Four Seasons Continues Its Signing Spree in Saudi Arabia

Partly-owned by one of the richest Saudi royals in the world, Four Seasons is on its way to becoming one of the most dominant luxury hotel chains in the country.

Except in the U.S., you’d typically, find one Four Seasons property per country In Saudi Arabia, there are seven on the way, and one is already open in Riyadh – where Christiano Ronaldo lives.

The latest signing is in Amaala, an upcoming development along the Red Sea coastline specifically targeting wellness travelers and those seeking medical tourism.

Four Seasons Resort and Residences Amaala at Triple Bay will feature 220 hotel rooms, as well as villas with private pools, and 26 branded residential villas.

By 2025, the wider Amaala will comprise 2,000 hotel rooms across 12 resorts, with an additional 3,900 rooms and 29 hotels, originally intended to be completed by 2027.

Amaala is a separate project from “The Red Sea” located on the same coast, but they share the same owners and developers.

Amaala hotels on the way:

• Clinique La Prairie Health Resort
• Jayasom Wellness Resort
• Rosewood Amaala
• Six Senses Amaala
• Equinox Resort Amaala

As of 2021, Bill Gates held a 71% ownership stake in Four Seasons through Cascade Investment, while Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal owns 24% through Kingdom Holding Company. Currently, Four Seasons manages 126 operational hotels, with roughly 50 projects in various stages of planning or development, encompassing around 30 projects featuring branded residential components.

Prince Al-Waleed has been helping finance the upcoming hotels. In October 2023, he bought 50% ownership of the Four Seasons Red Sea project for $266 million.

Here are the Four Seasons properties on the way in Saudi:

• Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Jeddah (Opening 2024)
• Four Seasons The Red Sea (Opening 2025)
• Four Seasons Hotel Diriyah (Opening 2026)
• Four Seasons Resort Sindalah Island (Opening TBC)
• Four Seasons Hotel Makkah (Opening TBC)
• Four Seasons Hotel Madinah (Opening TBC)
• Four Seasons Hotel Al Khobar (Opening TBC)

In 2022, officials at the project AlUla said that a Four Seasons was in the works there, though this is yet to be confirmed by the operators. Should that come to pass, Four Seasons will be one of the few operators with a presence in every project that has a confirmed hotel pipeline.

Speaking to Skift in November 2023, Four Seasons’ regional operations president Adrian Messerli, who heads all of Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Saudi is an especially important market for the group.

“We’re preparing for many Saudi openings in the coming years,” he said. “In Saudi, we’re also opening in Medina, in Makkah, in Jeddah, Red Sea, Diriyah, Neom, Al Khobar. It’s exciting. We need to prepare for that (growth). We are preparing a shared service structure to support all the hotels from a centralized office. That means sales, marketing, finance, reservations — this will all operate out of one core office.”