Hong Kong, Hong Kong · Five-Star · ★★★★★
The Upper House
André Fu calm above Pacific Place. No reception desk by design.
André Fu calm above Pacific Place. No reception desk by design.
"Opened October 2009 above the Pacific Place mall in Admiralty, designed by André Fu in his most influential early work — 117 rooms, no reception desk, no formal lobby, every check-in handled by an iPad-carrying ambassador in a quiet corridor. Fifteen years on, still the city's most considered boutique hotel."
The Upper House opened in October 2009 above the Pacific Place mall in Admiralty — the brand's first hotel ever, opened by Swire Hotels as the boutique counterpoint to the larger luxury chains across the harbour. The brief, given to André Fu (then a young Hong Kong-trained architect at the start of what would become his global luxury hospitality practice), was singular: design a hotel that did not look or feel like a hotel. Sixteen years later, the result is the most influential single piece of boutique-hotel design in Asia, the work that launched André Fu's career, and the property he is most associated with globally.
There are 117 rooms across just three categories. The Studio 70 — the entry — is 70 square metres, exceptional for an Asian city hotel, with an oversized 1.6-metre bath and a wraparound writing desk. The Upper Suite is 90 square metres with a separate sitting room and a private Italian-marble bath. The Penthouse, on the 49th floor, runs to 235 square metres with a wraparound terrace and the resort's most photographed bath — a free-standing tub looking out across the entire Victoria Harbour skyline. Every room is finished in Fu's signature palette: bleached oak, soft natural linens, antique Chinese ceramics, and a spare contemporary Chinese ink painting on each entry wall.
There is no reception desk and no formal lobby. Arrival is handled by an iPad-carrying ambassador in the dedicated Upper House lift, who completes the check-in en route to the room. The 49th-floor Sky Lounge — open only to guests — is the resort's most-loved single room: a library, a long natural-oak communal table, a continually rotating selection of teas, books, and pour-over coffee, and a wraparound view from Central to Causeway Bay. Café Gray Bar, on the 49th floor, runs the most-considered hotel-bar wine programme on the island. Salisterra, the resort's restaurant, replaced the original Café Gray and runs a deliberately precise modern Italian menu.
The Upper House's distinguishing quality, in 2026, is the deliberate restraint. There is no spa — guests use the Asaya at Rosewood by arrangement, or the Pacific Place gym network. There is no children's club. There are no family rooms. The room service menu is short. The check-in is silent. What it offers, instead, is the most considered single hotel-room in Asia: 70 square metres of André Fu-designed quiet, an oversized bath, a wraparound writing desk, and the Sky Lounge two lifts away. For a serious solo working stay, a milestone city anniversary that values design over scale, or a business trip where the meetings are at Pacific Place or Central, this is the considered alternative.
Pacific Place mall (Hermès, Bottega Veneta, Brunello Cucinelli) is in the same building. Admiralty MTR is two minutes from the hotel lift; Central is two stops. The Studio 70 doubles as a serious working room — 70 square metres, an exceptional writing desk, and the 49th-floor Sky Lounge for the morning espresso routine.
The most considered solo-traveller hotel in Hong Kong. The Studio 70 is large enough for a multi-week working stay. The 49th-floor Sky Lounge is a working library that few other guests will be in for most hours of the day. The Café Gray Bar is the considered evening room. Few hotels are as deliberately calibrated for the focused single guest.
The Penthouse on the 49th floor — with its wraparound terrace and the free-standing bath looking out across the entire Victoria Harbour skyline — is the celebration suite. Brief the in-suite ambassador 48 hours ahead and they will arrange a Salisterra tasting menu in-suite, a Champagne pour, and a closing Sky Lounge nightcap.
Rates checked May 2026. Price varies by date and view.
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