25 Hong Kong Hotels and the City That Built Them
The hotel where the Governor surrendered Hong Kong in 1941, a 1902 police station out on Lantau, the old Marine Police headquarters, and the Wan Chai hotel behind The World of Suzie Wong.
Hong Kong turned old police stations, a government office block, and a Marine Police headquarters into hotels, alongside its harbour-front grand dames. This list has the Peninsula where the Governor surrendered the colony in 1941, the 1902 police station out on Lantau that is now the Tai O Heritage Hotel, the old Marine Police headquarters at FWD House 1881, and the Wan Chai hotel behind The World of Suzie Wong.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Most of the hotels link to their own site, where the rate is current and you book direct; a few are listed without a link.
The grand old names
The Peninsula · Tsim Sha Tsui
The Peninsula opened in December 1928 and is often called the oldest hotel in Hong Kong still running, the ‘Grande Dame of the Far East’. On 25 December 1941, ‘Black Christmas’, Governor Sir Mark Young surrendered Hong Kong to Japanese forces inside the hotel, which the occupiers then used as a headquarters and renamed the Toa Hotel. It keeps a fleet of Rolls-Royce Phantoms finished in its own ‘Peninsula green’. A 30-storey tower was added above the original building in 1994.
Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong · Central
The Mandarin Oriental opened in 1963 as ‘The Mandarin’, for a time one of the tallest buildings on Hong Kong Island. The Mandarin Oriental group took its name from this, its first flagship. It closed in 2005 for about nine months of renovation and reopened in 2006.
Regent Hong Kong · Tsim Sha Tsui
The Regent opened on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in 1980 as The Regent, known for a glass-walled lobby facing across Victoria Harbour. It ran as the InterContinental Hong Kong from 2001 to 2020. It reopened under the revived Regent name in 2023, after a multi-year redevelopment reported at around US$1.2 billion.
Island Shangri-La · Admiralty
The Island Shangri-La opened in 1991 in the Pacific Place complex, on the slopes below Victoria Peak. Its 17-storey atrium is hung with ‘The Great Motherland of China’, a Chinese silk painting made by around forty Beijing artists, which the hotel calls one of the largest landscape paintings in the world.
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong · Wan Chai
The Grand Hyatt opened in 1989 on the Wan Chai harbourfront, next to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The convention centre’s harbourfront extension next door held the ceremony marking Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to Chinese sovereignty.
Kowloon and the harbour
The Mira Hong Kong · Tsim Sha Tsui
The Mira opened in 2009 on the Nathan Road site of the long-running Hotel Miramar. In June 2013 the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden hid at the Mira for several days during his Hong Kong stay, before moving elsewhere.
The Langham, Hong Kong · Tsim Sha Tsui
The Langham opened on Peking Road, in Tsim Sha Tsui, in 1989. Its owner, Great Eagle Holdings, rebranded it the Langham, reviving the name of the historic London hotel the group later acquired.
Hotel ICON · Tsim Sha Tsui East
Hotel ICON opened in 2011 as the teaching and research hotel of Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management, part-staffed by students. Its lobby holds a soaring vertical garden by the French botanist Patrick Blanc. It was designed by the Hong Kong architect Rocco Yim, with guest rooms involving Sir Terence Conran.
Eaton HK · Jordan
Eaton HK opened on Nathan Road in the early 1990s as the Eaton Hotel, and relaunched in 2018 as Eaton HK, the first property of Katherine Lo’s Eaton Workshop brand. It runs as a cultural hub, with a community radio station, a screening space, and co-working and event rooms for creative and activist groups.
The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong · West Kowloon
The Ritz-Carlton opened in 2011 on floors 102 to 118 of the International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong’s tallest building. It was billed on opening as the highest hotel in the world. Its rooftop bar, Ozone, sits above the 118th floor and is counted among the highest bars in the world.
Used to be something else
The Murray · Central
The Murray is in the former Murray Building, a government office block finished in 1969, known for its deeply recessed windows that cut heat and glare. Foster + Partners converted it into a hotel, which opened in 2018.
FWD House 1881 · Tsim Sha Tsui
FWD House 1881 is in the former Marine Police Headquarters compound, whose main building dates to 1884, a declared monument and one of Hong Kong’s oldest surviving government buildings. It served as the Marine Police headquarters until 1996, and once took in a time-ball tower and the old Kowloon fire station. It was restored and reopened in 2009 as the 1881 Heritage complex, with a boutique hotel first called Hullett House, and now runs as FWD House 1881 after the insurer FWD took over the lease.
