Sheraton Hotel in Kuwait was the first Sheraton to open outside of North America. It opened up in 1966 and I’ve always had a connection to it due to the fact my family used to have lunch there every Friday when I was a kid in the 80s. Sadly like all nostalgic places in Kuwait, they eventually get demolished or they get an ugly facelift. In Sheraton’s case, it’s the latter. I think the facelifted building has lost its charm and history and now looks too generic.
But the bigger story here is that the Sheraton Hotel will become the St. Regis Hotel. The rumor is that the main building pictured above will become St Regis while the hotel extension (back right of the building) which was built in 1979 will become Sheraton Hotel and have it’s own separate entrance. Sheraton Four Points behind that will remain as is. Here are some more tidbits taken from the Skyscraper City Forum:
- The plans to rebrand are confidential and relatively unknown.
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The hotel renovation project was supposed to have the main wing done by the end of 2020, the 1971 extension done in 2021 and the 1979 wing renovated over the course of 2021 and handed over by 2022. Due to COVID, they are now two years behind schedule.
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The renovation on the main building may look done, but they fast-tracked the exterior completion so that they could give the hotel a clean appearance instead of having torn green tarps hanging off the façade.
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The interior of the main building is still very much under construction; due to COVID and Kuwait’s closed borders, the interior designers and foreign contractors are unable to come to the site and oversee the works, so whatever little the hotel can do locally, they’re doing it at a slow pace.
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With the closed borders and no events taking place, the hotel’s occupancy is EXTREMELY low – I’m talking four or five rooms occupied, max.
Sheraton Hotel in the 1960s
Thanks ChaoticTranquility
Update: Here is a bit of random info. The first customer at the Kuwait Sheraton Hotel was Edmond Ghantous – June 26, 1966.
6 replies on “Rumor: Sheraton to become St. Regis Hotel”
Wow, look how clean and bright Kuwait used to be. Grass and flowers, the good ole’ days.
You do realize that image is highly processed?
The rebranding makes sense. I mean sure Sheraton back in the day was considered a luxury hotel, and Kuwaitis having their wedding there meant you got money, but today the Sheraton globally isn’t a luxury brand.
True, Sheraton isn’t seen as a luxury brand, but Sheraton Kuwait is one of only 3 Sheratons worldwide that fall under the Luxury Collection brand.
They now added a letter T in the fascade: looks like indeed it is a ST REGIS.
It is not a rumor :p