GOSTELOW REPORT—”Having the owner on site the whole time helps the team relate to each other and to guests, and I honestly believe it helps with our repeat factor, which is 15% in winter and 20% in high summer,” says Antoine Estène-Chauvin, fourth-generation proprietor of the historic Hôtel Belles Rives, in Juan-les-Pins, on the Mediterranean coast of France.
What is now a 43-room hotel, part of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, was started by his great-grandparents in 1929. Boma Estène, born in Russia, traveled to the French Riviera and married the daughter of an Antibes hotelier: They converted what had been Villa St-Louis into a hotel, which soon attracted such celebrity guests as author F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda.
“This has turned out to be an ongoing publicity coup,” admitted today’s owner. “At the time, the Fitzgeralds’ local circle included Gerald and Sara Murphy, who lived nearby in Villa America, and F. Scott Fitzgerald based his characters Dick and Nicole Diver on them in ‘Tender is the Night,’ which he wrote intermittently here at the hotel.” Maurice Chevalier, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso also liked to hang out at Juan-les-Pins during those years.
Estène-Chauvin spends a lot of his time at Belles Rives. One of his many tasks is planning the hotel’s annual Fitzgerald literary prize, held every June after a jury, chaired by his mother, hotel CEO Marianne Estène-Chauvin, has picked the winner. They look for a novel that reflects elegance, wit, style and taste of the art of living.
The current holder of the award, the eighth, is American Christopher Bonnen, who flew from New York to be honored with a ceramic trophy by Claude Aïelio as souvenir. Bonnen, editor-in-chief of Interview and a New York Times contributor, won for his book ‘Beau Ravage.’ “It’s essential to remember the Fitzgeralds and keep their names alive,” explained Antoine Estène-Chauvin, who majored in history, with law.
Although as a young teenager he had worked the beach loungers at the hotel during summer vacations, he had not intended to go into the family business. In May 2017, after his father’s untimely passing, as an only child he gave up his Paris-based trading operation selling vintage CDs and video games to Japan, to return home to help and take over from his mother.
“We have another hotel here in Juan-les-Pins, the Juana, and we are always on the lookout for additions, but they must be a good fit. Partly because of that, my mother does a lot of traveling. She is the outside face of the hotel, but I am here on the ground. I will allow few errors,” he stated firmly.
How difficult is it for the hotel’s general manager, Stéphane Vuillaume, to have his owner constantly around? In this case, which is perhaps typically French, the two seem to dance an impromptu ballet, mostly keeping out of each other’s way (there is another omnipresent player, François Gelly, who oversees sales and marketing for both hotels, and is much more of a decision-maker than many in that role).
The 80-strong staff complement at Les Belles Rives, who work closely with counterparts at the Juana, honestly seem to like having lead players always around: Turnover is just under 15%. They have every January and February off, but knowing they are the only 5-star hotel in the area to stay open more than six months has financial benefits (the 2018 season, March through December, will close at 82%, with average stay 2.3 nights in winter, rising to 3.8 nights in summer, when the USA is the top market).
“During the next two months I personally will see how we can take the hotel’s identity and make it even more attractive. We already have our Zelda suite, with wall-hung photos of Zelda Fitzgerald. The cocktail list in our Fitzgerald Bar includes a Gatsby, a gin and lychee concoction, and a Hemingway, rum with Marasquin cherry. Where else will we go without being over the top? My aim is to give every visitor something they will really like. I am happy when my customers are happy,” said the 36-year old.