Makkah hotel occupancy rate hits 100% despite surge in room prices
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Hashim Sheikh
- . April 14, 2023
- . Update: April 15, 2023 4:12 pm
Amid residents and Muslims from around the world visiting the city, Makkah’s hotel sector is witnessing a strong revival, with room occupancy rate in central areas touching 100% during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the highest level seen since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The resurgence is mainly due to greater accessibility to visas, an improved transportation system, opening of facilities, better services, and the four-day transit period inside Saudi Arabia.
This year, while the government offered a number of facilities to pilgrims from abroad, investors and hotel owners were also quick enough to take advantage by opening their facilities.
Bassam Khanfar, manager of one of the hotels in the Aziziyah neighbourhood, said the new transportation network had helped hoteliers outside the central area to offer their services to quite a decent number of Umrah pilgrims.
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Owing to the considerably high prices of hotels in the central areas, a noteworthy number of pilgrims were preferring their accommodation places outside the central area, he added.
Five-star hotel rooms offering a view cost between SR4,000 to SR10,000 per night. But for rooms outside the central area, the average price ranges between SR2,500 to SR3,000 for five-star and between SR800 to SR1,100 for four-star hotels.
Hani Najah, director of the commercial department at Address Makkah Hotel, said Umrah pilgrims were mostly concentrated in the central area around the Grand Mosque. But the Makkah Bus Project has helped revive other areas in the city by better connecting these areas to the Grand Mosque and making hotels there cater to a larger number of pilgrims.
