Hotel acquisitions that involve a per-key price tag of more than $1 million, even £1 million, are becoming the reality now in Europe, whereas that might have been only a U.S. concept just a decade ago.
In 2024, Rome-based owner Gruppo Statuto acquired the 135-room Mandarin Oriental, Paris, for €205 million ($240 million), or more than €1.5 million per key.
We shall wait to see in 2025 if these eye-popping numbers continue and if they include branded hotels.
It might be the case that smaller hotels will see such pricing, delectable hotels that might once have been private houses which would be showcased on TV programs such as "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
Last month, LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, acquired the 20-room Hôtel Cap-Estel in Èze, France, for a reputed €200 million. That's €10 million per key, the math does not even tax my brain. LVMH owns hotel brand Belmond among many, many other things.
My goodness! A price of €10 million per key is a number that surely must destroy numerous records in the industry.
Yes, Arnault is the fifth richest person in Forbes’ 2025 list, and the richest European on it, but that is still a huge figure.
According to CoStar, Hôtel Cap-Estel was built in 1898 and has a very desirable spot overlooking the French Riviera, an almost five-acre overlook halfway between Monaco and Nice. The hotel has two pools and a restaurant, among its other baubles.
I took the train once from Nice to Èze-sur-Mer, a journey that takes approximately an hour and hugs the Mediterranean coast.
From the station, it is another hour up the steep Chemin de (Friedrich) Nietzsche, a rocky path that climbs from sea level for 1,300 feet to Èze-Village, which is full of wonderful houses, restaurants and small squares.
It is one of 15 or so villages in the region that are on the so-called Route des Villages Perchés, which does not need any translation.
Parts of it are idyllic, a retreat to a quieter past time. On the other side of the equation, young men — and it was just all men — were driving in a small stretch of road that was the farthest cars could go up the hill very expensive sports cars that were being rented out in 30-minute increments for a price that did not seem too much less than what Arnault spend on the Hôtel Cap-Estel.
I very much liked walking up the steep path, gaining a sense of achievement and knowledge of geology as I summited. I could smell the sea, rosemary, pine and olives.
Entering the village’s wall — the Lamborghinis and Maseratis could no longer follow one — I was left to sit in the calm at such restaurants as Le Nid d’Aigle, with its simple cuisine and tables perched to the side of narrow, stepped pedestrian walkways of sand-colored stone.
When I finally reached sea level, I was hungry again, but I declined having a €50 burger with gold leaf and truffle — I kid you not.
Last December, LVMH acquired a minority investment in French boutique hotel owner and brand Les Domaines de Fontenille via a partnership with Geneva-based investment firm Anaïs Ventures. Les Domaines de Fontenille has 11 hotels with eight located in France.
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