Airelles opens its first Maison in the Caribbean, in Saint-Barthélemy, on Sunday 1 November. In its announcement of Friday 2 October the French group gives the count: 29 rooms, 28 suites and 9 Signature Suites, 66 keys in all, with 20 private pools. Airelles Le Guanahani, Saint-Barthélemy, spreads across seven hectares of a private peninsula on the north-eastern tip of the island, facing Turtle Island, between the Grand Cul-de-Sac lagoon and Maréchal Bay, with two beaches of its own. Airelles has not yet named a chef or a designer, and no rates are published. But a few months after opening Airelles Palladio on the Giudecca in Venice, the group behind Les Airelles in Courchevel now has an address in the winter sun.
29 rooms, 28 suites and 9 Signature Suites
The rooms take the form of individual maisons scattered through tropical gardens, in an architecture of Creole verandas, painted wood and wide openings. Airelles’ own pages list 20 categories, from the Ocean Cove Room, 50 to 66 square metres with a view over the lagoon, to the Bougainvillea Suite, 331 square metres for up to seven guests, with three bedrooms and a private pool; every size includes the terraces. Ten of the 20 categories come with a private pool, among them the Beach Pool Suite, a few metres from the sand, and the Garden House, two connected houses on two levels around a terrace and pool. The Wellness Junior Suite opens directly onto the spa. The Lagoon Suite sits on the beach, its wooden terrace set on the sand. Across the estate, the release counts 20 private pools.
Between the lagoon and Maréchal Bay
The setting gives the place two characters. At the tip of the peninsula, Grand Cul-de-Sac beach shows the island’s gentle side, while Maréchal Bay, on the other side, opens to the ocean and a wilder shore, in Airelles’ description. The lagoon’s calm water, where turtles can be seen, suits snorkelling, paddle boarding and kayaking. There are two swimming pools: an infinity pool above the lagoon with direct access to the beach, and a spa pool reserved for adults. The sea beyond belongs to the Réserve naturelle de Saint-Barthélemy, created on 10 October 1996 and covering 1,200 hectares of water in five zones; the first takes in the bays of Marigot, Grand Cul-de-Sac and Petit Cul-de-Sac and the waters around Turtle Island. The agency that manages the reserve describes the lagoon, which a colony of elkhorn coral helped to create, as “a bay of calm, shallow waters, a veritable marine nursery”, and posts specific rules at Grand Cul-de-Sac for bathers, boats, fishermen and kitesurfers.
La Table du Guanahani and three bars
At La Table du Guanahani, a buffet serves breakfast and lunch, and in the evening the menu turns to Caribbean influences with international classics. Airelles describes local ingredients and Caribbean flavours meeting “the elegance and expertise of French cuisine”. Three bars set the rhythm of the day: Le Pélican on the beach, the Pool Bar, where lunch comes with feet in the sand, and The Library in the lobby. The announcement speaks of two restaurants; the second has not been named. The spa is an Airelles Spa x LBA, with Laboratoires Botanique Avancée, a brand exclusive to Airelles spas that works with plant stem cells, and there is a fitness room, a tennis court, a Kids Club and a Teens Club. Much comes with the room, according to Airelles’ room pages: the signature breakfast, a sweet and savoury minibar, unpacking and packing, laundry of up to ten pieces a day, soft drinks by the pools, the spa, and the Kids Club for children.
From Courchevel and Venice to the Caribbean
Airelles made its name in the Alps and in Provence. Its collection now counts Les Airelles in Courchevel 1850 and Airelles Val d’Isère, La Bastide in Gordes, Château de la Messardière and Pan Deï Palais in Saint-Tropez, Le Grand Contrôle at the Château de Versailles, Villa Baulieu and Château d’Estoublon in Provence. Then came Airelles Palladio, its first Maison outside France, a 16th-century property on the Giudecca with 17 rooms, 28 suites and a three-bedroom villa. In September the Palladio took three MICHELIN Keys and the guide’s Opening of the Year award in its first season, as set out in our list of Italy’s three-Key hotels, and the Alpine houses are in our guide to the palace openings this winter. The estate, in the release’s words, was “acquired by Airelles”. The name itself is familiar on the island: a hotel called Le Guanahani has stood on a peninsula at Grand Cul-de-Sac since 1986, according to its own website.
A winter address for an Alpine house
The date has a logic. Airelles’ best-known houses in the Alps open for the skiing; with Saint-Barthélemy, the group gains a warm sea in the same months, and the hotel is ready well before Christmas and the New Year. The estate is also meant for gatherings. Airelles offers it for weddings, birthdays and family reunions, and even for seminars and collection launches, with interior and outdoor spaces for each. Much is still to come: the second restaurant’s name, the chef, the designer and the rates. What Airelles has published so far is the frame, a peninsula, a lagoon inside a marine reserve and 20 private pools.
The Luxury.it perspective
The interesting word in Airelles’ vocabulary is Maison. The group calls each of its hotels a house, and the room pages show what that means in practice: breakfast, the minibar, unpacking, laundry and the spa are part of the stay rather than additions to the bill. On an island where a day can be spent between a beach and a boat, that is a sensible way to run a hotel. The practical advice is to choose the category by the water you want to wake up to. The Ocean Cove rooms and suites look over the Grand Cul-de-Sac lagoon, the Ocean Bay rooms and the Marigot Suite over Marigot Bay, and the Beach and Lagoon categories open onto the sand. Families can look at the Garden House, two connected houses for up to seven. The first guests arrive on Sunday 1 November.
Related guides
New luxury hotels in Europe, 2026 and 2027 · Cheval Blanc Pitrizza, Costa Smeralda · Rocco Forte in Porto Cervo · Dukes London
