The world's first gold-plated hotel: get interiors inspiration from newly opened 24-carat Hanoi attraction

Billed as “the world’s first gold-plated hotel” the new Dolce Hanoi Golden Lake has opened in the Vietnamese capital, as the country’s government eases selected coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Covered inside and out in 24-carat gold, the luxurious, contemporary five-star hotel offers design inspiration to anyone hoping to rival Donald Trump’s New York penthouse in the interior bling stakes.

Gold-plated ceramic tiles adorn the hotel’s 5,000sq m façade, making the 25-storey building a glowing presence on the city skyline. Inside, gold-lined arches lead off the entrance lobby to a bank of golden lifts.

Guest rooms feature gold loos, sinks, towel rails, mirrors and golden free-standing baths. Even the door handles are gold plated.

The roof terrace features a golden infinity pool and an outdoor shower area with gold bullion-effect walls and tiles.

Cutlery and crockery in the hotel restaurants are also gold plated.

A stay in the two-bedroom executive suite costs £800 per night, although the Vietnamese border is currently closed to travellers from the UK.

Gold-plated interiors are not a new thing. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, executed in 1989, had a gold-mosaic bathroom hidden away in his presidential palace in Bucharest.

Donald Trump is another leader famed for his love of gold interiors. The penthouse at his 66-storey Trump Tower in NYC is littered with 24-carat gold accents, from the ceiling mouldings to the elevator.

A £4 million solid 18-carat gold loo, a functioning sculpture by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, which made the news last year when it was stolen from Blenheim Palace in Oxon, had even been offered to the US President and his wife, Melania, by the Guggenheim Museum, after it declined the White House’s request to borrow Vincent van Gogh’s Landscape with Snow (1888) to hang in Mr Trump’s private quarters.

Chinese jewellery tycoon Law Sai-wing spent 10 years building the Swisshorn Gold Palace in Hong Kong from six tons of gold. The loos were inspired by Lenin, who envisaged gold toilets as the ultimate symbol of capitalist profligacy.