LHLThe Luxury Hospitality LibraryOn the record
Register/History/1980s

1980s

84
Events
24
Countries
1980–1989
Span

The 1980s: three houses that each began a category.

1980S85 events · 65 opened · 10 event · 3 invented · 3 sold · 2 closed · 1 died · 1 awarded
1980
Opened
Chenot Palace Merano opens
1980
Closed
Studio 54 closes on 2 February after thirty-three months; Rubell and Schrager go to prison
1980
Opened
Café del Mar opens in San Antonio on 20 June, built to face the sunset
1980
Opened
Luigi Miroli opens Puny on the Portofino piazzetta
1980
Opened
TCS World Travel begins private-jet expeditions
1980
Opened
Park Hyatt launches in Chicago as Hyatt's luxury line
1980
Event
Jason Pomeranc's Thompson Hotels begin in New York
1980
Opened
Starhotels is founded in Florence by the Fratini family
1980
Opened
Georg Rafael forms Rafael Hotels after leaving Regent
1980
Opened
George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg found Yabu Pushelberg in Toronto
1980
Opened
The first Grand Hyatt opens in Hong Kong ⚑ the brand is formalised in 1980
1980
Opened
Grand Hyatt New York and Park Hyatt Chicago open, adding two brands to the Hyatt portfolio
1980
Event
Eighty-five people die in the fire at the original MGM Grand on 21 November; the disaster exposes critical weaknesses in hotel fire and smoke protection
1981
Opened
Bill Kimpton opens the Clarion Bedford in San Francisco — the American boutique hotel
1981
Opened
Bob Harmon and Claude Rouas open Auberge du Soleil as a restaurant; cottages follow in 1985
1981
Opened
Peter Borer joins the Peninsula Hong Kong, later running the group's hotels
1981
Opened
Gordon Butch Stewart opens the first Sandals resort in Jamaica
1981
Invented
Sweeping reform of fire codes and retrofitting after the MGM Grand fire changes life safety in casino hotels
1982
Opened
Wolfgang Puck opens Spago on the Sunset Strip
1982
Opened
Cellap Laboratoire founded at Le Mont-sur-Lausanne
1982
Event
James Sherwood returns the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express to service after five years of restoration
1982
Event
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express returns to service after James Sherwood's five-year restoration
1982
Opened
British Pullman begins running restored Pullman carriages from London
1982
Opened
Palace on Wheels enters service using former royal carriages of the princely states
1982
Opened
Stein Eriksen Lodge opens at Deer Valley under the Olympic champion's name
1982
Opened
Thomas Althoff opens his first hotel in Cologne
1982
Opened
Rogério Fasano opens the family's first hotel in São Paulo
1983
Died
Fabrice Emaer dies; Le Palace begins changing hands
1983
Event
Horst Schulze and William B. Johnson found the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
1983
Opened
Colin Bell and partners found Wilderness Safaris in Botswana
1983
Opened
Château de la Messardière opens above Saint-Tropez
1984
Opened
Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell open Morgans in New York — the boutique hotel begins
1984
Opened
Le Toiny opens on the windward coast of St Barths
1984
Opened
Beatrice Tollman founds Red Carnation Hotels
1984
Opened
Christian Harisch's family takes the Lanserhof at Lans
1984
Opened
Captain Vassilis Constantakopoulos begins buying land at Costa Navarino
1984
Opened
Tony Chi founds his New York studio
1984
Opened
The Harisch family takes the Lanserhof at Lans and applies the Mayr method
1984
Opened
Richard Branson buys La Residencia at Deià on Mallorca
1984
Invented
Baros installs the first desalination plant in the Maldives, putting fresh water and bathtubs in guest rooms
1985
Opened
The Groucho Club opens at 45 Dean Street on 5 May
1985
Opened
Renfe begins the Al Andalus and Transcantábrico services in Spain
1985
Opened
The Royal Scotsman begins running through the Highlands
1985
Opened
Conrad Hotels launches as Hilton's international luxury brand
1985
Opened
Triple Creek Ranch opens in the Bitterroot valley, Montana
