Ashar Valley, AlUla, about 15 kilometres from the Nabataean tombs of Hegra. The Royal Commission for AlUla and Accor announced the arrangement on 9 August 2020: an existing tented resort in the valley would take 47 new units and be operated under the Banyan Tree brand. It opened in October 2022 as the first internationally branded five-star house in the AlUla district. It is a case of a state developer contracting an operator onto a building it had already put up.
The house
AlUla’s hotel stock was being assembled by a single owner. The Royal Commission for AlUla, established by royal decree in July 2017 to preserve and develop the region under Vision 2030, already had a tented resort standing in Ashar Valley, about 15 kilometres from Hegra. On 9 August 2020 it announced a partnership with Accor: 47 new units would be added, for what the release calls 82 “high-end villas” in all, and Accor would operate the result under the Banyan Tree brand. Arab News reported the same arithmetic the other way round, as 47 added to 35 existing. The release names AW2 Architecture Workshop as lead architects of the Ashar Tented Resort and GAJ, Goodwin Austen Johnson, as architect of record.
The house opened in October 2022, with a grand opening on 23 October co-officiated by Sébastien Bazin of Accor, Ho Kwon Ping, Banyan Tree’s founder and executive chairman, and John Northen, the commission’s head of hotels and resorts. Banyan Tree’s own release of that date counts 79 tented villas rather than 82: one-bedroom villas with outdoor living space, and one-, two- and three-bedroom villas with pools. Two dining rooms include Saffron, the group’s signature Thai restaurant, and there is a Banyan Tree Spa, an infinity rock pool and a gym. The commission presented the opening as completing the valley.
What distinguishes it
The house existed before the brand did The 9 August 2020 announcement was an expansion, not a commission: 47 new units added to a resort already standing in Ashar Valley, for 82 villas in total. Arab News put the existing stock at 35. Banyan Tree arrived as operator two years later, in October 2022, and the building it took on was not of its making.
Two architects are named, and neither belongs to the operator The 2020 release names AW2 Architecture Workshop as lead architects of the Ashar Tented Resort and GAJ, Goodwin Austen Johnson, as architect of record. Banyan Tree’s own opening material names no designer at all and attributes the form to what it calls “the nomadic nature of Nabataean architecture”.
The villa count does not agree with itself The commission and Accor’s August 2020 release gives 82 villas after the expansion. Banyan Tree’s October 2022 opening release gives 79 tented villas. The register carries both figures and prefers neither.
It was the last piece of a valley, not the first Arab News, in October 2022, described the opening as completing the accommodation on offer in the Ashar Valley hub, which also holds Maraya — described in the Accor release as the largest mirrored structure in the world. The commission’s stated targets for AlUla at that date were 9,400 rooms and two million visitors by 2035.
A Thai restaurant fifteen kilometres from Hegra The two dining rooms include Saffron, Banyan Tree’s signature Thai restaurant, and the spa works in what the group calls traditional Asian healing therapies. The operator’s standard repertoire was transplanted whole into a Nabataean valley; this was the brand’s first house in Saudi Arabia, and its founder said the group had started its journey 28 years earlier.
The accommodation is tented, the resort is all-villa, and it shares its valley with a concert hall and a second resort. A guest who expects a desert camp with no neighbours, or who wants a kitchen and a spa built around this place rather than around a brand’s Asian repertoire, is not the guest this house was assembled for. It is also the valley’s branded house, and prices accordingly.
Signature rooms and dates
Competitive landscape
Sources
What the entry rests on, read 13 October 2026. Each reference records the facts it supports, so a disputed line can be traced to the account it came from.