Kowloon Shangri-La is a five-star hotel of the Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts group. It is located on Mody Road in Tsim Sha Tsui East overlooking Victoria Harbour and the Hong Kong Island skyline. It is the sister hotel to the Island Shangri-La in Admiralty district, Hong Kong.
History
The history of the hotel is tied to the history of the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts chain, which began with the opening of the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, in 1971. The Kuok Group, which built the Singapore hotel, put it under the management of Western International Hotels. Kuok entered the hotel management world in 1979 when Kuok Hotels was formed to manage the Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa in Penang, the Golden Sands Resort in Penang, and The Fijian, Yanuca Island, on Fiji.
A management contract with Western International for the new Hong Kong property was signed on 1 August 1978 and the Shangri-La Hotel opened on 17 June 1981, managed by Westin Hotels, the new name of Western International as of 5 January 1981. In 1983, the Kuok Group created Shangri-La International Hotel Management Ltd. The hotel was soon after renamed the Kowloon Shangri-La.
In April 1991,Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts assumed management of the Kowloon Shangri-La from Westin.
To celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2011, the hotel held an exhibition of photographs submitted by the public, from guests who had visited from around the world during the three decades since its opening. A judging panel of photographer Water Poon, president of the Institute of Professional Photographers Carsten Schael, and Anthony Lau Chun-hon, executive director of the Tourism Board selected the winners.
Awards
Kowloon Shangri-La frequently receives recognition as one of the top luxury hotels in Asia, featuring in media such Condé Nast Traveler. It has won the following awards:
Certificate of Excellence, Daodao.com (Trip Advisor China), 2013
World's Top Hotel Gold List, Condé Nast Traveler (USA), 1997 to 2013
Best Hotels for Service (Asia) Category, Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Awards (UK), 2011 China's Top 10 Most Popular Business Hotels, The Golden Pillow Award of China Hotels, 2009 and 2011 Top 10 MICE Hotels in China, China Hotel Starlight Awards, 2011 and 2012 Top 10 Best Business Hotels in China, Travel + Leisure (China), 2010 and 2011 Guide to the World's Best Hotels T+L 500 (Ranked 6th among hotels in Hong Kong for in 2011), Travel & Leisure (USA), 2003 to 2011 Top 25 Luxury Hotels in China, Tripadvisor (UK)'s Travellers' Choice, 2012 One of the Top 25 Hotels in Hong Kong / Macau / Taiwan, TripAdvisor (UK)'s Travellers' Choice, 2010
Design and construction
Kowloon Shangri-La is located in the tourist-heavy Tsim Sha Tsui East, within walking distance of the luxury boutiques on Canton Road, the Temple Street Night Market and Chungking Mansions.
The interior design, which includes a lobby created from Italian Statuario marble and two murals of the Shangri-La Valley by UK artist Malcolm Golding, was developed by Y Shibata & Associates of Japan, Don Aston Designers Asia Ltd., and Bilkey Llinas Design Ltd. Attention to detail includes the changing of carpets in the elevators at midnight every night, to mark the days of the week.
Malcolm Golding returned in 2003, 23 years after painting the original murals, to restore them. He became a tourist attraction as he used bamboo scaffolding to repaint his vision of Shangri-La as a "lush tropical valley hemmed by startling mountains, with colourful birds and huge flowering plants surrounding a stylised Chinese palace."
Features
Rooms and suites
The rooms of the hotel were developed by LRF Designers Limited and number 679, of which 638 are guest rooms, and 41 are Suites. Suites include the Executive, Harbour View, Premier Harbour View, Specialty and Presidential Suite. The rooms average 450 square feet, some of the largest available on the crowded peninsula of Kowloon and many of the rooms directly overlook Hong Kong Island waterfront. Rooms on floors 19 through 21 are dedicated to the "Horizon Club"
Restaurants
The hotel holds five specialty restaurants serving a variety of cuisines under Executive Chef, as well as a lounge and a bar, Lobby Lounge and a Tapas Bar. Both outlets were designed by Bilkey Llinas Design Ltd., and the Tapes Bar was honoured with the "Wine by The Glass Restaurant Award", organised by Restaurant & Bar Hong Kong, in 2011.