GOSTELOW REPORT—“Fauchon is a gastronomic fashion brand and just as any couture big name, it constantly evolves,” says Jérôme Montantème, general manager of the 54-room Hôtel Fauchon, a few yards from where Auguste Fauchon, then 30, opened his first fine foods store, in 1886 on Place de la Madeleine, in the center of Paris.
On 18 March 2020, two days after the hotel had closed for lock-down, Montantème convened a special committee.
“We wanted to be ready for re-opening, which eventually happened 1 July 2020,” he said. At that first lock-down gathering, he and his colleagues talked about how to make it easier for the entire 75-strong workforce to return, whenever, and how to make sure that guests would come back. Working groups came up with the need for simplification, say at check-in and in the restaurant.
Montantème loves committees. From the moment he joined the hotel, a year before its September 2018 opening, he has been continually inspired by group-think.
“Walking in the street mid-2017, I met an old friend, Jacques-Olivier Chauvin, whom I knew when he was CEO of Relais & Châteaux, and that is how I quickly got into the recruitment process. The design of the hotel, by cult architect Richard Martinet, was already finished but we needed to work on the concept.”
It is worth noting that the 1830s-vintage building, one-time home of restaurant Lucas Carton, was envisaged as Baccarat, but Fauchon wanted to create a new hotel concept.
And so, accordingly, there were committees to think of everything, but unlike some meetings in France they did not go on for too long (“We always had strict schedules, and immediate follow-ups of vital points”).
Key players included Chauvin, in his current role as CEO of Fauchon Hospitality. There was Fauchon brand proprietor Michel Ducros, whose family also owns France’s best-known luxury spice brand. Others were Fauchon President Samy Vischel, and its International Business Advisor Bernard Lambert, formerly CEO both of Le Méridien and then Monte Carlo-based SBM. The list also included branding agency NeoPlaces, whose president, Emmanuelle Mordacq, created the distinctive Fauchon wording-logo. There were representatives from hotel specialists Esprit de France.
“We brought in consumers, as well. Once, we asked 10 Parisian men what they thought of the Fauchon pink and they said it was too bright for them, so we modified the hue,” admitted Montantème.
Despite the fact that the hotel’s very DNA owes its success to sweet bites, Montantème finds that hotel guest numbers are not unusually skewed in favor of women (though it is ladies who more often make the reservations, apparently). Repeat factor overall is about 25%, heightened by a welcome that includes, yes, macaroons. Helped considerably by affiliation to The Leading Hotels of the World (“we are very happy with it”), the USA, until COVID, represented 25% of business, average stay two nights.
Montantème recognizes the value the name Fauchon gives to marketing. “We are constantly in touch with Fauchon’s freestanding boutiques and they always let us know when they have new products.”
Looking ahead, he is confident that the hotel’s values will more than stand the test of time.
“Now, our experiences are even more emotive. If we are happy it is easier to make guests happy. We create a special place to celebrate special moments. We deliver personalized service (has someone come to experience something specific or special?). We exhaust your senses, through sounds and music, scent, taste, touch and so on. And we take every opportunity to be different, with omnipresent gastronomic flavor,” Montantème shared.