It's a hotel.
It's an apartment. It's “home.” If I were to move to
Hong Kong tomorrow, I want to move into a suite at the JIA Hotel. A few
nights at the JIA actually felt like something between staying at
home and staying in a hotel. The experience,
of course, made me feel less like a tourist and more like myself,
especially after several long flights and consecutive nights in
sterile mega-hotels in Asia. For this, I am most
grateful.
“JIA” actually means home in
Mandarin. It is the first boutique hotel in Asia designed by
Philippe
Starck. This, of course, means contemporary furniture that
most people rule out for their own homes, but are amused (or
possibly annoyed) by when staying in a hotel.
JIA touts itself as Hong Kong's
hippest hotel, with “a touch of sass around the clock.” The hotel
adds a bit of sizzle into Causeway Bay, a shopping and
entertainment district in Hong Kong. The hotel
is located on an unassuming corner, near both gigantic malls and
tiny storefronts selling seasonal hairy crabs.
I'd gladly move
into the JIA for the same reasons I bought my first apartment in
Manhattan: location and amenities in a big city. It's near the
subway. There's laundry in the building. There's a spacious
second floor open podium for private barbeque or alfresco
dining. Chaise lounges are available for
sunbathing or napping (although the neighborhood can be noisy and
the smog limits sunshine onto the deck or into the rooms, for
that matter).
A former residential building,
the 25-story building now provides 54 chic hotel rooms, outfitted
with full kitchens. JIA has a purple hued lobby, two restaurants,
and is chockablock with services and
amenities. As far I'm concerned, there are
four choices for rooms ”“ square, rectangle, suite or penthouse.
“Nature” is the main design theme, but this did not explain the
series of gnome shaped stools in my room. The teak floors were a
lovely contrast from the billowy white curtains and white
furniture.
I was reminded of JIA's residential
provenance when I stepped into the dark and stuffy
bathroom. The marble shower was a curious
cubic vestibule, somewhere between stall and tub, with
good-looking but ill-functioning fixtures. I'm biased toward
bathrooms that offer must-have toiletries, and sadly, I did not
love the mulberry-scented soaps and cleansers.
The marble
kitchen made up for the disappointing bathroom. I liked the
option to call room service for a cup of tea, or to make my own
in an actual kitchen (not a two-cup coffeemaker in the bathroom),
if I so chose. More importantly, Hong Kong is
an extraordinary eating city, and it was wonderful to be able to
pick up some fresh mangosteens or a plate of char siu,
barbecued pork, from a local take-away joint on the way home, and
to enjoy it on the sofa, in front of the TV.
Beyond street fare, two distinct
restaurants are found within the hotel. Y's, the casual Asian
Bistro on the ground floor of the hotel, even delivers home style
food to your room in special delivery packages. For more serious
fare, Opia, an upscale restaurant and lounge, is located on the
first floor of the hotel. It is a dramatic
restaurant with a purple, ivory and burnt orange color
palette. The room, with its sunken leather
upholstered sofa beds and beveled mirrors are worth seeing, so
pop in for a cocktail or the “Australian freestyle” cuisine.
In addition to the two
restaurants, JIA Hotel offers exceptional amenities and services.
Many of these amenities reminded me of my own home. The local
calls are free, and there's free broadband access, via Ethernet,
in all apartments (like in my own home, JIA is not yet wireless.)
Each room features a high tech entertainment system and
flat-screen TVs, with a clunky pile of remote controls. Just like
home, I had to walk a few blocks to the gym - the hotel provides
an access card to California Fitness, a local fitness club.
Then there were the amenities that remind me
that I'm staying at a hotel. After a night of partying, you can
stumble downstairs for fresh fruit and
pastries. To rest your blistered feet after an
afternoon of power shopping, there's cake and wine in the lobby,
replenished periodically by a courteous Shanghai-Tang clad
staff.
Finally, I was
reminded that I wasn't staying at just any hotel, but a hip
boutique hotel. The concierge will call and make table
reservations at the KEE Club, an exclusive private members club
(although, during my stay, the club was closed for “a private
party” for two consecutive nights.) The hotel also provides 10%
dining discount and access to the VIP area to Dragon-I, another
club in the SOHO area of Hong Kong (although when I got to
Dragon-I, noone seemed to know where the VIP area
was).
Whereas with many hotels, I get
quite antsy and miss the creature comforts of my own home, I'm
quite certain that I could have stayed at the JIA for weeks on
end. Experience the original before you head over to the JIA in
Shanghai or in Krabi Thailand in mid-2007.
Rooms starts at 1800 KHD, or approximately
$232 USD.
JIA Hotel
1-5 Irving Street
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Phone: (852) 3196- 7000
www.JIAhongkong.com
Hyong Jung Lee is a New York-based
freelancer who also writes for Forbes.
