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HOTELS & SPAS

The most luxurious hotels in Paris

March 2011

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Parisian hotels have always been the last word in luxury but now they’re truly upping the ante and battling it out for the ultimate ‘palace’ status, says Claire Wrathall
Live like a royal in the Presidential Apartment at Le Meurice
Courtesy of Le Meurice

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For a culture so steeped in luxe, it's something of an anomaly that France's system of hotel classification stopped until recently at four stars. Such was the French commitment to notions of egalité that even the most palatial, most eye-wateringly expensive Paris hotels — the Dorchester Collection's Hôtel Plaza Athénée, for instance, which charges nearly £17,000 for a night in its Royal Suite, excluding breakfast and city tax — had to make do with the same rating as a Holiday Inn.

Not any more. In 2009 a new system, introduced by the Secretary of State for Tourism, began to be rolled out. Along with it came a five-star rating, though to qualify a hotel has to satisfy a further 30 requirements (formerly there were 94; now there are 124). The old blue enamel plaques are going, too: henceforth five-star hotels can advertise their classification with gold ones. Not that this has necessarily made life easier for Paris's six most celebrated grandes dames — the Ritz, the George V, the Hôtel de Crillon, Le Bristol, the Plaza Athénée and Le Meurice — which, in an effort to compensate for the perceived indignity of their egalitarian classification (they're still officially categorised alongside major international chains such as Sofitel and Hyatt), came up with the term 'palace'.

Franka Holtmann, directeur-général of Le Meurice, defines a 'palace' as a hotel in a building that has history and a certain grandeur, a very high proportion of suites, a staff-guest ratio of about three to one and a gastronomic restaurant. For the moment, palace is not an officially recognised designation (except, perhaps, in the eyes of France's Competition Authority, which brought charges against the six in 2005 on the grounds that they were operating as a cartel, exchanging confidential information in order to keep their rack rates artificially high — and fined them all accordingly.) The term is, however, expected to become an official classification this spring, when it will be up to a jury of designers, celebrities and people from business to decide which of the 100 or so five-star hotels qualify for special palatial status.

This has not stopped some hotels already calling themselves palaces. Park Hyatt, for example, dubbed its property near the Place Vendôme 'the first contemporary palace in Paris' when it opened in 2002. Fouquet's Barrière, on the Avenue George V, styles itself 'a veritable Parisian palace' and makes much of the fact that it is French-owned, which none of the original six 'palaces' is.

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Posted by Claire Wrathall

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hotels-and-spas, Paris

1. Hotel Le Bristol
Doubles from £654 a night. lebristolparis.com

2. Hotel de Crillon
Doubles from £535 a night. crillon.com

3. Hotel du Louvre
Doubles from £190 a night.
British Airways offers two nights from £479pp including flights and continental breakfast. (Includes return BA flights from Heathrow. Subject to availability, based on May 2011 departures, two sharing and includes all UK taxes). ba.com/paris, +44 (0)844 493 0758

4. Le Meurice
Doubles from £330 a night. lemeurice.com

5. Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome
Doubles from £458 a night. BA offers two nights at this five-star hotel from £599pp including flights. (Includes return BA flights from Heathrow. Subject to availability, based on May 2011 departures, two sharing and includes all UK taxes).
Win a weekend for two at Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme including flights. Visit bahighlife.com/competitions.

6. Pavillon des Lettres
Doubles from £254 a night. pavillondeslettres.com

7. Pavillon de la Reine
Doubles from £322 a night. hotelpavillondelareine.com

8. The Peninsula Paris
Rates yet to be set. peninsula.com/paris

9. Plaza Athenee
Doubles from £704 a night. plaza-athenee-paris.com

10. Le Royal Monceau
Doubles from £661 a night. leroyalmonceau.com

11. Hotel Scribe
Doubles from £240 a night. BA offers two nights at this five-star hotel from £499 per person including flights. (Includes return BA flights from Heathrow. Subject to availability, based on May 2011 departures, two sharing and includes all UK taxes). ba.com/paris, +44 (0)844 493 0758

12. Shangri-La Hotel Paris
Doubles from £636 a night. shangri-la.com/paris

13. Sofitel Paris Le Faubourg
Doubles from £309 a night. sofitel.com 

14. The Westin Paris-Vendome
Doubles from £228 a night. BA offers two nights from £519 per person including flights. (Includes return BA flights from Heathrow. Subject to availability, based on May 2011 departures, two sharing and includes all UK taxes). ba.com/paris, +44 (0)844 493 0758

15. W Paris-Opera
Rates yet to be set. starwoodhotels.com

16. Mandarin Oriental
Doubles from £720 a night. mandarinoriental.com

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