Referred to as "Jewel of the East" in its heyday, Great Eastern Hotel hosted several notable persons visiting the city.

[3] The Auckland was expanded in the 1860s and its managing company renamed from D. Wilson and Co. to Great Eastern Hotel Wine and General Purveying Co.

[1] It was said of the hotel in 1883 that "a man could walk in at one end, buy a complete outfit, a wedding present, or seeds for the garden, have an excellent meal, a burra peg (double) and if the barmaid was agreeable, walk out at the other end engaged to be married".

[6] The hotel has housed many famous personalities including Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin,[4] Elizabeth II,[1] Mark Twain,[4] Dave Brubeck[7] and possibly Ho Chi Minh.

It reopened with a soft launch as The LaLiT Great Eastern Hotel on 19 November 2013.