Tl;dr – The ultra-boutique chain will enter the US market later this year.
Big news for fans of ultra-luxury properties. Oetker Hotels will open its first US property in Palm Beach, Florida. The hotel group is undertaking a top-down renovation of an existing property, The Chesterfield, which will be rebranded as The Vineta Hotel.
If you’re unfamiliar with Oetker, it’s a small, ultra-luxury hotel chain that currently operates 11 properties worldwide (this Palm Beach property will be its 12th ‘Masterpiece’). Popular properties within the Oetker portfolio include Eden Rock (St. Barths), Jumba Bay Island (Antigua), L’Apogée (Courchevel, France), Le Bristol (Paris), and Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc (Antibes, France).
The property will feature 41 rooms, a decrease from the 57 rooms that existed at The Chesterfield. The hotel will include “a signature restaurant and sublime bar concept within the existing spaces of The Vineta Hotel, including the intimate and blooming courtyard.”
It is approximately three blocks from the nearest beach and an 11-minute drive to Palm Beach International Airport.
Palm Beach makes sense for a fairly obvious reason—the coin. The city is known for its extreme wealth and is considered one of the wealthiest places in the United States. It’s home to numerous billionaires, many of whom own opulent mansions and estates, and is often referred to as “Billionaires’ Beach”.
This is not lost on Oetker’s leadership, as it seems like a high-fidelity decision to enter the market in a place where you know you’ll be successful. According to Oetker Hotels CEO Timo Gruenert, “Many of our existing guests have long visited or are residents of Palm Beach, and we therefore look forward to extending Oetker Hotels’s unique hospitality ethos based on our values of family spirit, elegance and genuine kindness, to this wonderful town with The Vineta Hotel.”
In other words, ‘build an outpost in the backyard of people who are already visiting our hotels in Europe, the West Indies, and Brazil.’ Sounds like the perfect place for the family members of those folks to stay when they’re in town.
Notably, this property is behind schedule. It was initially expected in the Fall of 2024 (if you search on Google, you’ll still see evidence of this in the preview results) and is now scheduled to debut sometime before the end of 2025.
I’ve yet to explore the Oetker chain, although I’m considering a trip to St. Barts and deciding between Eden Rock and Cheval Blanc. I’m of the opinion that St. Barth may be heavily overrated, but IF I do end up making the trip, perhaps I’ll split the stay and do a compare and contrast of those two spots.
