Cinnamon Grand Colombo

The Cinnamon Grand Colombo, trading as Asian Hotels and Properties PLC and formerly called the Hotel Lanka Oberoi, is a luxury five-star hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Cinnamon Grand is located at 77 Galle Road, Kollupitiya, Colombo.

History

The construction of Hotel Lanka Oberoi began in 1973. The hotel commenced operations in 1975. It was the first hotel located outside India of Oberoi Hotels. The hotel was constructed on the land where the Bishop of Church of Ceylon resided until the 1970s. The atrium of the hotel was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Until then, only Hyatt Regency Atlanta had such an architectural feature.
On 28 January 1984, a bomb exploded in the hotel, then called the Hotel Lanka Oberoi. One employee was killed. The operators of the hotel, Oberoi Hotels agreed with Asian Hotels, the owner of the hotel, to terminate the management agreement in 2003. The hotel was relaunched as Colombo Plaza Hotel after that. In the same year, John Keells Holdings acquired a controlling stake of 60.5 per cent of Asian Hotels Ltd for LKR4.1 billion. John Keells Holdings rebranded the hotel as Cinnamon Grand in 2005.

2019 Easter bombings

It was one of the sites targeted in a coordinated string of terrorist bombings that occurred on Easter. Radhika Sarathkumar, a popular Sri Lankan born Indian Tamil actress narrowly escaped from a bomb explosion which happened at Cinnamon Grand Hotel where she was present after wrapping up shooting for a film.

Amenities

The hotel houses eight restaurants and bars. These include the Plates, the all day dining restaurant, Lagoon, a seafood restaurant, Nuga Gama, a Sri Lankan restaurant; London Grill, a steakhouse; Cheers Pub, The Coffee Stop serving freshly baked cakes and snacks, Breeze Bar by the poolside and the Tea Lounge at the lobby. Other amenities include, two gyms, two pools, one outside, one on the rooftop; and saunas.