The term “hotel” may not do justice to Hullett House as it is located in one of the oldest colonial buildings in Hong Kong, originally commissioned in 1881 to house the Royal Hong Kong Marine Police who occupied it until late 1996.

The more than 120-year-old landmark was then converted into the 1881 Heritage complex which opened in 2009. The re-developed white-stucco building, which still retains its Victorian architecture, now houses the heritage Hullett House luxury boutique hotel, a high-end shopping center and an exhibition hall.

Facing Victoria Harbor along Canton Road and just a short walk from the Star Ferry in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hullett House, thanks to David Yeo, the founder and managing director of Aqua Group who developed the hotel, now pays homage to Hong Kong’s storied past and allows guests the chance to experience a part of the city’s exciting history.

“To be given an opportunity to create a new use and purpose for this magnificent building is both daunting and challenging,” says Yeo.

Yeo says his creative vision for Hullett House, when he designed it, was to make sure the property was built “by Hong Kong, for Hong Kong” and the new hotel would be able to reflect “old Hong Kong”.

So Yeo and his team set out with the mandate that whatever they created had to be connected to Hong Kong, and not just to its colonial history.

Today, Hullett House comprises 10 suites, each historic and unique, representing different periods of Hong Kong’s design history, five restaurants and bars, a souvenir store and a performance area specially created as a venue for showcasing traditional festivals and celebrations.

Yeo and his team took painstaking efforts in preserving every detail of the old building.

“We have kept all of the original structure of this building untouched and tried to recreate vistas of old Hong Kong within its walls,” he explains.

For example, in the chinoiserie-decorated lounge, The Parlour, there are murals featuring scenes of trading ships nestling in Victoria Harbor at the turn of the 19th century.

The hotel’s Chinese restaurant Loong Toh Yuen, situated in the courtyard behind the main building, features different styles of interior decoration that evoke old-world refinement and charm, reminiscent of bourgeois Hong Kong in the 1930s. The main dining room is styled after King George IV’s chinoiserie library; the middle dining room is inspired by a traditional Chinese pawn shop but set in the 1930s Art Deco style, popular then in Hong Kong and Shanghai; and the two private dining rooms are inspired by Qing Dynasty motifs and furniture from the early 1900s.

The hotel also boasts of 10 individually designed suites to reflect distinct periods in Hong Kong’s history. Each suite features a unique blend of Chinese and British influences and a mix of the old and the new. From Art Deco to colonial chic, each space is intricately decorated and exquisitely furnished

All the suites have an airy private terrace and spectacular views over the city, the harbor or of the beautiful gardens and courtyard below.

“We hope to offer our guests a truly unique glimpse into Hong Kong’s past within one of the city’s most stunning heritage buildings – an experience they will not get in a modern business hotel and one they will want to tell their family and friends about when they go back home,” says Yeo.

Along with the beautifully restored building, Hullett House provides the kind of attentive but not intrusive service that is associated with a world-class establishment. It is a place where people’s needs are anticipated and catered to without having to ask for it.

To run this unique masterpiece successfully, Yeo holds the view that good management should lead by example instead of words. He also believes that grooming of new talent and the training of staff is crucial to the future development of Hong Kong’s hospitality industry.

Yeo foresees 2012 to be a stable year for the hotel business. “I believe we are lucky in Hong Kong as we remain relatively sheltered from the economic woes that have plagued other sectors at the moment, thanks to our high-spending customers from China,” he says.

But he is quick to point out that no business is immune to the current global economic slowdown and the eurozone crisis. He believes high-end restaurants in the city will see less corporate companies entertaining this year.