Rex Hotel

The crown on the roof is the easiest landmark in District 1. It sits above the Rooftop Garden Bar of the Rex Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City, at 141 Nguyen Hue, where the boulevard meets the square in front of the former Hôtel de Ville, now the People's Committee building. The hotel has watched the square since 1959 and the building since 1927.

History

The structure began as a garage and showroom. In 1927 the French Bainier company put up a building here to sell and service cars, with a showroom on the boulevard. In 1959 the Vietnamese businessman Ung Thi bought it and converted it into the Rex: a hotel, a cinema and a dance hall under one roof, with the rooftop open as a bar.

Its moment in history came with the American war. From the mid-1960s the hotel was leased to house US officers, and the Joint US Public Affairs Office held its daily afternoon press briefing in the building. Correspondents nicknamed the sessions the Five O'Clock Follies for the gap between the official account and what they had seen in the field; the phrase outlived the war. The rooftop, with its bar and its view of the parades below, became the correspondents' evening meeting place, as the Continental's terrace had been for an earlier generation.

After 1975 the hotel passed to the state. It has since been run by Saigontourist, the city's tourism holding, which restored the Rex name and added a new wing on the Le Loi and Pasteur side in the 2000s, with more rooms, a ballroom and a row of luxury shops on the ground floor.

Architecture and design

The old block on the corner keeps its horizontal lines and deep balconies from the garage years, while the newer wing is a taller, plainer building. Inside, the decoration is Vietnamese in reference: lacquer panels, carved wood and mother-of-pearl inlay around a lobby of marble and columns. The roof garden retains its potted topiary, its statuary and the crown, lit at night and visible from across the square.

Rooms and suites

The Rex has 286 rooms and suites in two wings. Those in the original building face Nguyen Hue or the square and carry the older plan, with higher ceilings; the newer wing's rooms are more standard in layout. Suites on the upper floors look across to the Saigon River and the opera house.

Dining

Five restaurants and bars serve the hotel. The Rooftop Garden Bar is the reason most visitors come, for an evening drink with the square below; it serves Vietnamese and Western food as well. The ground-floor restaurants cover Vietnamese cooking and international buffets, and a lobby lounge serves coffee and afternoon tea.

Wellness

An outdoor pool, a gym and a health club offering massage and beauty treatments are on the upper levels.

Weddings and events

The hotel is a fixture of the city's wedding season. The ballroom in the newer wing takes large banquets, and a set of smaller function rooms covers meetings, product launches and press conferences. The rooftop is used for cocktail receptions. Capacities depend on the configuration.

Location

Nguyen Hue became a pedestrian boulevard in 2015 and runs from the City Hall down to the river; the Rex stands at its head. The Municipal Theatre, the Continental and the Caravelle are two blocks east, Ben Thanh market ten minutes south-west, the Central Post Office and Notre-Dame cathedral ten minutes north. Tan Son Nhat airport is about eight kilometres away, 30 to 45 minutes in traffic. For a luxury hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, the Rex is the one with a seat on the square.