The 1743-room Anjum Hotel, which is situated close to The Grand Mosque in Makkah, has opened its doors to its first customers.
It owner and operator, Abdul Latif Jameel Real Estate Investment Company (ALJREIC), confirmed to HotelierMiddleEast.com that the property had its soft opening on June 9.
“The hotel will be a huge contribution to the expected increase of tourists coming to the city of Makkah,” said ALJREIC chairman Yousef Abdul Latif Jameel
“The various departments have already set the horses to welcoming our guests with the five stars standards and services. We’ll be keeping close eyes on the operation to ensure the healthy run of the hotel and the satisfaction of all our guests.”
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Tailoring the service at the hotel to the needs of visitors to the holy city, the hotel has a ‘Manasek Desk’ to assist guests throughout their religious rituals. It also has 26 elevators to provide rapid transportation across the property.
Guests have a choice of four restaurants and lounges; Karam and Joud restaurants are set to welcome up to 3,500 guests and serve a wide variety of international and authentic cuisine, prepared by multi-national professional catering team. During Ramadan, they will also serve Iftar and Sohour.
Another feature of the hotel is its ‘Kids World’, featuring a specialised, trained team to look after children between the ages of 3 and 7. Meanwhile, the ‘Azad Floors’ offer premium services to its guests.
Speaking to HotelierMiddleEast.com at the recent Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, ALJREIC CEO Claude Chesnais explained how the hotel would look to set itself apart from the major hotel chains, which have significantly expanded their presences in the city in recent years.
“We want to be known as a very high quality, Saudi company. And I think if we manage this, there will be pride in that,” he said.
“If you take the international companies, the quality of service they have in Makkah is not as good as in Dubai, for example. They don’t have as much supervision over there. They are living off the name.
“Most of the vice presidents can’t visit, so you have a GM there on his own and owners of the hotel are probably very involved too. We are everything: we are the owners, we have a very strong management team and we control everything.”
Anjum Hotel marks the first phase of the Jabal Al Kaaba project, with ALJREIC expecting to add 7,000 rooms in two more phases over the next seven years.
Other Makkah projects being planned by the company include a 10,500-room complex around 1.5 kilometres away from the Grand Mosque over the next five years and another 4,500-room complex over the next seven years.
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