Tall & Urban News

The façade of a 25-story hotel in Hanoi’s downtown is being covered in gold-plated tiles, with construction expected to complete just in time for the Formula One race in 2020. A large wall of the Hanoi Golden Lake Hotel on the bank of the Giang Vo Lake in Ba Dinh district has startled many passers-by with its glistening gold-plated tiles shining from day to night. While hotels boasting gold-plated rooms or accessories are not something new around the world, those using gold-plated tiles are rare.

Nguyen Huu Duong, general director of Hoa Binh Group, which is developing the 400-room hotel, claims that Hanoi Golden Lake would become the world’s first hotel to have its façade gold-plated. Duong reveals that covering tiles with real gold requires a complicated method, and hardly any investors or property developers would take the risks of having a property coated fully with gold. If one did, finding a tile manufacturer to do the job would be just as difficult.

However, Duong’s company itself has been able to manufacture the gold-plated tiles and accessories, using a past investment that has helped with its other real estate projects.

The Hoa Binh International Tower in the west of Hanoi, for instance, has been equipped with gold-plated lifts. The 920-room Danang Golden Bay Hotel in central Vietnam boasts a gold-plated rooftop infinity pool.

Duong said the gold-coated hotel will serve as a marketing tool in not only Vietnam, but internationally as well.

“As tourism has been identified as the spearhead of the local economy, the sector must have a unique product to attract visitors,” Duong noted. “The Hanoi Golden Lake will become a place not to be missed”

The hotel will be managed by US-based Wyndham Hotel Group. Several apartments in the hotel will also be sold, at a starting price of about US$6,500 per square meter. However, buyers will not be able to live there permanently, and instead must rent through an agency.

For more on this story, go to The Leader.