Has Rosewood?s Sonia Cheng created the best city hotel in the world, with the Rosewood Hong Kong" Darius Sanai investigates
Asaya Kitchen Glasshouse
Standout new hotels in cities are hard to create. If you are building a resort on a tropical island, as long as you have the right hardware – pools, beaches, spa, restaurants and bars, leisure facilities and access – and the right people to operate and sell it, then the right crowd should start flowing in.
The world?s great cities are different. They tend to have existing hotels which are part of the social fabric and history of the city – think of the Pierre or the Carlyle in New York, Claridge?s or the Ritz in London, the Plaza Athenee or Bristol in Paris. Newcomers can?t just win by offering the right suites and chefs. They have to establish their own legend among the locals. And they are hypersensitive to location. Claridge?s wouldn?t be what it is if it had been built 200m north across Oxford Street. In this context, Hong Kong?s Rosewood had a battle on its hands when it opened in the spring of 2019. It was a new building, part of a broader complex created by one of the city?s big families, the Chengs, on the ?wrong? side of the water, in Kowloon. There was no history or legend: despite being from Hong Kong and operating hotels around the world, Rosewood?s owners had never had a Rosewood Hong Kong, One of the city?s landmark properties, the Peninsula, was just down the road.
Just weeks after the lavi...