Following an extensive four-year restoration and marking the debut of The Peninsula Hotels into Europe, the newest hotel in The Peninsula Hotels’ portfolio, The Peninsula Paris, opened August 1, 2014 and welcomed its first guests.
The Peninsula celebrated its opening with a speech by guest of honour Laurent Fabius, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, followed by an early-afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony and traditional Chinese lion dance honouring The Peninsula Hotels’ Asian heritage.
Cutting the ribbon to launch the hotel was guest of honour Fleur Pellerin, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, the Promotion of Tourism and French Nationals Abroad, together with Sheikh Nawaf Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Chairman of Katara Hospitality, Clement Kwok, CEO of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited (HSH) and Nicolas Béliard, General Manager of The Peninsula Paris.
Mr Clement Kwok said, “I am excited and proud to announce the latest addition to The Peninsula Hotels’ family, The Peninsula Paris. This will be our tenth Peninsula hotel but only our first hotel in Europe. Together with our partners Katara Hospitality, it has taken four years to design and build this magnificent contemporary hotel, with state-of-the-art facilities, within this beautiful historic building which as a result has been restored to its former glory. As a company, HSH is genuinely committed to the long term and focuses on developing, as an owner-operator, a small number of the highest quality Peninsula hotels in the most prime locations in key international gateway cities. After many years of searching for a suitable project in Europe, I am delighted that we are making our entry in one of the most magical cities in the world, Paris.”
“We are thrilled to welcome our first guests today. My team and I have watched this project evolve, from a lifeless building to a worksite, and ultimately to the magnificent structure you see before you – we have worked together to give this historic building a new life,” added General Manager of The Peninsula Paris, Nicolas Béliard. “I am especially proud today to be surrounded by my team to announce the official opening of The Peninsula Paris hotel and see it brought to life with the arrival of our first guests.”
