IHG Brings Its New Noted Collection Brand to the Middle East in Riyadh

IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed a franchise agreement with Morina Development & Investment to bring Cantonal Hotel Riyadh Noted Collection by IHG to Saudi Arabia, marking the first property under the Noted Collection banner anywhere in the Middle East. The agreement was signed on 11 August. Noted Collection is IHG’s 21st brand, conceived as a premium collection of independent hotels with distinctive stories, and the Riyadh signing is the brand’s first regional foothold.

The hotel will hold 107 keys and sit in Al Olaya, Riyadh’s principal commercial district. It is expected to open by the end of 2026 following a conversion, which is why the timeline is measured in months rather than years. On opening it will offer a main restaurant, a café, a rooftop lounge, meeting spaces and an indoor pool — a specification aimed squarely at business travelers who want something with more character than a standard corporate box.

Collection brands exist precisely for this kind of deal. Rather than requiring an owner to rebuild a property to a rigid template, they allow an existing independent hotel to keep its architecture and identity while gaining access to a global reservation system, a loyalty programme and corporate sales channels. For the operator that means demand without losing distinctiveness; for the chain it means growing the estate through conversions, which are faster and far less capital-intensive than new construction.

Riyadh is an obvious place to start. Saudi Arabia has been adding hotel capacity at pace under its tourism and economic diversification programmes, and the capital’s business travel market has grown steadily as international companies establish regional offices there. Most of that new supply has been in large international brands; a premium collection property offers something different in a market where the alternatives are increasingly interchangeable. For travelers, it is one more reason Riyadh now merits a proper look at the hotel options rather than a default booking.

Sources: IHG, Hospitality Net