Even a grande dame needs a facelift when a younger rival moves in down the street. The venerable Peace Hotel, an icon of glamorous 1930s Shanghai, is preparing for a $50 million renovation that its owners hope will put it back in the ranks of the world's best.
Jinjiang International Group thinks the project is needed to help the hotel compete with a slew of glitzy establishments in the booming city, including a $360 million Peninsula hotel being built by Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd nearby on the northern tip of the Bund waterfront.
"If we don't upgrade, it just won't do. You can't compete on culture alone," public relations manager Ma Yongzhang said on Friday. He began work as a room attendant at the hotel as the chaos of China's Cultural Revolution erupted 40 years ago.
Opened by businessman Victor Sassoon in 1929 as the Cathay Hotel, the hotel welcomed Charlie Chaplin and Noel Coward to the city known as the Pearl of the Orient. It was renamed the Peace Hotel in 1956, after the Communists took power.
It hosted Chinese warlords, entertained Shanghai gangsters and survived Red Guard attacks before Shanghai conglomerate Jinjiang refurbished it 10 years ago.
The Italian marble in the art deco lobby gleams once again, but the elevators are clunky and the rooms do not always meet international five-star standards, guests say. The Peace Hotel's occupancy rate was a respectable 78 percent in 2005, but it has slipped this year.
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