Who's Going
Corporate CEOs, NYC Bankers, Starwood Members
Reason to Stay
Historical Hotel, City Center, Guerlain Spa
Hotel Type
Luxury Hotel
Many of Russia’s top hotels are simply remodeled luxury palaces from the state-sponsored building booms of the early and mid-20th Century. One of the city’s most famous luxury palaces is Hotel National now a Luxury Collection hotel under Starwood Hotels and Resorts. The work of Russian architect Alexander Ivanov, Hotel National was built in 1903 under the rule of Nicholas II as the top address of foreign dignitaries and bourgeoisie elite before the 1917 revolution when it became First House of the Soviets for Bolsheviks likes of Lenin himself. The property’s renovation back into a hotel in the 1930s included museum-quality paintings and artifacts repurposed from the former-Tsar's palaces and noble estates around Moscow. A more recent renovation has started free of any re-appropriated bourgeoisie objects that includes the in-house spa operated by Guerlain that’s one of the more affordable at any Moscow luxury hotel, and in-house gourmet restaurant by chef Andre Martin who dazzles with a decidedly American-influenced menu that’s getting all-new upgraded interiors for its panoramic dining room with Kremlin and Red Square views.
The Room
Today Hotel National is one of Moscow’s top business hotels benefiting from a 2009 Starwood-supervised remodel of guest rooms that updated the 19th Century décor scattered with period antiques but with 21st Century technology like WiFi and plasma-screen TVs. Anyone with an aversion to a lot of gold should be prepared for a lot of baroque and red carpet, but with some of the best preserved art nouveau architecture you’ll ever see. Entry-level rooms utilize rare Caucasus woods for regal settees, baronial armories and over-the-top beds outfitted in royal-patterned bedding that makes even the small spaces feel like you’re staying at an official government residence. Cheery and bright bathroom spaces don’t dazzle with their design but with perfectly adequate marble vanities and soaking tubs outfitted in Remede bath products.
Preferred Room
Presidential Suite
Special Features
City Views, Historical Hotel, Luxury Collection
Amenities
Restaurant, Spa, Lounge, Bar, Pool, Concierge
