The hotel, designed by Holabird & Root, John Burgee, and the Colombian architectural firm Cuéllar Serrano Gómez, was constructed between 1950 and 1951.

The hotel was the first building constructed in the Centro Internacional Tequendama complex.

[1] On May 17, 1953, Hotel Tequendama was inaugurated with a banquet attended by the President of Colombia, Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez.

At this time, the hotel's main entrance was relocated to Tenth Avenue, the building was given a T-shaped plan, several conference rooms were added, and its capacity was doubled.

[3] Tequendama is a word derived from the Chibcha language of the Muisca, who inhabited the Bogotá savanna in the times before the Spanish conquest.