Inside France’s Most Exclusive Hotels _ Palaces de France

Basically, anything can happen in a palace. You can dream of anything, ask for anything, and they will make it happen for you. France has always served as an example of excellence in the world of hospitality. To recognize this level of excellence, a new distinction emerged to honor and to set apart a select few hotels, hotels that transcend the five-star ratings. They are known as the Palace de France hotels. Today, these extraordinary establishments can be found throughout France, from Paris to the Alps to the Southwest to the Riviera and Provence, and on the French Caribbean island of St. Barts. France has long been a global leader in luxury and hospitality. We have over 500 five-star hotels in France, and out of thousands of hotels in the country, only a few select bear the Palace de France distinction. We wanted to recognize certain establishments, which is why the Palace distinction was established in 2010 by the French government. The process to obtain the distinction is highly regulated, and the decision-making process involves three key entities. Hôtel de France, the French tourism development agency, the Ministry of Tourism, and a committee comprised of prominent figures from the world of culture, art, gastronomy, and the very high-end hospitality industry. The final decision ultimately lies with the Ministry of Tourism. Once the distinction is granted, it is awarded for three years, which means it must be constantly reviewed to maintain a high level of excellence. The objective is to distinguish exceptional establishments among five-star hotels that surpass traditional criteria. These establishments embody unique expertise and French savoir-faire in hospitality. They must meet hundreds of criteria to be considered. The first prerequisite is to have a five-star rating, the maximum classification in France. In determining what distinguishes a Palace de France from the standard five-star hotel, Atut France first conducts an exhaustive inspection phase to ensure that hotels strictly adhere to an extensive list of mandatory criteria. This meticulous process leaves no stone unturned, encompassing everything from the quality of spa facilities to the presence of a dedicated concierge team and multilingual staff, where every detail is scrutinized. In the next phase, an expert panel evaluates the hotels on a variety of additional criteria. It is at this stage that the panel ensures that the core tenets that define the Palace-Hotel distinction are met. These tenets include excellence in gastronomy, exceptional services, location, design and architecture, rich cultural heritage, and a strong commitment to sustainable practices. The Palace distinction elevates French hospitality to its highest standard. When visitors research properties before coming to France, many ratings can be skewed by customer reviews that qualifies hotels with star ratings. However, when a visitor chooses a Palace de France hotel, there is an assurance that they are getting the best of the best in French luxury and hospitality. To put it simply, Palace-designated hotels are France's crown jewels. The clientele of Palace, they have a very high demand and very high expectation. And that's why we have so many staff. When tourists come to Paris, is a level of service, a level of expectation that people will come into these venues, these beautiful hotels, and expect a certain level of heritage, of history, of design, of experiences that is second to none, that you cannot find in other hotels. We have classification of hotels from one, two, three, four, and five stars, and Palace is the step above the five star. When I grew up, it stopped at five. And since the Palace certification exists and having a certain amount of hotels that are classified as Palace really sets the bar and gives this beautiful expectation to guests and gives us also the responsibility to deliver above and beyond experiences and stays for our guests. The staff of the Palace are so important for one main reason, they are the only link with the guests. Because concierge, reception, all those people are facing the guests. It's not the director of sales and marketing or the general manager who is the most in contact with the guests. It's the people who are serving a coffee, doing the bed, pampering the pillow. I think they are the most important. And in order to become a Palace, I think the most important is to have those people for a long time. In order for them to be recognized by the guests when they come back, and of course for them to recognize even better the guests and calling them by their name. We have specialists in every single hotel, but also at headquarter level. There is hundreds of kinds of training that we are doing, not only to become a better pastry chef or to become a better chef or to become a better engineer. It's also on the way you act and you grow. I think what sets a guest experience different from any other hotel to a Palace hotel, it comes to details. In our property, every guest will have a contact with a butler. When the guest arrives, they'll be met by the butler and the butler will tell them, whatever you need, anytime, you can text me, you can call me, I'm there for you. Most of the Palace give you the access to special services. No is not the answer. You need to find it. When you get access to a museum, which is impossible to get in, or if they know that you will love to get an access to the fashion show, and because of your contact, you get that invitation. This is the kind of things that really touch, and this is not in a five-star hotel that you can get that. Also, those kind of details when they clean your glass when you are on the beach and they come and they give you a cocktail or an ice cream, when you don't ask for it, it's things which go a little beyond what everybody is doing. We need to be sure that we are making the difference between the subtle difference between outstanding and exceptional. The difference between a beautiful hotel and an exceptional palace, we need to take images. It's maybe like two exceptional painters. One is Lutetia, Lutetiano. The other one is, for instance, Da Vinci. Lutetia is already outstanding, is someone having, realizing exceptional art pieces, but he has only one slight problem, is to be compared to Da Vinci. You have people visiting the Louvre, but they are going to see one, Mona Lisa. And I will say that we want to be Mona Lisa. Exceptional gastronomy is a cornerstone of the Palace de France distinction. While many palaces have one to three-star Michelin restaurants on site, others boast some of the world's greatest wine cellars. Each hotel, in its own distinct way, showcases