The most common mistakes UK hospitality brands make when expanding to Dubai
This piece was originally shared on LinkedIn in response to recurring conversations with founders and leadership teams around this topic.
I’m publishing it here as part of an ongoing body of thinking around restaurant strategy, market entry, and operational decision-making.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been having conversations with operators and leadership teams considering GCC expansion. The same assumptions keep coming up - and they’re the ones that cost the most time and money.
1 “Location works the same way everywhere”
Dubai isn’t like the UK, where you can succeed in multiple neighbourhoods if your concept is strong. Here, location dictates everything - who your customer is, where they’re coming from, what they expect.
I’ve seen operators pick sites based on prestige, or what agents have sold them. All without understanding traffic patterns, whether the area is residential or tourist-focused, or how their specific target customer moves through the city.
2 “Dubai operates like any other international expansion”
This isn’t just “another city”. I know people hate hearing “it’s different in Dubai”, but starting with the assumption that processes work the same way as at home is where problems begin.
Things are different. Highly complex, with nuances to how things get done. How do you influence the right people? Who can cut through and help you achieve things?
Your leadership team needs to know this market - not just operationally, but structurally. They need to be comfortable when an inspection throws up something unexpected, knowing how to navigate it calmly.
3 “We’ll hire a strong local team, and they’ll figure it out”
Everyone wants to live here. You’ll post a job and get 5,000 applications, but that doesn’t make it easy to find the 10 right people.
But the bigger mistake is not thinking through your resource structure early enough.
Where does accountability sit? What’s managed centrally versus in-market? What’s the team allowed to change locally? What decisions require UK approval?
Dubai is a fantastic market - but it’s unforgiving of assumptions made before you’ve spent substantial time on the ground.
If you’re planning GCC expansion and want to avoid these mistakes, I’m open to conversations about where the challenges actually sit, and how to approach them strategically.
Since first sharing this, I’ve seen the same issue surface repeatedly — particularly with businesses entering new markets or scaling too quickly. The underlying challenge is rarely strategy itself, but how early decisions constrain execution later.