The Peace Hotel reopens
29 July 2010
(Update) Shanghai’s Fairmont Peace hotel finally reopened its doors yesterday after undergoing an extensive three-year restoration.
The 270-room hotel, which was closed to the public in 2007, will be managed by Jin Jiang Hotels International and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Previously known as the Peace Hotel, the property has been rebranded as the Fairmont Peace Hotel.
Changes to the hotel, which is situated on the Bund, include a new extension to the building which houses a sky-lit swimming pool and a Willow Stream Spa, a Fairmont-branded spa. The famous ‘Nine Nations Suites’ remains a feature while a new presidential suite occupies the 10th floor penthouse where the hotel’s flamboyant creator and former owner Sir Victor Sassoon once lived.
The restoration of the property was overseen by a team of designers, architects and historians including interior design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA).
In an interview with Hotel Management Asia in February this year, general manager Kamal Naamani, said a key focus of the restoration project, the cost of which has not been disclosed, was to bring back to life elements of the hotel as it used to look in the 1930s.
One of the major challenges with the project, he said, was to find enough information about the original colours or design of some areas to facilitate the restoration.
Naamani described the property as a ‘perfect fit’ for Fairmont’s portfolio. “Most of our hotels are heritage properties, one of a kind, iconic hotels, like The Savoy in London, The Plaza in New York. The Peace hotel was a perfect fit for the portfolio; from its unique location to its unique history, it was made for Fairmont,” he said.
The original hotel, which opened in 1929 under the name the Cathay Hotel, boasted a number of firsts in its day including a private plumbing system with water channeled in from a spring outside the city, and Shanghai’s first electric elevator, an art deco cage.
Landmarks in the hotel’s history include being listed in 1992 as one of the world’s most famous hotels by the World Hotel Association.
The hotel has also hosted a number of distinguished guests including Charlie Chaplin, Bernard Shaw, and Noel Coward, who wrote the play Private Lives while in residence.
The refreshed hotel will include a Peace Gallery on the mezzanine floor where guests can learn about the history of the building. The gallery will also house antiques and some of the things that were used in the original hotel.
Room rates at Fairmont Peace Hotel will start from RMB2, 600 plus 15% service charge per room per night for a Fairmont Room.
