Hotel George V
William Fatt, C.E.O., Fairmont Raffles Hotels International
William Fatt calls Four Seasons’ opulent George V hotel, located in a landmark 1928 Parisian building, a dream property. The hotel is on Avenue George V—the same street as the Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, and Hermès boutiques—and its marquee restaurant, Le Cinq, has been awarded two Michelin stars. There are 245 guest rooms and suites.
Ciragan Palace
Simon Cooper, C.E.O. and president, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
Situated on the shores of Istanbul's Bosphorus River, this former residence of the last Ottoman sultan, with marble exteriors and a lighted outdoor fountain, dates from the mid-1800s. Today, the 315-room hotel is a Kempinski property. Simon Cooper says it is valuable due to its location on a “great piece of water” and its “stunning building.”
Buckingham Palace
Raymond Bickson, managing director and C.E.O., Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces
The official residence of the queen of England, has 775 rooms, including a ballroom that, when added in 1855, was the largest room in London. The palace is furnished with national treasures: paintings by Rubens and Vermeer, Sèvres porcelain, and antique English and French furniture. There is also a walled garden, complete with a lake.
Hotel Plaza Athenee Paris
Manvinder Puri, vice president of the Americas for General Hotels Management
G.H.M. has a portfolio of modern beach resorts in Oman, Thailand, and India. But Puri covets the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, a Parisian palace where models lounge and suites have views of the Eiffel Tower. Owned by London-based Dorchester Collection, the hotel has 188 guest rooms. Puri estimates a price of $1.4 million to $2 million per room.
Singita Private Game Reserve
Ross Klein, president, Starwood’s Luxury Brands Group
Singita’s South African resorts are a series of luxury lodges in the Sabi Sand game reserve and Kruger National Park. The thatched roof, open-air accommodations have canopy beds, private pools, and dramatic freestanding tubs. Klein says that an acquisition of the Singita properties would “epitomize the persona of our brand as a global safari.”
The Taj Mahal
Bernd Chorengel, president, Hyatt International
Can’t quite see India’s white-marble Taj Mahal, a national landmark that was built as a mausoleum for Indian emperor Shah Jahan, as a hotel? You can’t blame Chorengel for coveting it—with its fountains and flower-filled gardens, exterior inlaid with semiprecious gems, and rich history—for his high-end Park Hyatt hotels brand.
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