From Tourists to Residents: How First Class Held 90% Occupancy Through Dubai's Toughest Season

On February 28, Rohollah Rohparwar, Co-founder of Dubai holiday home management company First Class Property Management, watched March disappear. A regional conflict broke out, tourists cancelled en masse, and the OTAs refunded every guest. March and April are normally two of Dubai's strongest months.

Over the months that followed, Dubai's short-term rental market occupancy rate fell to between 50% and 60%. First Class held above 90% across a portfolio of around 600 short-term rental units. It was also, by Rohollah's account, the only operator adding units, finishing the period 150 units up.

This is how a team of former management consultants rebuilt their demand model in days, and why they came out of the crisis bigger than they went in.

"We were very sure that this is not a conflict of two weeks. This will potentially be something big. And we took very serious actions from day one."

About First Class Property Management

Rohollah and his partner Luis founded First Class in 2020. They started with a single apartment they rented themselves during COVID, when Dubai rents had dropped sharply. They saw the potential, and with backgrounds in management consulting, they bet that strong processes would let them scale.

Today First Class manages around 700 holiday homes with a team of 155, and opened a new office this year. It's the number one holiday home management operator in the UAE and the fastest growing in the Middle East. Its landlords range from billionaires to everyday owners, alongside a network of agencies. The target: at least 2,000 properties in the UAE by the end of 2027.

"It's not the side hustle anymore. It's not a small scale business. It's a serious business. We are still very hungry and ambitious, and we look forward to achieving much more."

The Challenge: A Calendar Emptied Overnight

On February 28, First Class was 55% booked for March. By the next morning, most of those bookings were gone. Market-wide cancellations hit around 44%. First Class's cancellation rate was much higher.

"Luis was sending me a video of the cancellation notifications from our PMS, and it took me five minutes to go through all of them. That was a big shock for us."

There was no cushion. The OTAs refunded guests automatically, so the cash left with the bookings. Tourism to the region stopped, and nobody knew when it would come back.

"The OTA platforms, they just refunded everyone. So the money was gone. We had to react very quickly, and at a scale we hadn't experienced before."

The question wasn't how to ride out two bad weeks. It was how to fill around 600 apartments for months with no tourists coming, while still paying every owner.

The Strategy: Pivoting to Residents

Rohollah and Luis started with the data. They analyzed the cancellations and concluded tourists would not be coming back to the region any time soon. Having been through COVID, they bet that local residents would become their main audience, and wrote an action list of immediate moves.

Clear the calendar for longer stays

First Class proactively cancelled its remaining bookings from March through July to open the calendar for longer stays. Then it rewrote its length-of-stay rules:

• Bookings one month out: 30 nights or more
• Bookings two weeks out: 14 nights or more
• Last-minute bookings: up to 14 nights

Be the cheapest in the market, first

First Class dropped prices to be the cheapest in the market. When Rohollah talked to other operators, most hadn't yet registered what was happening. While First Class was filling its calendar again, competitors were still sitting at 20-30% occupancy.

"This was our big advantage, because we were the first movers and we were able to get all the bookings in."

Reputation did the rest. With the best reviews in the market, First Class was where guests looked first.

Make the offer impossible to refuse

Dubai residents typically sign a one-year Ejari lease, paid in a few lump-sum cheques. In a crisis, nobody wanted that commitment.

"Nobody wanted to go into a long-term Ejari contract... Will I still keep my job? Will a full-fledged war break out? So people were looking for flexible housing solutions."

First Class gave them furnished holiday homes in good areas, cheaper than the long-term rental market. Then it kept adding reasons to book: a fully flexible cancellation policy with unused nights refunded the same day, pets welcome, nanny services, free use of the First Class office as a coworking space,

"We were going over the limits and basically trying to offer any kind of service to attract the clients to book with First Class."

How First Class Uses PriceLabs

Being the cheapest in the Dubai short-term rental market only works if you know exactly where the market is, and in a crisis it moves every day. PriceLabs gave First Class that view.

"PriceLabs is our main tool for analyzing the pricing behavior. It was very important for us to understand the market trends."

Market Dashboards for every key area

First Class built separate PriceLabs Market Dashboards for Business Bay, JVC, Downtown and the Palm. Each one tracked competitor pricing and market trends in that area, so the team could see how each neighborhood was moving on its own terms.

