If the diversification of luxury houses in the gastronomy sector is now established, it is clear that the Maison Louis Vuitton is particularly active in this area.
After offering an ephemeral bookshop in Arles this summer where art and culture rub shoulders with the world of wine, then staging a tea room in its flagship store in Lille, Louis Vuitton recently created a surprise with the opening planned for 2027 of the first brand hotel. The place ? The brand’s historic building, located near the Saint-Germain-L’auxerrois church, in the first arrondissement of Paris. The former head office of 3700 square meters has already begun its transformation with the inauguration on December 12 of an ephemeral experimental space called LV DREAM.
An economic and patrimonial logic.
While Mickael Burke, Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, does not hide the brand’s ambitions to diversify into the lifestyle segment, the motivations underlying this strategy are multiple. For Pierre Lagrange, Director of Paris Ile-de-France Franchise Operations of Accor group, these choices are first of all part of an economic logic. ” The luxury hotel industry is ultra-profitable, especially since it is currently in a high cycle. This sector represents a tremendous opportunity for luxury houses which are posting record results, especially since the COVID advances the expert. A way to reinvest the cash collected, but not only. ” There is also a heritage logic in these large groups, that of making the right investments and making them grow over the long term. “. Like certain wealthy families in the Middle East who directly own, or through a holding company, palaces such as the Ritz or the George V, the Arnault family also seems to be seeking to increase its assets in the field. immovable.
Contrary to what one might think, the hotel sector is much more profitable than catering. « In the operating account of a hotel, you essentially have maintenance and personnel costs, which are largely amortized by a price per night that is more or less around the 1000€ mark in a Parisian palace. Conversely, a high-flying restaurant requires many highly skilled resources to achieve a level of quality that is challenged with each service. So many parameters that still verify this adage, which says that to equal the profitability of a hotel room, you have to make 10 covers in a restaurant. supports Pierre Lagrange.
The seamless Louis Vuitton experience.
With green lights on the business part, the opening of the future Louis Vuitton hotel has everything to become a pivotal stage in the development of the House. Firstly from a marketing point of view, with the creation of new points of contact with customers, which will complement those of stores, digital and pop-ups. ” The watchword of luxury houses is to seduce the new generation, both millennials and GenZ, whose appetite is whetted by the possibilities of experiencing sensational moments with marques explains Marie-Cécile Cervellon, teacher-researcher in marketing at EDHEC. Thus, declining its brand in other activities such as hospitality, is a means of create total customer immersion and to make him feel the reality of his heritage, his history and his aesthetics. ” This has been very successful in doing the Audemars Piguet house with its hotel of watchmakers, bought in 2003 and completely renovated since to welcome visitors from the eponymous museum open in 2020 “. There’s nothing like a bond built around intimacy to retain a demanding clientele.
In this future Parisian ecosystem, which should see the first luxury hotel branded LV rub shoulders with the brand’s largest boutique, customer relations means ” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week », as Mickael Burke pointed out. Suffice to say that with such promises, the brand will be expected at the turn. ” We do not yet know if Louis Vuitton will follow this project directly or lean on an operator specializing in luxury hotels, which seems most likely to avoid grafting the brand’s profitability. On the other hand, it is certain that the teams will have to be extremely vigilant as to the level of quality of the establishment to avoid any bad buzz, from which the brand could suffer. “. One thing is certain, the opening of the LV hotel promises to be scrutinized by the entire media sphere.