Hotel History

The history of this hotel is as grand and spectacular as its reputation is today. The Concorde Saint-Lazare was commissioned at the end of the 19th Century as a new luxury hotel in Paris to accommodate wealthy foreign visitors to the Paris Great Exhibition of 1889. It was completed in record time of just 15 months and was named The Grand Hotel Terminus because of its revolutionary design and location, being linked to the Gare Saint Lazare.

City-wide excitement greeted the official opening of the Grand Hotel Terminus on 7th May 1889. The arrival of the Grand Hotel Terminus, along with the recent development of railway lines and sea transportation put Paris on the doorstep of English, Russian and American tourists and businessmen. Being equipped with electricity and telephone and having its furnishings brought directly from the big stores of the Louvre made it a truly world-class hotel. The hotel was designed to allow guests to experience Paris in the height of comfort, quality and luxury.

To mark the hotel’s centennial, meticulous restoration work was undertaken in the lobby in 1989 following a request by Jean Taittinger of Taittinger Champagne, who was at the time heading the Concorde hotel group and managing Hotel Concorde Opéra Paris since 1973. The lobby is listed as a historical monument.