"We created different market reports for different areas to understand our competitors and the market trends in these areas."

Every unit, every day

With demand shifting daily, First Class's revenue manager analyzed all 600 units every day, often working more than 12 hours a day through the crisis. The team adjusted prices almost hourly to keep each apartment priced at the level that would actually bring in bookings.

"We analyzed each unit on a daily basis, and we were adjusting the prices, I would say, almost on an hourly basis, to make sure that we are pricing them at the right level so that we can actually get the bookings in order to fill the apartments."

The Results

While the market sat at 50-60% occupancy, First Class ran above 90% for six straight months.

• 90%+ occupancy across ~600 short-term rental units, vs. a 50-60% market
• Over 40% higher occupancy than the market, in mid-tier Dubai areas like JVC and prime areas like Downtown
• ~23-night average length of stay, above the market, as one of the first operators in the market to pivot to mid-term rentals
• +150 units net added during the crisis
• Every owner paid in full and on time, on the 15th of every month

Owners stayed, and more arrived

First Class told every owner early that the full team was staying and the properties would be looked after. It walked them through the new pricing policy, and they all agreed to it. Some owners even called to offer that First Class keep their payouts if it needed the money.

"They really were so happy that even during this time they actually made some money, because everyone was expecting that they would not earn any money since there were no tourists. This made them even more confident to stay with us."

Other operators ran into financial trouble and couldn't pay their owners. Many of those owners moved to First Class.

"The last six months were a huge opportunity for First Class to showcase our reputation in the market and our skill set."

Advice for Other Property Managers

Asked what made the difference, Rohollah kept coming back to the same few decisions.

Act on day one, not week three

First Class didn't wait to see how long the crisis would last. Rohollah and Luis assumed it would be long, acted from day one, and were filling the calendar while other operators were still taking in what had happened.

"We realized the situation very quickly. Luis and me, I remember we were creating an action list of immediate actions."

Figure out who your guest is now

The guests you had last month may not be the guests you can get next month. First Class read the cancellations as a signal that tourists were gone, and rebuilt its rules, pricing and offer around the people still in the city.

"We knew that tourists will not come to the region anymore. And since we also experienced COVID, we were betting that the local demand from residents will actually be now our main target audience."

Compete on flexibility, not just price

Cheap got First Class into consideration. Flexibility closed the booking. Flexible cancellations, flexible payments and extras like pet-friendly stays and furniture storage solved real problems for residents who didn't know what next month held.

"We offered all these solutions and it was very popular. So it was very easy to convince the residents to move with First Class."

Your reviews are your safety net

When demand dries up, every booking counts. Having the best reviews in the market meant First Class got first look from the residents who were booking.

"Since we had the best reviews in the market, obviously people were looking for the best apartments to book first."

Over-communicate with owners

First Class told owners early what it was doing, why, and that they would still be paid. Then it delivered, paying every owner in full on the 15th of every month.

"We sent a clear message out to all the owners that they don't have to worry, that we are available with the full team. We take care of the properties. We fulfill our responsibilities towards the owners."

Build for the recovery while you're still in the crisis

First Class tripled its owner sales team mid-crisis, and switched its policies back the moment demand started to return. September became its best month on record for new deals.

"We increased our sales team from 6 to 18 during the conflict time because we were betting also on a quick recovery."

Looking Ahead

First Class is now reversing the pivot as fast as it made it. The full team returned on September 1, with the sales team larger than before. September was the company's best month on record for new deals, with 70 new owners onboarded, and October is trending well.

Length-of-stay and pricing policies are back to pre-crisis settings, and the operation has scaled back up with them. During the crisis, long stays meant around 5 check-ins and checkouts a day. Now it's around 45, with a recent peak of 145 checkouts and 78 check-ins in a single day.

The outlook is improving. British Airways and Lufthansa are among the international airlines resuming Dubai flights from late October, the weather is turning, and the total number of listings in Dubai has dropped. Rohollah sees November and especially December as potentially stronger than last year.

"We're betting that we will see some kind of recovery. We changed again the length of stay policy, so we are going back to what we had before the crisis... And we are betting on a full recovery."