Inside Saudi Arabia's Hotel for Women

Now without a travel ban, new hotel gives Saudi women a spa and hotel to go to.

ByABC News
September 18, 2008, 6:09 AM

July 11, 2008— -- Al Luthan Hotel and Spa boasts that it offers guests 150 services, 25 posh guest rooms, and 0 men.

The women-only hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's first, opened earlier this year after the government lifted a key travel restriction on women. In January, Saudi Arabia allowed women to stay in hotels without a male guardian or "mahrim," the chaperone that was long required under the country's strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Checking into Luthan, I had to help the diminutive Filipina bellhop carry my suitcase. I met women manning the reception, running the spa, and serving food. The only man I saw during my stay was one maintenance man checking the spa fountains in the early morning.

"We are a women-only organization," Dr. Nasreen Al Dossary, a businesswoman who works with the hotel.

Al Luthan, which means "the refuge" in Arabic, opened as a high-end women's spa with twenty Saudi princesses as the main investors. The hotel concept fit with Saudi Arabia's segregated society -- women value their privacy, sit separately from non-relative men in restaurants, and must use separate entrances to some public buildings. Inside the Luthan, women can relax and take off the black robes or "abayas" they are required to wear outside.

"I don't think that we are different from any other hotel, except that we're giving more privacy for women," Al Dossary told ABC News.

The hotel, which sits a short drive away from central Riyadh, seemed less than half full. Hotel staff confirmed that occupancy was around 45 percent.

But downstairs the spa was bustling. Saudi women were working out and surveying services from Thai massage to traditional Indian yurvedic healing treatments, administrated on a hand-carved wood table.

"Our guests are no different from any other hotel, except perhaps looking for a more pampered stay," said Al Dossary.

Abeer Subzi, 27, came to the Luthan, along with her mother and best friend, for some pampering in the sanctuary, paying about 690 Saudi Riyals (roughly $184) a night.

"I love it, I don't want to leave … everything is available. I can use the gym, the spa, the pool, everything," Subzi told ABC News, referring to the fact that women are barred from using pools and fitness facilities in most Saudi hotels. Subzi says there are health clubs in her hometown of Jeddah, but that they are few and far from where she lives.