The hotel's aim is to provide a space where women in the country
can stay whilst travelling or simply go to for a day at the spa, un-chaperoned
by a close male family member. It was opened on Wednesday by Prince Sultan bin
Salman.    Saudi Arabia is one of the most conservative countries in the
world, where tradition and hardline clerics restrict women's movement,
preventing them from meeting male friends in public, driving cars or taking up
employment in many jobs. 

It's been opened by a prince, but he won't be allowed to stay and enjoy its
luxury.

Welcome to the first women-only hotel in Saudi Arabia, where women can stay
unchaperoned, in a country that goes to great lengths to separate the sexes.


By tradition, womens' freedom of travel in the deeply conservative state
has been severely restricted. 

New laws allow women to stay in mixed-gender hotels without a male family
member to escort them, but few women have taken advantage of them. 

The Luthan hotel and spa hopes to change that, as journalist Iman Samra
explains.

 JOURNALIST IMAN SAMRA, SAYING:
''It's a great idea that there is a hotel which can be enjoyed
exclusively and directly by women. She can do her work without having to be
accompanied by a chaperon.''

Rooms at the Riyadh hotel, owned by a group of 20 Saudi princesses and
businesswomen, are adorned with incense, plush fabrics and cherubs.

A luxury spa and gym offers a full-range of health and beauty treatments
for women to pamper themselves away from male-dominated society, as Hotel
Executive Director, Lorraine Coutinho explains.

HOTEL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR LORRAINE COUTINHO.
''So you come back from a hard day's work and you have the options of
going for a swim or visiting the gym which is what most working women need at
the end of one's working day." 

A night at the hotel starts at around 90 dollars. 
 
Judith Colquhoun, Reuters.