To cajole a client, each palace has its little tricks. Take Le Royal Monceau. In October, this Parisian hotel, which belongs to a Qatari sovereign fund, had as a client Andreas Grasshoff, a 61-year-old American-German. During a casual conversation with the restaurant’s pastry chef, this industrial baking entrepreneur mentions to his interlocutor that in New York, where he lives, he rides a motorcycle. Immediately reported to the concierge, this confidence turned into a surprise.
The next day, a new black BMW R 18, the manufacturer’s largest engine, awaited Andreas Grasshoff in front of the hotel: it was his and his wife’s for the day. Gift. Both helmets arrived on a silver platter. “It wasn’t just any motorcycle, it was the most beautiful, the most powerful that I could have imagined. It was a fireworks display of emotions”remembers Andreas Grasshoff, who published on the social network LinkedIn a photo of him riding the machine, in front of the entrance to the Royal Monceau.
For him, who frequents palaces all over the world, and who, in Paris, also stayed at the Ritz, it’s a no-brainer: The Royal Monceau is “above everything”, he tells us. And he intends to advise those around him to go down there. For Le Royal Monceau, and its partner BMW, it’s a win.
Twelve more palaces in ten years
What to offer to ultra-rich clients who already have everything? Tailor-made experiences, surprises, “wow effects” capable of generating images on social networks. This is how the thirty-one palaces – the category above five-star – in France are now trying to distinguish themselves. Often owned by foreign billionaires (the Plaza Athénée and Le Meurice belong to the Sultan of Brunei, the George V to the Saudi prince Al-Walid, the Hôtel de Crillon to another Saudi prince, Le Bristol to the German pizza family Dr. Oetker…), palaces are “modern-day castles”as Gabriel Matar, consultant specializing in luxury hotels, says. “Their profitability is not obvious, and can only exist in the very long term. Investors [s’y intéressent] largely for a question of ego, posture, symbol. »
However, more than ever, these hotels are in competition to attract the greatest fortunes in the world. Indeed, in just a few years, the French palace market has expanded considerably: France has twelve more in ten years – the label is awarded by the Atout France agency. Among the entrants are the Lutetia, renovated from top to bottom in 2018, the Hôtel du Palais, in Biarritz, but also the Peninsula, the Mandarin Oriental, the Shangri-La… This club should continue to expand, with new hotels such as the Cheval Blanc, the Bulgari, or even the Carlton in Cannes, which reopened this year after 300 million euros of work.
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