25 avenue Montaigne, opened April 1913 ⚑ the 18th according to Historic Hotels and the 20th according to Wikipedia. It was named by its first manager, Émile Armbruster, who carried the name of his previous house into the new one. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées had opened days earlier on the same avenue, and the hotel’s fortunes have been tied to that street ever since — first to music, later to couture.
The house
The avenue Montaigne became the address of Paris fashion, and the Plaza Athénée became its hotel. Marlene Dietrich took seven rooms for three weeks in August 1933; the house has been a fixture of the couture calendar for a century.
154 rooms and 54 suites. Owned by the Brunei Investment Agency and managed by the Dorchester Collection, alongside Le Meurice and The Dorchester — three of this Library’s grand hotels under one sovereign investor.
What distinguishes it
The hotel followed a concert hall, then a couturier. It opened days after the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, on an avenue that later filled with fashion houses. The Plaza Athénée is the clearest case in the Library of a hotel whose identity was set by what was built next to it.
Named by its manager, after his last hotel. Émile Armbruster brought the name with him. The house is called after a building it has no other connection to.
Brunei holds three of the six Paris and London palaces here. Through the Dorchester Collection: this house, Le Meurice and The Dorchester.
The opening date is unsettled. ⚑ 18 April against 20 April 1913, Historic Hotels against Wikipedia. Both are in the source dossier and the register carries the flag rather than a preference.
The avenue Montaigne is a shopping street, and the hotel’s public rooms fill accordingly during the fashion weeks and the seasons around them. A guest wanting quiet in central Paris will do better on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré or the Left Bank; a guest wanting to be in the middle of the couture calendar is in exactly the right building.
Signature rooms and dates
Competitive landscape
Editorial note — The April 1913 opening, the naming by Émile Armbruster, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées timing, the Dietrich stay of August 1933, the room count and Brunei ownership through Dorchester Collection checked against Historic Hotels and Wikipedia; verified August 2026. ⚑ The two sources give 18 and 20 April and both are recorded.
Sources
What the entry rests on. Each reference records the specific facts it supports, so a disputed line can be traced to the account it came from.