W Paris set for Valentine’s Day opening

Starwood Hotels and Resorts is to open its first W Hotels property in Paris on February 14, exactly a year after the brand debuted in London’s Leicester Square. W Paris Opera is located on Rue Meyerbeer, close to the Garnier Opera House in the capital’s 9th arrondissement. The 91-room hotel is housed with an 1870’s Haussman-era heritage building, and its interior design has been inspired by the creative idea of “The Spark”, with an “oversized backlit digital undulating wall that defines the central core of the building and weaves through the public and private spaces”. Lifts and staircases will be “cloaked in red”, and several original features including vaulted ceilings, fireplaces, stained glass windows and mosaic flooring have been retained. Guest rooms have ceilings up to three and half metres in height, with some enjoying views of the opera house. There will also be a restaurant and bar, the details of which have yet to be revealed on the hotel’s website, as well as W’s signature Sweat Fitness Centre. The hotel is set to open on Valentine's Day 2012, a year after W London Leicester Square was unveiled (see online news February 3, 2011). For a review of this hotel click here. The W Paris Opera is one of a raft of new and refurbished luxury properties in the French capital, with Mandarin Oriental and Shangri-La also recently opening hotels in the city. For more information see French Renaissance in the September 2011 edition of Business Traveller. Visit whotels.com. Report by Mark Caswell