gastronomic mastery at the highest levels. We believe that the guests come to France because France is famous, like a few other countries, for its gastronomy, for the food, food and beverage. Gastronomy is essential for French culture for historic reasons first. In the 18th century, chefs worked closely with alchemists to fine-tune all the process of the cuisine. Working closely with the alchemists allowed them to be more efficient in the cuisine, develop the notion of gastronomy and fine cuisine. So for this reason, this refinement is an heritage for us. We need to promote this heritage. The level of the gastronomy in a hotel has an impact on the entire experience, for the breakfast, for the room service, for the other restaurants. Even a beach restaurant benefits from the level of gastronomy. You want to impulse in a palace. And our guests, they are very able to see the difference and to experience the difference. It's part of the DNA, let's say, of our brand to be gastronomy-oriented, to be gastronomy-compatible. And for this reason, from the beginning, we wanted to have the best input coming from the best chef in different ways because we are not duplicating things. We are creating unique palaces everywhere. For this reason, we take a different decorator, different teams, of course, different chefs, but with one value in common, which is we want to go beyond the mountains together. That's it. In addition to having outstanding service and gastronomy, location and history are crucial elements that set a palace apart from a five-star property. To put it simply, a palace hotel is a destination in itself. They are hotels that are inextricably linked to the location where they reside, each with a distinct identity. The Palace de France fits seamlessly into their environment and uniquely showcase French excellence in hospitality. Many palaces are more known than their own destination. And for this reason, palaces are most of the time ambassador of France in many places in the world. The location of all the palaces is very important. Whether it's in Paris or other parts of France, all those places are where travelers from all over the world want to visit. It may be in the mountains, it may be on the sea, it may be a place that is iconic. So the location of all those hotels represent either the French culture, the French heritage, or the French history, or something great about the French savoir-faire, savoir-vivre, the way of the French lifestyle. The guests will choose a place where they will feel the history. They want to be in the center of the attention. So all the palaces are in places that have a link to the culture. Whether it's where Napoleon lived, or Napoleon III, or where Marie Antoinette stayed, Place Vendôme, or Place de la Concorde, or Avenue Montaigne, or Rue de Rivoli, all those hotels, all those palace hotels, we all have a great part of the French history to tell. It's different parts, different eras. The storied history of the Palace de France and its location may be the initial draw for a guest, but when arriving, the architecture and design are two of the first components that capture a guest's attention. The team at each palace hotel has worked with some of the best design and architectural firms in the world to balance preservation with modernity, showcasing unparalleled French architecture and innovative design. A palace hotel needs to be a place with a soul, not only a building, but a building with something inside, like a heartbeat. Design and architecture are very important aspects in a palace hotel. As a matter of fact, all the palace hotels have something, a great story to tell about their architecture, their design, their history, or their heritage. We want to represent the culture that we're in in Paris and in France here, but also designers and architects that have a very strong link to the heritage, to the culture of France, but also of the location itself, and how do we take it to high-end luxury travelers and moving to the 21st century experiences. The Palace de France hotels prioritize sustainability alongside luxury, creating an atmosphere where both are able to thrive. This commitment ensures a lasting legacy for both the property and its surrounding environment. Since 2010, Hôtel de France has incorporated sustainable practices as key criteria for awarding the Palace distinction. This commitment aligns with France's ambitious goal to reduce the nation's carbon footprint by 40% by 2030. This includes encouraging off-season travel and promoting France's regional diversity to alleviate high visitor traffic at more popular destinations. These hotels seamlessly blend luxury with sustainability through innovative, eco-friendly, and sustainable practices such as energy-efficient systems, comprehensive waste reduction programs, and strategic partnerships with local communities for sustainable sourcing. They are shaping the industry's response to environmental challenges and reinforcing France's leadership in luxury travel. When we look at the future, we know that we must be sustainable. This is more and more important for the guest experience. This is essential for the legacy of the Palace hotel in France. We must be the leaders for the French tourism industry. This is our responsibility. The French luxury sector understands that incorporating innovation and new trends alongside France's rich legacy of savoir-faire and specialized artisanal skills are key factors in safeguarding its attractivity. And it is the Palace de France hotels who are influencing the future of luxury hospitality in France and the world. It is really important for the Palace hotel to continue evolving, to continue to improve the service, to continue to renew their buildings. The latest technology has to be incorporated in a palace. There is a wonderful sentence saying, once you lose the desire to become better, you simply stop being good. Which is our motto, because in a palace, we don't want to become like a lost paradise. We need to reinvent our process. We need to reinvent our service. At the Château Saint-Martin, we are respecting the heritage. We are bringing the Château into the future for the next decades. We are stewards of the property that we maintain, the guardians of the heritage. In this episode, we explored what defines the palace distinction and the stringent criteria that allows these select few hotels to enter into the rarified category of palace. Coming up, we will discover each of the tenants, the behind the scenes talent, the service, the gastronomy, the architecture and design, the sustainability practices, as well as the legacy of these iconic hotels. This was a distinction defined. Welcome to the world of the Palace de France hotels.