King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, 81, of Saudi Arabia flew to Moscow on Wednesday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Friday he was also meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to discuss joint infrastructure and trade projects.

While traveling on business is difficult for many of us, the Saudi king arrived in style with all the luxury of home, along with 1,500 staff members and a golden escalator to carry him down from the plane. The state visit almost got off to a rocky start, however, when the golden escalator ceased to function, forcing the monarch to walk down the rest of the steps to the tarmac.

Saudi party books out two entire luxury hotels

Bloomberg reports that the king’s party had entirely booked out two luxury hotels in Moscow ahead of the discussions. One is the Four Seasons, where a premier room can knock you back anything from $3,800 or more per night, while the king himself is likely staying in the Pozharsky Royal suite, which is only available on request and no nightly tariff was mentioned.

Meanwhile, the royal party also took over the entire parking garage of the Ritz Carlton hotel up until October 8, which is around 1 km from the Kremlin.

Bloomberg estimates the cost of the two hotels at around $3 million, not including meals, services and spa treatments enjoyed by the visiting party.

RT News reports that the Saudi monarch’s entourage even brought along plush carpets to enhance his quarters to ensure a comfortable stay along with staff to handle his food preparations.

That report said that the House of Saud is thought to be worth approximately $1.4 trillion, making it easy to have all the luxuries of home while traveling overseas. This extends to luxury planes, the customized golden escalator and even gold-plated protection barriers for when the king deplanes.

Escalator malfunctions and Saudi king has to walk

Unfortunately, in this case, the golden escalator malfunctioned, forcing the Saudi royal to walk down several steps. Once on the tarmac, journalists quickly photographed his arrival, separated from the king by the special gold and glass barriers, before he was whisked away by an entourage of luxury vehicles.

The visit this week to Moscow by the Saudi King is the first for a reigning Saudi monarch, marking a new level in relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Bloomberg reports that the two countries discussed methods to continue cooperation in stabilizing the oil market and also a weapons sales deal.

Twitter reacts to escalator malfunction

On hearing about the stuck golden escalator, naturally, Twitter came alive with various jibes, a few of which are included here.