5x KONE Main Elevators @ Rose Rayhaan by Rotana****, Za'abeel, Dubai, UAE

This 333-meter (1,093-foot) skyscraper hotel is one of the most prominent structures in the row of high-rise buildings lining the portion of Sheikh Zayed Road stretching from Dubai World Trade Centre to the edge of Downtown Dubai. It opened in 2009 as the tallest hotel in the world, and kept that title until the JW Marriott Marquis hotel opened not too far away from it in 2012; despite the hotel building mostly having been completed around 2007 the actual opening did not occur until two years later. The glass-clad tower resembled a tall pencil when looked from the outside, culminating in a rosebud-shaped crown from where it received its name. It is part of the Rayhaan Hotels and Resorts portfolio, the alcohol-free brand of UAE's homegrown Rotana Hotel Management Corporation, and hence no alcoholic beverages were being served inside the hotel.

The hotel tower had 72 above-ground floors and a single basement. Its public areas and ancillary facilities were concentrated on the first eight floors. A coffee shop called Café Rose was located on the ground floor alongside the reception, and the hotel's restaurant named Petals was located on the first floor. Floors 2 and 3 had banquet rooms, while floors 4 and 5 had back-of-house facilities such as the main kitchen and storerooms. A sky bridge leading to the 6-story parking garage next to the tower could also be accessed from the 4th floor. The 6th floor was where the executive floor lounge was located, and administration offices were on the 7th floor. Floor 8 had mechanical rooms and thus skipped by the passenger elevators. The hotel's 462 guest rooms were distributed between floors 9 to 65, with the exception of floors 29, 30, 52, and 53, which were also mechanical floors that were not served by the passenger elevators. Floors 66 to 71 were all mechanical, and located inside the tower's decorative crown. The single basement of the tower had more back-of-house areas, such as housekeeping offices and laundry facilities as well as mechanical rooms.

A total of nine elevators consisting of five passenger elevators, three room service elevators, and one banquet service elevator had been installed within the building, all supplied by KONE. Among those, the main passenger bank of five elevators is featured in this video. These were typical 2000s Alta (EcoDisc-based high-rise model but with TMS instead of LCE controllers) installations which came with a full set of KSS 520 fixtures, with two sets of COPs and floor indicators located on both sides of the doors; while they had been installed way back in 2005, it would be four years before they were actually used by first guests. The third floor indicator had the form of an LCD monitor above the cab doors, which seemed to indicate that the Polaris destination dispatch system was once considered for these elevators as it displayed destination floors as well as the current floor number, used to feature a display style similar to that found in the Q1 Tower (built around the same time as this one), but had recently been updated into a different format reflecting KONE's new brand identity. The cab walls were finished with reflective stainless steel panels and mahogany wood, while the floors were covered with checkered ceramic tiles. All of the five elevators served every floor from ground to the 65th floor except for intermediate mechanical levels, with no separation of low- and high-rise banks. At only 4m/s or 800 feet per minute, they were somewhat slow for the number of floors served (indeed, the channel owner was very fortunate to have gotten a non-stop ride on these, and apparently these get quite crowded with long wait times during peak hours). They overall ran smoothly, but the occasional rattling noise meant that their roller guides had been quite worn out.

Manufacturer: KONE Middle East LLC
Model name: Alta
Year of commission: 2005
Loading: 1,125kg (2,480lbs)
Capacity: 15 persons
Full speed: 4m/s (800FPM)
Serviced floors: *G, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65