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Hilton opens first Russian hotel

Published: 27/08/2008 - Filed under: News »

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Hilton Hotels has made history by opening its first property in Russia. The 273-room Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya is housed in one of the city’s famous “Seven Sisters” skyscrapers.

Completed in 1954 as the Hotel Leningradskaya, the 136-metre high building is one of seven Stalinist skyscrapers constructed in the city during the last years of the dictator’s life. The Russian Baroque and Gothic-style constructions still dominate Moscow’s skyline, with the Moscow State University and Hotel Ukraina (currently under redevelopment) still being Europe’s tallest educational building and hotel respectively.

The 28-storey Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya is located on Komsomolskaya Square in the centre of the city, served by the Leningradsky, Yaroslavsky and Kazansky rail termini. The hotel’s 273 rooms start from 25 sqm, and feature 32-inch LCD flatscreen TVs, wifi internet access, laptop-size safes, UK power sockets and separate baths and showers.

Interior features include bronze chandeliers, lion statues, carved wooden ceiling panels and stained-glass windows, with granite, marble and red Shokshinsky quartzite used throughout the hotel.

Dining options include Janus restaurant, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and serving Russian specialities, as well as the Lobby Lounge (open 7am-12pm), set among the hotel’s marble columns and bronze statues, and Leningrad Bar, open 5pm-2am daily.

The hotel has a fitness centre, swimming pool and solarium, and for meetings there is a ground-floor ballroom holding up to 350 delegates, and six meeting rooms.

The Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya will be operated under a franchise agreement with Hilton and managed on behlaf of the owning company (JSC Sadko Hotel) by a subsidiary of Interstate Hotels and Reorts.

Moscow has been short of international-standard hotels in recent years, but chains such as Rezidor are beginning to increase their presence in the city. The group’s Radisson SAS brand is due to open three hotels in the capital, although the original 2008/9 opening dates have now been pushed back to 2010/11.

Raffles Hotels and Resorts has also announced it will open the Raffles Moscow in 2011 in the Kitay-Gorod area of the city, and Mandarin Oriental will also open a property close to the city’s Red Square in the same year (see online news July 23).

For more information visit hilton.com, or click here to read Philip Parker’s report on Moscow hotel developments in the July/August 2007 edition of Business Traveller.

Report by Mark Caswell

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