Wharf's first hotel venture was the Hong Kong Hotel, opened in 1970, which was a joint venture with Hongkong Land, Hui Sai-fun and Chung Ming-fai. The hotel was built on land immediately adjacent to Wharf's Kowloon Wharf & Godown Co. Ltd property along the western shore of the Tsim Sha Tsui promontory. In 1982, Wharf completed redevelopment of its site as the Harbour City complex and opened its first wholly owned hotel there that year, the 440-room Marco Polo Hotel. In 1984, the 393-room Prince Hotel was added in the same complex. All three hotels were managed by The Peninsula Hotels in Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, at one point, but in 1986, Wharf started its own hotel management company under the name Marco Polo International, with the objective to develop further hotels in the region. In 1989, Wharf bought Omni Hotels & Resorts in North America. The Marco Polo hotel division was rebranded as Omni Hotels Asia-Pacific, creating global marketing synergies with the Omni brand, hence its three hotels became the Omni Hong Kong Hotel, Omni Marco Polo Hotel and Omni Prince Hotel. In 1996, Wharf sold Omni Hotels North America and the Hong Kong hotel division was again rebranded, the Marco Polo Hotels Group. Later, the Marco Polo Hotel was renamed the Gateway Hotel and the Hong Kong Hotel became the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel. In 2013, through another subsidiary, Wharf won a tender to lease and convert the HKSAR Government's Murray Building in Central, Hong Kong Island, to a 336-room hotel and subsequently announced that it would open in October 2017, be branded The Murray and managed by Marco Polo Hotels.
Properties and locations
Current locations of Marco Polo hotels are in Hong Kong, mainland China and the Philippines. Niccolo by Marco Polo was recently added to the group's portfolio as the new luxury collection. Its first hotel opened in Chengdu in April 2015 and is located within International Finance Square in the centre of the city. The company plans to open one new Marco Polo hotel and three new Niccolo hotels to bring the total number under the Marco Polo portfolio to 18 by 2018. Marco Polo Changsha will open in 2018 while Niccolo Chongqing will open in 1Q 2017, with Niccolo Changsha and Niccolo Suzhou opening in 2018.
