Like the old Sheratons in Baghdad and Basra, the Intercontinental Kabul continues to use the name of a major brand though it has no actual affiliation. They don’t offer IHG Rewards points or honor the free minibar benefit for top status customers.

Now owned by the Taliban, it’s running at 20% occupancy. Only half of the hotel’s chandeliers are turned on, to save electricity. The property’s HR manager has an M4 assault rifle and a Glock, and has bomb making skills.

Credit: Intercontinental Kabul

When the Taliban stormed Kabul they took the hotel, lodged fighters there, and stole computers. But within two days they called male hotel staff back to the property in order to re-open the hotel. The only women allowed to work inside the hotel are at a security entrance where they screen entering female guests.

As U.S. forces left Kabul and Westerners fled, the Intercontinental advertised on social media that they were open – for lodging and for all of your catering and banquet needs. They did a deal with the Canadians where 120 departing citizens were covered there for a room night.

On the day after 9/11 the Taliban held a press conference here to say they didn’t know where Osama bin Laden was, even though of course they did. (Osama bin Laden once even spent the night in rooms 196 and 197.) Renovations were made to the property while the U.S. was engaged.

The new government renovated the place with the help of contractors, but it wasn’t the same as it used to be. One company closed the balcony in the dining room, where guests could feel the cold wind from the mountains while enjoying their coffee. Another company added another dining room to the hotel; it has clouds painted on the ceiling and looks like a cruise ship. Another sold off the marble slabs in the garden. The hotel staff says that corrupt officials just took what they wanted from the Intercontinental

Credit: Intercontinental Kabul

Taliban founder Mullah Omar once spent the night there in room 124. Taliban suicide bombers attacked the hotel in 2011, and then in 2018 Taliban assassins murdered 40 people there. Foreigners escaped by tying bedsheets together in order to climb out windows. Staff say the hotel’s fifth floor is haunted.

The man behind the 2018 suicide attacks is now Minister of Interior Affairs and spoke in the ballroom of the hotel thanking the families of the killers.

The hotel does a catering and banquet business, but music is banned. Just like the leaders of startup airline Riyadh Air are hoping the Saudis permit the carrier to serve alcohol, hotel management of the Intercontinental Kabul hope that Taliban leadership will loosen the ban on music in government-owned facilities. After all, the hotel is still losing money.

Secret police watch video monitors from inside room 114. But the Taliban wants to make this a five star hotel, is starting a hospitality academy, and is seeking outside investors. They turned down an offer from a company in Turkey.

In 2004 ground broke on a property that was supposed to become the Hyatt Regency Kabul.

Many projects in the region change hands, of course, for instance the Ninawa International Hotel in Mosul, Iraq was taken over by ISIS in 2015, though two years later they blew it up to prevent it from falling into Iraqi hands.

At the Intercontinental Kabul rates start at $101 and all guests receive free breakfast.