(Bloomberg) -- French hospitality brand Airelles is expanding outside its home country for the first time, opening in Venice next autumn. Airelles Venezia, on the island of Giudecca, will overlook a canal with views to St. Mark’s Basilica and will have a sizable garden with an outdoor pool, a rarity for Venice. A night’s stay will likely start at more than €1,000 ($1,060).
It’ll be the ninth property for the group, known for luxurious boutique properties, like the opulent Grand Contrôle, the only hotel on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles and where staff wear Louis XVI period costumes, and the winter wonderland that is Les Airelles in the ski resort of Courchevel, designed to evoke 19th century Alpine castles.
The brand, owned by French billionaire and business mogul Stéphane Courbit, has a cult following among wealthy travelers, with frequent guests like Beyoncé, Prince William and the Beckhams.
Anne-Laure Ollagnon, Airelles’ chief executive officer, says the brand has been looking to expand outside of France for years, and Italy was a logical starting point.
“We know Italy pretty well, we are neighbors, of course, but a lot of our guests regularly go to places like Tuscany, Florence and Venice, so starting in such an iconic city just made sense for us,” says Ollagnon, speaking exclusively to Bloomberg about the new opening.
She says it was important for her to find a location that wasn’t just scenic but also steeped in history.
“We’re used to working with heritage buildings, like in Versailles, of course, but also castles in Provence,” Ollagnon says. “It’s not easy, but we have expertise in renovating those kinds of buildings. It’s part of our DNA.”
Airelles Venezia will be no different. The 45-room hotel features three separate historic Venetian buildings, with the entrance being the grand 16th century palazzo designed by famous Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. It surrounds Santa Maria della Presentazione—a postcard-perfect church with two bell towers. Guests will get exclusive access and private tours of the still-consecrated church, which can be hired out for weddings.
Adjacent to the church is a nearly 500-year-old villa that housed noble families before becoming a boarding house that catered to artists and writers. The villa will have one of the hotel’s restaurants and bars, as well as the four-bed presidential suite with rates likely above €35,000 a night.
There are plans for a 1,700 square meter (18,000 square foot) spa and wellness area, three swimming pools including the outdoor one set amid a lush garden, a main bar and a cicchetti bar—the Venetian answer to tapas or aperitivo. In terms of design, the hotel will be a mix of French and Italian styles—it’ll have French linens and fabrics, Italian terrazzo and marble floors, and delicate glass pieces from neighboring Murano.
Transforming buildings in Venice comes with a whole different set of challenges than castles in the French countryside, says Ollagnon. First, everything comes by boat, and the team has to excavate down to water.
“When you dig to create pools and underground space, you have water everywhere,” she says. “When you see all this water, you think ‘how am I going to build something here?’ But for the Venetians it’s actually pretty usual.”
She says the team on the ground was able to build in a way that protected the historic building’s facades and safeguarded it against risks of flooding, a perennial concern for La Serenìssima.
As for what’s next, Ollagnon says there are plans for more hotels in Italy, though none are ready to be announced yet.
“We’re looking at Tuscany, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast,” she says. “We want to be where our guests like to go.”
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