Ashar Valley, AlUla, in the desert canyons of north-western Saudi Arabia. The Royal Commission for AlUla announced the resort with the group Habitas on 19 August 2020 as a 50-key first phase for the first quarter of 2021, to be built off site and assembled in the canyon; the construction team recorded its completion milestone in October 2021. Ninety-six villas. It is this Library’s clearest case of a hotel manufactured elsewhere and delivered to its ground.
The house
The Royal Commission for AlUla, the government body charged with developing and protecting the region, announced the project with Habitas on 19 August 2020. The announcement described a first phase of 50 keys for the first quarter of 2021, with further phases to follow, and it named the method rather than leaving it implied: off-site modular construction, the buildings delivered to the valley and assembled there. Oliver Ripley of Habitas was quoted saying that “travel is an incredible gift to create greater compassion and understanding”. Amr AlMadani, then the commission’s chief executive, said that “construction is under way”.
The building record names the parties plainly. Engineering News-Record, in the project entry that gave the finished resort a best-project award in the residential and hospitality category, lists Habitas S.A. as lead design firm and structural engineer, AEDAS as master plan architect, Arab Supply & Trading Co. as general contractor and civil engineer, NESMA & Partners for the landscape, and the Royal Commission for AlUla as owner. It records the completion milestone as October 2021 and describes a 96-suite resort in a canyon surrounded by mountains. It also records a decision of the kind that rarely survives into print: two suites were relocated so that existing plants would not have to be moved.
What distinguishes it
The operator designed its own hotel Engineering News-Record’s project record lists Habitas S.A. as both lead design firm and structural engineer, with AEDAS as master plan architect and Arab Supply & Trading Co. as general contractor and civil engineer. The owner is the Royal Commission for AlUla. The design authority and the operating brand are the same company, which is unusual at this scale and is the fact most of the house follows from.
It was manufactured off site and assembled in a canyon The August 2020 announcement specified off-site modular construction, with the hotel delivered and put together on site. The first phase was 50 keys and was set for the first quarter of 2021, with further phases to follow. The method is why a resort of this size could be stood up inside a protected canyon on that schedule.
Two suites were moved so that two plants would not be The project record states that the team relocated two suites rather than move existing vegetation, and that the brief was to respect the natural landscape “including the smallest plant and existing trees”. It is a small decision, and it is the only one of its kind documented in the build.
The opening carries two dates Engineering News-Record puts the completion milestone in October 2021. In March 2022 Philip Jones, the Royal Commission for AlUla’s chief destination marketing officer, told Arab News “this year, we opened Habitas”. The register records both and averages neither.
Ninety-six villas, counted in three types and listed as six The commission’s 2024 brochure for the property counts 96 villas as 33 Celestial, 24 Alcove and 39 Canyon — three types that account for the whole number. The resort’s own site, read in October 2026, lists six: Celestial, Alcove, Canyon, Art, Wellness and Arabian.
The accommodation is tented and modular, and the resort is remote on its own brochure’s reckoning: roughly ten hours by road from Riyadh, seven from Jeddah and three hours twenty minutes from Medina. The amenity list runs to a wellness centre, an infinity pool, a gathering space, one restaurant and a café. A guest who wants solid walls, a choice of kitchens or a short transfer is being described out of the picture.
Signature rooms and dates
Competitive landscape
People anchored here
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.