The neo-Renaissance building of Le Royal Monceau opened its doors in 1928 and almost immediately became a popular spot of Parisian high life. In its bar, one could often run into Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, but Josephine Baker and the chanson singer Maurice Chevalier also performed in the luxury hotel.
It was closed for a while after the Second World War, and the building was occupied by the allied troops who liberated Paris as their headquarters, and President Eisenhower was also happy to visit the hotel later. The Vietnamese dictator Ho Chi Minh spent seven weeks in the hotel in 1947, while the relations between France and Vietnam were settled at the Fontainebleau Conference. In 1948, future Israeli Prime Ministers David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir signed the document establishing Israel in the hotel.
Many world stars have chosen the hotel as their temporary home during their stay in Paris: Walt Disney, Madonna, Lionel Messi, Robert de Niro are just a few of them. The hotel is currently operated by the Raffles hotel chain, founded in Singapore in 1887, the highest positioned hotel brand of the French hotel conglomerate Accor.
Since the Raffles chain has only 24 hotels, the name is rarely found in Europe, apart from Paris, they only operate hotels in London, Istanbul and Warsaw – Raffles Europejski Warsaw is certainly the most elegant hotel in Poland. Since 2012, the hotel has been owned by the state of Qatar through the real estate manager Katara Hospitality, their portfolio also includes such famous hotels as the Savoy in London or the iconic Carlton Hotel in Cannes.
A suite can cost more than HUF 9 million per night
Like the heads of state and government, as well as super-rich businessmen and top managers, A-list world stars also stay in the presidential or royal suites of luxury hotels. In fact, there is no difference in service between the two room categories, even within the same hotel, but they are different in design: the royal suites are often furnished in a classic style, they can be somewhat more richly decorated, and instead of a meeting room, an elegant salon can be used as the venue for official meetings. But this is not legal either, there are also luxury hotels in Budapest where the presidential suite is a little more elegant than the royal suite.
It is usually possible to book a royal suite in historic luxury hotels in countries that had a monarchy when the building opened. (Obviously, before the Second World War, far fewer countries in the world had a republican form of government.) In modern luxury hotels, a presidential suite is almost exclusively planned in a republic, but in monarchies – for example in the Middle East – a royal suite is often included in new developments to this day. Whatever they are called, these are definitely the most expensive and largest suites of luxury hotels, in many cases they have the best view of the city, and they can also have a roof terrace (as in the presidential suite of the Budapest Párisi Udvar Hotel – the Unbound Collection by Hyatt). It is important that it can be connected even with smaller suites, if you want to have, say, your personal assistant, babysitter, bodyguard, or any other staff nearby.
There are also three presidential suites in Le Royal Monceau, but of course, due to privacy rights and security reasons, the hotels never release information about who stays in which room or suite, or how long they stay with them. So at first it was not even possible to know that Édith Piaf’s famous chanson coming to the Olympics, a La vie en roseCéline Dion and Lady Gaga, singing together, wondered if they stayed in the Avenue Presidential Suite, the Raffles Presidential Suite or the Katara Presidential Suite – but since then a picture of Dion and Brigitte Macron has appeared in the French first lady’s chief of staff On Instagram in the living room of the latter suite.
Anyway, six people can sleep in these, the difference is probably in their size, but we don’t know the exact price of the 278, 328 and 348 square meter suites.
On the one hand, the hotels are not willing to give out such information about this room category, and on the other hand, they are unable to, since the pricing depends on the season or the event organized in the city. The Times estimates that, on average, these suites can currently cost over HUF 9 million per night, but the two world stars were probably able to stay for free for these few nights, since Accor is a premium supporter of the Paris Olympics, and this kind of agreement is what the to be elements.
Obviously, collaborating with two such celebrities is great advertising for the hotel as well – this is especially true now due to the return of Céline Dion, who is suffering from a serious illness, to the stage, since the Canadian singer is currently receiving special public attention after the presentation of the documentary film about her condition. And, of course, Qatar won’t get involved if these two suites are not sold for four nights. Otherwise, this calculation would not be outrageous based on the prestige of the city, the hotel and the event: just for the record: a night in Budapest in the presidential or royal suite of a luxury hotel usually does not exceed a few million forints.
Komornyik and Michelin-starred restaurant in the house
The three suites all have two living rooms, three bedrooms, three wardrobes and three bathrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and a private elevator. The difference is whether there is a private gym. The Raffles and Katara presidential suites have these, so Lady Gaga, who pays attention to her figure, and Céline Dion, who does physical exercises on a daily basis, also got them.
By the way, all three suites were decorated by the famous French designer Philippe Starck, choosing the paintings for the walls from the collection of the hotel, which also has a serious fine art collection. In the bathrooms, the stars will find Clarins toiletries (as will other hotel guests) and they will be able to use the spa under the name of the French beauty brand and the myBlend beauty brand, famous for its anti-aging face masks, where they could use facial and body treatments, although it is quite unlikely , that Céline Dion, with her disease that reacts to tactile stimuli with seizures, would ask for something like this.
The bathrooms are also designed by the Japanese TOTO, considered to be the best toilet manufacturer in the world, with heated toilet seats. The suites also come with Raffles’ famous butler service, in the framework of which they try to please the guest 24 hours a day, from check-in to check-out.
Unless they really want to show off and go out to dinner in the crossfire of the paparazzi’s flashes, the most obvious thing is for celebrities to order snacks to their room from their hotel’s restaurant. Raffles in Paris has several restaurants, if you want Italian, there is the Michelin-starred Il Carpaccio, if you want Japanese with a Peruvian twist, then there is the Paris restaurant of the international chain Matsuhisa – founded by star chef Nobu Matsuhisa with Robert de Niro in the lower-positioned Nobu chain, which has a restaurant in the Kempinski Hotel in Budapest. Although Céline Dion, by her own admission, only drinks a little alcohol to protect her vocal cords, she might also try the hotel’s signature cocktail, Sipsmith Raffles 1915.
You can order the author’s book Stílusgourmand, a luxury expert, published by Inda Press, by clicking here:
(Cover photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage)
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