LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has made another foray into the hotel industry.
LVMH announced a minority investment in French boutique hotel owner and brand Les Domaines de Fontenille via a partnership with Geneva-based investment firm Anaïs Ventures, MSN reports.
Les Domaines de Fontenille has a portfolio of 11 hotels, including eight in France, mostly in the country’s southern region. Its portfolio also has two hotels in Minorca and one in Tuscany. The hotels have smaller room counts, totaling just 228 rooms across its entire portfolio, according to CoStar data. The firm's hotels lean toward the luxury segment, and one of its properties — Domaine de Chalamon in the countryside close to the small town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence — occupies 37 acres.
The French boutique firm has two properties in its pipeline: a hotel in Brittany in northwest France slated to open in spring 2025, and another north of Marseille in Aix-en-Provence, with an opening date in 2026.
Two fashion and art icons founded Les Domaines de Fontenille in 2016 — Frédéric Biousse, who was chairman and CEO at fashion brand Comptoir des Cotonniers, and Guillaume Foucher, who along with Biousse founded Paris art gallery Galerie Particulière.
“This financial investment by the LVMH Group in Les Domaines de Fontenille is an opportunity to explore a complementary realm to the hospitality offerings we provide through our brands,” LVMH's Chief Financial Officer Jean-Jacques Guiony said in a statement.
LVMH’s initial move into the hotel industry was its $2.6 billion acquisition of global hotel firm Belmond in 2018. Belmond's hotels include the Hotel Cipriani in Venice and the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro.
Belmond also owns the Cheval Blanc hotel brand and has interests in tourist trains and yachts.
In June, LVMH announced a partnership with Accor to relaunch Accor's Orient Express brand.
Belmond owns the famed Venice Simplon-Orient-Express luxury train that is a separate business to Accor’s Orient Express brand and offerings.
Accor plans to launch its first Orient Express yacht in 2026.
Hotel News Now requested a comment from Les Domaines de Fontenille but had not heard back by press time.