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Paris Hotels Honor WWII Veterans

In honor of the 60th Anniversary of D-Day, 40 Paris hotel owners offer WWII veterans, their wives and descendants deep discounts on hotel rooms.

The celebrations organized for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day ended all too soon for millions of WWII veterans who could not travel to Normandy to visit the landing beaches, and the local D-day memorials and museums.

In a rare collective move, 40 owners of Parisian hotels decided to band together to salute the WWII Veterans by granting them a very deep 30% discount on room rates until January 31, 2005.

As the [longtime pro-American] owner of the Ste Beuve Hotel, Jean-Pierre Egurregy, states it: "A large number of French people lost family during the war. These were exceedingly trying times, and our folks owe the GIs a great deal. There is no way France would have made it by itself back then. 2004 is a special year, 60 years after D-Day. We have to continue to honor the soldiers who liberated us. The discount project is a collective way to say 'Thank You' again."

But the hotel owners would not forget the Veterans' families, all direct descendants of WWII Veterans will benefit from a 15% discount on room rates until January 1st, 2005.

Daniel Albar, owner of 3 hotels including the Ducs de Bourgogne, said: "Families deeply suffer during an armed conflict, while their loved ones are away on the war front. WWII took a serious toll on the families of the allied soldiers. They get to be thanked too."

Pascal Gibon, owner and manager of the Sully St Germain hotel, added: "The discounts extend to the veterans, their wives and their descendants, whether the Veteran fought in France or not. The main point is not the location. It's all about saluting the courage, the guts of soldiers who fought for other peoples' freedom against the forces of evil."

The project is expected to cost the hotel owners 1.5 million dollars in lost revenues. There are 5.7 million WWII veterans still alive in the US, and conservative estimates put the number of their direct descendants at 30 million. With an estimated 150,000+ WWII Veterans still alive in Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, the total number of persons able to benefit from the discounts amount to 35 million.

More information on the initiative can be gotten on the hotels' website www.tribute-ww2-veterans.com where all 40 participating hotels are listed. It is expected that a total of 90 hotels will wind up participating in the initiative, an unusual collective move in the fiercely independent community of charming Parisian hotels. The website offers a direct access to each of the participating hotels.

courtesy of Paris Hotels

Edited by Dave Shultz

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