Named after its location across from Luneta (Rizal Park) on Kalaw Avenue in Ermita, it is one of the remaining structures that survived the Liberation of Manila in 1945.

According to the study by Dean Joseph Fernandez of the University of Santo Tomas, the hotel was designed by the Spanish architect-engineer Salvador Farre.

[2] The hotel was designed by the Spanish architect-engineer Salvador Farre in French Renaissance Belle Epoque style and completed in 1919.

[3] During World War II, the Luneta Hotel became a brothel of American G.I.s who were off to Corregidor after Manila had been declared an open city.

Leaving the front entrance of the Luneta Hotel in the evening, I could walk to the right to view the busy docks where Philippine commerce with the world was loaded and unloaded.

Walking toward the Club of the Army and the Navy, and looking down toward the city itself, I nearly always paused for a moment before the statue of the great José Rizal before returning to my quarters.