Venice’s luxury hotel arms race has begun

Venice has always staged its battles elegantly. For centuries, the city's wealth and power were expressed through the splendour of its palazzi and the vaulting ambitions of its churches. Today, that competitive instinct has found a new arena: ultra-luxury hotels. Airelles Palladio has opened just along from Belmond's Hotel Cipriani on the Giudecca; Orient Express has restored the Palazzo Donà Giovannelli; and Four Seasons has taken over the venerable Danieli .

The Giudecca, the island just south of Venice's historic centre, has long been the city's quieter alter ego. Less aristocratic than the Grand Canal and less flamboyant than St Mark's, it was traditionally an island of convents, workshops and shipyards, where artisans and working families lived within sight of the city's monumental skyline.

Its broad fondamenta , gardens and residential streets offer a glimpse of everyday Venetian life that survives only fitfully elsewhere. Yet this once-overlooked island has become the front line for one of hospitality's most closely watched rivalries.

At its eastern tip stands Belmond's Hotel Cipriani, the embodiment of Venetian glamour since Giuseppe Cipriani – founder of Harry's Bar just across the water and creator of the Bellini cocktail – opened it in 1958. Unlike many of Venice's grand hotels, the Cipriani is not housed in a historic palazzo but in a Fifties creation designed to capture the romance of the lagoon. Its secluded gardens, cinematic views and discreet service quickly attracted royalty, artists and Hollywood stars.

It was a bold move, then, for Airelles Palladio to open just a few hundred yards away. The French hotel group's first property outside France is the result of an exacting four-year renovation of an exceptional Renaissance and Baroque ensemble immersed in two acres of luxuriant gardens: Palladio's Zitelle Institute, the patrician Villa Frollo and the church of Santa Maria della Presentazione. Its arrival has also lent fresh urgency to the Hotel Cipriani's next chapter.

Belmond has commissioned New York architect Peter Marino – renowned for his work with Chanel, Fendi and Giorgio Armani – to lead the Cipriani's restyling in phased stages. Marino describes the project as a dialogue between past and present: a "living museum" rather than a theatrical set.

He has curated works by Italian avant-garde artists including Carla Accardi, Emilio Vedova and Edmondo Bacci alongside international post-war painters such as Milton Resnick and Hans Hartung: bold, dynamic, gestural works carrying the artistic currents of the Venice Biennale, Peggy Guggenheim's circle and the jet-set era. Bedrooms are furnished with antiques and contemporary pieces, including playful Venini lamps and bright vases designed by Marino himself, channelling what he calls the "hip vibe" of the 1950s and 1960s.

Airelles has pursued almost the opposite approach. The group's owner, Stéphane Courbit, a former TV producer, brings to his hotels "an instinct for spectacle and storytelling". To shape the Venetian narrative, Airelles' interior designer Christophe Tollemer spent three years sourcing more than 3,000 antiques and objets d'art , alongside some three kilometres' worth of antiquarian books.

The result is one of the group's signature Maisons , a property that feels less like a hotel than a storied Venetian residence. "Every detail," Tollemer explains, "was carefully chosen to reflect the light, views and emotional resonance" of the place. Even the restored church, used today for candlelit concerts, forms part of the guest experience and lends the whole a cultural gravity that is rare in modern hospitality.

A more playful expression of the two hotels' ambitions can be found in their wellness and leisure facilities. The Cipriani's heated saltwater swimming pool is 33m long, still the largest in Venice. Airelles counters with a 25m outdoor lap pool, a children's pool and an impressive indoor one housed within the city's largest hotel spa. For tennis fans, though, the advantage goes to Belmond, the only one of the two with a court.

Perhaps the more revealing differences lie in the experiences each property offers its guests. One of the Hotel Cipriani's greatest assets is continuity, which stems partly from its long-serving local staff. "Guests return every year because [...] staff remember their preferences, habits, even quirks," says Danilo Quagliozzi, communications manager.

