Airelles Château de Versailles, Le Grand Contrôle — Hotel in Versailles

This hotel deserves a special grade of accolades among the several hundred places I've visited. As a guest, you feel like you are being treated as a bit of a royal guest in a way that goes beyond a higher-tier 5-star resort. It doesn't feel phony either. The property is intimate, and you sometimes have the feeling that you are the only person there, such as at the swimming pool and accompanying spa facilities which are blocked off for one family to use at a time. If you have preferences here such as dietary, people will remember them and apply them across the board. The people who work here are well educated and know the history of the place, the property and, for instance, the ins and outs of the food they serve. The owner of Laduree owns this hotel and if you didn't have the sense that macarons were the official snack of France, this place won't let you forget. There are exotic fruit bowls and trays of macarons in all the public rooms. It's a really nice touch that also plays a part in making this place feel special.|Pre-arrival correspondence with the butler staff was essential in arranging a schedule to make use of the time and the available opportunities, and they were very responsive. This hotel is a one hour drive from CDG airport. The hotel arranged a transfer. I arrived at noon well before my room was available (from 3pm) so I went for a swim and then I went on a light airplane ride over the area and could see Versailles and the city of Paris in the distance from the air. Someone from the hotel drove me there and accompanied me throughout, even while the plane was in the air for roughly half an hour. It was only about a 10 minute ride to the hotel and they could have dropped me off and picked me up. |I reserved a premiere suite but was upgraded to their top suite. It had 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a living room. I joked that if I were truly in tune with the 19th century Versailles experience that this place mimics, I should have brought several mistresses with me to occupy all those rooms. |The suite was lovely with bright windows overlooking the gardens over to the chateau Versailles and to a large pond. There were lots of treats upon arrival. Everything in the suite worked properly. The hotel has a small gym which is adequate for a one or two night stay. I would have liked more but it was OK. The well-heated underground pool is very romantic by electric candlelight and there are saunas next to it. It is a good lap pool. There is no bathing suit spinner but if you give your swimsuit to the staff they will dry it. I had a Sun King massage spa treatment and it was excellent. Tea on the veranda was fine.|I enjoyed the 7 course Feast in the restaurant. They didn't do as much historical presenting as I expected but it was fine. They were good about modifying the menu to a pescatarian diet. I was also super tired from having flown in that day and sitting solo. I asked them to speed up the dinner for me, so they brought me two courses at a time and got me out within about 90 minutes. I dragged a jacket with me on this trip for the sole purpose of meeting the dress code in this restaurant only to find that about 1/3 of the people in the restaurant weren't wearing jackets. A butler said they have a hard time enforcing the dress code. The area around the hotel is safe for a walk at night.|Breakfast was also excellent although a bit slow getting the food out since I was in a hurry to make the morning tour; they have English language newspapers available. |I also enjoyed the after-hours tour of the private apartments and public rooms at the chateau of Versailles, and saw a nice sunset and rainbow as I exited the building. The group of 18 people was broken up into two groups of 9. What you see on this tour varies by the day and I don't think you can plan ahead at the time of booking to get the exact rooms you want to see. The morning semi-private tour of the Trianon Palace and gardens was also excellent (4 people). |My only pain point here was on the day of departure, while I was out on the Palace tour, someone from housekeeping entered the room to clean it and I wasn't expecting entry since I had a noon checkout, so I left my wallet and passport open in plain view. The hotel responded that they offer a Magic Cleaning in the morning so that people are surprised when they come back to a clean room and that this can be avoided by putting up the Do Not Disturb sign. This is the second time this year I've had my room entered on the day of departure by housekeeping, but the prior time was with a late checkout, which made more sense to me. I've checked with travel agents to ask what industry standard is (ie: should you expect your room to be serviced on the morning of a noon departure) and they said there really is no standard. So just beware. |The guests who come here tend to be well educated and carry some level of interest in French art and history because they are investing quite a bit in a special tour of these facilities. You get an interesting cross-section of guests; it is also a pleasure to talk to the butler staff who are also hailing from interesting backgrounds. |I was lucky that I was not here a day or two later when they were expecting King Charles to visit.|I found this experience to be outstanding and would recommend this to a couple celebrating something special or to a solo person who wants to do a royal visit of Versailles in a special way and is accustomed to being treated well. I've been to Versaille several times already so I wanted something special, and I felt I got good value for money. I was waiting for this hotel to open and wanted to see what they did with it. I'd keep an eye out for other properties of this hotel group (which I now know exist) based on my positive experience...

