Rosewood Hong Kong has the best rooms in the city, 53 square metres of marble, lacquer and tartan with the whole harbour in the window, and the Manor Club on the 40th floor is the best club lounge I've used. Outside the club, though, it's a very busy hotel, and the service and breakfast downstairs don't keep up. Book a harbour room with the club, never a Kowloon Peak room, and if that's beyond the budget, take a harbour room at the Regent next door. See pictures ↓
Introduction
Rosewood Hong Kong was named the best hotel in the world in The World's 50 Best Hotels for 2025, and then AGAIN for 2026…and honestly, that made me nervous. A title like that is very hard to live up to. It opened in 2019 in a 65-storey bronze tower on the Kowloon waterfront, on the site of the old Holt's Wharf, with 413 rooms and suites, interiors by Tony Chi and three Michelin Keys.
The people I know who've stayed are split right down the middle. Some come home calling it the best hotel they've ever been to. Others say it's a gorgeous room in a very busy building, with service that comes and goes. After staying, I think both camps are right… and which camp you land in depends almost entirely on the room you book.
A harbour-view room starts at about $800 a night, and a club room with the Manor Club about $1,050 to $1,350, more in the busy weeks. That's more than anywhere else on this stretch of the harbour (on some dates it's double what the Regent next door is asking), so I went in wanting to know whether it earns it.
Service
We came up the cobbled drive past clipped bonsai and topiary, the bags disappeared the second the car door opened, and before I'd really got my bearings we were up on the 40th floor, checking in at the Manor Club with the whole harbour filling the windows. I loved that part. In the club they were using our names after a day, glasses were topped up before we noticed they were empty, and our WhatsApp messages came back within a couple of minutes, whatever we asked for (and we asked for plenty).
Down on the ground floor it's much harder work. This is a 413-room tower joined to a shopping mall, half of Hong Kong wants to see the inside of it, and the lobby and lifts are busy from breakfast until late. At Holt's Cafe in the morning and out by the pool the staff were stretched, drinks took ages, and nobody was rude…they just didn't have time for us. If you're not in a club room or a suite, you check in at the lobby desk, which can be slow and a bit brisk when it's busy. Have a proper look round the room as soon as you get in, and message straight away if anything's off. When something does go wrong, they fix it fast.
Book a suite and you also get a butler, who'll unpack for you, press a shirt and chase the dinner table you couldn't get. That's the version of this hotel that wins the awards. Without the club, at this price, the service should be steadier than it is, and that's why Service gets 7.6, my lowest score here after Value.
Rooms
Our room was a Club Grand Harbour View, 53 square metres high up on the harbour side, and it's the best hotel room I've had in Hong Kong. Tony Chi designed it to feel like a well-off friend's apartment, half London townhouse and half old Hong Kong, with chrome stag's-head door handles (I couldn't stop touching them), a tartan sofa, herringbone wool on the walls and glossy lacquered wood. Everything is turned towards the window, and that's where we spent most of our time. Fair warning if you like your rooms pale and plain… there are mirrors EVERYWHERE, and it can feel like a lot.
The bathroom is the showpiece. Black and white marble from floor to ceiling, a freestanding tub, twin basins, TWO walk-in showers (so nobody waits in the morning), a heated Toto toilet behind its own door, and Votary toiletries that smell of cedarwood and jasmine. I had a bath most nights with the lights of Wan Chai across the water, and honestly I could have stayed in there.
But it's the view I'll remember. By day the green-and-white Star Ferries go back and forth across the harbour below you, and at night the towers on the Island light up from end to end. I slept with the curtains open every night just so I'd wake up to it.
Harbour view vs Kowloon Peak view.
Listen…don't book a Kowloon Peak View room. It's the same 53 square metres with the same bathroom, but it faces north, over the towers of Kowloon to Lion Rock and the hills of Sha Tin, and the harbour is the whole reason this hotel costs what it does. Take the water away and you're paying a LOT for a nice room in a busy building. More than 80% of the rooms look at the harbour, so there's really no reason to end up on the wrong side.
Any of the three harbour categories is fine. I'd choose on budget and floor (higher is better), and take a Grand Harbour View if you want the best angle on the fireworks.
If the Rosewood is out of budget, please don't drop to a Kowloon Peak room to make it work. Book a harbour-view room at the Regent next door instead. Same harbour, same skyline, from lower down and closer to the ferries, in a smaller room (38 to 43 square metres), for roughly half to two thirds of the price. I'd take that trade every time.
And our Rosewood Elite guests never have to stay in a Kowloon Peak View room. When you book with us, the upgrade to a harbour view is confirmed at booking, so you only get the north side if you ask for it.
