From photos taken between 1898-1900 we can see that the Hotel de L'Univers was in fact the 'Gd Hotel de L'Univers', so the change to 'Grand Hotel' was not a total name change.

If you look at the picture of the floods in 1922 you will see that the name is now 'Grand Hotel Royal'. This name also appears on several different Benghiat postcards cards dating from around 1908 onwards - so the Univers name disappeared well before WW1. From a report by Captain F.M. Hunter in 1877 we know that this hotel and the Hotel De L'Europe were both operated by Frenchmen.

On 8 Jan 1913 a Mr Fischstein applied for a licence to open the Grand Royal Hotel on the former premises of the Hotel De L'Univers which had recently been closed. Mr Fischstein had come from Egypt and the authorities in Aden took the wise precaution of checking him out with the Egyptian police. They reported that 'it appears that the establishment he kept in Suez was of a disorderly nature'! However, this report was largely based on the fact that he was living with a woman who was not his wife. The Resident did not feel this was sufficient to warrant refusing him a licence, but initially only a temporary one was issued. The previous man running the Univers was a Mr B. Menahem Messa.