It's only the third in the Pyrénées-Orientales: which hotel has won its 5th star?

A new fifth star shines in the department's hotel landscape. La Maison Nova, a hybrid Colliourenc setting, received the highest category (excluding Palace) in the classification of tourist hotels in France this Tuesday, October 29, 2024. And this is rare news in the local tourist environment. Maison Nova joins the very exclusive club of Catalan five stars. Only two other hotels are decorated with it: the Château de Riell in Molitg-les-Bains and the Ile de La Lagune in Saint-Cyprien. At the national level, there are less than 500 across the entire hotel portfolio.

This distinction from Maison Nova is marked by two other particularities. The youth, first of all, of this establishment open only since June 12, 2024. But also its very nature. “It's a place that we wanted with all the comfort of a hotel with tailor-made services, but with the comfort and warmth of a guest house.“, present Brice and Jenny Sannac, the owners. Here, no excess or bling-bling. It's neither Monaco nor Courchevel. It's Collioure. “We thought of the establishment like the village. We don't need 200 rooms. We have 13, each with its own fresco created by an artist“.

A clientele aged between 35 and 55 years old

But apart from the elegance of such a place, what are the criteria for awarding a fifth star? For Brice Sannac, “luxury” or rather “tailor-made”, as he prefers to call it, is hidden in the details. “Beyond the size of the rooms, the valet or concierge services which respond to all requests, for example, we offer customers the choice of different scents for their pillows. We will also work to clean up the room as soon as the guest is absent, even if it is only for a meal.”. It’s all about subtlety, then.

It is to have time to perfect this appreciation of detail that Maison Nova did not claim the fifth star from its opening, “settling” for the sparkling four. “We already knew how to do four stars because that is the classification of our hotel in Banyuls-sur-Mer, Les Elmes. We wanted to take the time to understand, with all our employees, the requirements linked to five-star service. We also wanted to have the necessary perspective to meet our customers, determine their typology and be able to offer them targeted services. If we look at the first figures, we have an occupancy rate of 86% and an average ticket, per night, which amounts to €250“.

Over these first four months of opening, Maison Nova welcomed a young clientele, on average, aged between 35 and 55 years old. The vast majority of couples – the hotel having been designed for them – are particularly attracted by the spa areas.