Les Places d’Or Hôtel & Restaurant 2025: When Hotel Design Reinvents Itself at Le Meurice
Mid-November 2025, the gilded salons of Le Meurice prepare to welcome a new generation of hoteliers. For three days, from November 12th to 14th, the Parisian hotel becomes the stage for a gathering where the future of luxury hospitality is negotiated. Les Places d’Or Hôtel & Restaurant opens its doors for its third edition, far from the bustle of large trade shows, in an atmosphere that recalls private circles rather than commercial fairs.
Luxury Now Speaks in Small Committees
There’s no ignoring this reality: large generalist trade shows have lost their luster. In a sector where every detail matters, where a door handle can tip the guest experience, hoteliers seek more targeted, more intimate encounters. Les Places d’Or has understood this shift. In 2024, 1,600 visitors—all from high-end hospitality and fine dining—walked through Le Meurice’s spaces. No curious onlookers, no wanderers: only general managers, purchasing directors, architects specializing in major projects.
The chosen time slot (4 PM to 10 PM) isn’t random. It follows the rhythm of the profession, allowing professionals to discover the latest innovations between services, in an atmosphere that oscillates between elegant networking and sensory discovery.
Laurent Gardinier and the Guardians of the Temple
Entrusting the presidency of this edition to Laurent Gardinier, head of Relais & Châteaux, isn’t mere media strategy. It’s asserting a clear line: only excellence matters. Around him gravitate figures who embody the different faces of contemporary luxury. Pascal Billard, who runs Le Meurice with his characteristic rigor. Jean-François Piège, whose Parisian restaurants redefine French gastronomy. Louis Starck, who transformed the Hermitage into a model of Monegasque hospitality. Karine Hyon-Vintrou, training tomorrow’s talents at École Ducasse.
The list could continue. Xavier Royaux from Accor, Matthieu Zuretti from Zuretti Design… All converge on Le Meurice with a common question: how to maintain luxury standards in a world changing at breakneck speed?
Fifty-Five Exhibitors, Not One More
The number deserves attention. 55 exhibitors, selected with the rigor of a starred chef choosing suppliers. No generic booths here, no standardized furniture. Each house responds to a specific need of contemporary hospitality: tableware reinvents itself between exceptional porcelain and bespoke creations; furniture combines comfort with aesthetic signature; spa solutions now integrate an environmental dimension that transcends mere marketing discourse.
Visitors don’t come seeking catalogs but partners. In luxury hospitality, the difference lies in invisible details: a fabric’s texture, the balance of a seat, the sound of a glass placed on a table. These nuances can’t be discovered on a screen—they must be touched, tested, negotiated face to face.
The Spa Space, or When Wellness Becomes Architecture
Sandrine Sarah Faivre didn’t design a simple spa corner. Her immersive space reinterprets the ancient notion of “care of the self” through the lens of contemporary design. Fifteen prestigious houses deploy their vision of wellness in a scenography that transforms product discovery into sensory experience.
This approach illustrates a silent revolution in hospitality: the spa is no longer peripheral equipment but the beating heart of the guest experience. Travelers no longer seek merely a comfortable bed and gastronomic restaurant. They want transformation, a moment of authentic restoration. Hoteliers have understood: investing in wellness means investing in loyalty.
Artisanal Craft as Identity Signature
Faced with hotel chain standardization, craftsmanship becomes the ultimate weapon of differentiation. A marquetry artist creating unique furniture, a ceramicist whose pieces tell a story, a glassmaker who sublimates light… These ancestral skills answer a contemporary expectation: authenticity.
Palace guests no longer simply purchase a service—they’re buying a narrative experience. Every object must be able to tell its origin, reveal the hand that shaped it. In this quest for meaning, French and European craftsmanship finds central place again, far from yesterday’s ostentatious luxury.
Le Meurice as Setting and Manifesto
Organizing Les Places d’Or at Le Meurice isn’t neutral. This Parisian palace embodies a certain idea of French luxury: discretion, refinement, attention to detail. Walking through its salons, visitors experience in situ what they seek to recreate in their own establishments. The venue becomes almost a living manifesto, a demonstration of what contemporary hospitality can be when it draws on centuries-old heritage without being confined by it.
This immersive dimension transcends simple setting: it inspires, questions, pushes each professional to rethink their own approach to luxury.
Old-School Networking
Forget serial business card exchanges. Here, connections form over champagne, extend before a lighting collection, sometimes lead to collaborations that will transform a hotel project. The intimate format favors these qualitative connections that large trade shows sacrificed for quantity.
Rendezvous on Rue de Rivoli
From November 12th to 14th, 2025, from 4 PM to 10 PM, 228 rue de Rivoli transforms into a laboratory of luxury hospitality. Industry professionals know it: what’s decided at Le Meurice during these three days then irrigates the entire industry. Spotted trends, forged partnerships, discovered innovations resurface months later in Saint-Tropez palaces, New York boutique hotels, or African lodges.
Les Places d’Or Hôtel & Restaurant resembles no other trade show. Neither Sirha with its thousands of exhibitors, nor EquipHotel with its endless aisles, nor Architect@Work with its technical approach. This third edition confirms its unique positioning: being the gathering of those shaping hotel excellence, in a format that respects the codes of the luxury it celebrates.
For more information: www.lesplacesdorhotel.com
Digital entrepreneur and craft artisan, I use my unconventional background to share my vision of luxury design and interior decoration — one enriched by craftsmanship, history, and contemporary creation. Since 2012, I have been working daily in my workshop on the shores of Lake Annecy, creating bespoke interiors for discerning decorators and private clients.
