Source of the Current Outbreak was once "The Pride of Shanghai"
In February this year, Shanghai's first international 5-star hotel, the 36-year-old Huating Hotel & Tower, announced its closure.
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It was well-intended to be a “centralized quarantine area”, however, it unexpectedly became the source of the new outbreak of Covid-19 in the city. The virus spread through the hotel’s ventilation system and infected many, causing dire consequences.
Pushing Shanghai’s 5-star Hotel Scene into a New Era
Huating Hotel & Tower has a large area of 100,000 ㎡. Its opening had pushed the 5-star hotel scene in Shanghai into a new era.
Shanghai in the 80s
In the 1980s, Shanghai tourism was booming, but there were only slightly more than 4,000 guest rooms in the whole of Shanghai.
At that time, the government proposed to put in more investments to develop tourism and decided to build six hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other places, and that was how Huating Hotel & Tower was born.
Old photo of Huating Hotel & Tower
From the initial stages, Huating Hotel & Tower had ambitious plans: a 100,000 ㎡hotel, making it the largest in Shanghai at that time; 1,000 guest rooms, which was nearly 1/4 of the total number of guest rooms in Shanghai then.
The opening ceremony of Huating Hotel & Tower
Choosing the location of the hotel took two years. And to solve its financial difficulties, it started construction after acquiring loans of USD 82.06 million and RMB 1 million.
The Trendy Place to Old Shanghainese
Photo by Lu Jie
After three years, the 29-story Huating Hotel & Tower was completed one year ahead of schedule, and its beauty took everyone’s breath away.
The spiral staircase in the hotel lobby was eye-catching. The fountain pool under the stairs was also a pioneering design in the high-end hotels of the time.
It had eight sightseeing elevators, two as high as 90 meters.
Every night, the colorful lights on the sightseeing elevators changed as they went up and down.
Huating Hotel & Tower had restaurants, cafes, swimming pools, gyms, recreation rooms, bowling, tennis, dance halls, and more, and offered 24-hour room service, 24-hour housekeeping, and other services.
The hotel also hosted several salons and events. To date, many textbooks still use Huating's design as a classic example for teaching purposes.
People’s monthly salary was around RMB 6 in the 80s
More than 30 years ago, a room would sell for 1,000 USD a night. In the 1990s, wedding banquets here cost RMB 360 per table.
Many celebrities and dignitaries have visited the hotel, including Edward Heath, the former British Prime Minister, George Pratt Shultz, former US Secretary of State, French pianist Richard Clayderman, and Hollywood star Gregory Peck.
Shanghai’s First Internationally Managed Hotel
Old photo of Huating Hotel & Tower
Photo by Bill Hawker
Huating Hotel & Tower also created an unprecedented international collaborative management model for China.
Huating Hotel & Tower in the 90s
As early as the construction stage, Huating Hotel & Tower recruited 1,200 students and started their three-year orientation training program.
Contract signing ceremony
It also hired Sheraton to manage the hotel and became the first international hotel in Shanghai managed by China with international cooperation.
The decision was subject to many doubts, but soon, Huating Hotel & Tower proved to everyone that this decision was correct.
Huating’s old room card
Sheraton had mature marketing resources and international channels, so Huating successfully entered the international market as soon as it opened. Guests from more than 500 Sheraton hotels in over 80 countries could book and stay at Huating Hotel & Tower at any time.
The restaurant in Huating Hotel & Tower
In addition, Sheraton also allowed Chinese people to gain world-class management experience quickly.
Employees were assigned to Australia, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand Sheraton hotels to learn hotel management. Accountants, security staffs, secretaries, drivers, and operators were all underwent professional training and assessments.
Among he first batch of more than 2,000 employees of Huating Hotel & Tower, many of them have held important positions in major hotels across the country.
During the ten years of international collaborative management at Huating Hotel & Tower, it has received over 3 million guests locally and abroad. It was rated by international travel magazines Condé Nast and Wall Street Journal as the "Best Hotel in the World" and "The Best Business Hotel in Shanghai ”
Thousands of People Competed for Jobs
Thirty years ago, when someone worked at the Huating Hotel & Tower, many around them were envious.
The salary and bonus of its employees were more than RMB 100 a month, almost twice that of the employees of state-owned enterprises then.
Huating’s guest room
As early as 1987, Huating took the lead in implementing the labor contract system for all employees, which was new among the state-owned enterprises in Shanghai back then.
Huating’s restaurant
The rules and regulations were strict though, and nearly ten people were fired in the three months of trial operations, including many foreign administrators from Sheraton.
The hotel recruitment conditions were strict: apart from height and household registration requirements, many positions also required good English skills. Even though, there were still thousands of people compete for jobs.
As more and more modern luxury hotels were built, Huating Hotel & Tower gradually became unable to keep up with the pace of modernization.
The hotel announced its closure in February and is about to start its second major renovation in its 36 years of operation.
As a pioneer of luxury hotels in China, Huating Hotel & Tower has become a legend in Shanghai. We hope that the old hotel can come up glorious after this storm.
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