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Rocco Forte hotels

Olga Polizzi's interiors give landmark hotels a shared design hand while keeping their local accent.

Rocco Forte Hotels brings a family’s personal approach to landmark hotels with strong local identities. Sir Rocco Forte and Olga Polizzi founded the collection in 1996, with Polizzi’s interiors and the next generation’s involvement in food, spas, and development keeping the family closely connected to each house.

15 Rocco Forte hotels in 5 countries on the Luxury Hotels Atlas (1 not open yet), each placed on the six LHA Tiers.

• Majority-owned by the Forte family
• Worldwide: 16 hotels, resorts, residences, and villas across six countries — primarily Italy (nine properties), the United Kingdom (two), Germany (two), Belgium (one), and Russia (one), with the first Middle East properties in active development
• On the atlas: 2 Apex Luxury, 10 Grand Luxury, 2 High Luxury, 1 Core Luxury

History

Sir Rocco Forte and Olga Polizzi built their new collection around the individual character of each building. Polizzi’s design direction and the next generation’s involvement kept the family closely connected to the hotels. Later investment supported further growth while that personal approach remained part of the identity.

Timeline

• 1911 — Rocco Forte's grandfather emigrates from Monforte, southern Italy, to Fife, Scotland, and opens a café called The Savoy, the first Forte hospitality business.
• 1935 — Rocco's father opens a milk bar on Regent Street, London; within years it grows into a chain of five, the nucleus of the future Forte empire.
• 1970 — Trust Houses Ltd and Forte Holdings merge to create Trust Houses Forte (THF), which later simplifies its name to Trusthouse Forte.
• 1996 — Granada Group completes a hostile £3.9 billion takeover of Trusthouse Forte in January; the Forte family receives approximately £350 million in proceeds from their shares.
• 1996 — Sir Rocco Forte and Olga Polizzi establish Rocco Forte Hotels; acquire The Balmoral in Edinburgh as the group's founding property.
• 1998 — Hotel Savoy, Florence, opens on Piazza della Repubblica, a nod to the family's Italian heritage.
• 1999 — Hotel Astoria, St. Petersburg, Rocco Forte takes over management of the 1912 Art Nouveau landmark on St. Isaac's Square.
• 2000 — Hotel Amigo, Brussels, joins the collection (built 1957, steps from the Grand-Place).
• 2000 — Hotel de Russie, Rome, opens as the group's Italian flagship, the 1816 Valadier palazzo between Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps.
• 2001 — Use of the Forte trademark formally returned to Sir Rocco Forte following the Compass/Granada de-merger.
• 2003 — Brown's Hotel, London, acquired; reopens in 2005 after a comprehensive Olga Polizzi–led refurbishment as the group's Mayfair flagship.
• 2006 — Hotel de Rome, Berlin, opens in the converted former Dresdner Bank headquarters on Bebelplatz, the pool occupies the original jewellery vault.
• 2006 — Villa Kennedy, Frankfurt, opens in a 1901 Gothic-Renaissance mansion in the Sachsenhausen district (exits the portfolio April 2022).
• 2007 — The Charles Hotel, Munich, opens on Sophienstraße, the group's first purpose-built new-build hotel, named after the late Lord Charles Forte.
• 2009 — Verdura Resort, Sicily, opens on 230 hectares of southwestern coastline near Sciacca with two Kyle Phillips championship golf courses.
• 2015 — Italian state-backed fund CDPE Investimenti (CDP) invests €80 million for a 23% stake, backing accelerated growth.
• 2019 — Hotel de la Ville, Rome, opens, a 104-room hotel in an 18th-century palazzo at the crown of the Spanish Steps.
• 2019 — Masseria Torre Maizza, Puglia, opens in a restored 16th-century fortified farmhouse near Savelletri.
• 2019 — Rocco Forte House Rome opens, five private serviced apartments on Piazza di Spagna, the group's first residential concept.
• 2021 — Villa Igiea, Palermo, reopens after a multi-year restoration by Olga Polizzi of Ernesto Basile's 1900 Art Nouveau seafront palazzo.
• 2021 — Rocco Forte Private Villas launches at Verdura Resort, 30 private residences with three and four bedrooms on the resort estate.
• 2022 — Villa Kennedy, Frankfurt, closes permanently as a Rocco Forte hotel (April 2022); property later relaunched by Althoff Collection as The Florentin.
• 2023 — December: PIF announces definitive agreement to acquire 49% of Rocco Forte Hotels; CDPE Investimenti exits its entire stake. Deal value reported at approximately £1 billion
• 2024 — PIF deal completes in January 2024 (Arab News); Rocco Forte House Milan opens (July 2024).
• 2024 — February: management agreement signed with Capri Group for first Naples hotel at Palazzo Sirignano.
• 2025 — The Carlton Milan, the group's 16th property and second in Milan, opens November 2025 on Via della Spiga/Via Senato.
• 2025 — August: strategic partnership announced with Emerald Pine Capital for European and Middle East expansion
• 2025 — Group directs £64.4 million to refurbishments across the portfolio, double the £27.7 million spent in 2024