Airelles, meanwhile, presents itself more explicitly as a multi-generational destination, with children's and teenagers' clubs and an eclectic programme of cultural activities for all the family. Venetian-style rowing lessons, carnival costume experiences and exclusive after-hours visits to San Marco and the Doge's Palace, for instance, are included in the room rate.

At the Cipriani, complimentary offerings range from the lavish – a sunset lagoon cruise with champagne and oysters – to more modest pleasures such as Bellini-making classes and private visits to the Redentore Gardens. But while the Cipriani closes for winter, Airelles will remain open, inviting guests to linger by its fireplaces as Venice settles into the quieter off-season rhythm.

When it comes to the table, Belmond boasts dining settings that few can rival. The Michelin-starred Oro looks out across the lagoon, while the Cip's Club floats over the Giudecca Canal with the Venetian skyline as its backdrop. The new Dior Bar adds another note of waterside chic.

Airelles may not match those vistas, but it will soon be able to compete gastronomically when it opens a restaurant from Norbert Niederkofler, a Tyrolean chef, two of whose three restaurants in the Dolomites have won five Michelin stars between them. Until then, there are branches of Matsuhisa (of Nobu renown) and abc kitchens (by Jean-Georges Vongerichten). Intriguingly, "Elton's Club" – a music venue created with Elton John – is scheduled to open in September 2026, promising to keep the island awake until 2am.

The Giudecca is only the opening salvo in a much wider contest. Back in Venice's centre, Four Seasons has taken on what is perhaps the city's most sensitive renovation: reviving the faded glory of the Hotel Danieli. Operating since 1822, the Danieli occupies three interconnected palazzi , including the splendid Gothic Palazzo Dandolo.

Its mythic status rests on its soaring staircase, gilded salons and an illustrious roll call of guests – from Lord Byron to Richard Wagner, Charles Dickens to Steven Spielberg. The challenge for Four Seasons is to revitalise this "grande dame" without sanding away her glorious eccentricities.

In Cannaregio, often regarded as the quarter where the soul of La Serenissima remains most intact, Orient Express has spent some eight years restoring the monumental 15th-century Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, preserving its Doge's Palace-style façade, its theatrical frescoes and the monumental staircase created by Teatro La Fenice architect Giovanni Battista Meduna.

Designer Aline Asmar d'Amman has complemented these operatic interiors with subtle echoes of the famed train's Art Deco opulence, while reception rooms have an air of nostalgia, evoking Venice's "Lost Colours" through watery moiré silks, patinated walls and swirling marble finishes that recall the city's shifting light and water.

Together, these projects represent a resounding vote of confidence in Venice's future, but they also raise questions. With the city's resident population now below 50,000, Unesco continues to warn that the conversion of historic buildings into tourist accommodation threatens Venice's social fabric.

Of course, these hotels occupy an ambiguous position within that debate. They breathe life into neglected buildings, sustain traditional craftsmanship, employ local artisans and safeguard properties that might otherwise slip into decline; few would argue these monuments are better left empty. Yet they also contribute to a wider shift in which Venice's heritage is increasingly experienced as something to be consumed rather than lived.

The Hotel Cipriani has long sought to reconcile these competing realities. Alongside employing generations of Venetians, it supports charitable initiatives on the Giudecca and works with Rio Terà dei Pensieri, a social enterprise that provides rehabilitation opportunities for people in the Venetian prison system.

Airelles similarly emphasises its local commitments. It has contributed to the revival of the nearby Redentore Gardens and to the conservation of the Doge's Palace, extending its role into the wider preservation of Venice.

Ultimately, the outcome of Venice's hotel wars may not be decided by celebrity chefs, designer suites or the size of a swimming pool. It will be measured by whether this remarkable wave of investment leaves the city itself stronger than before. If it does, the Serenissima may yet remain a place for both ordinary lives and extraordinary holidays.

Airelles has opened right next to the Belmond Cipriani, with an Orient Express and new Four Seasons also entering the arena

Kate Bolton-Porciatti travelled as a guest of Airelles Palladio, which offers doubles from €1,400 (£1,200), and previously as a guest of Belmond Hotel Cipriani, which offers doubles from €1,880 (£1,610).

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