Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts is a hotel company founded in 1971 by Robert Kuok (LHL-P-043), whom Singapore's National Heritage Board calls a "Malaysian entrepreneur". Wikipedia gives its address as "28/F Kerry Centre, 683 King's Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong" and its primary listing as the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Hospitality Net's company profile says it "currently owns and/or manages over 100 hotels globally in more than 75 destinations"; Wikipedia gives "over 100" hotels with "over 40,000 rooms". This entry absorbs LHL-068 Shangri-La Group, a duplicate. [1,2,4]

Orange Grove Road, 1971

The first hotel, the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore, opened on 23 April 1971. The Heritage Board describes it at completion: a "25-storey luxury hotel" of 520 rooms, built "at a cost of $31.5 million" and set in "12.5 acres of lush, tropical gardens", "designed by Hawaiian landscape architect Raymond Cain to fit into Singapore's image as a garden city". The name was taken from "the mythical city of Shangri-La described in James Hilton's novel, 'Lost Horizon'". The hotel then grew by wings: the Garden Wing opened in 1978 and the Valley Wing, the last of three, in 1985. Wikipedia now gives 792 rooms and 15 acres of gardens. [1,2,3]

Management Taken Back

The company did not begin by running its own hotel. The Heritage Board says the Singapore house was "Initially managed by the Western International Hotels group based in the United States"; Wikipedia names the manager as Westin Hotels & Resorts. On Wikipedia's account, Shangri-La International Hotel Management Limited was founded in 1979, "management of the Singapore Shangri-La was taken back over from Westin in 1984", and "it would not be until 1991 that Shangri-La assumed control of the rest of the hotels." [1,2]

Four Brands

Wikipedia states that "Shangri-La has 4 brands across different market segments: Shangri-La, Traders Hotels, Kerry Hotels, and Hotel Jen." Hospitality Net lists the same four: "the Shangri-La, Kerry, Hotel Jen and Traders brands". The register's reading, not the company's words: only the first of the four is the subject of this library; the others are recorded as the same owner's work at other prices. [1,4]

A Bonaparte House In Paris

The group's first European property, the Shangri-La Hotel, Paris, opened on 17 December 2010 in "the private home of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's grand-nephew, Prince Roland Bonaparte". The opening release dates the house "from 1892-1896", says it "is listed with the French heritage institution, Monuments Historiques", and calls the hotel "a unique flagship of smaller scale and historical significance". France.fr says the prince acquired the estate in 1891 and that the hotel "was awarded Palace status in July 2014". The release announced Shang Palace, "the city's first authentic gourmet Cantonese restaurant", for early 2011; Falstaff says a Michelin star has been held there "since 2012". [5,6,7,8]

Editorial note — ⚑ The first manager is named twice: Western International Hotels (Heritage Board) and Westin Hotels & Resorts (Wikipedia). Both readings are printed. ⚑ The 1979, 1984 and 1991 management dates rest on Wikipedia alone. ⚑ Room counts depend on source and date: in Singapore 520 at opening against 792 now; in Paris "81 rooms including 27 suites" at opening, "63 rooms and 37 suites" on France.fr, and "100 Rooms" in the Michelin Guide. ⚑ Shang Palace's 2011 opening appears here only as an announcement in the December 2010 release; no dated opening notice was read, though a star from 2012 means it was open by then. ⚑ The absorbed entry called Shangri-La "the first Asian luxury hotel brand to compete internationally on its own terms, and the one the Gulf brands studied". Nothing read here supports either claim, and both are withdrawn. ⚑ The Kuok Group and Shangri-La pages cited by the earlier draft could not be read today and are not relied on.