By Rachel Chang
Dec 7, 2020
WHEN BRUNO MARS SANG “24K Magic,” he must have been dreaming about this Vietnamese hotel. Billed as the world’s first gold-plated hotel, the Dolce by Wyndham Hanoi Golden Lake opened its luxurious doors in Vietnam’s capital city on July 2.
The five-star hotel is filled with golden touches, including gold-plated tubs, sinks, and yes, even toilets, according to Reuters. Plus, there’s a 24-karat gold tiled infinity pool on the rooftop. Bathrooms are decked out with yellow metal.
Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images
Located near Giang Vo Lake, the 441-room hotel is 10 minutes away from Hanoi’s city center and quite a juxtaposition compared to the other buildings in the area, which are mostly stark Soviet-era structures. “At the moment, there is no other hotel like this in the world,” Nguyen Huu Duong, chairman of Hoa Binh Group, which owns the property, told Reuters.
Duong also said that about a ton of gold was used to decorate the hotel.
Rooms start at about US$250 a night, relatively similar to the area’s other luxury hotels without any gold adornments.
Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images
The hotel even serves dishes topped with edible gold flakes, and rooms have golden cups next to the coffee maker with gold-colored details. For an event at the hotel, models were even painted in gold.
Duong, a Vietnam War veteran who once was a cycling taxi driver and made his fortune in construction and property investments, also told the news outlet that he’s planning two more gold-themed properties in the country: one in Saigon and another in central Vietnam.
Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images
Other hotels with 24-karat gold touches include The Villa Casa Casuarina (formerly Villa by Barton G) in Miami Beach whose Thousand Mosaic Pool is gold-lined; Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai with gold bath amenities; and La Mansión in the Four Seasons in Buenos Aires with gold-trimmed wood paneling.
