Less than two years after opening its doors, House of Tugu Old Town Jakarta has achieved a landmark recognition on the global stage.
Voted for by readers of one of the world’s most influential travel publications, House of Tugu Old Town Jakarta is honoured to announce that it has been named one of the Top 5 Best City Hotels in Indonesia in the prestigious Travel + Leisure Luxury Awards Asia Pacific 2026.
“For us, House of Tugu has never been just about providing a luxury stay; it is a custodian of Indonesia’s forgotten romance, art, and soul,” said Shafa Haura, Representative of House of Tugu Old Town Jakarta. “This recognition from the readers of Travel + Leisure belongs to our entire team and guests who share this passion. It breathes new life into our mission: to prove to the world that history is not a static museum piece, but a living, breathing experience that can be felt in every corner of this property.”
A Hotel Built Like No Other in the World
While most urban hotels offer standard, template luxury, House of Tugu Old Town Jakarta stands completely apart as a rare oasis in the capital. Stepping inside from the bustling streets of Jakarta, guests enter a breathtaking hidden world where the city’s chaotic energy fades into an atmosphere of profound serenity and timeless romance.
But what truly sets House of Tugu apart is not simply its atmosphere — it is the sheer scale and authenticity of the stories it holds.
Built upon a painstaking journey spanning almost 20 years and involving the meticulous restoration of historic buildings, the property today houses more than 1,000 pieces of rare antiques and artefacts — heirlooms passed down directly through generations of the Tugu family’s ancestors, alongside pieces sought out and preserved by the family over six decades. Every corridor, suite, and dining room is not decoration — it is an archive.
As Jakarta approaches its 500th anniversary, House of Tugu holds stories and artefacts that reach back even further than the city’s own history as Batavia — offering a living record of the land, its people, and its power long before the metropolis it is today.
To preserve this level of depth and exclusivity, the property offers only 26 guest rooms, each fully thematic and unique. No two spaces are identical; every room is designed around a specific chapter of history, populated with artefacts that belong to that story alone.
Every room retells a true chapter of Indonesia’s past, from the trade along Kali Besar to the Peranakan households of old Batavia, and together, the hotel’s rooms and venues form the most complete narrative of Jakarta’s centuries-old history available anywhere in the city.
At the heart of this narrative is a story rarely told anywhere in the world. House of Tugu is the only public home in Indonesia dedicated to the upper-class Peranakan history of Java, entirely distinct from the more widely known Peranakan cultures of Singapore, Malaysia, and the rest of Southeast Asia.
And this is not a borrowed history. Many of the figures and objects at the centre of these stories are direct ancestors and heirlooms of the Tugu Group’s own founding family, making House of Tugu a living witness to Jakarta’s centuries-old story continuing into the present day.
The Story Continues After Dark: Introducing De Tiger
Driven by its continuing commitment to expanding this narrative for the capital, House of Tugu Old Town Jakarta now opens the next chapter with the launch of De Tiger, its highly anticipated Far East speakeasy bar.
If the hotel’s rooms preserve the elegance and romance of old Jakarta, De Tiger reveals its other side. The past centuries of Kota Tua and Sunda Kelapa were not only refined — they were exciting, sexily risqué, and laced with a thrilling sense of danger, stories that very few remember today.
De Tiger does not simply recreate this history; it boldly reinterprets it, extending House of Tugu’s storytelling beyond the guest room and into the night.
The venue acts as a sophisticated nighttime sanctuary that blends exotic heritage mixology with a provocative, enigmatic energy, tailored for today’s discerning tastemakers.
Through De Tiger, House of Tugu Old Town Jakarta continues its mission to place the magnificent, and often untold, richness of Indonesian history firmly in the international spotlight.