After launching the 60-room Azerai Can Tho on the Mekong last spring, Azerai has embarked on a strategy that calls for one hotel opening every year.
An historic 122-room boutique hotel on the south bank of the Perfume River, the one-time imperial capital of Vietnam, has officially re-emerged as Azerai La Residence, Hue, the second hotel in a new group formed by hotelier Adrian Zecha.
Concurrent with the hotel’s rebranding is the conclusion of work on the second phase of the most extensive renovation in its recent, 14-year history.
After launching the 60-room Azerai Can Tho on the Mekong last spring, Azerai has embarked on a strategy that calls for one hotel opening every year.
“In Hue, we wanted a hotel that would emerge as the quintessential hospitality experience in the city,” said Zecha.
La Residence opened in 2005 after a French entrepreneur partnered with the local tourist authorities and renovated a 1930-built mansion that was once part of the colonial governor’s residence.
With the departure of the colonial French in 1954, the mansion at 5 Le Loi
Street served as a guest house for provincial authorities from the 1950s through the turn of the century.
In 2013, Hue native Phan Trong Minh succeeded a run of foreign general managers to usher the hotel over the threshold of its 10th anniversary and into its second decade as one of the top five most celebrated properties in Vietnam.
“In Hue, where the Nguyen kings believed fervently in the power of phong thuy, or feng shui, to create powerfully attractive experiences of place, La Residence is a beneficiary of some of that old imperial magic,” said Minh.
“The place just feels right. With Adrian Zecha now stirring in a bit of his own magic, we expect to create one of the most compelling hospitality experiences in South-east Asia.”
The name of the new hotel brand is derived from Adrian Zecha’s initials and the latter part of a Persian word, caravanserai, which references the storied old inns of the Middle East.