The Westin Paris – Vendôme is a historic hotel in Paris, France at 3 rue de Castiglione on the corner of the rue de Rivoli, facing the Tuileries Garden.
The Westin Paris - Vendôme | |
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General information | |
Location | 3, Rue de Castiglione, Paris, France |
Coordinates | 48°52′15″N 2°19′51″E / 48.87083°N 2.33083°E |
Opening | April 1878 |
Owner | Dubai Holding |
Management | Westin Hotels |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 5 |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 440 |
Number of restaurants | 2 |
History
editThe Hôtel Continental was constructed to house tourists visiting for the 1878 Paris Exposition and opened on June 6, 1878.[1] It was designed by Charles Garnier's son-in-law Henri Blondel[2] and was intended to be the most luxurious hotel in Paris at the time. It occupied a full block, the former site of the Ministry of Finance, designed by François-Hippolyte Destailleur in 1817, following the Bourbon Restoration and burned down during the Paris Commune in 1871.[3] During the first World War the hotel was used as a military hospital.[4] The Hôtel Continental remained the largest hotel in Paris for decades; the Russian Grand Dukes habitually stayed there;[5] at the Liberation of Paris, bedsheets were hung from its windows as cheerful white flags of surrender.[6]
The hotel was bought by Pan Am's Inter-Continental Hotels division in August 1968[7] and fully renovated at a cost of $8 million.[8] The hotel was renamed the Inter-Continental Paris and opened its first 137 updated rooms on May 26, 1969, with the remainder of its 530 rooms following in 1970.[9] The hotel was the site of a bombing on August 30, 1981 that injured 18 people and damaged the foyer and restaurant on the ground floor.[10] The bomb was in an attache case and police theorized it might have exploded prematurely, as their were no claims of responsibility.[11]
Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC bought the hotel from the UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group on September 8, 2005, for €315 million.[12] GIC selected Starwood Hotels to manage of the property, and it was renamed The Westin Paris on October 10, 2005,[13] adding the suffix Vendôme to its name in 2010.
GIC sold the hotel to London-based Henderson Park Capital in 2017[14] for €550 million.[15] The new owners announced that the hotel would be renovated at a cost of $350 million by designer Tristan Auer and would become part of Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts in 2022.[16] The renovation and reflagging did not happen. In 2018, Dubai Holding, the personal investment portfolio of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, bought a minority stake in the hotel.[17] Henderson Park put the hotel up for sale in February 2022, for €800 million.[18] However, in March 2023, Dubai Holding bought out Henderson Park's controlling stake in the hotel for €650 million. It was announced that the hotel would remain under Westin management at least through the 2024 Paris Olympics.[19]
Notes
edit- ^ Karl Baedeker, Paris and Its Environs, 1878.
- ^ "Henri Blondel (1832-97), son-in-law of Charles Garnier" (Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion (1998:85).
- ^ see note) Archived 2006-11-26 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Belonging and Betrayal", Gervase Vernon, Amazon, 2013
- ^ Notes by Lord Hardinge.
- ^ Vintage photo Archived 2008-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/96399
- ^ https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/120812/rec/166
- ^ https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/95855/rec/196
- ^ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/08/30/Mystery-bomb-in-Paris-hotel-injures-18/8105367992000/
- ^ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/08/31/Police-believe-a-bomb-that-exploded-in-the-Intercontinental/8039368078400/
- ^ https://www.gic.com.sg/newsroom/news/gic-re-acquires-intercontinental-hotel-paris/
- ^ https://www.4hoteliers.com/news/story/2132
- ^ "Henderson Park buys second Paris hotel property". 28 December 2017.
- ^ "Henderson Park acquires iconic Westin Paris-Vendome | Experience".
- ^ "How Jose Silva is Cooking up a Plan to Make Jumeirah a Culinary Destination for Luxury Travelers". Forbes.
- ^ "Dubai Holding buys out the Westin Paris - Vendôme - Hotelier Middle East". Hotelier Middle East. March 2023.
- ^ "Henderson Park Test the Market for High End Hotels by Putting the Westin Paris up for Sale at €800m". 7 February 2022.
- ^ "Dubai Holding buys out the Westin Paris - Vendôme - Hotelier Middle East". Hotelier Middle East. March 2023.
External links
edit- The Westin Paris - Vendôme Official Website