Qatar's first Holiday Inn hotel is to open in Doha, it was announced today.
The new-build will be located just 2km from Doha International Airport in The Business Park precinct, the heart of the capital’s business district.
Holiday Inn Doha will contain 347 rooms, a 1,200-metre-squared ballroom, meeting rooms and three restaurants including a lobby lounge.
Pascal Gauvin, of Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), which owns the Holiday Inn chain, said: "Every year 100 million people stay at Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express hotels around the world, and three people check into one every second.
"Out of all our hotel brands, Holiday Inn is one of our biggest and we are confident that it will find success in Qatar.”
Holiday Inn Doha will sit next to the Crowne Plaza Doha, another IHG hotel.
In March, it emerged that Hilton Worldwide’s luxury Waldorf Astoria brand is to open its first property in Doha, located within a 42-storey tower close to the Qatar Stock Exchange and the forthcoming Doha Convention Centre (see online news, March 2013).
The 250-room Waldorf Astoria Doha West Bay will feature a rooftop pool, health club and spa, as well as “a palatial ballroom, state of the art meeting and conference facilities and a wide range of destination bars and restaurants”.
Expected to open in 2016, the property will also house 80 serviced apartments.
For more information, visit holidayinn.com.
Report by Graham Smith
