Hotel Indonesia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hotel Indonesia (HI) is a well known hotel in Central Jakarta, Indonesia, and was the first star hotel in Jakarta. For many years it has been the capital's major landmark. Its fame is often linked to the country's political pride. The hotel is located in Jalan Jendral Sudirman. The famed traffic circle Bunderan HI (HI Roundabout) gets its name from Hotel Indonesia.

Occupying 25,082 m² of land, Hotel Indonesia was designed by American architect, Abel Sorensen and wife, Wendy. The hotel was inaugurated in August 5, 1962, by the first president of Indonesia, Soekarno, to facilitate Asian Games IV in 1962. The building was declared as national heritage by the local government, Pemda DKI, in March 29, 1993.

The hotel was operated by PT. Hotel Indonesia. Later in 2001, it was merged with PT. Natour (which manages other government-owned hotels) to form a new enterprise named PT. Hotel Indonesia Natour. Due to low occupancy and financial difficulties, in April 30, 2004, PT. Hotel Indonesia Natour widthdraws its operation from Hotel Indonesia . Currently the hotel is not operating, to allow the much needed renovation. The surrounding site is also being developed into a mixed-use complex Grand Indonesia, which adds a shopping mall, an office tower, and a luxury apartment. Once the renovation is finished, the hotel will be managed by Kempinski Group and renamed to 'Hotel Indonesia - Kempinski'.