Baghdad Luxury at $300 a Night: Amid an oil boom, hotelier deals with corruption, inexperience and warring wedding parties
Baghdad Luxury at $300 a Night
Iraqi troops and a military Humvee stand outside Baghdad’s Coral Boutique Hotel, a gleaming aluminum-and-blue-glass building that recently rose up here. At the door, muscled security guards wear bright blue T-shirts that read, in English, “Let us impress you.”
Ugandan bellboys in maroon caftans greet guests. Dreamy lounge music wafts through a marble-and-wood lobby. Upstairs, a satin-curtained suite runs as high as $300 a night.
The luxury hotel, which opened in August, is the first of its kind in Baghdad, where lodging choices are mostly limited to family-run motels and government-owned hulks from the 1970s and ’80s. Opening a place like this would take, by definition, a risk-taker—in this instance, Emad al-Yasiry, who said that his past forays have included smuggling oil in defiance of United Nations sanctions in the 1990s.
Baghdad is hobbled by political gridlock, corruption, shoddy infrastructure and concerns about security in a newly inflamed region. But it’s also in the midst of what Mr. Yasiry and others see as the first stage of a boom, as the capital of the oil-rich land becomes a magnet for foreign companies and deal-makers. In August, Iraq overtook neighboring Iran as the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. In September, the government unveiled plans for infrastructure projects worth almost $42 billion. Last week, it approved an annual budget of about $119 billion.