Following the recent opening of a hotel in Biarritz (see box), the Experimental Group has announced new developments. Where will you be expanding your offer in the coming years?
Romée de Goriainoff - We will be opening three new establishments in the near future, with a first hotel in Rome via Ludovisi, the result of the transformation of an office building near the Place d'Espagne into a hotel with 78 rooms and suites. We will also be offering a third hotel in Paris, joining the Grand Pigalle and the Hôtel des Grands Boulevards. For our first foray on the Left Bank, at the junction of rue des Saints-Pères and boulevard Saint-GermainThe new hotel will include 20 rooms and 23 suites, a restaurant and two bars, a spa and an indoor swimming pool. We are also preparing a new hotel in the Alps for the 2024-2025 season, after the one in Verbier, Switzerland, Experimental Châlet Val d'Isère. A 110-room hotel - the former Aigle des Neiges - is currently being redesigned by Dorothée Meilichzon. In this respect, we are continuing to create places based on what has made us a success: incredible locations and decoration signed by a talented designer, Dorothée Meilichzon for Val d'Isère, but also Rodolphe Parente in Rome and, for our new Parisian project, the Studio KO which, among other things, created the Saint-Laurent museum in Marrakech.
Are your city hotels attractive to business travellers?
Romée de Goriainoff - In both Paris and London, 70% of our customers are business travellers. So, yes, our hotels are clearly attractive to business travellers. Because the more you travel, the more you want to stay in a hotel that offers a break from the hustle and bustle. With a great restaurant, a bar where you can finish or start a meeting, a rooftop like the Hôtel des Grands Boulevards. We're targeting a clientele who are at the crossroads of business and leisure: they're on a business trip, but want to treat themselves between important meetings.
As far as leisure destinations are concerned, your establishments in Biarritz, Ibiza and Menorca, in particular, can also welcome corporate clients for events. Is the MICE segment important for your group's hotels?
Romée de Goriainoff - It has become a major challenge. Hardly a week goes by without us receiving a request for privatisation, a special event, a seminar and so on. Even companies that have switched to 100% remote need places where their employees can meet up, socialise, have fun, and so on. That's why we design our future hotels with this in mind.
Most hotel groups are focusing on lifestyle. How is the Experimental Group, whose essence is lifestyle, positioning itself in the face of this competition?
Romée de Goriainoff - We're not a 'product' dreamed up by a huge hotel group in response to a market study that said 'we have to do lifestyle'. This element is in our DNA, it's our raison d'être. The founders of the Experimental Group are passionate about the world of catering, events and design, cocktails, bars and so on. We shouldn't forget that this is where we came from before we opened our first hotels. We were 'born' into the lifestyle, because we have always conceived and thought of our hotels as extensions of a home or a place to live, not as a 'dormitory' for people in a hurry. Our restaurants attract a local clientele, as does the bar. I'd like to say that everything rings true, because everything is true.
