The driver took me straight to the hotel, and we were greeted by a security guard who insisted on the driver opening the hood. The guard glanced under the hood and in the back of the SUV and then opened the gate and let us in. There was a metal detector (not nude-o-scope) at the front of the hotel, but no one was manning it so we just walked in. The lobby looked like any other western hotel, with the exception of a large number of men smoking in the lobby. My driver had to argue with the night clerk about my room for a while. (First ensuring it was a non-smoking room, then ensuring that I would have a king-sized bed instead of a twin, and then ensuring that I was in the same building as my colleagues. The final bit required involving the manager. I was glad to have a driver from the University to handle this, as I was too tired to care all that much.)
Given Saudis' sensitivity to photography, I don't have any photos of the public spaces of the hotel. However, I do have some of the interior of the room, which said "Executive" on the door in addition to the room number.
Bedroom:
Facilities:
(Note that if you're visiting KSA, it is recommended you carry some toilet paper with you from your hotel. The University's toilets were equipped with a hose similar to the one pictured above and a nozzle under the seat (no separate bidet) but had no toilet paper.)
Electrical connections:
The Saudis tend to have a mish-mash of electrical connections. Every socket in my hotel room was of the continental European (two pin) style. However, the iron was a UK-style plug. Thankfully, I had a plug converter with me. At the University, I witnessed rooms that had all three types of sockets (in one room!).
Internet and Television
The hotel now offers free WiFi. You need a password from the front desk, and even though they initially hand you 24-hour passwords, you can ask for a 7-day one. The Internet is censored in KSA, but I only ran up against the filter once, and that was a site that I expected to be blocked. News sites are generally all accessible, unlike in China. There was also wired Internet, but something was wrong with my connection, so I stuck with the WiFi. If you have a VPN, you should have no problem accessing whatever you need.
There's a broad assortment of television channels available in the hotel. I found it rather comforting to tune in and listen to BBC World my first morning there. Unfortunately (?), I missed the final of the Eurovision song competition, as it was not airing on any of the hotel's channels.
Other features:
I shouldn't have been surprised to find this, but the ceiling of each room features a sticker showing which direction Muslims should face when they pray:
The hotel also features two fitness centers (pretty well-equipped and with bottles of chilled water available), one open most of the day and the other open only in the afternoon and evening. There's also a pool for each fitness center. None of these facilities are open to women.
The hotel also has a restaurant that puts out a buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I ate almost all my meals here, since it would just be charged straight to the room and thus picked up by the University. Breakfast features cereal, all non-pork components of a full English (chicken sausages that resembled hot dogs and beef bacon provided instead), American/Scottish-style pancakes, porridge, and cheese/cold cuts/bread of a continental breakfast. The charge for this was SR109 (about $29), which seemed rather steep. Lunch was an assortment. There was always a wide-ranging salad bar with good hummus and tabouleh. There were usually a couple of varieties of rice, a curry, mixed grill (sausages and chicken skewers), and then a few other things. Dinner was theme night, usually with a lamb stew or curry for those who weren't into the themes. We had Tex-Mex night, barbecue (grilling) night, Asian (mostly Indian) night, Venetian night, and Mediterranean night. Lunch and dinner always had an ample assortment of breads and desserts available as well. (Desserts were excellent!) Beverages were the only thing ordered from the waiters. I generally had water (bottled, as the tap water is not potable), but you could get pepsi/diet pepsi/7-up or a variety of fruit juices (mango juice was good). Lunch ran about SR200 with a beverage. Not sure about dinner, as we generally charged it all to one person's room, an that was never mine.
The restaurant has folding screens that they put up in the event a Saudi couple wishes to dine. The wife would find it very difficult to eat with her veil in place, and with unrelated men not accompanied by wives in the dining room, they could not remove the veil unless behind the screens.