Airelles Palladio has arrived on Giudecca. Can it conquer Venice?
The latest luxury outpost from the French hospitality group has opened. HTSI gets the first look
“It’s amazing here because you get the postcard vision of Venice without all the hecticness,” says Étienne Petitpez, general manager of the Airelles Palladio. “And the sunsets across the water are spectacular.”
Days before the opening of Airelles Palladio, the hotel is a flurry of activity. Pictures are being straightened on walls, sculptures arranged in the courtyard, a small army of gardeners is hard at work across the grounds, planting, pruning and training roses around a wooden pergola. But, like all good hotel managers, Petitpez remains a picture of calm. This is, after all, not the first time he’s done this. In 2015, he was front-of-house manager for the grand reopening of the Ritz Paris (the hotel where he began his career as a bellboy). He then became manager of a hotel and chalet in Val-d’Isère owned by French hospitality group Airelles. His appointment in Venice, overseeing the group’s first property outside France, sees him trading life in the mountains for a new home on Giudecca, close to the hotel.
He’s right about the view, which is indeed Canaletto-calibre: a sweeping panorama across to the elegant dome of the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute, the elaborate gothic façade of the Doge’s Palace and the towering campanile of Saint Mark’s Basilica, which sits almost directly opposite the property.
Giudecca has always been the calm antidote to the ferocity of the centre. Venetian nobility began building palaces on the island in the 15th century. Then, as now, the long stretch of land was seen as a place of retreat, and artists and intellectuals (including Michelangelo) sought refuge there. It also became a favoured site for monasteries, convents and churches – partly because of the space it offered and partly because its relative seclusion suited contemplative life. A wave of ecclesiastical buildings sprang up during the Renaissance, among them the church of Santa Maria della Presentazione, the design of which is attributed to Andrea Palladio, Italy’s pioneering classical architect. Attached was an institute known as Le Zitelle, where young women without dowries were taught the art of lacemaking; its site now forms the heart of Airelles Palladio.
By the 19th century, Giudecca’s monasteries and gardens gave way to factories and shipyards. When industry began to move out of the centre after the second world war, however, the island reverted to being a quieter, residential area; even the 1958 opening of the glamorous Hotel Cipriani didn’t much alter its off-the‑beaten-track appeal.
It is Santa Maria della Presentazione’s splendid front – a soaring composition of pale Istrian stone – that greets guests when they arrive at the hotel by water taxi. In its previous incarnation the site was the Bauer Palladio hotel, a sister to the Bauer on the Grand Canal (now temporarily closed). It was purchased by Airelles in 2018 and has been totally renovated over the past five years. Alongside the former Zitelle, rooms and suites are split between two neighbouring buildings: the Conventino, formerly a refuge for Venetian widows, and the 17th-century Villa Frollo, once an academy for young aristocrats. It is here that the Presidential Suite will be located. At 450sq m, it is the largest of its kind in the city, the hotel claims.
“When we decided to open in Venice we didn’t know the city particularly well, so we were looking for a property in San Marco,” says Airelles CEO Anne-Laure Ollagnon. “But then this opportunity appeared, and it all seemed to make sense.” The physical remove, she explains, is of particular value for guests who put a premium on privacy, “but at the same time we’re only a few minutes by boat from Saint Mark’s Square”. And when they come back, “they can really unwind. It’s a sanctuary.”
In less than two decades, Airelles has become one of the key players in France’s luxury hospitality market. Since taking over its first property in Courchevel in 2007, its collection has expanded to seven hotels and two private villas in Provence: the portfolio includes a 17th-century villa that is the only hotel on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, and the 19th-century Château de La Messardière near St Tropez. The latter, it was revealed earlier this year, will be the setting of the new series of HBO’s The White Lotus. “It was quite a surprise because we never put ourselves forward – they just asked us,” says Ollagnon. “But of course we said yes.”
Airelles’ owner, Stéphane Courbit, is no stranger to the world of television. The French entrepreneur began his career in the early ’90s as a producer, rising to prominence at Endemol France, where he helped bring global reality formats to French audiences. In 2008 he founded Banijay Group, which has since grown into one of the world’s largest independent producers and distributors, behind hit television shows including Survivor and MasterChef. That instinct for spectacle and storytelling has carried over into his hospitality ventures, with properties brought to life through the work of interior designer Christophe Tollemer. For Airelles Palladio, Tollemer has filled the rooms with an eclectic array of pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries: engraved glass mirrors, lacquered chests, gilded sconces, glass chandeliers. His favourite is the San Marco Signature Suite, a split-level space with walls upholstered in rich yellow silk and hung with oil paintings chosen to evoke the colours of the Venetian skyline. His team sourced almost 3,000 works for the hotel (it took 20 workers to unload it all from the delivery boat).
But before any of the decorating could begin, the hotel had to be remodelled. Under its previous ownership, there were 90 rooms – a number which has been halved by Airelles, doubling them in size and allowing for much larger bathrooms. There’s a sizeable kids’ club (Airelles prides itself on being particularly family-friendly), and what they say is Venice’s largest spa, offering treatments by Guerlain. Yet what probably really sets Airelles Palladio apart from the competition – with the exception of the Cipriani, a few doors down – are its extensive private gardens, which cover nearly a hectare and are home to a new swimming pool (the inclusion of which involved years of negotiations with the local authorities).
“The arrival of Airelles will be a boon” for those willing to contend with its rates, says Emily FitzRoy, founder of UK-based Bellini Travel. “Despite popular belief, Venice is a great city for children,” she says. Airelles is a welcome addition “not just for the gardens, kids’ club and pool but also the fact that Giudecca is still relatively quiet. You can walk or run its entire length.”
Rather than attempting to replicate what could already be found elsewhere in Venice, Airelles has pivoted to global experiences – and names. Nobu Matsuhisa was called in to open an outpost of Matsuhisa, his Japanese-Peruvian fine-dining restaurant; Jean-Georges Vongerichten has just inaugurated an all-day eatery, ABC Kitchens (with desserts courtesy of French master pâtissier Cédric Grolet); and three-Michelin-star Tyrolean chef Norbert Niederkofler – who has a few years of form with Aman in Italy – is in the process of creating a new intimate restaurant within Villa Frollo.
In the evenings, guests can enjoy drinks in the wood-panelled Palladio bar (which features a hidden door to the adjoining church); late-night entertainment will be hosted in the soon-to-open Elton’s Club, a plush bar conceived in collaboration with Giudecca’s most famous resident, Sir Elton John. It will stay open until 2am – “because it’s really hard to find anywhere that’s open past midnight in Venice”, says Ollagnon. The hotel has also put together an array of tours, workshops and tastings by a team of Venetian staff. The aim is to reveal a side of the city that few get to see.
But all of this, says Petitpez, counts for little without exceptional service. He and his team have scoured the country in search of room managers, groundskeepers, waiters, bartenders and housekeeping. With 275 employees for a 45-key property, the staff-to-guest ratio is another promising start for this Venice debut. “People make places,” says Petitpez. “And, as they say, Italians are just French people in a good mood.”