The Battle For Hotel Accommodation In Makkah – (Part IV)

Developing Just Leadership

Zafar Bangash

Dhu al-Hijjah 15, 1447 2026-06-01

News & Analysis

by Zafar Bangash

In North America and Europe, Saudi-approved Hajj operators advertise their services through glossy brochures. They offer different levels of service going up to five-star with incremental prices. It has become more like holiday tours than the performance of an important Islamic obligation.

One of the bigger operators in North America is the Darus Salam group. We had opted for a package that promised five-day stay in Madinah, two days in Aziziya before going to Mina, Arafat, Muzdalifah and back to Mina for a total of five days.

After completing the Hajj manasik, our group was to return to Aziziya where we would stay in the apartment building for two more days before going to Makkah to check into a hotel for the remaider of our stay. Even though the hotel was barely two-star, its major attraction was proximity to the Haram.

On the third morning of our return from Mina, we waited in the apartment building, with our bags packed, ready to move to Makkah. While we traveled from Aziziya to Makkah every day, the distance was a problem. The excitement of being close to the Haram to go and pray anytime was overwhelming.

The day stretched into afternoon and was getting closer to Maghrib but there was no sign of any bus to take us to Makkah, as promised. The Darus Salam crew had also disappeared. Frustration among our group members—officially hujjaj now—was growing.

It was late afternoon. Once again, I decided to take a bold step. I had the phone number for the Khogeer group so I called the office and asked to speak to Abdullah Khogeer, the owner. I did not expect to be put through to him but to my surprise, he answered the phone.

I introduced myself and told him that we were supposed to be taken to a hotel in Makkah today. No bus had arrived. Why? He promised to look into it and to send a bus to our building in about 45 minutes. I thought he said this to get rid of me but to our great surprise, the bus arrived.

Like excited school children, we hopped on the bus with bags and suitcases, happy to go to Makkah, especially near the Haram. The bus dropped us off some distance from the hotel. We had to carry our luggage through cobbled stone alleyways to reach the hotel.

This hotel’s lobby was bigger than the one in Madinah, but it too was filled with pilgrims’ bags. There were groups waiting to be checked in. We waited for our turn but nobody took care of us.

Again, I decided to go into the manager’s office to get some action. He was of Indian origin. I explained to him what group we were with and we needed to be checked in. He told me that he had no authorization from the Khogeer group to do so. He showed me a fax he had just received from Khogeer’s office for another group.

It was extremely upsetting. I asked him to let me use his office phone (cell phones were not common at that time) to speak to Abdullah Khogeer. I got through to him and asked why he had lied to us about hotel accommodation.

Abdullah Khogeer apologised for the mix-up and said he would arrange accommodation in another hotel. He promised to call back shortly. He did and said a bus would come and pick us up to take us to another, The Hyatt Regency, a five-star hotel.

Some members of our group were skeptical and did not want to leave the hotel. They felt we were being tricked into boarding the bus to take us back to Aziziya. I told them that it was better to go to Aziziya rather than stay in the hotel lobby for the entire the night in over-crowded conditions.

Reluctantly, we boarded the bus after hauling our luggage again through the cobbled stone streets. As our bus traveled toward the Hyatt Regency hotel, it went past it. Some members of our group started shouting at me saying, “See, we are being cheated.”

After traveling some distance past the hotel, the bus turned around through an opening in the road barrier. To our relief, it brought us to the hotel. We went inside the hotel. It had a huge lobby; it wasn’t crowded as the hotels we had been in before.

It was getting late, around 10 pm when we got to the Hyatt Regency. Again, the arrangement was for a batch of four men to share a room, as well as four women to one room. We quickly sorted ourselves, put our luggage in our rooms and headed to the dining hall for dinner. We hadn’t eaten since lunch time in Aziziya. We were also exhausted.

The hotel was about 15-20 minutes walking distance from the Haram but at least we were in Makkah. We could go and offer all our salats in Masjid al Haram.

Our package included breakfast and dinner. It also included tours of historical sites such as going back to Mina, Arafat etc now that Hajj was over. A visit to Jabal al-Nur (The Mountain of Light) with the Cave of Hira, was part of the itinerary.

The Prophet (ﷺ) received the first revelation in this cave. I was looking forward to climbing the mountain and visit the Cave of Hira to offer two rakat nafl salat.

On the day of our tour, the bus was supposed to arrive at the hotel by 8 am. We all waited anxiously but there was no sign of it. Calling Khogeer’s office, we were told the bus had left and may be stuck in traffic. This is not unusual. But when it did not show up for another two hours, our frustration grew.

At around 10:30 am, I decided to go outside the hotel to see if there was any sign of the bus. Nothing. There was an alleyway next to the hotel.

I turned into it and saw a bus parked there. The driver was sleeping inside. I banged on the door. He woke up startled. I asked in my rudimentary Arabic if he was here to take us to Mina, Arafat etc. He nodded in the affirmative.

I rushed to the hotel lobby and told our group the bus was parked on the side street. We all hurriedly boarded the bus and were soon on our way to Mina, Arafat etc.

Unfortunately, by the time we got to Jabal al-Nur, it was quite late. I could not climb up the mountain to reach the Cave of Hira. It was quite crowded as thousands of people were going up and a similar number coming down. This was my greatest disappointment because I knew I would not get another opportunity to perform Hajj.

Our flight out of Jeddah was at 1:40 am. During the day at 10:30 am (15 hours prior to departure) we got a call in the room telling us to come down to the lobby immediately with our luggage. I asked why. The Darus Salam rep told me that we had to check out of the hotel and go to Jeddah.

I told him that it was more than 15 hours to our flight. He said it takes a long time to retrieve our passports from the Saudis. It made no sense.

I understood what they were doing. By checking us out of the hotel at 11 am, the Hajj operators would save the cost of one day’s stay. This was grossly unfair.

Reluctantly, we all checked out and boarded the bus. We were at Jeddah airport around 1:30 pm, a full 12 hours before our flight. We were dumped there and left to fend for ourselves.

Our ordeal, however, was not over. Jeddah airport is huge. We took out luggage and settled outside the Lufthansa gate. Obviously our counter inside the building would not be open until 10:30 pm.

As we sat there, two Saudi honchos with protruding bellies, came to tell us we had to move to another place. We thought perhaps our flight was from another gate. As we hauled our luggage to the new place, other pilgrims were coming in our direction.

At around 9 pm, two other Saudis came and told us we had to move yet again. We were taken to the very spot from where we had been displaced during the day.

Why this was necessary, we could not figure out. Perhaps, they wanted to show their importance or, they took sadistic pleasure in tormenting the hujjaj.