervised by us and funded by the owner, because the improvement stays with your residence for as long as you own it. Each is assessed individually, and if the numbers do not work for you we would rather say so than take the property.
Not every home is suited to Dubaldo Collection. Those better suited to a broader holiday-rental offering may be an excellent fit for Dubaldo Stays.
The people who will hold it
Every residence will have its own housekeeper, and she will be named on this site beside the house she keeps. A guest relations officer will meet every arrival in person and see every departure. An operations manager will carry maintenance, scheduling and standards across the collection. I remain answerable for all of it.
None of these people are appointed yet, because the collection is still being formed. They will appear here by name when they are, and not before.
The house as it actually works.
A photograph shows a room. A plan shows how a house is run. This is a residence of the kind the collection is built around, drawn floor by floor and shown without its address.
The staff quarters sit off the car park with their own door to the outside, so the housekeeper reaches them without crossing the entrance hall or any guest area. There is an internal door as well. It begins closed, and from there it is set to the guest: some want the housekeeper within reach through the day, others prefer her at fixed hours and otherwise unseen. The layout is what allows either, which is why it is worth drawing rather than describing.
I have been the owner, not only the operator.
That residence was Greystone, in DAMAC Hills, from 2018 to 2022. Four years of paying for its upkeep, approving the work, and seeing what regular use does to a house that is looked after and what it does to one that is not.
That is the position you are in now, and it is the reason the collection treats condition and long-term value as seriously as it treats the guest experience.
For owners considering the collection.
Residences join by conversation, not by application. If you own an exceptional residence in Dubai and want to understand what the standard asks and what it offers, start here. We reply personally.
What happens next
A short, direct conversation. We look at the property, the standard it would need to reach, and whether the numbers work for both sides. If it is not a fit, we will tell you plainly.
The collection is being built now. The first residences set the reference for everything that follows, which is why we are deliberately selective about who joins.