There is a familiar air found in the world’s grandest hotels. Formality, old-fashioned elegance and stuffiness abound. Chandeliers, balustrades and butlers in black tie may look pleasing to the eye, but don’t always make an ideal environment for relaxation, which, after all, is what every traveller is looking for. The Four Seasons George V in Paris is an exception to this trend.

On walking into the lobby of the George V you can tell it’s a grande dame with a twist. There’s the de rigueur, immaculate wrought-iron door frame, 17th-century tapestries adorning the walls and acres of marble lining the floors, but it is far from stuffy.

Smartly suited staff smile instead of glaring at guests, and your eyes are bombarded with colour thanks to a weekly shipment of roses and lilies, which stand in giant art deco glass vases in arrangements by the hotel’s own floral director. It couldn’t be further from the atmosphere of many grand historic hotels, but the George V certainly doesn’t lack the heritage.

The 244-room hotel has been a manuscript onto which Parisian history has been written ever since it first opened in 1928 on the street it is named after. In the 1960s, German singer and actress Marlene Dietrich booked a suite there for years at a time, and it was where Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’.

Perhaps the most significant development in the hotel’s history came in 1996 when Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bought it from the Granada Group for US $178 million. The hotel had made a $360,000 loss the previous year and Alwaleed’s advisers recommended he not invest in it.

“When I bought the George V it was almost a three-star hotel from a service and furniture point of view, but I always sensed that it could be the number-one hotel in Europe. It turned out to get rated the number-one in the world,” says the Prince.

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Alwaleed’s first decision was to close down the hotel for two years and give it a $125 million makeover. More than 20,000 square metres of marble were laid and tapestries were hung on the walls, but some of the biggest changes happened behind the scenes. Alwaleed is a technophile with stakes in Apple, Motorola and Twitter, so he ensured that the George V integrated modern conveniences into its storied structure, including wireless internet as standard, when it re-opened under the Four Seasons banner in 1999.

Chandeliers hanging from the ceilings in rooms illuminate both the renaissance artwork on the walls and the bedside Bose sound systems. In the bathrooms there are televisions with reflective screens set into the mirrors and an overwhelming selection of channels. The spa evokes the atmosphere of a Roman bath, with urns standing at the side of the pool, columns lining the walls, and a fresco of a garden scene painted between them.

 Despite the hotel’s modern gloss, it is hard to avoid its historic grandeur if you explore. Antique busts sit on tables in the corridors, which have wallpaper showing French fleur-de-lis designs. There is even a traditional caged elevator and another lined with padded tapestries. Just walking through the corridors is an adventure in itself and makes you feel like you have stepped into Marie Antoinette’s boudoir. It is no accident.

Interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon based his style on that found in homes on the opulent Parisian Avenue Montaigne in the city’s 8th arrondissement. “You can go to the palatial homes of the Avenue Montaigne and you would see some of them in this style,” says general manager, José Silva.

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The 160-square-metre Penthouse Suite is designed like the interior of a yacht, with walls padded in cream leather, which complements the teak fittings. The hotel’s floral director also produces displays specifically for the penthouse, which even includes a mini winter garden and a double bed on the two-floor terrace with its sweeping views of the Parisian skyline.

“There is no hotel in the world that is like the George V,” says Alwaleed, adding that it has “returned all our money through dividends and now the hotel is valued independently at $1.5 billion. The valuation will definitely increase, but this is the value that banks have on the hotel. Nothing will beat the George V at all, not even The Plaza or the Savoy.

“The George V in Paris, the Savoy in London, The Plaza in New York; these are all one of a kind,” says Alwaleed. “These are very dominant, not only in their cities or countries but also dominant in the continent they are in.”

The George V is particularly close to Alwaleed’s heart, as he stayed there regularly as a child — something that perhaps influenced his decision to purchase the property. “You have to have a gut feeling and the hotel has to have a good track record,” he explains. “Because of cyclical events or economical reasons, or because of competition, [the George V] degraded its standing.

“All these hotels, when we bought them, were really three- or four-star in service, but then we rebranded them and beefed them up and they became really very dominant.”

There was a chance that the whole project could have failed, but this element of risk in any investment portfolio is what ultimately drives the biggest returns. As Silva says, “the Prince took the gamble that a quality hotel with fantastic service in a very desired arrondissement would be as strong as what was seen at prime locations. This is exactly what has happened.”

MILESTONES:

1996 - Granada Group takes over Forte Group and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal buys the George V from it
1997 - The hotel closes for a two-year, $125 million renovation
1999 - Four Seasons Geroge V reopens and soon becomes the number-one hotel in Paris