The redesigned bar at Paris’s Plaza Athénée belies the hotel’s 95-year heritage

The latest trend to check in to Europe’s Grand Dame hotels is avant garde renovations of their once-stately bars. As Christian Sylt discovers, the financial risk easily matches the design gamble

One’s first impressions are of a chill-out room in a trendy nightclub. Hanging on the wall above a bare fireplace is a plasma- screen TV with digital flames flickering on its shiny surface. An iceberg-like structure illuminated in fluorescent blue stands behind rows of polished chrome stools. A giant lampshade hangs from above with changing colours of light emanating mysteriously from inside. It’s hard to believe, but this is far from an underground disco – it is the bar in one of Paris’s most palatial hotels, the 95-year-old Plaza Athénée, and surprisingly, this kind of radical redesign is becoming more of a rule than an exception.

As the hotel industry has rebounded over the past five years, managers of grand hotels have had to create new selling points to separate themselves from the competition. With increased economic health, rate has become less of a differentiator and hotels have turned to high style to breathe new life into fabled but faded properties. The days of dark bars with deep leather armchairs and mahogany-panelled walls are long gone, and it seems that none of Europe’s most iconic hotels are untouchable.

Monaco’s former Grand Hotel has a new owner – Fairmont – and this year it is getting a new cutting-edge bar. London’s historic Dorchester had the same treatment last summer, with a bar makeover spearheaded by celebrity designer Thierry Despont – better known for designing interiors for Bill Gates and Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant at Claridges. The result is a room dripping with dramatic red glass spears reminiscent of Superman’s home planet. With its mirrored glass tables and serpentine bar, pipe smokers are sure to feel out of place.

In the past 12 months, London alone has seen no less than five new bars open in as many of its grand hotels, witheach attempting to outdo the other. This is a particularly appealing option to hoteliers as although renovations are relatively cheap, return on investment is almost limitless if they hit the mark.

Around 70% of a hotel’s revenue comes from rooms, with food and beverages providing the balance. Profit is a similar story, as room overheads are minimal. Restaurants are labour-intensive, however, and high overheads give them a profit margin of around 20%. Bars fare better, as they require less staff; a typical grand hotel bar turns over around €1.5m per year, with a margin of around 35%. Bar makeovers typically cost around €2m, and since a successful one can increase revenues by over 25%, this can be paid back in four or five years. The biggest gains, however, are achieved by using the makeover to make a statement.

“The bar will essentially pay for the renovation in a five-year span, although it’s repositioning the hotel as well, so you’ll get higher occupancy and higher average rates on the rooms,” explains Robert Mercure, general manager of Monaco’s Fairmont. Sister hotel to London’s Savoy, the Fairmont is currently undergoing a €42m renovation that is set to make it the sleekest hotel in Monaco, styled after a grand ocean liner.

The Langham’s smoke-free policy has allowed it to be more adventurous with the décor in its new bar

It’s a far cry from the old days. “It was a hotel that was almost stuck in the 1970s,” admits Mercure. Indeed, the old bar wouldn’t have looked out of place in an airport with its wicker chairs and hessian separators. In its place, a new bar with an emphasis on stone and wood is opening this summer. “The bar is an advertising forum for me to get more people into my restaurant because if the food is good in the bar, it’s a huge opportunity to maximise leverage into the main restaurant,” Mercure explains.

The same logic applies across the board. “Restaurants don’t make much money, but restaurants and bars do drive business to our hotel rooms,” says Duncan Palmer, managing director of the Langham, the oldest grand hotel in London. Its new bar opened at the end of last year and couldn’t be further from the low-ceilinged, wood-panelled polo theme of its predecessor.

Murals of mountain scenery painted in pearly shades adorn walls inset with bevelled mirrors. Sculpted timber chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The bar counter of lilac marble matches window drapes of lilac silk and lilac butterfly motifs imprinted in the glossy resin of the tabletops. The dark colours usually associated with bars have been rejected in favour of pale tones, and there’s good reason for this – smoky bars force designers to pick dark colours that hide stains and cigarette burns, but the Langham is one of the first grand hotels in London to have a smoke-free bar. This prompts punters to linger for meals, and the introduction of food can double average bar tabs in five years.

Compared with baby boomers, the under-40s now spend less time in rooms and use hotel bars differently than in the 1990s. They eat light breakfasts there, hold small business meetings or work alone on laptops. Hoteliers have had to adapt to this.

“By doing the makeover, our first wish was to establish our customers,” says Thierry Hernandez, director of the Plaza Athénée’s bar. “The hotel wanted to have a place where our clients’ children would be happy to come.” The plan has worked – Hernandez says that after 9 pm, the average age in the bar is around 30. “It was a big challenge to create a perfect harmony between the tradition of a palace’s bar and something very modern,” says Hernandez.

The renovated bar of the Hotel Métropole Monaco also ploughs a middle way that harks to the old school but has modern touches. Wooden chandeliers have candles with faux flames that are actually lights swaying from side to side. Bar stools come in two sizes, the larger being big enough for couples to sit on together.

“The idea was not to go for very modern décor because we know that within three or four years, it’s out of fashion,” explains Jean-Claude Messant, the Métropole’s general manager. Messant adds that he nevertheless canvassed opinions on his new designs from long-standing clients before going ahead with the changes. It served him well; “I have more than doubled my average rates,” he says.

Mercure has a clear strategy to build bar revenues. “You look to improve the number of people that go to the bar and the per-person spend,” he says. So the new Fairmont bar will serve continental breakfast in the morning, and lunch may also be on offer. “Look at all your dead periods,” says Mercure. Nothing is left to chance.

The Red Bar at London's Grosvenor House, before (TOP) and after its recent revamp

Specialist bar designers advise on the ideal number of seats as well as the location of refrigerators, glasses and bottles to maximise bartender productivity. It is tougher to estimate how well-received a makeover will be, however, and the risk is great.

“One of the bigger challenges is attracting a new clientele and not losing your regular customers,” says Mercure. “We’ve all seen examples of a successful place that doesn’t change its décor for 25 years; then they change it and it becomes too clean, too formal, too trendy. The hotel loses its regular clientele and doesn’t get a new one.”

“You run the danger sometimes of putting people off,” says Chip Stuckmeyer, director of sales and marketing for London’s Grosvenor House, which has recently reopened its Red Bar. Wooden walls lined with traditional caricatures have been replaced with mirrors, and winged armchairs with small stools. It makes for a fine combination – a makeover that is noticeable without risking becoming a fad in future.

One of the first grand hotels in London to give its bar a style-driven makeover was the Méridien Waldorf. Its previous bar dates back to the hotel’s opening in 1908, but for several years now, plasma screens hanging from metal walls and mirrored pillars have given the bar an industrial look. Radical it is, but it has proved its worth as part of a package to pull in the punters.

“We’ve tripled the revenue in the last three years,” says Amanda Scott, the hotel’s general manager. “Our revenue per available room is up considerably.” Others are expecting the same impact from their efforts. Palmer predicts that “half the people that will be staying in the Langham in three to four years’ time will be staying here because they’ve heard that the bars, restaurants and facilities are second to none.”

If the majority of these makeovers are successful, it is a trend that could have no limits. César Ritz must be rolling in his grave.