Compare the difference
What the fabric shop will not tell you.
Most motorised curtain quotes in Dubai come from curtain retailers. The fabric is usually fine. It is everything behind it that decides how this ages.
You already have curtains you like
You are quoted for new curtains, because fabric is what they sell. Motorising what you own is not on the menu.
We motorise existing curtains wherever the track and weight allow. New track, new motor, same curtains, typically from AED 800 to AED 2,500 a window.
You rent the apartment
Every option involves drilling and mains power, which needs landlord consent and leaves holes you may pay for at move-out.
Battery motors on tension or clip mounts, no drilling and no wiring. It comes with you when you move, and there is nothing to make good.
The window is 4 metres of floor-to-ceiling glass
A standard motor is specced by width alone. On a heavy 8 to 20 kg run it strains, then judders, then fails inside two years.
Motors are sized on actual fabric weight and track length, not just width, so a tall Marina or Downtown panel runs at the same speed in year five.
Two summers of dust go by
Nobody mentions that fine Dubai dust is the real enemy of a curtain track. Gliders stiffen, the motor works harder against the drag and burns out early.
Sealed tracks and the right glider profile, plus a service in the AMC. Dust is the most common cause of motor failure here and almost nobody designs for it.
You want them on a schedule
You get a handset. Some offer an app, but the shades sit on their own island with no link to anything else in the house.
Shades join the same app and scenes as your lighting, and can track the sun so the west elevation closes before the room heats rather than after.
DEWA trips
A wired motor with no manual override leaves the curtain wherever it stopped, and on a bedroom blackout that can mean stuck open at 5am.
Every motor keeps a manual override, and battery units are unaffected. Nothing in this house should ever need mains power to let light in.
The remote gets lost or the wall unit fails
Grey-import motors on unsupported radio frequencies cannot be re-paired locally, so a lost remote can mean replacing the motor.
Somfy and Lutron on locally supported frequencies, stocked here, re-paired in minutes. We also note every motor address in your handover file.
You add a second room next year
A different installer, a different motor brand and a second app, because the first system was never designed to be extended.
One system, one app, one hub. Adding a room later is a motor and a pairing, not a second parallel setup.