The Hong Kong-based boutique hotel chain will take over the space in the award-winning Nishi Building in March, with the new hotel name yet to be determined.

Under a long-term leasehold deal with Molonglo, Ovolo has acquired the businesses, operations and the staff that work for the hotel and its hatted restaurant, Monster kitchen and bar.

The new brand will come into effect on March 1, 2018, with only minor changes to the existing hotel.

Ovolo Hotels Australia chief operating officer Dave Baswal said, "[The hotel] fits our ethos of design really well. If you look at the Ovolo portfolio, each and every asset is unique in its character, it has its own style, it has its own feel, it has its own story. We can pretty much take Hotel Hotel the way it is, and just give it a bit of an Ovolo service touch.

"A lot of work has been done by the existing team, and we would not change it any other way, just embrace what we have inherited and add value to it and add it to another level hopefully."

Mr Baswal said the same of Monster kitchen and bar, which picked up a hat in the Good Food Guide for 2018.

"Monster will stay as it is, if anything we will see how we can improve some of the things in the area. It's a beautifully appointed space, they have a really creative chef, so I don't expect anything which will affect it negatively," he said.

Hotel Hotel is the third Australian hotel Ovolo has secured in just seven months, and brings the number of hotels under the Ovolo brand to six in Australia following its $40 million acquisition earlier this month of the 102-room Emporium Hotel and the 50-room New Inchcolm Hotel & Suites in Brisbane for $16.5 million in June.

Molonglo Group first opened the design-focussed Hotel Hotel in late 2013, and continue to own the Nishi building and New Acton precinct which it is a part of.

Molonglo Group's Nectar Efkarpidis said the sale of the leasehold, "will allow us to focus on new projects ahead both in Canberra and beyond".

"We are proud of Hotel Hotel. The goodwill that we have received through this project from collaborators and staff that we have worked with over the last few years has been enormous. Through it, we have made life long friends." he said.

They have retained the Hotel Hotel brand, and plan to use it, "in the form of our creative projects, through film and publishing".

- with Larry Schlesinger