Ritz-Carlton Prison Hotel Costs Authorities $53 Million

An anti-corruption campaign is costing Saudi authorities millions to detain those arrested in a local hotel.

It’s been about 50 days since authorities in Saudi Arabia started an anti-corruption campaign that saw the arrests of multiple businessmen and princes. Now, those arrested are still being detained, at the cost of renting out the entire Ritz-Carlton Riyadh Hotel. When the arrests were made, current guests were evacuated without warning and reservations were canceled en masse.

The hotel continues to show as completely booked on reservation websites, many showing that it’s completely full for a month out. But other attempts to reserve a room reported by the Middle East Monitor show the hotel full through the beginning of March in 2018.

But that has a trickle-down effect for Saudi authorities, who are now responsible for the cost of 492 hotel rooms every night the detainees are there. Each of the rooms range in price from $494 to $7,000 for a Royal Suite. Taking into consideration the daily costs of each room, the authorities are responsible for about $425,000 per day of hotel room costs.

But it doesn’t end there. Based on the hotel being booked through March, the total cost of detainment since November 4 comes out to about $51 million. And that’s not including food. The hotel has four restaurants, and one meal tends to cost around $80 to $160. So with an average-ish cost of $100 per person, per day, the cost for 200 detainees stretching from November to March reaches $2.4 million, just for food.

All told, it looks like Saudi authorities will be responsible for about $53 million worth of lodging and food costs – if they continue to house the detainees in the hotel until March, at least.

[Photo: AFP/Getty]