Tai O Heritage Hotel · Tai O, Lantau Island
The Tai O Heritage Hotel is in the former Tai O Police Station, built in 1902 to guard the waters off Lantau against piracy. A declared historic building, it was converted under a government revitalisation scheme and reopened as a nine-room heritage hotel in 2012, run by a non-profit foundation. It keeps original features, among them the old reporting room, cannons, and a rooftop searchlight.
Ovolo Central · Central
Ovolo Central opened in 2014 in a converted warehouse on Arbuthnot Road, reported as Ovolo’s first warehouse-conversion hotel in Hong Kong. It is a slim building on the edge of the SoHo and Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district.
Hong Kong Island
The Pottinger · Central
The Pottinger opened in 2014, named for Sir Henry Pottinger, Hong Kong’s first Governor, from 1843. It stands beside Pottinger Street, the stepped stone-slab lane laid in the colonial era and listed as a heritage feature. Its public spaces show work by the late Hong Kong street photographer Fan Ho.
Gloucester Luk Kwok Hong Kong · Wan Chai
The Gloucester Luk Kwok traces back to the Luk Kwok Hotel, a Wan Chai institution that opened in the 1930s. The old Luk Kwok was the model for the ‘Nam Kok Hotel’ in Richard Mason’s 1957 novel The World of Suzie Wong and its 1960 film. The original building was demolished and the hotel rebuilt on the same site, reopening in 1990.
The Upper House · Admiralty
The Upper House opened in 2009 in the Pacific Place complex, made by converting an existing tower in the architect André Fu’s breakthrough project. It is part of Swire Hotels’ House Collective.
The Fleming · Wan Chai
The Fleming reopened in 2017 after a redesign themed on Hong Kong’s harbour and the Star Ferry, its green-and-cream colours and brass detailing echoing the ferries. It is named for Fleming Road, in Wan Chai, where it stands.
Tuve · Tin Hau
Tuve opened in 2016 near Victoria Park, in a stark concrete, steel, and dark-timber minimalism said to be inspired by a lakeside landscape in Sweden. It became one of Hong Kong’s most-photographed design hotels.
Small houses with character
Hotel Stage · Yau Ma Tei
Hotel Stage opened in 2015 in Yau Ma Tei, a district long tied to Cantonese opera and theatre, near the restored Yau Ma Tei Theatre. It is themed around performance, a nod to the neighbourhood’s theatrical past.
The Luxe Manor · Tsim Sha Tsui
The Luxe Manor is a surrealist, Salvador Dalí-inspired boutique hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, mixing baroque and dreamlike motifs. It was one of Hong Kong’s earliest fully themed design hotels.
The Cityview – Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong · Yau Ma Tei
The Cityview is run by the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong, a social and welfare body founded in 1901. It stands on Waterloo Road in Yau Ma Tei, its trading surpluses helping fund the YMCA’s community work.
BP International · Jordan
BP International, full name Baden-Powell International House, is owned and run by the Scout Association of Hong Kong and named for Scouting’s founder, Robert Baden-Powell. It overlooks Kowloon Park near Austin Road, its proceeds helping fund the local Scout movement.
YMCA The Salisbury · Tsim Sha Tsui
The Salisbury is run by the YMCA of Hong Kong on Salisbury Road, right beside the Peninsula, with some of Tsim Sha Tsui’s few budget harbour-view rooms. The YMCA’s centre has stood on this stretch since the 1920s, its first building from 1925.
Little Tai Hang · Tai Hang
Little Tai Hang is a small apartment-style hotel in the old residential quarter of Tai Hang, home to the yearly Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance, a 19th-century custom listed as national intangible cultural heritage. It opened around 2017 in the quiet lanes behind Causeway Bay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a police station, a government block, a grand harbour-front name, or a small house with a cause. Comfort alone did not qualify a hotel.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Where a hotel runs its own site, its name links there, so you see the current rate and book direct.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Hong Kong leave by ferry to the outlying islands and Macau, or by train and road into the New Territories and across to Shenzhen. The Tsim Sha Tsui and Central hotels sit closest to the harbour crossings.
Do the small hotels book out faster than the grand ones?
Usually. The small houses — Tuve, the Luxe Manor, Little Tai Hang — hold few rooms and fill first. Book those well ahead.