The World’s Largest Holiday Inn

The world’s largest Holiday Inn will be opening in late 2015. It will be quite a behemoth of a property, with a staggering 5,154 guest rooms spread across five towers. Each tower will have a separate all-day restaurant along with a fitness center, medical clinic and meeting spaces. But where will such a huge hotel be located?

The Holiday Inn Makkah Abraaj Al Tayseer will open in The Holy City of Makkah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The many rooms are as a response to increasing growth in pilgrim visits to Makkah. Hajj visit numbers were at 2 million in 2013 according to the press release, and are expected to exceed 5 million by the year 2025. Only 900 meters from the sacred Al-Masjid al-ḤarÄm (Grand Mosque) and offering stunning views, the new Holiday Inn hotel will have a prime location.

Two of the five towers are expected to open in late 2015 during the first phase, with 1,650 rooms. The remaining 3,500 or so other rooms will be opened over the next three years.

5,154 guest rooms is huge, just enormous. Even with the rooms split amongst the five separate towers, that’s a lot of rooms and a lot of people!

Pascal Gauvin, the COO of IHG for India, Middle East & Africa said, “IHG is looking to play its part by opening more quality hotels to cater to the ever-growing number of pilgrims undertaking Hajj and Umrah each year. We look forward to receiving guests at Holiday Inn Makkah Abraaj Al Tayseer and are confident they will find their stay comfortable and welcoming – a key feature of Holiday Inn hotels across the globe.”

The hotel hasn’t yet been loaded into Holiday Inn’s website so there are no rates listed yet, and no photos.

The Holiday Inn that currently has the most rooms is the Holiday Inn Macau, with 1,224 rooms.

Note that the photo of the Grand Mosque above was taken as a screenshot from Wikipedia.