A Travel Vlogger Got a Rare Look Inside the Abandoned Four Seasons Hotel in Syria

When it opened in 2005, the Four Seasons Hotel Damascus was a landmark of postmodern opulence in the heart of Syria’s capital: 297 rooms, Italian and Aleppan cuisine, mother-of-pearl details, and views of the Umayyad Mosque. Its clientele included diplomats, UN officials, and Syria’s economic elite. A Condé Nast Traveler review once described the building’s Lego-like facade and its interiors where “nineteenth-century-style Orientalist art mixes with cutting-edge touches.”

But in June 2019, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts formally severed ties with the property, citing US sanctions imposed on Syrian businessman Samer Foz, the hotel’s majority owner. Foz had been accused by the US Treasury of war profiteering and cultivating close ties to President Bashar al-Assad. Yet despite the termination of its management contract, the hotel continued to operate under the Four Seasons name and logo to this day — a lingering symbol of the complicated overlap between brand identity and ownership in conflict zones.

There remained, however, a steady flow of people who kept checking in.

Throughout Syria’s civil war, the Four Seasons Hotel remained a preferred — and often necessary — base for the United Nations. Citing its top-tier security rating and central location, the UN established both temporary residences and operational offices at the hotel. According to procurement data analyzed by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), UN agencies spent a staggering $81.6 million at the hotel between 2014 and 2023. That includes $11.5 million in 2021 alone. The general public, however, has mostly been shut out.

@snydexplores The forgotten Four Seasons hotel in SYRIA I somehow had no idea this place existed before coming to Damascus so this was such a nice surprise Security insisted only guests (or invites of guests) were allowed inside but they eventually budged Did you know there was a Four Seasons in Damascus ?? #damascus #fourseasons #fourseasonsdamascus #freesyria #newsyria #damascussyria ♬ original sound – snydexplores

Travel influencer Eli Snyder was able to get in to see the still-grand interiors. “Security insisted only guests (or invites of guests) were allowed inside but they eventually budged,” he wrote in an Instagram caption. It’s a rare look into a once iconic hotel that is now restricted to only a few.