Capella Hanoi

Le Phung Hieu is a short street in Hanoi's French Quarter, and the Hanoi Opera House stands at the end of it. Capella Hanoi occupies a corner of that street, a new building dressed to look as if it had stood there since the 1920s. The conceit, written by the designer Bill Bensley, is that the house once lodged a touring opera company, and every room, bar and corridor plays along with the story.

History

Capella Hanoi opened in 2021, the brand's first address in Vietnam after Capella Singapore, Capella Ubud and Capella Bangkok. The site had no hotel on it before. The building was conceived as a period piece, and Bensley filled it with objects collected for the purpose: costumes, playbills, portraits and instruments arranged as if left behind by the performers who, in the story, lived here between shows.

The Hanoi Opera House itself dates from 1911, a scaled copy of the Palais Garnier built by the French colonial administration, and it still hosts concerts and ballet. Guests of the hotel are its closest neighbours.

Architecture and design

Bill Bensley, the American designer based in Bangkok, is responsible for the whole of the interior and the facade. The style is Art Nouveau and Art Deco by way of the theatre: cast-iron balconies, a mosaic floor, gilded frames hung three deep, velvet in dark reds and greens, and a great deal of brass. The ceilings carry painted scenes. Each public room has a different mood, from the dim lounge to the bright breakfast room.

The rooms follow the same script. Several categories are named for the people of a company, Diva, Maestro and so on, and each is fitted with a desk, a dressing table and a bathroom in tile and marble. There are 47 rooms and suites in total, a small number for a city hotel of this ambition, which keeps the house quiet.

Rooms and suites

All 47 keys are rooms and suites rather than villas, laid out over the upper floors. The larger suites have separate sitting rooms and dining tables, and some have terraces looking over the street towards the Opera House. Every room carries the opera theme in its artwork and furnishings; no two are decorated identically.

Dining

Backstage, the main restaurant, serves Vietnamese and European dishes in a room that imitates the wings of a theatre, with props and costume rails around the tables. Diva's Lounge is the bar and tea room, used for afternoon tea and cocktails. Hibana by Koki, a Japanese counter restaurant with teppanyaki, is on the lower floor. There is also a private dining room for small dinners.

Wellness

Auriga, the spa brand shared by all Capella hotels, runs the treatment rooms here, with treatments that follow the phases of the moon. The house has an indoor swimming pool, a sauna and steam room, and a fitness room. Given the size of the building, these are intimate rather than expansive.

Weddings and events

Capella Hanoi hosts small weddings, dinners and meetings. The spaces suit gatherings of a few dozen rather than large banquets: a private dining room, the lounge, the main restaurant, and a salon that can be booked for board meetings. Planners looking for a reception of several hundred will need one of the larger hotels in the city; those looking for an intimate dinner with a theatrical backdrop will find few better settings in Hanoi.

Location

The hotel stands in the French Quarter, the grid of tree-lined streets laid out by the colonial administration south of Hoan Kiem Lake. The Opera House is at the end of the street, the Metropole hotel is two blocks away, and Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarter are within walking distance. The National Museum of Vietnamese History and the Long Bien bridge are to the north. Noi Bai International Airport is about 30 kilometres away, roughly 45 minutes by car. For a luxury hotel in Hanoi it has one of the most central addresses, and the smallest footprint.