In the early days of the last century the hotel was the family home of David Macdonald. After accompanying the Younghusband Mission to Lhasa in 1904 as interpreter, Macdonald was posted to Tibet as a British Trade Agent, serving in Yatung and Gyantse until his retirement in 1924. Macdonald assisted the 13th Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet in 1910, and he was later invited to Lhasa in 1921. After he retired, with his large family grown up, Macdonald turned the family home into a Hotel, and it has remained in the Macdonald family ever since. In the words of the distinguished travel writer James Cameron, it is “a collector’s piece among hotels. It is a hotel of real charm and character, with an atmosphere redolent of its close association with Himalayan history. It has 16 rooms, most with their own fire-places, attached bathrooms with running hot and cold water, fitted with showers.