The hotel, intended to become the best in Tbilisi, then capital of the Russian-ruled Georgia and the larger Caucasus region, was designed by Aleksandr Ozerov in 1911 and later remodeled by Gabriel Ter-Mikelov at the behest of Mikael Aramyants. Its construction was completed in 1915 and named Hôtel Majestic. During World War I, from 1915 to 1917, the hotel accommodated a military hospital before it could be opened for the public. After the Soviet takeover of Georgia in 1921, the building was transferred to the Trade Unions. Its ground floor was used for multiple purposes, housing a typography and shops, while a basement was turned into a cinema. In February 1939, the refurbished building was restored to its original function as Hotel Tbilisi run by the state-owned travel agency Intourist. Heavily damaged by fire during the December 1991–January 1992 coup d'etat, a prelude to the Georgian Civil War, it was reconstructed under the guidance of the architects G. Metreveli and V. Kurtishvili from 1995 to 2002. On 26 September 2002, the Tbilisi Marriott Hotel was opened in the building.