Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is preparing to sign two iconic additions to its portfolio of exceptional hotels from early 2025: Hôtel Lutetia in Paris and the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam. The acceptance of the offer is subject to the completion of a consultation process with the relevant Works Councils, which will begin shortly.

I was amazed that the idea of combining retail with lodging is 110 years old. In 1910 the management of Le Bon Marché department store, which had been founded by Aristide and Marguerite Boucicaut in 1852, decided to open a hotel for their most favoured customers, but instead of calling it Le Bon Marché they named it Lutetia, the original Roman name of Paris. Obviously, the store was doing well. Sculptors Léon Binet and Paul Belmondo, father of Jean-Paul, were commissioned to decorate the façade in Art Nouveau style. Now, all these years later, the 184-room hotel’s seven-floor exterior is as iconic worldwide as is, in a different way, Frank Gehry’s design for the Elciego Marques de Riscal hotel.

Hotel Lutetia, Paris is a really unique luxury hotel. It reopened 17 July 2018, and I wanted to have a look. Harrods tried unsuccessfully to open its own hotels, and yes, it could be argued that Bulgari – and, fleetingly, Missoni – are storekeepers who also have hotels. But I was amazed that the idea of combining retail with lodging is, in fact, 109 years old.