The houses to know

1. Hotel de Russie, Rome, Italy — The Valadier palazzo stands between Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps, with a 2,800-square-metre terraced garden.
2. Brown's Hotel, London, United Kingdom — London's oldest continuously operating hotel, founded 1837 by Lord Byron's former valet, and still the Mayfair address with the deepest literary pedigree.
3. Hotel de la Ville, Rome, Italy — Positioned at the exact summit of the 1726 Spanish Steps, with a rooftop terrace surveying the entire Tridente roofscape.
4. The Balmoral, Edinburgh, United Kingdom — Scotland's grande dame above Waverley Station since 1902, whose clock tower runs three minutes fast so passengers below never miss a train.
5. Hotel Savoy, Florence, Italy — On Piazza della Repubblica, the site of Florence's ancient Roman forum, three minutes from the Duomo and equidistant from every landmark that matters.
6. The Charles Hotel, Munich, Germany — The first Rocco Forte hotel built from the ground up, named for the late Lord Charles Forte and looking out over Munich's Alter Botanischer Garten from Sophienstraße.
7. Villa Igiea, Palermo, Italy — Ernesto Basile's 1900 Art Nouveau palazzo above Palermo's Bay of Acquasanta, the Sala Basile's frescoes are among the finest intact Belle Époque interiors in southern Europe.
8. Rocco Forte House Rome, Rome, Italy — Five private apartments on Via del Babuino, steps from the Fontana della Barcaccia, butler and concierge service, but no lobby, no front desk, and no conventional check-in.
9. Hotel Amigo, Brussels, Belgium — Its name comes from a Flemish word for prison that Spanish soldiers mistook for "friend", a 1957 building conceived for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, two minutes from the Grand-Place.
10. Masseria Torre Maizza, Savelletri, Italy — A 16th-century Pugliese masseria near Savelletri, surrounded by ancient olive groves and within reach of the UNESCO trulli district at Alberobello.

Newest openings

• The Carlton Milan — Milan, Italy — opened November 2025 — The group's 16th property, with 71 rooms and suites across two addresses (Via della Spiga 8 / Via Senato 5) in the Quadrilatero della Moda fashion district; interiors by Olga Polizzi in a building previously operated as the Carlton Hotel Baglioni. Rocco Forte's second Milan address following Rocco Forte House
• Rocco Forte House Milan — Milan, Italy — opened July 2024 — A private palazzo near the Quadrilatero, operated as a serviced-residence concept mirroring the Rome House format; Rocco Forte's first standalone residential product in Italy's design capital

Opening next

• Costa Smeralda Resort — Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy — expected 2026/2027 — The group's Sardinian debut: 64 rooms and suites on a two-acre seafront site in the bay of Liscia di Vacca, Porto Cervo, designed around sustainable principles and local Sardinian materials; confirmed under development in partnership with Sixth Street
• Palazzo Castelluccio — Noto, Sicily, Italy — expected 2026/2027 — Restoration of one of the largest noble palaces in the UNESCO-listed Baroque town of Noto; 31 rooms in an 18th-century building with frescoed ceilings and period furnishings; Rocco Forte's third Sicilian property
• Palazzo Sirignano — Naples, Italy — expected 2027 — Rocco Forte's first Naples hotel, in the historic Palazzo Caravita di Sirignano on the Riviera di Chiaia waterfront boulevard; under a management agreement with Capri Group signed February 2024
• Red Sea Property — Saudi Arabia — expected 2027–2028 — Boutique-format property with approximately 60 rooms plus serviced villas and apartments along the Saudi Red Sea coastline; first Rocco Forte hotel on the Arabian Peninsula; closely tied to the PIF partnership

Every Rocco Forte hotel on the atlas

Italy

• Hotel de Russie — Rome · Apex Luxury
• Rocco Forte House Rome — Rome · Apex Luxury
• Hotel de la Ville — Rome · Grand Luxury
• Hotel Savoy — Florence · Grand Luxury
• Masseria Torre Maizza — Savelletri · Grand Luxury
• The Carlton Milan — Milan · Grand Luxury
• Verdura Resort — Sciacca · Grand Luxury
• Villa Igiea — Palermo · Grand Luxury
• Palazzo Castelluccio, Noto — Noto · High Luxury
• Rocco Forte Hotel Costa Smeralda, Porto Cervo — Porto Cervo · Core Luxury · Opening soon

United Kingdom

• Brown's Hotel — London · Grand Luxury
• The Balmoral — Edinburgh · Grand Luxury

Belgium

• Hotel Amigo — Brussels · Grand Luxury

Germany

• The Charles Hotel — Munich · Grand Luxury

Russia

• Hotel Astoria — St. Petersburg · High Luxury

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Every house in The Maison

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