Langham to open in Saudi Arabia

Langham Hospitality Group, a leader in luxury hospitality, will be venturing into the Middle East with its first property slated to open in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With 32 hotels around the globe, the group operates a portfolio of luxury hotels and resorts under the Langham, Cordis, and Eaton brands. Bob van den Oord, CEO, Langham Hospitality, shares with TRAVTALK their plans for the region.

TT Bureau

The Middle East is an important market for Langham, especially because there are many guests travelling to their key hotels in the gateway cities, such as London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney. Langham currently has 32 hotels around the world, four brands over four continents. Langham Hotels is positioned at the luxury end of the market, Cordis is their upscale brand where when you check into a Cordis hotel you check into the local neighbourhood, they say, then Eaton is their lifestyle brand and finally the recently introduced Yingn’Flo brand is mid-tier brand growing predominantly in China. The biggest news for discerning guests from the Middle East is that the first Langham will be opening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Diriyah Gate is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Langham will be constructed adjacent to what they call the new Champs-Élysées of Riyadh, adjacent to the new Opera House. The hotel will have a little over 200 keys with some great restaurants, and this is slated to be their flagship brand in Riyadh. Bob van den Oord, CEO, Langham Hospitality, reiterated, “We are looking to expand into other GCC countries. As a matter of fact, we are in discussions for setting up hotels in Jeddah, but the UAE, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are on our horizon for opening new hotels, and indeed Qatar. We are yet to sign other deals, but the ambition is very much there for us to open new Langham hotels throughout the GCC.”

He further spoke on the programme especially designed for the travel agents and corporate bookers. “We have an agency programme called ‘Couture by Langham’ and it’s an invitation programme for agents that are supporting us. And basically, the idea there is that we want to make sure that we make the agents look good. So, for example, when someone books a room in one of our Langham hotels and through a Couture agency, we make sure there is an amenity in that room from the agent with a personalised note. We have other special facilities for those agents if they book our suites. From late checkouts to free upgrades, etc. So, it’s a range of benefits that we are giving our Couture agents, and this is very much for the agents that are working closely with our Langham hotels around the world. And it forms a very large part of our total business. The percentage varies from hotel to hotel,” he said.