The Westin Paris – Vendôme

The Westin Paris - Vendôme
The Westin Paris - Vendôme
	The hotel in 2005, before it was renamed The Westin
	Location within Paris
General information
Location	3, Rue de Castiglione, Paris, France
Coordinates	48°52′15″N 2°19′51″E / 48.87083°N 2.33083°E
Opening	April 1878
Owner	Dubai Holding
Management	Westin Hotels
Technical details
Floor count	5
Other information
Number of rooms	440
Number of restaurants	2

The Westin Paris – Vendôme is a historic hotel in Paris, France at 3 rue de Castiglione on the corner of the rue de Rivoli, facing the Tuileries Garden.

History

The hotel opened on June 6, 1878, as the Hôtel Continental,^[1] It was designed by Charles Garnier's son-in-law Henri Blondel^[2] and was intended to be the most luxurious hotel in Paris at the time. It occupied a full block, the former premises of the Ministry of Finance, (burned in 1871) which had been designed by François-Hippolyte Destailleur in 1817, following the Bourbon Restoration.^[3] During the first World War the hotel was used as a military hospital by the French.^[4] The Hôtel Continental remained the largest hotel in Paris for decades; the Russian Grand Dukes habitually stayed there;^[5] at the Liberation of Paris, bedsheets were hung from its windows as cheerful flags of surrender.^[6] The hotel was renamed the Inter-Continental Paris in 1969, and then became The Westin Paris in 2005, adding the suffix Vendôme to its name in 2010.

The hotel was sold by Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC to London-based Henderson Park Capital in 2017^[7] for €550 million.^[8] The new owners announced that the hotel would be renovated at a cost of $350 million by designer Tristan Auer and would become part of Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts in 2022.^[9] The renovation and reflagging did not happen. In 2018, Dubai Holding, the personal investment portfolio of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, bought a minority stake in the hotel.^[10] Henderson Park put the hotel up for sale in February 2022, for €800 million.^[11] However, in March 2023, Dubai Holding bought out Henderson Park's controlling stake in the hotel for €650 million. It was announced that the hotel would remain under Westin management at least through the 2024 Paris Olympics.^[12]