Your Makkah hotel name in Arabic should come from the hotel itself, in writing, and sit beside the English name on your confirmation, never in place of it. Spelling mix-ups happen because Arabic names have no single English spelling: the same hotel can appear as “Al”, “El” or no article at all, with “ee” or “i”, with or without hyphens. Pick one English spelling from the hotel’s own confirmation, get the Arabic from the hotel, add the National Address short code, and check that all three point to the same building before you book any transport.
This guide is for the family organiser booking airport transfers or intercity journeys for relatives staying in Makkah, and in Madinah too, often from the UK and often for parents who will be the ones meeting the driver. It explains why hotel name spelling variations appear, which variations are harmless and which are warnings, where a reliable Arabic name comes from, how to check Arabic script you cannot read, and how to lay out Arabic and English hotel names for your driver. A worked example and a checklist close the guide.
Why one hotel can have five English spellings
Arabic is written in its own script, and there is no single agreed way of writing Arabic names in English letters. Hotels, booking sites, travel agents and relatives each make their own choice, so one property can collect several spellings in a single week of planning.
A few features of Arabic cause most of the variation:
- Sounds with no English letter. Several Arabic letters have no exact English equivalent, so one writer uses “q” where another uses “k”, or “h” where another leaves a gap.
- Short vowels. Arabic script usually leaves short vowels unwritten. An English writer has to choose them, so one name becomes “Tawhid” for one person and “Tawheed” for another.
- The article “al”. The Arabic word for “the” is written “Al”, “El”, “Al-“, “al ” or sometimes dropped altogether.
- Joined or split words. Some writers join words that others separate, so a two-word name can become one word, a hyphenated word or two words.
- Long vowels. Some spellings double a vowel to show length (“Daar”) and some do not (“Dar”).
None of these make a spelling wrong; they make it a variant. The real risk is that two different hotels look alike once everyone spells loosely, and a search picks the wrong one.
Hotel name spelling variations: harmless or a warning?
Most hotel name spelling variations are harmless: the same words, written differently. Some are warnings, because the difference changes which building you mean. The table sorts them.
| What differs | Example pattern | Usually | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article written differently | “Al”, “El”, “Al-” or none | Harmless | Keep the hotel’s own form in your records |
| Vowel choices | “ee” or “i”, “ou” or “u” | Harmless | Match the confirmation, not memory |
| Doubled letters | “Dar” or “Daar” | Harmless | Same as above |
| Word joined or split | one word, two words, hyphen | Harmless | Search both ways in the ride finder |
| City spelt differently | Makkah, Mecca, Makka | Harmless | Use Makkah in the booking |
| Extra word such as Tower, Towers, Plaza, Suites | “X Hotel” or “X Towers” | Warning | Ask the hotel which building you are in |
| Brand name with a different second name | “Brand X” or “Brand Y” | Warning | Check the confirmation number with the hotel |
| A different district in the address | Two areas of the city | Warning | Treat as a different property until proven otherwise |
A useful rule: if the only difference is how a sound is written, it is probably a variant. If a word has been added, removed or replaced, it is probably a different property, a different tower or a sister hotel, and it needs checking. If a brand has more than one property in the city, our guide to two Makkah hotels with the same name explains how to pin down the right branch.
What the English name and the Arabic name each do
The two names do different jobs, which is why you want both.
The English name is what your family reads, what you type into the ride finder, and what appears in your booking and emails. It should be copied from the hotel confirmation, in full, with any tower or wing name.
The Arabic name is what many drivers, security staff and passers-by in Makkah read most quickly, and it is what the sign on many buildings shows first. Visit Saudi, the official tourism site, states that Arabic is the official language of Saudi Arabia and that English is widely spoken, and that road signs are bilingual. So a driver may well read your English name perfectly. The Arabic form is a second route to the same building, useful when a name is long, when an English spelling is unusual, or when someone on the street is helping.
International brands are often written in Arabic by sound, so their Arabic form is a transliteration, not a translation. Either way, the reliable version is the one the hotel uses.
Where to get your Makkah hotel name in Arabic
The only safe source for your Makkah hotel name in Arabic is the hotel, or the agent who holds the reservation, in writing. The reasons are simple: a translation app may render a brand name as ordinary Arabic words, and a relative typing from memory may choose different letters from the ones on the building.
Good sources, in order of reliability:
- A written reply from the hotel to a message quoting your confirmation number.
- The hotel’s own confirmation or voucher, if it shows the Arabic name.
