Once the tallest building in Macao, the revamped Hotel Central has been singled out as the “Designer’s Boutique Hotel” of the year at the 19th China Tourism and Culture Starlight Awards, according to a press release issued by its developer, Lek Hang Group.
The almost 100-year-old structure near Senado Square is the only heritage hotel in Macao to have received this accolade, the statement read. It described the China Tourism and Culture Starlight Awards as “the most prestigious and influential award event within China’s hospitality industry.”
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Lek Hang Group’s founder and chairman Sio Chong Meng said that Hotel Central’s extensive renovations were a “labour of love” for his company and its appointed design consultancy, Hong Kong-based Cheng Chung Design.
He said the designers were invited “to restore and integrate design elements from the hotel’s illustrious past and other nearby heritage buildings of similar vintage into every aspect of the hotel.”
The renovation preserved the hotel’s original structure, street-facing façade and distinctive rooftop features, Sio said. The 114 rooms have been themed to specific eras from Hotel Central’s history: the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Period costumes befitting these decades are available to rent, to help guests really enter the spirit of a stay there.
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Hotel Central first opened its doors in 1928, as a six-storey structure. Five more storeys – including two dedicated to gambling – were added in 1942, making it the tallest building in Macao and the tallest hotel in the Portuguese colonial territories.
The hotel had been deteriorating for several decades, then defunct, when Lek Hang Group purchased it in 2016. It has yet to officially open to guests.
