When the beaming smiles of the doormen at Four Seasons Hotel Beirut dazzled their first guests at the property’s soft opening late last year, the city took another quantum step forward in its renaissance as a 21st century metropolis.
There are few in Beirut who won’t share the uniformed frontmen’s sense of pride; ten years in the planning and five years under construction, the hotel opened as a gleaming statement of intent for the whole country with the invitation to come and experience warm, genuine Lebanese hospitality.
Nowhere is the city’s unique energy more intensely felt than through its own people – a proud culture with an indomitable spirit and an insatiable zest for life. The newest Four Seasons has filtered this energy down to its purest form, with more than 300 local recruits amplifying the warm welcome found on the streets outside.
“I always look for the fire in the eyes of any prospective new recruit,” says general manager Stefan Simkovics – a 40-plus-year veteran of the hotel industry, nearly 16 of them with Four Seasons – “but I have never seen such fire as I have here in Beirut. Every hotel has the flowers, the decoration, the facilities... but here it is the team that shines the brightest.”
The welcome is as warm as the interiors inspired by local traditions. From the Lebanese artwork, carved screens and gilded calligraphy of the lobby to the buzzing Boulevard lounge which tempts visitors with the rich aromas of a European café and sofas designed for hours of conversation.
Throughout the hotel, the magic continues in the quality of details: from a prime cut of executive chef Ossola’s Charolais beef on the The Grill Room’s marina-view terrace to the heavenly homemade truffles that accompany coffees beneath The Bar’s dramatic red and gold chandelier. Large terraces are standard in all 230 guest rooms and suites. The spa, a cool statement of white marble and gold mosaics, has a suede-panelled couples’ suite with private terrace and Jacuzzi. And the rooftop pool – a glittering 26th-floor oasis with 360 degree views – towers above the raucous cityscape like a suspended haven of tranquility.
And, of course, the hotel is within easy reach of the many cultural and social options Beirut and Lebanon have to offer.