Still the city's grandest address and the venue for most official business. It kept the Four Seasons name after the chain itself withdrew, so expect a well-run independent hotel rather than the global standard. The lobby café is where Damascus meets.

The former Meridien, a large state-era hotel with a pool, several restaurants and conference halls. Rooms are plain but spacious; the location on the river boulevard puts the Old City twenty minutes' walk away.

Renovated through the war years and reopened in 2025, with a distinctive blue-green interior and a central position between the modern centre and the Old City walls. Running at around half occupancy in late 2026, so rooms are easy to find.

The original Damascene courtyard hotel, open since 2005 in a seventeenth-century house: eight rooms around a fountain, painted ceilings, breakfast under the citrus trees. Book early; it is small and the regulars return.

Four eighteenth-century merchant houses joined into one hotel, restored with the antiquities directorate: several courtyards, cedar staircases and a rooftop terrace over the quarter. Larger than Al Mamlouka, with a restaurant worth eating at even if you stay elsewhere.