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Would You Stay At A Former Iraq Prison Camp?

What does it take to convert a bunch of old US military trailers into a select service hotel? Apparently, just a little indoor plumbing and some catering. That's what's happening over at Camp Bucca in Iraq, just outside the town of Basra.

Among hundreds of other US military bases across Iraq that have been recently abandoned, an Iraqi developer saw the potential to develop this particular site into a hotel. The only drawback? It's a former prison camp. The NY Times reports that many, if not all, of the recent guests have been oil company executives—and boy, were they shocked when the bus dropped them off in front of an empty, dirt-walled trailer park enclosed by barbed wire.

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Iraq to Get a Five-Star Hotel

Apparently even war zones need new five-star hotels because northern Iraq’s getting one in 2009: the Erbil Rotana Hotel is due to open as part of Rotana’s push to expand across the Middle East.

The Erbil Rotana sounds like a pretty run-of-the-mill luxury hotel with 205 rooms and a Bodylines health club. Erbil is a Kurdish city in the north and is actually fairly well served by international airlines--even Austrian Airlines lands there four times a week.

But nobody’s going so far as to say that this place is safe; Business Traveller says:

Terrorist activity is statistically lower than in the rest of Iraq ... the region’s security situation is “relatively benign”

Statistically lower risk? Well, sign us up for a double room please.

[Photo of downtown Erbil: ttmooney]