The 36.5-million-dollar hotel, opposite the heavily fortified presidential palace, is an almost-total overhaul of the once-famous Kabul Hotel that was badly damaged in the 1992-1996 civil war that destroyed much of the capital.
With rooms starting at 250 dollars, five times the monthly salary of an average Afghan civil servant, it is beyond the means of most in a country rated among the poorest in the world.
The hotel was built at the request of the government that took over from the fundamentalist Taleban regime, removed in a US-led campaign launched after it did not hand over Taleban ally Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Officials say it is intended to stimulate the economy, ravaged by decades of war, through local hiring and sourcing and to provide the infrastructure required by investors and tourists.