Food and Drink
You could spend a week here without eating in the same place twice, and the restaurants are a big part of why I'd come back. CHAAT, the Indian restaurant, has a Michelin star, so book it the moment your dates are set (seriously). After dinner, go to DarkSide, a dim, glamorous bar under a huge hourglass in the ceiling with sand running through it all night, and live jazz from about eight most nights. It was our favourite room in the building. Afternoon tea in The Butterfly Room books out fast, and tables are released two months ahead on the 1st of the month.
Breakfast.
Breakfast was the weakest meal of the stay. If you're not in a club room, it's at Holt's Cafe on the ground floor, and the one morning we went down, at nine o'clock, it was a crush…a queue at the door and the staff running to keep up. The food itself is good (a buffet with Hong Kong dishes alongside the eggs and pastries), so the problem is the room, which is just too small for a hotel this size. Go before eight, or book a club room and have breakfast up on the 40th floor, which was calm every other morning.
The Legacy House.
The Cantonese restaurant on the fifth floor has held a Michelin star since 2024, and it's the restaurant I'd book first. Go at lunch, when the harbour is bright outside the windows and it's a little more relaxed. The roast goose and the crispy fried pigeon are the two signatures, and I'd order at least one (ideally both). Dinner is good too, though at night the bill climbs fast. There's a dress code for men, sleeves and covered shoes always, and long trousers at dinner. Tables open at 10am on the 1st of the month, two months out, same as the Butterfly Room.
Manor Club
The Manor Club is the reason to book a club room, and I haven't used a better club lounge anywhere. It's on the 40th floor, with a bar, a billiards room, deep sofas facing the harbour and an L-shaped terrace outside, and it feels like a private members' club that happens to have the best view in Hong Kong.
And the food is properly good. Breakfast runs from 7 to 11, afternoon tea from 2 to 4, and from 5 to 8 there's an evening spread of beef sirloin, dim sum, salads, cold cuts and a few dishes from the hotel's own restaurants, with the drinks included. Most nights we took a drink out onto the terrace as the towers across the water lit up…and then decided we weren't really that hungry for dinner after all.
Having the club changes the whole feel of the stay, because you can do almost everything up here and only go down to the busy floors when you want to. If you're deciding where to spend, spend it on a club room before anything else.
Facilities
The pool is a 25-metre infinity pool on the sixth floor, looking straight across the harbour at the eastern half of the Island, and on a clear morning with the ferries going by it's SO pretty. It's smaller than it looks in photos, though, the loungers are first come first served, and on a hot afternoon every single one was taken. Go early.
The gym is huge and open 24 hours, and the machines face the harbour through floor-to-ceiling windows, so even a jet-lagged 5am workout feels like a treat (I did more of those than I'd like to admit). Asaya, the spa, covers two floors, with steam rooms and pools in the changing rooms and treatments by Guerlain, and it feels miles calmer than the rest of the building. On every guest floor there's also a lounge with books and art, which is a nice place to sit if you want out of the room without going downstairs.
Location & Setting
For a holiday I'd stay on the Kowloon side, because from here you get to LOOK at the skyline. The Avenue of Stars is right below the hotel, the Star Ferry is a short walk along the water, and when it rains you can get to East Tsim Sha Tsui MTR through an underpass without going outside. The hotel is joined to the K11 Musea mall on three levels too, which is handy for a coffee…and less handy when you're trying to get through the lobby.
The streets around it aren't great for walking out to dinner, so we used taxis more than I expected, and if you'll be working on the Island, crossing the harbour at rush hour is slow. The airport is 30 to 45 minutes by car, depending on traffic.
Value
Only with the club. A harbour room without the club, from about $800 a night, is poor value, because you're paying top Hong Kong prices and getting the busy version of the hotel. For roughly $250 to $450 more, a club room gets you the Manor Club (breakfast, afternoon tea, the evening food and drinks, and check-in up there), and that's when the price starts to make sense. The hotel often runs a stay three nights, pay for two offer, which helps a lot.
If a club room is too much, I'd stay at the Regent next door, with the same harbour, from lower down, for much less. The Peninsula, often cheaper than the Rosewood, is the other choice if you'd rather have the 1928 grand hotel and the Rolls-Royces at the door.
For the full side-by-sides, see my comparisons: Rosewood Hong Kong vs Four Seasons Hong Kong and Rosewood Hong Kong vs Regent Hong Kong.
Who it suits
It suits first-time visitors who want the postcard view, couples celebrating something, and anyone who likes to spend time in the hotel itself, as long as they book a club room or a suite. It's the wrong pick if you want a quiet hotel, or if your days are on the Island. For quiet, I'd book The Upper House, and for work in Central, the Four Seasons.
So here's my bottom line. I gave it 8.4 out of 10. The rooms, the view, the Manor Club and the gym are as good as anything in Hong Kong. The service downstairs and the breakfast crush are what keep it from the top…and without the club, I honestly don't think it's worth the money.
More on the area: Hong Kong guide.