Havelock Place Bungalow

The Havelock Place Bungalow lays a genuine claim to being the first boutique hotel to open in Colombo, welcoming its first guests in December 1999, well before the city's current wave of design-led small hotels. The land itself has a documented history stretching back to 1892, when the British governor of the time, Sir Arthur Havelock, transferred the title by hand-written deed to the Havelock Building Company on payment of a nominal sum; the two colonial-period homes on the plot were later restored into the hotel that stands there now.

It is a genuinely small property: seven rooms in total, split between three suites and four standard rooms, each decorated in a classic style with antique furniture that leans into the building's age rather than disguising it. Writing bureaus, broadband internet, traditional decor and a boutique sensibility throughout mean no two rooms read as identical, which is typical of a converted house rather than a purpose-built hotel working from a single repeated floor plan.

The address itself — 6-8 Havelock Place, down a quiet side street in Colombo 5 — is part of the appeal: guests describe it as a calm, unhurried pocket of the city despite being close to the everyday bustle of downtown Colombo. Most rooms open directly onto a private patio or the garden, and several sit close to the property's pool and jacuzzi, so outdoor space is built into the stay rather than limited to a single shared terrace at the front of the building.

Practical amenities are modest and suited to the hotel's scale: a restaurant serving local cuisine, a bar, laundry service and 24-hour wireless internet, alongside free self-parking. Colombo 5, sometimes known as Havelock Town, is a mostly residential district south of the city centre, and the bungalow's side-street setting there is part of why it has kept its quiet, private character for more than two decades while the city has built up considerably around it, with newer towers now visible from streets nearby that were far lower when the hotel first opened.

The Havelock Place Bungalow is best understood as a piece of restored Colombo domestic architecture from the colonial era, still operating on the same intimate scale it opened with over two decades ago, rather than one that has grown to chase a larger share of the city's hotel trade or added rooms to increase its capacity beyond the original seven.

Your transfer to Havelock Place Bungalow

The nearest hotel on this site is Radisson Hotel Colombo in Colombo 3, about 1.0 km away.