- The agent’s voucher, if the agent booked the room directly with the hotel.
- The hotel’s official website, in its Arabic version, checked against the confirmation.
Weak sources:
- a translation app, which is built for sentences rather than proper names (our guide to what a translation app gets wrong with transport details explains why);
- a map listing, which anyone may have edited;
- a relative’s typed version in the family chat;
- an old booking from a previous trip.
A short message to the hotel does the job: “Our confirmation number is [number] for [dates]. Please send the hotel’s full name in English and in Arabic, the full address, and the National Address short code.” Ask for the reply as text, not as a photograph, so you can copy and paste the Arabic rather than retyping it.
How to check Arabic script you cannot read
Many organisers cannot read Arabic, and that is fine. You are not reading the name; you are checking that two copies of it match.
Copy, never retype
Arabic letters change shape depending on their position in a word, and several letters differ only by dots. Retyping by eye invites mistakes that you cannot see. Copy the Arabic from the hotel’s message and paste it into your notes, your printed sheet and any message to the traveller.
Compare shape and length
Place the two versions one above the other. Do they have the same number of word groups? Do the shapes at the start and end match? Are the dots in the same places? Arabic is read from right to left, so start comparing from the right.
Watch for font differences
Different phones and printers draw Arabic letters in slightly different styles. A change of style is not a change of name. A change in the number of words or in the dots is.
Ask someone who reads Arabic
If a relative or friend reads Arabic, ask them to confirm both versions say the same thing, without improving the spelling. And keep the English name directly above the Arabic every time, so the two never drift apart.
The National Address short code: the part that needs no translation
The Saudi National Address gives you something that no spelling can change. Saudi Post (SPL) describes the National Address as a building number of four digits, a street that represents the location of the building’s main entrance, a secondary number representing the location coordinates, a district, a five-digit postal code and a city. It also offers a short address of four letters and four numbers, designed to be easy to remember, and states an accuracy of one square metre.
For a family working across two languages, the short address is ideal. It is the same in every language, it survives any transliteration, and it identifies a building rather than a brand. Ask the hotel for it in the same message as the Arabic name, and put it on every copy of the details.
If the name and the map pin you have been sent disagree, that is a separate problem, and our guide to what to do when a hotel name and map pin disagree sets out the steps.
Makkah or Mecca, Madinah or Medina: city names in the booking
City names vary too. Visit Saudi uses “Makkah” on its official city page, and you will also see Mecca, Makka and the fuller Makkah Al-Mukarramah on hotel vouchers and airline tickets. Madinah appears as Medina, Madina or Al Madinah Al Munawwarah. Jeddah is sometimes written Jiddah or Jedda.
These are all the same places. In your own records, use one form: Makkah and Madinah match the ride finder, and consistency keeps the family chat from looking like two different conversations.
Typing the hotel into the ride finder
When you book with Pilgrim Taxi, each journey has one pickup place and one destination. Some places appear as popular locations, such as the Clock Royal Tower (Fairmont Hotel) and the Hilton Hotel and Convention Jabal Omar in Makkah, or the Madinah Hilton. Any other place is typed, and you must check it in the route summary before you pay.
Spelling matters most at this step. A few habits help:
- Type the English name from the confirmation, not a shortened version.
- Try the obvious variants if the first search finds nothing: with and without “Al”, joined and split words, “Hotel” added or removed.
- Read the resolved place, not the text you typed. The route summary shows what the planner found. That is the destination the driver receives.
- Check the area. Does the resolved place sit in the district named on your confirmation?
- Use distance as a rough check. In our live route checks, Jeddah Airport to central Makkah was about 94 to 97 km. A Makkah hotel showing a very different figure from Jeddah Airport deserves a second look.
Distance only catches large errors. In the same checks, the Clock Tower to the Hilton Jabal Omar was about 1.5 km, so two hotels with similar names can be close neighbours. That is why the name, the Arabic form and the National Address all matter more than the distance.
Getting this right before payment matters because of how changes work later. Only the pickup time can be changed online. The destination cannot. A booking made to the wrong property needs the booking team, or a new booking plus a cancellation request, and bookings are subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept) if the customer cancels.
Arabic and English hotel names for your driver: laying them out
Arabic and English hotel names for your driver work best as a short block, the same everywhere it appears: on the printed sheet, in the saved copy on the phone and in the message to the traveller.
