The Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels, Cathedral Road, Chennai is a
five-star hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
located in
Chennai
Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. Opened in 1975, it was one of the first five-star hotels in the city, known as Madras at the time.
The hotel closed on 1 March 2023 for major renovations.
History
The site
The hotel is built on the site of a historic guest house named ''Tilak Bhavan'' owned by Kasturi Ranga Iyengar.
During
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...
's visit to Madras in 1919, the house was occupied by
C. Rajagopalachari
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence ...
, and Gandhi chose to stay in this house from where he learnt about the infamous
Rowlatt Bill.
It was from here that Gandhi announced the launching of
Satyagraha
Satyāgraha (from ; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone who practises satyagraha is ...
in protest against the draconian Act that the
British Government
His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. proposed to implement.
This incident, which virtually started Gandhi's freedom struggle, is commemorated in a squat pillar of the house, which is still ''in situ'' in front of the hotel.
The hotel
The Chola Hotel opened on 18 October 1975, marking the entry of ITC Limited into the hotel business. In 1978,
Sheraton Hotels
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an American international hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Centr ...
signed a marketing agreement with ITC to represent the properties of their WelcomHotels division, located across India. The hotel was rebranded the Chola Sheraton in 1980 and then the Welcomgroup Chola Sheraton in 1991.
On 15 October 2011, the hotel was re-branded the My Fortune, Chennai, the first hotel in the Fortune Park Hotels line, a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd.
The hotel was again rebranded as WelcomHotel Chennai on 15 October 2017, and later as Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels, Cathedral Road, Chennai.
The hotel
The hotel is 10 stories high and has 90 rooms, including 48 Fortune Club exclusive rooms (with an area of 650 sq ft), 26 Fortune Club rooms (with an area of 440 sq ft), and 16 standard rooms (220 sq ft). Food and beverages include Earthen Oven, a North Indian specialty restaurant, WelcomCafe Marina, 24-hour multi-cuisine restaurant, My Deli, serving light snacks and confectioneries, and Durrant's Bar.
There are three meeting halls in the hotel—Mandapam banquet hall, with an area of 1,880 sq ft to accommodate 200 persons, Sagari with an area of 1,400 sq ft to accommodate 60 persons, and Mandapam board room with an area of 480 sq ft. accommodating 18 persons. There are also Business Center Board Room with an area of 238 sq ft accommodating 8 persons and Business Centre Office with an area of 156 sq ft accommodating 4 persons. The poolside can accommodate about 50 persons.
See also
*
Hotels in Chennai
The article below lists top hotels in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Background
Chennai is the third most visited city in India by foreigners, after New Delhi and Mumbai. In 2013, Chennai attracted 3,581,200 foreign tourists. The city was visited b ...
*
List of tallest buildings in Chennai
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
External links
Official Facebook page
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Hotels in Chennai
Hotels established in 1975
Hotel buildings completed in 1975
1975 establishments in Tamil Nadu
ITC Limited
20th-century architecture in India