Travellers' Checks | The world’s largest hotel in Malaysia is a far cry from what top properties used to look like
- The Royal York, in the Canadian city of Toronto, claimed to be the largest hotel in the British Empire when it opened 90 years ago
- Today, its modest 1,048 rooms pale in comparison to the 7,350 available at First World Hotel in Genting Highlands
The owners of Toronto’s Royal York Hotel claimed it was “The Largest Hotel in the British Empire” even before it opened, in June 1929. It was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway and – like its similarly spectacular sister properties, the Château Frontenac, in Quebec, and the Banff Springs Hotel, in Alberta – was one of a series of grand châteauesque railway hotels. With 1,048 guest rooms – each with its own radio – and a 12-bed hospital, the 28-floor hotel was also the tallest building in the British empire.
That distinction passed to the nearby Canadian Bank of Commerce Tower in 1931, but the Royal York continued to advertise itself as the empire’s largest hotel into the 1950s, and thereafter as “The Largest Hotel in the British Commonwealth”. Exactly when it lost that crown is unclear, but it was probably taken by the 1,590-room Chelsea Hotel (a drab, T-shaped concrete block now operated by Hong Kong’s otherwise upmarket Langham Hospitality Group), when it opened a few streets to the north, in 1975.
Malaysia’s First World Hotel – a 7,350-room monstrosity in Genting Highlands that looks like a North Korean paint factory – is currently the largest hotel not only in the Commonwealth, but also the entire world.
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