A layout that works:
Hotel (English): full name including tower, copied from the confirmation
Hotel (Arabic): pasted from the hotel’s written reply
Address: street and district as on the confirmation
National Address short code: four letters, four numbers
Hotel phone: in full international format
Lead traveller: name as on passport
In the booking notes
Write the booking notes in plain English, in short lines: the full hotel name and tower, the address, the hotel phone number and the lead traveller. If you add the Arabic name, paste it exactly from the hotel’s message, then check how it shows in your account afterwards. If it displays as boxes or question marks, keep the Arabic on the printed sheet instead, where it cannot be garbled.
On paper
Print the Arabic in large type, which is easier to read than a phone screen in sunlight. Our guide to keeping Umrah travel details offline explains what else belongs on the same sheet.
On the day
Where a vehicle may stop at a hotel or near the Haram, and which entrance is usable, is managed on the day. The Arabic name identifies the building; it does not settle the meeting point. Agree that with the driver and share a live location when you are ready.
One spelling for the whole family
Most spelling trouble starts in the family chat, where three relatives soon produce three versions. Fix it in one pinned message with the hotel’s own English spelling, the Arabic and the short code, and ask everyone to copy from it. Our guide to sharing Umrah pickup details with family shows how to write that pinned message for each journey.
The same discipline applies to people’s names. The lead traveller’s name should match the passport, as our guide to the name on an Umrah transfer booking explains, and it helps to use that same spelling everywhere the hotel’s details appear.
If you find a spelling problem after booking
The right response depends on what the problem really is.
- Different spelling, same property. If the route summary resolved to the right building and only the spelling differs from your confirmation, the journey itself is fine. Update your printed sheet and family message so that everyone uses one form.
- Different property. If the booking points to a different hotel, tower or branch, that is a destination change. It cannot be made online. Contact the booking team with the booking reference, the destination as booked and the hotel’s written confirmation of the correct building. Do not press “Request cancellation or refund” first: bookings are subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept) if the customer cancels, and a full refund for the affected journey applies if we or the transport partner cancel or cannot supply the journey. The full terms are in our cancellation and refund policy.
- Arabic name missing or wrong on your sheet. This does not change the booking. Get the correct Arabic from the hotel and replace every copy.
Online bookings need at least 48 hours’ notice before pickup, so checking names early leaves the most room to put things right.
Worked example: Farah’s three spellings
Farah Siddiqui in Leicester is booking a transfer from Jeddah Airport to Makkah for her parents, Imran and Rukhsana. The hotel name in this example is invented for illustration: we will call it Al Rayyan Tower.
Her brother calls it “Rayan Towers” in the family chat, the agent’s voucher says “Al-Rayyan Tower Hotel”, and her mother has written “El Rayan” from memory.
Farah sorts the variants. “Al”, “Al-” and “El” are the same article, and “Rayan” and “Rayyan” differ only in a doubled letter. “Towers” is different: it could mean a second building. She messages the hotel, quoting the voucher’s confirmation number, and asks for the full English name, the Arabic name as text, the address and the National Address short code.
The hotel replies the next day. The property is one tower, the English name matches the voucher, and there is a separate “Towers” development nearby under a similar name. Farah types the voucher spelling into the ride finder, reads the resolved place in the route summary, and confirms that it sits in the district on the voucher. She books, fills the booking notes, and prints a sheet with the English name, the Makkah hotel name in Arabic pasted from the hotel’s reply in large type, and the short code. She pins the correct spelling in the family chat and tells everyone the booking is fixed only when the account shows Confirmed.
Checklist: your Makkah hotel name in Arabic and English
- Copy the full English name, including tower, from the hotel confirmation.
- Ask the hotel in writing for its Arabic name as text, the address and the National Address short code.
- Sort the family’s spellings: sound differences are variants; added or missing words need checking.
- Paste the Arabic; never retype it or take it from a translation app.
- Compare the pasted Arabic with the hotel’s message by shape, length and dots, or ask someone who reads Arabic.
- Use one city spelling in your records: Makkah and Madinah.
- Type the confirmation spelling into the ride finder and read the resolved place in the route summary.
- Lay out English, Arabic, address, short code and hotel phone as one block on paper and on the phone.
- Pin one spelling in the family chat and delete older versions.
- Book at least 48 hours ahead and wait for Confirmed in your account.
Once the names agree, the booking is the easy part. Open the Pilgrim Taxi ride finder, type the hotel exactly as your confirmation spells it, and check the route summary before you choose a vehicle.