Best Business Hotel in Middle East

Here in its spacious hallways, lounges, restaurants and night spots you are likely to see visitors from around the world, conference participants from every sector of the economy and government, and

“just about anybody who is anybody.”

The Phoenicia InterContinental is the brain-child of Najib Salha, who founded the Société des Grandes Hotels du Liban in the early 1950s envisioned a world class hotel on the shores of the Mediterranean. Specially designed by American architect, Edward Durell Stone, it was intended to catch all the cultural motifs of Lebanon’s history.

It was opened 1961 and lived up to the vision that inspired it in every way. In a short time, it became the most celebrated hotel in the region, called the “Grand Dame” of Lebanon.
It is not often that hotel guests get to sleep in a battlefield, but that is the case today, for the Inter-Continental Hotel became a major contested piece of real estate during the Lebanese civil war (1975-90)--by the end, it was reduced to a “smoldering ruin.”

But in the late 1990s, Mazen and Marwan Salha, members of the Société des Grandes Hotels du Liban, decided to rebuild the hotel.

Today its two towers and residential building stand as the ultimate for comfort, elegance, and luxury.

Rising from its ashes, the hotel reopened in March 2001, as one of the most elegant facilities in Beirut and the entire Middle East.

With a splendid view of the Mediterranean and of the city, the Phoenicia InterContinental is one of the most convenient and centrally located hotels in the city—near the famous Corniche—or boardwalk—and on the seaside edge of the downtown business district.

Since its reopening, the Phoenicia InterContinental has been showered with awards, such as the “Best Business and Convention Hotel in the Middle East (2006); the “Best Hotel Renovation Award” among 600 hotels throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (MENA); and the “Favorite Hotel in Beirut” by Middle East Travel. 

With 446 suites and guest rooms, and 6 restaurants, and the Club Intercontinental to meet the special needs and tastes of every kind of traveler, business person, conference attendee, and tourist,

the Phoenicia InterContinental is itself one of Beirut’s most  popular tourist attractions.