Vertical Refugee Camp to Luxury Hotel: Radisson Tbilisi, Georgia

Jan 19, 2011
Paul Bradbury

Hotel Iveria: Refugee Mosaic - Tomaradze

The premier 5-star hotel in central Tbilisi, the towering Radisson Blu is a city icon with a colourful recent past. Until recently it was a refugee camp.

Travellers looking for a luxury hotel in Tbilisi need look no further than the centrally located Hotel Radisson Blu Iveria, which towers over the city in its prime location on Rose Revolution Square, overlooking the Mtkvari River. With its panoramic views, excellent service and luxury features, it is little wonder it is the most popular hotel in the Georgian capital on Tripadvisor, with recent headline guest comments including "Without doubt, the best hotel in Tbilisi!" and "Perfect, comfortable business hotel." (1)

It is an icon of the Westernisation and capitalist direction Georgia wants to take, away from its aggressive northern neighbour Russia, but until recently the Hotel Iveria was an icon of a very different kind, existing as it did for more than a decade as the country's most photographed refugee camp.

From Soviet Luxury Hotel to Refugee Camp

Built in the 1960s as the premier luxury hotel of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Iveria was a popular choice to stay with its excellent location and sweeping views of this picturesque city. Its status changed in 1992-3, however, as the Georgian Government had to deal with an overwhelming population displacement due to the conflict in Abkhazia, with more than 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) requiring housing. The hotel, as well as other buildings in Tbilisi, was reallocated for housing the displaced in 1992-3. Approximately 1,100 IDPs occupied the majority of the hotel's 22 floors, receiving a monthly stipend of 11 lari (about $5) from the government.

Visiting Hotel Iveria in 2001: Notes from a Diary

A visit to the luxury spa or a refreshing cocktail at the rooftop Oxygen bar is a very different experience to entering the hotel a decade ago, as my diary notes from 2001 show:

For me the symbol of Georgia’s troubles is the Hotel Iveria, probably the tallest building in central Tbilisi. It is an old Soviet construction and was once the smartest hotel in town. I remember it in reasonable condition in 1993, when I was first there, looking worse for wear in 1995, but now it looks as though it has been shelled.

What appears as rust from a distance are actually crude plywood constructions on the balconies as these refugees, who have lived five or six to a room since 1993, have built kitchens. Washing hangs everywhere. Inside is like visiting my idea of a ravaged community after a nuclear attack. The carpets are long gone (now bare concrete), the walls boast bare plaster, the health centre on the ground floor I couldn't visit as the stench of urine on the marble stairs forced me back upstairs. There was grass growing on the sixteenth floor.

On each floor there are small stalls selling vegetables, chocolate and, of course, alcohol. There is no work and the government pays seven dollars a month in benefits. Incredibly, on the third floor, there is a fully functioning hotel with Internet and fax services; on the ground floor there is a casino and also a restaurant that was hosting a wedding party as we passed.

From Refugee Camp to 5-Star Luxury Hotel

Always a desirable piece of prime real estate, the hotel was finally taken over by the Radisson Group and all the IDPs were moved out of the hotel in 2004, having been offered $7,000 to do so. The building was completely renovated and reopened as the Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, Tbilisi in 2009, thereby opening a new chapter in the hotel's history. According to the Trip Advisor booking service, an overnight stay can be yours for just $244, just over 49 times the monthly stipend the IDPs were receiving.