tl;dr – Get your saddle ready.
You’ll soon be able to use your Bonvoy points in Mongolia. Marriott recently announced the AC Hotels by Marriott Ulaanbaatar (tip of the hat to Tour and Travel World). The 190-key hotel is scheduled to open in 2027. Of the ‘core-four’ hotel chains, Marriott will be just the second to have a property in Mongolia. You Chingy, ‘Luda’, and Snoop-D-O-Dizzle can currently book a room at the Holiday Inn Ulaanbaatar.
Plans for the property include “an all-day dining venue, a specialty restaurant, a bar and lounge, and a grab-and-go AC Store. Leisure amenities will feature a heated indoor swimming pool, spa, fitness center, and an AC Library.”
The AC brand is an interesting choice here. A design-led brand that traces its roots to contemporary European-inspired ‘convenience’, the AC has, over the years, slowly shifted towards optimizing the experience for modern, urban travelers. Marriott has a whopping 37 brands to choose from, and I’m guessing that with the mid-range 190-room count, leadership preferred the select tier over, say, a flagship brand like Sheraton or Marriott, in the premium tier.
Mongolia, for a few years now, has been on all the ‘up-and-coming-see-it-before-it-blows-up’ travel lists. It’s popular amongst roadtrippers as the country has a lot of natural beauty, and leans heavily into its nomadic traditions, making it an ideal destination for those who enjoy exploring.
Mongolia is also well known for its horse culture. Horses are a fixture of Mongolian life, culture, and economy. They are used for transportation, herding, hunting, and sports like racing, with a population of horses roughly equal to or exceeding the human population.
Mare’s milk is used to make airag – a popular beverage and horse hair is used to create musical instruments such as the morin khuur, the traditional two-stringed Mongolian horsehead fiddle. Horses are quite the companions for many Mongolians. It’s not uncommon for people to forge a close relationship with their horses from birth to death, to the point that horses are keenly attuned to their riders’ intentions. From transportation, to hunting and herding (most horses in Mongolia are ‘semi-wild’, requiring a ‘catch-horse’ to round them up when needed), to simply symbols of wealth – horses, indeed, are quite revered.
Mongolia’s a place I’ve been meaning to get to for a bit now. I’m hopeful of traveling to the ‘Stans’ of Central Asia next year – perhaps I’ll be able to add Mongolia to the mix. While this Marriott won’t be open by then, the Shangri-La Ulaanbaatar and the Kempinski Hotel Khan Palace Ulaanbaatar both look promising.
