Airelles grew from Les Airelles in Courchevel, an alpine palace first opened in 1988 and acquired by Stéphane Courbit in 2007. LOV Hotel Collection then assembled a small group of highly individual French hotels before launching Airelles Collection as a unified brand in 2017. The model expanded from the Alps into Provence, Saint-Tropez and Versailles, then crossed the French border in 2026 with Airelles Palladio in Venice. By August 2026 the hospitality portfolio comprises seven operating hotels plus two Private Maisons in France and Italy.
The brand
Airelles is the ultra-luxury hospitality brand of LOV Hotel Collection, part of the privately held LOV Group created by Stéphane Courbit. The operating company owns the Airelles name and develops, restores and manages a tightly selected group of palaces, resorts and historic houses. Unlike a management company built mainly around third-party contracts, Airelles is closely tied to an owner-led collection strategy in which capital, design and operations are coordinated around each property.
The seven operating hotels are Les Airelles Courchevel, Airelles Val d’Isère, La Bastide in Gordes, Le Grand Contrôle at Versailles, Château de La Messardière and Pan Deï Palais in Saint-Tropez, and Airelles Palladio in Venice. The current website also presents two Private Maisons in Provence: Villa Baulieu, with 12 rooms and suites, and Château d'Estoublon, with 10. They are part of the Airelles hospitality universe but are kept separate from the seven-hotel count because they operate as private estates rather than conventional hotels.
Philosophy
Airelles presents each Maison as a home rather than a standardised hotel product. The recurring vocabulary is warmth, generosity, attention to detail and a sense that the guest is entering an inhabited world with its own history. Architecture, furniture, books, art, food and service are selected to make the building feel specific to its destination; the collection deliberately avoids a universal room template or a neutral contemporary luxury look.
The second layer is immersion. At Versailles, the hotel experience is inseparable from private access to the Château and a detailed reconstruction of eighteenth-century court life. In Courchevel and Val d’Isère, skiing, mountain rituals and family programming shape the stay. In Saint-Tropez and Venice, beach, gardens, boating, gastronomy and local culture become part of the operating product. Airelles therefore sells not only accommodation but a highly authored version of the destination.
What distinguishes it
Theatrical immersion. Airelles is comfortable with fantasy, narrative and historical reconstruction. Le Grand Contrôle is the clearest example: the hotel does not merely sit beside Versailles but stages the guest inside its world.
Family luxury is structural. Kids’ clubs, private cinemas, skating, treasure hunts, activities and multi-generational spaces are unusually prominent for an ultra-luxury collection. Airelles treats family programming as part of the main product rather than an add-on.
Owner-led restoration shapes the houses. The collection repeatedly acquires or develops buildings with strong identities and invests heavily in reinterpreting them. Château de La Messardière joined Airelles in 2019 and reopened after major renovation in 2021; Venice extends the same method outside France.
Seasonality is part of the model. The alpine hotels and Riviera properties operate around powerful seasonal rhythms. Instead of flattening those differences, Airelles uses winter and summer to create distinct service, culinary and experience programmes.
Private Maisons widen the format. Villa Baulieu and Château d'Estoublon show that Airelles can move below hotel scale into estates that can be partially or fully privatised, extending the “home” idea more literally than a conventional resort can.
Airelles is a weak fit for travellers who want a broad global network, points-based loyalty, business-city coverage or a highly standardised room product. The collection is small, concentrated in leisure destinations and intentionally theatrical: guests who prefer severe minimalism, anonymous contemporary interiors or hotels that recede behind the destination may find some Maisons too authored. Seasonality also matters. Several properties are strongest during specific winter or summer periods, so Airelles is less useful as an all-year, many-city luxury network than larger international brands.
Signature houses
Competitive landscape
Editorial note — Brand history, ownership, current destinations, Private Maisons and property status checked against official Airelles and LOV Group materials; reviewed August 2026. Portfolio is recorded as seven operating hotels plus two Private Maisons in two countries. Villa Baulieu and Château d'Estoublon are not added to the conventional hotel count; Airelles Palladio is counted as operating following its 2026 Venice debut. THE LUXURY HOSPITALITY LIBRARY · LHL-015 Register v50.0.