This is our second stay at the AIRELLES CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES, LE GRAND CONTRÔLE. We thought the first time in 2021 would be a once in a lifetime experience, but fortunately it’s now at least a twice in a lifetime experience.||From our arrival - greeted by the team - everything was handled with the utmost care. We were checked in by Quentin, who was so pleasant and accommodating. We arrived quite early, and we were offered breakfast in the salon. The croissants are delightful. We truly felt “royally” welcomed!||Lunch was served in a beautiful space adjacent to the dining room. Our table by the window with a view of the terrace was perfectly appointed. The meal was delicious and the service was professional and attentive. We so enjoyed each course served. The espresso martini, an indulgent afternoon delight, arrived in the most chic glass in the shape of an espresso cup on a stem (we are hoping to purchase a few for us to enjoy at home).||Our room was ready a bit earlier than promised. We had received hints from Quentin at check in and the hotel manager of a very generous upgrade. We were in fact upgraded to the Necker Suite, a 1300 sq ft space, which was the pinnacle of luxury. We are still not quite sure how this happened, but we gleefully accepted it. The suite has a foyer with a stocked mini bar, double powder rooms (a luxury we had never thought of… they did), a large seating area with a fireplace and beautiful views of the terrace, a primary bedroom with a huge, luxurious bed, and The View of the Orangerie and the two 100 step grand staircases leading to Versailles, and finally a primary bathroom with a centered clawfoot tub, double sinks and separate shower and dressing area. We had to pinch ourselves to ensure it was real… It in fact was!||Afternoon tea was decadent and expertly served in the second floor library. We were still full from lunch, but we made room…||The private tour of Versailles is definitely a main draw to the stay here. This time the tour focused on the theater and chapel in Versailles. Both were lovely and inaccessible on the typical tour, however, we did miss seeing the hall of mirrors after hours at night, which we so enjoyed on our last visit. This is a function of Versailles as we understand it, as Versailles determines the offerings. Our stay was on a Monday night when Versailles is closed the general public.||Dinner was in the main dining room, which is quite intimate and lovely. The fixed menu Royal Feast offering is definitely interesting, but we wish choices via an a la carte menu were an option. Perhaps something the hotel and restaurant will reconsider as we had this option on our last stay.||We enjoyed breakfast in our room, and it was delicious. We simply had to enjoy our amazing space as much as possible. We also tried out the bathtub with a spectacular view of the Orangerie and gardens.||We wanted to see the Palace - so just before 9 am Hugo drove us basically to the front door of the guest entrance. We bypassed the line with Hugo’s assistance and were in the Palace in moments. We high tailed it to the Hall of Mirrors. A few folks beat us there, but it was much less crowded than usual and just as beautiful as we remembered.||We also visited the Grand Trianon privately - which was a pleasure to tour again. Our guide was very informative, and the weather was practically perfect for our peek at the Grand Trianon gardens.||Finally, we took a dip in the pool - what a truly beautiful m, relaxing space… We ended our stay with one last martini at the intimate bar. We checked out of our room at 4 pm - thanks to the Amex FHR booking benefit. We stayed two nights on our last visit, which is probably the perfect amount of time, but we definitely made the most of this one night stay.||Pauline and the team graciously saw us off and even provided us with a to go bag with refreshments for our ride back to Paris. Overall a truly delightful twice in a lifetime experience.||More|Date of stay: October 2024||See...

The hotel room was beautiful - with the minibar being a very nice touch. The tours were phenomenal and my favorite part of staying here. Also, we stayed when Versailles had fireworks every Saturday and we were treated like royalty with seats for the show and a glass of champagne.

The afternoon tea is cute but very limited (sweets not tea sandwiches and you only get one cup of tea or hot chocolate). They should expand the afternoon tea for hotel guests to a bit more than that. The golf carts are a nice touch but they are very slow because the hotel doesn't have their own charging station. We were always nervous that the cart would cut off on the grounds of Versailles, which is huge, and we'd have to walk back to tell them to pick it up.

The 3 star rating centers around the dining. I have to say that I was disappointed in the selection and the awkwardness encountered with the service. With the seldom for dinner, the a la carte menu was very limited (only two utems you could choose from for your appetizer, entrée and dessert). That would not be an issue normally except that it was the same menu each time for dinner. There was no change. So if you were hoping for something different, and didn't want to do the Royal Feast, you were stuck. Also, I didn't care for the pork option the second night, it was l not very warm and undercooked for me. I tried to communicate this to the servers, and I chalk it up to language barriers, but when I ststed that I didn't like it, they just left it and said "d'accord". I wasn't presented with any other replacement options. They ended up taking back most of my plate because I just couldn't eat it. When we checked out, the dinner was still charged to us, and I had to ask for it to be removed as I had adjusted the staff wduring dinner of my issues and nothing was done. The mansger csme out and attested to my issues from the night before and the dish was removed. Niece, the fact that I still had to request it, when no one really tried to address it when I raised it the night prior, was a bit off-putting.

Also, drive is really slow. There are many that work in the restaurant but it seemed as though they are more concerned about appearing busy. An example of this was that we often had to ask for water or to request additional assistance, like if we wanted to order a second glad of wine. We were never asked. Also, go through 2 courses for dinner took about 2 hours (by the time we were asked if we'd like a beverage, then placing our orders for food and drink, and getting served the food itself). I don't like to be rushed, and I appreciate the fact that this is what they may be trying to do, but two hours is a lot of time just to be served an appetizer and an entrée.

Also, for breakfast, I ordered French toast, the server forgot and when I mentioned it, she pointed to the bread on the table that was brought for my husband's eggs and said "I did bring you the French toast." I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or not because the statement caught me off guard. They eventually did bring my order but it was after 40 minutes past the time that I had actually ordered it.

Also, a few times during dinner and breakfast, we had little more visitors. Not a great lol when you are trying to eat breakfast ordinner and you see little friends in the diing room. For the amount charged to stay and done here, I would hope they remedy that right away.

We would recommend the hotel just for the experience and the tours of the grounds but for the dining, I would recommend trying restaurants of site if you are to stay for longer than a weekend. It really did damper my stay and I'm unsure if I would repeat my stay if the issues with dining were...