The Parsian Azadi Hotel is one of the largest and tallest hotels in Tehran, situated in the Evin neighborhood, overlooking the city. The hotel has 475 rooms.
History
On May 24, 1976, Hyatt International signed a contract to manage a new hotel to be built by the Royal Estates Administration in Tehran. It was the third Hyatt to open in Iran, following the Hyatt Omar Khayyam in the city ofMashhad, opened in November 1973, and the Hyatt Regency Caspian, a seaside resort in Chalus, opened on March 11, 1976. The Hyatt Crown Tehran was completed two years later, but only partially opened on September 1, 1978, due to the then-ongoing Iranian Revolution. In February 1979, all foreign Hyatt staff departed the hotel due to safety concerns and the Hyatt Crown Tehran was transferred from the REA to the Pahlavi Foundation. On February 12, 1979, the Hyatt Crown Tehran was attacked by Revolutionary Guards. It was extensively damaged and occupied by the Guards, but remained in operation, run by Hyatt-trained Iranian staff. On December 27, 1979, the Pahlavi Foundation terminated Hyatt International's management contracts for the three hotels, citing the departure of the foreign staff as grounds, resulting in a lengthy international lawsuit filed by Hyatt. The Hyatt Crown Tehran was renamed the Tehran Crown Hotel and the three hotels were transferred to the Pahlavi Foundation's successor organization, the Foundation of the Oppressed and Disabled. The hotel was again renamed the Azadi Grand Hotel in 1980. The Foundation's hotel division was separated off in 1995, named first Bonyads Hotels, then Azadi Hotels in 1999 and finally Parsian Hotels in 2000. The Azadi Grand Hotel closed in 2007 for a $50 million renovation overseen by Italian and Swiss interior designers and a number of Chinese construction firms. It also underwent seismic retrofitting, due to the danger of earthquakes in Tehran. It reopened in 2011 as the Parsian Azadi Hotel.
In Media
In January 1979, Ross Perot and members of his team stayed at the Hyatt Crown Tehran as part of a mission Perot organized to rescue two of his employees from a Tehran prison. The mission was dramatized in Ken Follett's 1983 international bestsellerOn Wings of Eagles, which was filmed as a 1986 TV miniseries. In Homeland in season 3, episode 11 the Parsian Azadi Hotel was used as filming location.
