The Hotel Glória was built by entrepreneur Rocha Miranda for the International Exhibition of 1922 to commemorate the centennial of Brazil's independence.

Originally the hotel had a casino (closed in 1946, when gambling was prohibited in Brazil), a theatre, ballrooms, recreation areas, and only about 280 rooms but was later expanded to about 630.

[1] Due to its proximity to the financial and political centre of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Hotel Glória always harbored great movie stars, singers, politicians, and heads of state.

It was later furnished with a swimming pool, a steam sauna, an automatic phone billing system, a meeting room and equipment for video-conferences, and a heliport.

[3] Batista then sold the hotel to Mubadala Development Company, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, for an undisclosed sum.