Paris, a laboratory for new trends in hospitality. Laurent Taïeb, Founder of the Laurent Taïeb Group, shares his vision of the business and the opportunities available in the cities in the upscale segment with the participants of the Hospitality Operator Forum.

When I decided to do this job, I was about fifteen years old. It was when I visited certain places that really moved me. In our hotel and restaurant sector, we talk about intimacy, which is extremely important.

The hotel industry is also a history, that of the palaces and everything that goes with our professions. I had the opportunity to travel. When I went to the Hôtel de la Montagne in Montreal at the age of 18-20, I realised that there were extraordinary parties on a rooftop with a pool. I also realised in Miami that there were very strong places that were real places of life. From the moment I realised that , I decided to go into this sector.

I have created many different places, for example the first Kaiten Sushi place in 1998, we created with Philippe Stark an organic restaurant but we lacked merchandise at the time. I created the Kong restaurant and I realised that there was a significant lack of choice in the Parisian market. We are the only country where there is a huge border between luxury and the category just below. There are many palaces and just below there was a gap. When you go to Europe and elsewhere in the world, there are dozens of very strong concepts of places to live. For these types of concepts, I realised that the midscale prices were very well positioned in London for example they are over €7-800.

In 2012 and 2013, the City of Paris launched calls for tender to propose concepts. For the Poste du Louvre or the Duo Tower projects, I was in competition with practically all the brands. Everyone wanted these very high quality products with a very strong positioning in the city. I was a novice in the...

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