Airelles may not be a household name (yet), but you already know what it is capable of. One word: Versailles. This is the hotel group that took a former courtier’s residence on the palace grounds and turned it into Le Grand Contrôle, a Marie Antoinette reverie with costumed staff, theatrical Alain Ducasse feasts, and, the pièce de résistance, private tours of the palace after everyone else has left. When it first opened its doors we called it the most remarkable hotel in France —and we still stand by that statement. Soon enough the Airelles name will be known to millions: Season four of The White Lotus is filming at its St.-Tropez property, Château de La Messardière.
Now that we have established the why, on to the where: Venice, where Airelles has just debuted its first hotel outside France. The original property—a complex of buildings on quieter, artsier Giudecca Island—was built in the 16th century by Andrea Palladio, the Stanford White of his day . (The sprawling weekend villas he designed for the most powerful and patrician families of his era can still be found sprinkled around countryside of Vicenza.)
Today, all that real estate has been spun into a 45-room maximalist Venetian fantasia, with Rubelli textiles, Murano chandeliers, and terrazzo floors. But the past is very present. “Original proportions were respected, and in certain spaces we let patinas remain,” says the Airelles design team. “History itself is a luxury.”
This story appears in the April 2026 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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