The Forbidden City, the Reichstag, the Oval Office, the ExxonMobil boardroom ... the Hotel Caravelle. Some places where great power is regularly wielded become legend, and need no further introduction to conjure visions of their import. But the physical spaces themselves possess no innate power. They are imbued with significance because their inhabitants — and those affected by the decisions they make — perceive it. Other places, elevated by circumstance, can for a time become a center of global importance, only to return to their more mundane statuses when the crisis has passed.
During the Vietnam War, the Hotel Caravelle in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) became famous for the corps of journalists who covered the war from its rooftop bar. The Australian and New Zealand embassies were at one time housed in the Caravelle, along with the bureaus of the major U.S. television networks. At the time, it was the tallest building (and nicest hotel) in the city. And as fighting encroached on Saigon at the war's end in 1975, reporters could see the front-line action from atop their perches at the rooftop bar of the 10-story structure. As the North Vietnamese army began to overrun the city, a Dutch photographer in the offices of United Press International's headquarters in the penthouse of The Peninsula, another Saigon hotel, captured the iconic image of the war's end, documenting the helicopter evacuation of U.S. citizens from the roof of an apartment building adjacent to the U.S. Embassy on April 29, 1975.
Their unique characteristics, including neutrality, superior amenities and globally connected supply chains, mean that they will continue to attract a variety of important visitors — and remain tempting political targets.
Elite hotels in large international chains have a number of advantages. Even in the middle of a serious conflict, they can offer services and amenities that VIPs crave. Sometimes, they can provide better facilities than anywhere else in the country. Hotels can also provide refuge for anyone, from a weary aid worker to a head of state. Their unique characteristics, including neutrality, superior amenities and globally connected supply chains, mean that they will continue to attract a variety of important visitors — and remain tempting political targets.
