Taliban hands management of Serena hotel to German firm

By AFP
February 07, 2025
An Afghan receptionist stands at the front desk of the Kabul Serena Hotel, now renamed as the Kabul Grand Hotel, in Kabul on Feb. 5, 2025. — AFP
An Afghan receptionist stands at the front desk of the Kabul Serena Hotel, now renamed as the Kabul Grand Hotel, in Kabul on Feb. 5, 2025. — AFP

KABUL: A luxury Afghanistan hotel that saw several bloody attacks during the 20-year insurgency is now being managed by a German company a week after the Taliban government took control of it, the firm´s CEO told AFP.

In the deadliest attack on the Serena -- popular with business travellers and foreign guests -- four gunmen in 2014 made it through multiple levels of security and killed nine people, including an AFP journalist and members of his family.

In 2008, a suicide bombing left six dead, in an attack blamed on the current Taliban interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

The Cinderella International Group has been managing the renamed Kabul Grand Hotel since February 1, according to a 10-year contract won after a tender from the Taliban government, chief executive Aaron Azim said on Wednesday.

The Afghan-German national did not disclose the value, but said the deal was signed after the expiration of the previous contract with the Serena hotel chain.

On Friday, the Serena chain said the establishment´s operations had been handed over to the Hotel State Owned Corporation (HSOC), an arm of the Taliban government, without providing further details.