Tucked behind a red velvet rope in an inky side room off the main lobby, Le Bristol After Dark is delightfully unexpected – as if stumbling into a secret speakeasy in a palace. The nightclub stands in stark contrast to the famed 100-year-old hotel entrance – a grand space with ornate chandeliers, plush fringed couches and a painting of Marie Antoinette. In comparison, the club is lit with pink-and-purple neon lights, disco balls shining overhead. Partygoers sip Ruinart champagne and DJs spin disco and lounge tracks until the early hours of the morning. 

The perfect balance of tradition and trend is what allows Le Bristol to maintain its reputation as one of Paris’s most legendary hotels. Set in an historic building and a hop away from Parisian icons such as Palais Garnier and the Tuileries Garden, the iconic property has hosted everyone from Coco Chanel to Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí. Now celebrating its centennial, Monocle meets president and managing director Luca Allegri to discuss how the hotel maintains its relevance in an ever-evolving hospitality landscape. 

100 years of business is no easy feat. How do you stay timeless in a world that’s moving so quickly? 
We try to surprise our guests with new ideas – art, for example. [American contemporary artist] George Condo, a longtime guest, collaborated with us on the renovation of the Imperial Suite. We asked whether he could leave a small piece of art with us when the suite was ready. We have also hosted a pop-up with Gabriela Hearst, who has been staying with us since she was at Chloé. When she launched her own brand [10 years ago], we began a partnership with a retail installation. [Now, a decade later, another pop-up has been launched in a space created by Benji Gavron and Antoine Dumas of Gavron Dumas Studio.] 

There are some clients who only come to the hotel for Le Bristol After Dark. [The club] is a way for us to show that, while we have been around for a century, we are also contemporary. 

How do you maintain a strong heritage aesthetic while always offering something new?
The owners are heavily involved in decorating the hotel, which allows them to preserve its DNA while bringing some novel elements to the style. We are very privileged to have plenty of space, which has enabled us to increase the number of junior suites and bathrooms (two per suite). After speaking to our clients, we learned that this was what they wanted the most.

What kind of experience do you want to create for your guests?
A distinctly Parisian one. We are located in the heart of a neighbourhood with the most popular galleries and attractions in Paris, so we also attract the city’s residents with our food-and-beverage offerings. We have launched our own in-house bakery with a mill in the basement, where we produce our own flour for bread. We now have a chocolate factory, pasta-making facilities and a cellar too, [which is] likely the largest wine cellar of all the Parisian palace hotels. It’s about giving guests a unique experience with a level of personalisation that they won’t find elsewhere.

We want to give our visitors an incredible experience not only in Paris but throughout the rest of France as well. I’m the son of a concierge, so I understand firsthand how crucial this role can be. Interacting with clients and creating meaningful moments are the most important aspects of our jobs. On Wednesday afternoons, we host cocktail parties where we invite some of our frequent guests to meet different team members, such as the concierge, the guest relations or the rooms divisions [managers]. They mingle and meet other clients too – sometimes they even become friends. 

How are you managing your staff and their experiences in a way that might differ to other notable hotels? 
Leading by example is very important. We have members of staff that have been with us for 30 to 40 years. When employees reach a milestone – such as 20 or 30 years of service – we invite them to celebrate by bringing their family to the hotel or organising a party. We’re a family-run business, so we like to give [the staff] a sense of belonging and community. Le Bristol is not just a hotel or home for the owners – it’s also a home for the staff. 

How have you adapted to changes in guest preferences to ensure the hotel’s continued relevance?
Some 30 to 35 per cent of our clients are returning guests and we want to show them that their future stays are as important as their past stays. For example, we have a family from New York that has been staying in the same suite for the past 25 years. To show them how much we appreciate their loyalty, we approached them during the renovation of the suite to share the plans with them. We then designed the layout of the room together and they changed the placement of the bed. For us, adapting is a way of honouring such loyalty.

The Marbella Club, the Costa del Sol’s first luxury hotel, was largely responsible for the Andalusian city’s transition from sleepy fishing town to glitzy enclave. But the hotel retains an air of quiet elegance that can be traced back to its origins as a farmhouse, which prince and businessman Alfonso Hohenlohe bought in 1947.

Here, at the tip of southern Europe, 700 members of staff look after 131 rooms, 16 villas, nine restaurants, three swimming pools, 13 boutiques, a spa, a beach club and a kids’ club, among four hectares of lush gardens. “Much more than in any other business, it’s all about the people in a luxury hotel,” says the hotel’s general manager, Julián Cabanillas. The hotel’s 6:1 staff-to-guest ratio is meant to provide gentle support rather than a smothering presence. “Our team has got to know the clients over the years,” says Cabanillas. “We have a 40 per cent return rate.”

In his view, there’s a link between good staff retention and the warm hospitality that guests reconnect with every time they return to the Marbella Club. This harks back to the standard of service established by Hohenlohe, who converted his rural residence into a hotel in 1954. During his tenure he recreated the elegance and intimacy of his family’s former home, fostering an exclusive atmosphere that attracted fellow aristocrats as well as high-profile jet-setters including film stars Brigitte Bardot and Audrey Hepburn.

For the past 71 years the Marbella Club has set the benchmark for elevated Spanish hospitality. For Cabanillas, maintaining a space that reflects the surrounding landscape and local traditions is key to its success. “I want guests to feel that they are in an authentic place,” he says. As such, El Patio restaurant has interiors with décor by regional artisans, the gastronomy is decidedly Mediterranean and indigo mosaics evoke the area’s Islamic heritage. Thanks to this dedication to an Andalusian experience, most diners at the Marbella Club are residents of the area. “If you listen to the guests’ needs, it becomes an easy job,” says Cabanillas.
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