Gran Hotel Ciudad de México

The 5-star Gran Hotel Ciudad de México features in both Licence to Kill (1989) and SPECTRE (2015).

Located in the historic center of Mexico City, on the Zócalo square (the same square where the helicopter lands in SPECTRE), Gran Hotel Ciudad de México is one of the top Mexican hotels. The building was originally constructed in 1899, and was home to one of the first department stores in Mexico City, El Centro Mercantil (CM), designed in the lavish Art Nouveau style then popular in fashionable Paris.

Licence to Kill
James Bond (Timothy Dalton) and Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) go to hotel "El Presidente" where they meet with Q. They check in and take the beautifully decorated elevator of the hotel up to their floor.

SPECTRE
In SPECTRE, we can see the same ornate elevator, now partly painted dark green or black. In the first long shot of the pre-title opening sequence, James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Estrella (Stephanie Sigman) walk into the hotel and take the elevator up to the floor where they exit and enter room 327.

The exterior and entrance of the hotel (and basically the whole first opening shot of the Day of the Dead parade) in the film are not filmed at the actual entrance of the hotel (which is on Avenida 16 de Septiembre, nr 82) but on Calle de Tacuba. Calle de Tacuba 12 is the building which doubles as the hotel. To make it look authentic, 'CM' logos are added on the walls of the 'fake' entrance of the hotel in the fim. CM stands for Centro Mercantil, the original department store in the building, but the letters are now part of the hotel's logo as well.

Gran Hotel Ciudad de México
Av. 16 de Septiembre #82
Col. Centro
Mexico City
C.P. 06000
Tel: +52 (55) 1083 7700