The Art of Organizing and Furnishing a Hotel Room
The Opening of a Hotel: The Verdict At the moment of a hotel’s opening, everything is at its most beautiful and marvelous. The hotel invites the press to spoil them and sends its PR team to show around everything there is to be seen. So it’s an interesting exercise to return to the hotel a […]
The French Influence in the British Art of Welcoming
The World of Hotels: A Conversation with Robert Nadler, CEO of Nadler Hotels I’d like to share with you a very interesting conversation I had with an English entrepreneur who was raised in France and who’s created a hotel group in the United Kingdom after several years in the business world, where he had ample […]
The Art of Welcoming and Service Professions in the United States
Service professions devoted to the art of welcoming in partnership with the association O’Service This organization led by Denis Courtiade is devoted to restoring meaning and value to service careers. The organization holds as its objective to unite agents working in the French service profession to better advise service professionals of today and the future. […]
FIAC 2016: Contemporary Art and Luxury Hotels
FIAC: Contemporary art and luxury hotels—towards a new Eldorado? At the latest Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) in Paris, I reflected on the importance of contemporary art in Palaces and 5-star hotels. A fervent defender of the French art of welcoming, I am of the belief that contemporary art has always been an integral element of our DNA. […]
The St. Regis Hotel in Mauritius: The Mauritian Art of Welcoming
The Mauritian Art of Welcoming Meets the Italian Art of Welcoming I recently met with Rocco Bova, when he was the General Manager of the St. Regis Hotel in Mauritius. An Italian by origin, he has spent the last several years in Mauritius, where he’s brought his expertise as a hotelier from his time at […]
Selecting Interior Designers at Accor Hotels
Choosing Interior Designers A Conversation with Julie Grégoire. I’ve met her when she used to work for Accor as Operational Director of Luxury, High-End, and Thalassa France. How do you decide on an interior designer? What are the necessary qualities and criteria? How much room do you give for new talents? Do you always select experts? […]
Training Hotel Staff by M Gallery
An Engaging Internal Training Program What happens when you open a hotel? How do you train your staff teams? In each Sofitel, we have a person dedicated to training. Even better, we have a ‘flying’ trainer on hand in case a trainer is absent or when we need more specific training sessions around the brand’s […]
Differentiation in the Hotel Industry
Differentiation in the Hotel Industry Achieving differentiation in the hotel industry is a key element for offering clients a memorable and quality experience. With the help of Charles De Foucault, General Manager of One&Only Le Saint Géran, I sought out to understand the key elements in the differentiation of a hotel. Numerous international luxury brands have […]
Hotel Construction in Paris
The Stages of Construction for the Mélia La Défense Paris Hotel I recently met with an investor who was seeking to acquire a hotel for the first time. He asked me if it was better to acquire an existing hotel or to sign on to construct a new hotel. The answer to this, of course, […]
The House of Guerlain: The French Art of Welcoming
The House of Guerlain I had the pleasure of meeting Louis de Vilmorin, the International Director of Institutes & Spa Guerlain, at the Hotel and Spa Forum held on June 19 at the George V Four Seasons Hotel in Paris. This was a very interesting forum where professionals from various European countries came together to listen […]
Vincent Beaurin Meets the Cheval Blanc Randheli Resort
The Masterworks of Vincent Beaurin It always makes it more interesting to bring meaning to the decoration of a hotel. This presents a wonderful space to give free rein to the expression of an artist, whose works might allow clients to escape, create an imaginary universe, and offer sources of inspiration. Whether it’s for a […]
The French Art of Welcoming, According to Patrick Charvet
Patrick Charvet, the previous Chef of the Hyatt Paris Madeleine, Patrick Charvet, shares his definition of the French art of welcoming I have been lucky to meet some passionate people, and I am going to share with you a very lovely meeting. I present to you Patrick Charvet, he was the head chef of the […]
Phélippeau: The Art of Welcoming in Thalassotherapy
I had the pleasure of meeting Stéfany and Jean Pascal Phélippeau, who allowed me to discover the Hotel Château des Tourelles (****), as well as the Center of Thalassotherapy—Relais Thalasso—located in the Bay of La Baule. I leave you to discover the rest in the following interview. How do you translate the art of welcoming […]
Restaurants and Luxury Hotels: Dining round the Clock
How are dining behaviors evolving in luxury restaurants and hotels? During the latest salon SuccessFood, three issues facing restaurants today were laid out before industry experts. Let’s consider the issue of “round-the-clock dining.” Here’s a well-established offering in luxury hotels. One should be able to eat whenever one feels like it. Open bars in the lobbies will likely be […]
Meilleur Ouvrier de France – Receptionist
A Conversation with Gilles Le Bras, organizer of the ‘Meilleur Ouvrier de France’ competition for hotel receptionists. Back when I was a Director of Accommodations, I had the pleasure of serving as member of AICR (Amicale Internationale des Chefs de Réception), an international association for reception managers and assistant directors of large hotels. This dynamic association […]
Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku: The French Art of Welcoming
The French art of welcoming is a way of conceptualizing spaces for reception. How have you reinterpreted this art? To us, the French art of welcoming involves the feeling of truly being at home, of feeling good in a space so that we can create a certain energy. The space has to be very comfortable, […]
“We Always Need a Winter to Bring up a Summer”
Meet Séverine Pétilaire-Bellet, General Manager of the LOV Hotel Group Collection. This luxury hotel chain boasts the following establishments to its name: Les Airelles, Chalet Ormello, Aman Le Mélézin, and Le Chalet de Pierres in Courchevel, La Bastide de Gordes in Gordes and Pan Deï in Saint-Tropez. I encourage you to learn more about this […]
Serge Cachan on “Being Away from Home” with le 123 Sebastopol Hotel
As a follow-up to my article, “Far from Home….Spend a Night in the World of a Cineaste,” I invite you to meet Serge Cachan, the hotel manager of Le123 Sébastopol Hotel—a lovely variation on the theme of “being away from home.” How did you arrive upon the idea of calling out to film artists to […]
Isabelle Miaja: Her Definition of the Art of Welcoming
The Art of Welcoming According to Isabelle Miaja, Architect-Designer France’s history goes to show that we have cultivated a true art of living and welcoming. This expertise and thoroughly French art of welcoming has been considerably developed in luxury hotels, where it remains a source of inspiration for the great names in the hotel industry. […]
Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku: A Restaurant
Alain Ducasse Restaurant Following up from their earlier design work for the bar of the Plaza Athénée, Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku went on to design the Alain Ducasse Restaurant at the illustrious hotel for the third time. I invite you to discover their vision of the restaurant from their perspective as architects. Let’s talk about the dining room of […]
Safes in Hotel Rooms
Hotel : feel protected in Hotel Rooms Interview with Christian Perdomo, CEO of ARCARIUS Security within a hotel, especially in one’s room, is one of the most important factors in determining the quality of one’s stay. We all have the need to feel protected, and the presence of a safe contributes to this. It is also a […]