1985
Opened
Sue Harmsworth founds ESPA
1985
Opened
Kit and Tim Kemp open their first Firmdale hotel in London
1985
Opened
Grace Leo takes the Hôtel Montalembert in Paris
1985
Opened
Valmont is founded in Switzerland and begins licensing its protocol to hotels
1985
Opened
Kit and Tim Kemp open their first Firmdale hotel in London
1986
Event
Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze bring Le Bernardin to New York
1986
Opened
Peck opens eighteen shops in Japan with Takashimaya
1986
Opened
Mariage Frères opens its first tea room, 132 years after founding
1986
Event
Keith Haring paints Mr Chow as Green Prawn in a Bowl of Noodles
1986
Opened
Captain C.P. Krishnan Nair opens the first Leela in Mumbai
1986
Opened
Mulia Industrindo is established for glass and ceramics; the group moves into property
1986
Opened
The Maldives' first overwater villa opens at Vadoo, nineteen years after Raiatea
no register entry
1986
Opened
Cal-a-Vie opens in California, an early destination spa built as a Provençal village
1986
Opened
The Interalpen opens above Telfs in the Tyrol
1986
Opened
Le Guanahani opens on St Barths; Rosewood takes it in 2021
1986
Sold
The original MGM Grand hotels in Las Vegas and Reno are sold to Bally’s; MGM Grand, Inc. is founded as the corporate predecessor of the present company
1987
Closed
The Paradise Garage closes
1987
Awarded
Raffles is gazetted a national monument of Singapore on 4 March, in its centenary year
1987
Opened
Seabourn is founded and launches Seabourn Pride
1987
Opened
Tugu opens its first hotel in Indonesia, built around Anhar Setjadibrata's collection
1987
Invented
Hyatt Gold Passport launches, extending the platform beyond individual properties
1987
Event
Kurumba is rebuilt as a full hotel — the step that moves the Maldives from cheap island holidays to the luxury market
1988
Event
The second summer of love: Oakenfold, Rampling and Fung take Alfredo's Amnesia sound to London
1988
Opened
Jean-Paul Hévin opens Le Petit Boulé on the avenue de la Motte-Picquet
1988
Sold
Orient-Express Hotels buys the Mount Nelson
1988
Opened
Amanpuri opens on Pansea Beach, Phuket, in January — forty pavilions, no lobby, and the low-density resort begins
1988
Opened
Ponant is founded in Nantes by officers of the French merchant marine
1988
Opened
Four Seasons opens its first branded private residences — the model that becomes an industry
1988
Opened
Claude and Petra Graves open NIHI Sumba as a surf camp at Nihiwatu
1988
Opened
Ed Tuttle designs Amanpuri, setting the visual language of Aman
1988
Opened
Adrian Zecha hires Anthony Lark from the Regent Sydney at twenty-seven; he opens Amanpuri as Aman's first general manager and first employee
1988
Opened
The Pavilions opens its first Asian house
1988
Opened
Cap Juluca opens at Maundays Bay on Anguilla
1989
Opened
Pepe Roselló leases the Platja d'en Bossa building from the Matutes family and opens Space
1989
Sold
Orient-Express Hotels buys the Copacabana Palace
1989
Event
Rohan Vos runs the first Rovos Rail train in South Africa
1989
Opened
The Little Nell opens at the base of Aspen Mountain
1989
Opened
Andrea Kracht becomes the fifth generation at the Baur au Lac
1989
Opened
Bill Bensley founds Bensley Design Studios in Bangkok
1989
Opened
Small Luxury Hotels of the World is formed in Britain to market independent houses collectively
← 1970s
1990s →
Notes on the series. Hotel-native institutions enter as cross-references inside the article of the house that holds them, not as separate codes — a bar or spa receives its own entry only when it has become a name in its own right. Seasonal and fashion collaborations are recorded as dated lines within a house, never as entries. Residential clinics and estates, however wellness-led, belong to the main register: they sell nights. Entries carry permanent LHL-S codes once published; drafts await verification by two independent sources. · Published by LVXVRY under Editorial Manifesto LHL-001 v1.6.