Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok – Wikipedia
For homonymous articles, see Oriental.
The Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok is a five -star Bangkok hotel located on the banks of Chao Phraya. It was founded in 1876 under the name of Oriental hotel : He was then the first hotel in Thailand. Property of the Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel group, it has 358 rooms, 35 suites and 8 restaurants. It is renowned for the quality of its service and is regularly classified as the best hotels on the planet.
He was renamed ‘ Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok » in .
When Siam opened up to international trade after signing the Bowring treaty (in) in , sailors of commercial ships arriving in Bangkok needed housing on the ground. An American, Captain Dyers, and his partner J.E. Barnes opened a hotel for them, the Oriental hotel. This was destroyed by a fire in 1865 [ first ] .
Several years later, an association of Danish captains opened another hotel to replace it [ 2 ] . In the 1970s, when the new building was opened on Chao Phraya, the Board of Directors of the Oriental Hotel chose 1876 as the official date of the opening of the hotel [ 3 ] .
H. N. Andersen [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
In 1881, the Danish businessman Hans Niels Andersen (in) , then aged 29, bought the premises [ 4 ] . His many activities have made him a respected member of the European Community in Siam. Andersen understood that travelers and businessmen who went to the country needed a respectable hotel, with good equipment, a bar and Western cuisine.
Encouraged by Prince Princengang (in) , he joined forces with Peter Andersen and Frederick Kinch to build a luxury hotel. Designed by Cardu & Rossi, a local team of Italian architects, the Oriental was the first luxury hotel in Siam. He opened the ; He owned 40 rooms and still unknown developments in the country outside the royal palaces: a second floor (at a time of bungalows of one level), carpets in the halls, a room for women and a smoker, a billiard room and a bar that can accommodate 50 seated customers [ 5 ] . To ensure the success of the restaurant and a good level of service, the owners convinced the butler and the chef of the French Consulate to come and work at the hotel.
The first important event in the new hotel was the big banquet given the For the fifty years of reign of Queen Victoria. After having personally visited the hotel in , King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) decided that he had the qualities necessary to welcome the sovereigns on a visit. The first royal hosts were the entourage of the Crown Prince Nicolas of Russia (future Nicolas II) in .
Several owners succeeded themselves to Marie Mayor in 1910. She immediately launched a renovation of the hotel, which she sold in 1932. During the Second World War, the hotel was rented in the Japanese army, who used it as a club for its officers (under the direction of the Tokyo Imperial Hotel). At the end of the war, he hosted former allied prisoners of war who, believing that he belonged to the Japanese, devastated him [ 2 ] , [ 6 ] .
Germaine Krull [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
After the war, six people joined forces to buy the hotel, seriously damaged. Each provided $ 250. It was the German photographer Germaine Krull (1897–1985), Prince Bhanu, General Chai Prateepasen, Diplomat Pote Sarasin and John Webster and Jim Thompson, two Americans who had worked for the Office of Strategic Services (Oss) and had stayed in Thailand. Krull became director of the Oriental in 1947, despite his lack of experience in the hotel industry. Born in Germany, she had been correspondent for the France Press agency during the Second World War. The restoration of the hotel and its furnishings allowed Thompson to deploy its architectural and artistic skills.
The Oriental reopened the . Krull was an excellent director and gave her back as a first hotel in Thailand. Thompson soon left the association on the question of building a new wing, even if there was still a certain time. To fight against vogue clubs and a new bar called “Chez Eve” , Krull created the Bamboo Bar , who has soon become one of the best known in Bangkok [ 7 ] .
In 1958 was built the Garden Wing (garden wing). Five of the five floors, she had the first elevator of the city and housed the restaurant Le Normandie [ 2 ] .
In 1967, fearing that Thailand fell into the hands of the Communists, Krull sold its share to the new ITALTHAI company (in) , then in full expansion.
Italthai [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Italthai (in) had been founded in the mid -1950s by an Italian born in Genoa, Giorgio Berlingieri, and a Thai, Dr. Chaijudh Karnasuta. Berlingieri thought that the Oriental had started to rest on its laurels and had been overwhelmed by its competitors. He wanted to make it one of the best hotels in the world. Too busy to take care of it himself, he appointed director general in Kurt Wachtveitl (born in 1937), who managed the Nip Lodge , another hotel owned by Itatthai in Pattaya.
In 1972, the Oriental bought adjacent land where it erected a new wing of 350 rooms, named River Wing [ 2 ] .
Mandarin Oriental [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The Mandarin Oriental group was created at the same time in 1963 as its platform hotel, the Mandarin of Hong Kong, soon renowned for its luxurious service. Mandarin International Hotels Limited , founded in 1974, was intended to ensure its expansion in Asia, in the same sector of luxury hotels [ 8 ] .
In 1974, the company bought 49% of the Oriental hotel, which made it two flagship hotels. In 1985, it rationalized its structure by bringing them together under a name that evokes the two, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group [ 8 ] .
The hotel opened its « Oriental Spa » In 1993 and completed the complete renovation of his rooms and suites in 2003. In 2006, he celebrated his 130 It is anniversary [ 9 ] . In September 2008, he was renamed Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok.
- Best City Hotel in Asia and registered on the list of Top 20 Hotels Worldwide of Travel + Leisure 2009 [ ten ]
- Best City Center Hotel Spa Worldwide ( Luxury Travel Advisor , – Awards of Excellence)
- Urban Spa of the Year ( AsiaSpa Magazine , – AsiaSpa Awards)
- One of the 400 best hotels in Forbes Travel Guide (in) , .
- No. 8 on the list Overseas Leisure Hotels – Asia & the Indian Subcontinent ( Condé Nast Traveller (in) , – Readers’ Travel Awards
- No. 13 on the list Spas in Overseas Hotel ( Condé Nast Traveller , – Readers’ Travel Awards)
- No. 3 on the list of Top 20 International City Hotels ( Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report , – The World’s Best Hotel, Resorts & Hideaways)
- The restaurant “Le Normandie” du Mandarin Oriental, with Mezzaluna (on the 65th floor of the Lebua Hotel) and Gaggan become the first 3 restaurants doubly starred by the new Michelin guide 2018.
- (in) Augustin, Andreas; Williamson, Andreas, The Oriental Bangkok , Vienne, Leading Hotels of the World, , 160 p. (ISBN 3-902118-05-9 )
- (in) Germaine Krull et Dorothea Melchers, Bangkok : Siam’s City of Angels , Londres, Robert Hale Limited, , 191 p.
- (in) O’Nell, Maryvelma, Bangkok : A Cultural and Literary History , Oxford, Signal Books, , 248 p. (ISBN 978-1-904955-39-9 )
- (in) William warren it jill gocher, Asia’s legendary hotels : the romance of travel , Singapore, Periplus Editions, , 120 p. (ISBN 978-0-7946-0174-4 )
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