 The hotel opened as The National Hotel of Cuba on December 30, 1930, operated by the American managers of the Plaza Hotel, Savoy-Plaza Hotel and Copley Plaza Hotel, at a time Cuba was a prime travel destination for people in the U.S.In 1933, after Fulgencio Batista's 4 September 1933 coup against the transitional government, The National Hotel was the residence of Sumner Welles, a special envoy sent by U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to mediate the crisis.Soon after, on October 2-3, 1933, it was the site of a bloody siege that would become known as the Battle of the Hotel Nacional of Cuba.