Regent Hong Kong

History & Lore

Regent Hong Kong opened in 1980 as The Regent Hong Kong, quickly establishing a reputation as one of the harbour’s defining luxury addresses through the 1980s and 1990s — a lobby-level glass wall facing Victoria Harbour was, at the time, an unusual architectural statement, effectively turning the entire ground floor into a viewing platform for the skyline opposite. The property operated as InterContinental Hong Kong for roughly two decades before IHG Hotels & Resorts closed it in April 2020 for a three-year, ground-up transformation, reopening under its original Regent name in November 2023. Long-time Hongkongers who remember the address as a fixture for special-occasion dinners and harbour-view afternoon tea largely treat the renaming as a homecoming rather than a rebrand. The roughly three-and-a-half-year gap between the April 2020 closure and the November 2023 reopening spanned much of the pandemic period, a stretch during which Hong Kong’s hospitality sector overall saw historic occupancy declines — making the Regent’s eventual relaunch as much a marker of the industry’s broader post-pandemic recovery as a standalone renovation story.

Architecture & Design

The reopening’s design was led by Hong Kong-born, Milan-trained designer Chi Wing Lo, who reworked the interiors around a minimalist material palette — flame-finished granite, textured oak, and bronze detailing — intended to feel calm and residential rather than ceremonial. Guest rooms and public spaces are still organized around the same asset the original 1980 design was built to exploit: uninterrupted sightlines across Victoria Harbour toward Central’s skyline, a view that has only grown more dramatic as the opposite shore has filled in with taller towers over the intervening four decades.

Location & Context

The hotel sits at 18 Salisbury Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, built on land reclaimed from the harbour during the district’s mid-20th-century expansion. Its position places it directly beside the Star Ferry’s Tsim Sha Tsui terminus, where vessels have carried passengers across the harbour to Central since 1888 — a functioning piece of maritime heritage that predates the hotel by nearly a century and that guests can still ride for a fraction of the cost of a taxi. Underground pedestrian tunnels connect to East Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station and the Tuen Ma line, giving quick access across Kowloon and into the New Territories without surfacing into Salisbury Road traffic. That subterranean connectivity matters more here than at many hotels, since Salisbury Road’s surface traffic and pedestrian volume can be heavy for much of the day, particularly around the Star Ferry terminus and the Cultural Centre next door.

ESG Context

A ground-up, three-year rebuild of an existing tower — rather than outright demolition and reconstruction — is itself a meaningful sustainability choice, retaining the building’s structural core and foundation while replacing systems and finishes throughout. IHG Hotels & Resorts has articulated group-wide environmental commitments, including energy and water intensity reduction targets and waste-management programmes, that apply across its managed and franchised portfolio, of which Regent Hong Kong forms a flagship property following its 2023 relaunch, the hotel now carrying EarthCheck certification as part of that transformative reopening. The choice to preserve and restore artworks and design elements from the original 1980 property during the redesign also reflects a heritage-conservation approach increasingly common among Hong Kong’s older luxury hotels as they renovate, rather than erasing a building’s institutional history in favour of a wholly generic contemporary look.

Local Taste & Economic Context

Within a few minutes’ walk, Tsim Sha Tsui mixes old and new dining registers: Michelin-recognized Cantonese kitchens serving siu mei and hand-pulled wonton noodles sit blocks from long-running dai pai dong-style stalls doing the same dishes at a fraction of the price. That range mirrors the district’s broader character — one of Hong Kong’s original tourism and retail cores, still commanding some of the highest hotel rates in Kowloon precisely because of the harbour frontage the Regent was built to claim. Salisbury Road itself has anchored Kowloon’s luxury hospitality cluster since the early 20th century, and the Regent’s return to the skyline reinforces a stretch of waterfront that has rarely gone long without a flagship luxury address occupying it in some form. In-house dining now runs from Lai Ching Heen, holder of two Michelin stars for its Cantonese cooking, through The Steak House’s charcoal-grilled cuts, Harbourside’s international buffet, Nobu Hong Kong’s modern Japanese-Peruvian menu, and Qura Bar and The Lobby Lounge for cocktails and afternoon tea.