Aggie Grey’s

The hotel provides the public with little information about its history. Our team researches the hotel's past, from the very beginning, verifying its exact opening date and providing an overview of its history up to the present day.?If you have any useful information and would like to share it, please send it to archives@famoushotels.org.?Thank you This is what we know so far: When travellers get together and talk of adventures and experiences in the South Pacific, sooner or later someone is bound to ask, 'Have you stayed at Aggie's?' There are thousands of hotels spread throughout the world and it is usually hard to define what makes one memorable and another forgettable. Who has not heard of the legendary Raffles in Singapore, the Plaza in New York and the Savoy in London. Aggie Grey's Hotel has also become a legend. Some of the legend is due to James A. Mitchener's 'South Pacific', some to the sailors who found it a home away from home in Samoa, some to the travellers who found it to be a haven in the Pacific. So what makes Aggie's so special? First and foremost we are a family hotel and our family is Samoan. In Samoa we have what is known as the 'aiga', the extended family. Our 300 staff are our 'aiga' and we are theirs. When you stay with us, you will be looked after by a family who cares. You will become part of our extended family and we will make you feel at home and as comfortable and relaxed as possible. 1933: The hotel was founded by my mother Aggie in 1933 and it became a renowned club for American servicemen stationed in Samoa during World War II. The original hotel was in a wooden building that had once been the International Hotel. It was dismantled from its original site around 1900 and rebuilt where our hotel now stands. It was once again dismantled in 1987, to make way for our new building which houses reception, accommodation, Business Centre, a fine dining restaurant and cocktail bar. Over the years, the hotel has developed, expanded and modernized, as and when further accommodation and guest facilities were required. Throughout that development the whole family has been involved. In the fifties there were the nights when Gary Cooper and the cast and crew discussed the filming of 'Tales of the South Pacific'. Many film stars have spent a night or more in discussion at Aggie's. Marlon Brando, Raymond Burr, Cheryl Ladd, William Holden, to name but a few. We believe they were drawn to the hotel because it was and still is genuine. It became that way because of the drive and personality of my mother Aggie. She was the daughter of William Swann, an English chemist and his Samoan bride, Pele. They had many friends including Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent the last years of his life here. I manage the hotel now with my wife Marina, my daughter Tanya and my son Fred. We are proud to carry on the traditions that my mother started as that is what all Samoans try to accomplish - adapt past traditions to the present, so that the future is worthwhile. Come and stay with us if you like new experiences and want to be part of the legend of the South Pacific.

Gary Cooper, William Holden, Robert Morley, Marlon Brando, Robert Louis Stevenson