The Westin Paris – Vendôme
History
The hotel opened on June 6, 1878, as the Hôtel Continental, It was designed by Charles Garnier's son-in-law Henri Blondel and was intended to be the most luxurious hotel in Paris at the time. It occupied a full block, the former premises of the Ministry of Finance, (burned in 1871) which had been designed by François-Hippolyte Destailleur in 1817, following the Bourbon Restoration. During the first World War the hotel was used as a military hospital by the French. The Hôtel Continental remained the largest hotel in Paris for decades; the Russian Grand Dukes habitually stayed there; at the Liberation of Paris, bedsheets were hung from its windows as cheerful flags of surrender. The hotel was renamed the Inter-Continental Paris in 1969, and then became The Westin Paris in 2005, adding the suffix Vendôme to its name in 2010.
The hotel was sold by Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC to London-based Henderson Park Capital in 2017 for €550 million. 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. 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. Henderson Park put the hotel up for sale in February 2022, for €800 million. 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.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Rue_de_Castiglione_%28Paris%29_en_1900%2C_vue_vers_la_place_Vend%C3%B4me_prise_au_niveau_de_l%27h%C3%B4tel_Continental.jpg/220px-Rue_de_Castiglione_%28Paris%29_en_1900%2C_vue_vers_la_place_Vend%C3%B4me_prise_au_niveau_de_l%27h%C3%B4tel_Continental.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Westin_Paris_Salon_Napoleon_2007_002.jpg/220px-Westin_Paris_Salon_Napoleon_2007_002.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/L%27Hotel_Continental_1925.jpg/220px-L%27Hotel_Continental_1925.jpg)
Notes
- ^ 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
- ^ "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
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- The Westin Paris - Vendôme Official Website