Hôtel George V

31 avenue George V, opened 1928 at the height of Art Deco, financed by the American businessman Joel Hillman at a cost of $31m and named for the reigning British king. Architects Lefranc and Georges Wybo; managed at the outset by André Terrail, the owner of La Tour d’Argent. It opened with two bathrooms per suite at a moment when a Parisian hotel having an en-suite bath at all was unusual — and Hillman lost it to his lenders within two years of the Wall Street crash.

The house

The house was built for the transatlantic trade and organised around it: it operated its own offices in the port of Cherbourg to receive Americans as they came off the liners, and by 1930 guests could charter flights to London, Madrid or Berlin on the hotel’s three-seat Farman aeroplane. A wine cellar was cut fourteen metres down into former stone quarries and holds some 50,000 bottles.

Hillman was forced to relinquish the hotel to his lenders after the crash of 1929. The banker François Dupré bought it in 1931 and added a wing, by the original architects, of apartments that could be rented by the year or the season with the hotel’s services attached. During the Liberation of Paris in 1944 it housed Eisenhower.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bought it from the Granada Group in 1996 for a reported $178m, against his advisers’ recommendation and after a year in which the hotel had lost $360,000. He closed it for two years and spent a reported $125m; it reopened on 18 December 1999 under a Four Seasons management contract signed on 1 November 1997. 243 rooms and suites ⚑ counts of 244 and 245 also appear.

What distinguishes it

Two bathrooms per suite, in 1928. When most Parisian hotels did not reliably offer one. The George V opened with the plumbing argument already won, thirty years after Ritz made it in Rome.

It had an office at the dock and an aeroplane. Staff met American guests off the liners at Cherbourg; by 1930 the hotel chartered flights to London, Madrid and Berlin on its own three-seat Farman. The only house in this Library that operated its own aircraft.

The founder lost it within two years. Joel Hillman financed and opened it in 1928 and surrendered it to his lenders after the crash of 1929. The house outlived its founder’s ownership by a century.

Alwaleed bought it against advice. A hotel losing money, which his advisers told him not to take. He closed it for two years, spent a reported $125m, and it reopened rated among the best in the world. The same investor bought the Savoy in 2005; Kingdom Holding holds both.

Three Michelin-starred restaurants in one hotel. Le Cinq, Le George and L’Orangerie — a first in Europe when the three held five stars between them.

Signature rooms and dates

Competitive landscape

Editorial note — The 1928 opening, Hillman’s $31m and his loss of the house after 1929, the Lefranc and Wybo architecture, André Terrail’s management, the Cherbourg offices and the Farman charters, Dupré in 1931, Eisenhower in 1944, the 1996 purchase at a reported $178m, the 1 November 1997 management contract and the 18 December 1999 reopening checked against Wikipedia, Four Seasons corporate material, famoushotels.org and Sortiraparis; verified August 2026. ⚑ Room counts of 243, 244 and 245 appear across sources and the register carries the flag. ⚑ One trade source dates the Kingdom Holding interest to November 2005 rather than 1996; the weight of sourcing is with 1996.