LVMH Brings Cheval Blanc to Sardinia With Hotel Pitrizza

Hotel Pitrizza on the Costa Smeralda will become Cheval Blanc’s first hotel in Italy, and its first in Europe outside France. Cheval Blanc is LVMH’s ultra-luxury hotel brand, and one of the smallest in the business. It is targeting May 2027 for the formal relaunch as Cheval Blanc Pitrizza, Costa Smeralda, which will be the brand’s seventh hotel.

The news arrives as Cheval Blanc installs new leadership. In early October 2026 Vincent Billiard, previously general manager of Hôtel de Crillon, was appointed the brand’s first chief operating officer, a newly created role, and Pitrizza will be the first new Cheval Blanc to open since he took it. Hotel Pitrizza has 65 keys: 49 rooms and suites and 16 villas, most with a private pool, plus its own beach and the seawater pool carved around a granite block that drops toward the sea. The hotel sits on Liscia di Vacca bay, about five kilometers from Porto Cervo.

What Happened to Hotel Pitrizza?

If you have followed the property, you may already know that Hotel Pitrizza was supposed to become a Cheval Blanc in 2026. That was the plan when the owner, Smeralda Holding, wholly owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, signed with LVMH in February 2023. The agreement covered two of the original hotels on the Costa Smeralda. Romazzino went to Belmond, also owned by LVMH, and reopened in May 2024. Pitrizza was given more time.

By March 2026 it was clear that 2026 would not hold. Lea Garret, Cheval Blanc’s regional director of sales for Europe, told the trade outlet LATTE that roughly 80 percent of the rooms had been renovated, but that a new spa and a new fine-dining restaurant remained. She also explained the logic: Cheval Blanc does not put its name on a hotel until the hotel is finished.

In the meantime the hotel has stayed open as before, under the name Hotel Pitrizza. The transition is still visible. Garret acknowledged that the hotel is already more expensive than it was, even without the brand name, and a guest who stayed in September described balloons bearing the Cheval Blanc logo at arrival.

The Hotel You’re Not Meant to See From the Sea

To understand why LVMH is spending three years on a hotel with 65 keys, go back to the 1960s. A consortium led by the Aga Khan bought a stretch of untouched coast in northeastern Sardinia and brought in a handful of architects to build a resort from the ground up. Luigi Vietti was one of them, and Hotel Pitrizza, finished in 1963, is often described as the most complete surviving example of that original vision.

The buildings are low, built of stone, with grass and plants on the roofs, scattered among the granite and the maquis so that they nearly disappear when seen from the water. The view faces the La Maddalena archipelago. Bond fans may recognize the coast: in The Spy Who Loved Me from 1977, Roger Moore drives his Lotus into the sea and turns it into a submarine, a scene reportedly filmed at a jetty next to the hotel.

Hotel Pitrizza Prices: What It Costs

Hotel Pitrizza has never been cheap, and it will not be now. According to industry booking systems the simplest rooms start around $700 a night in low season and rise toward $3,000 in high season. Suites and the largest villas run from around $6,000 to nearly $29,000 a night. The hotel is seasonal, and in 2026 it was open from May 29 to early October. It can still be booked directly under the name Hotel Pitrizza, and it is already listed under Cheval Blanc at American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts.

Why Cheval Blanc Moves So Slowly

Cheval Blanc has only six hotels after 20 years: Courchevel (2006), Randheli in the Maldives (2013), St-Barth (2014), St-Tropez (2019), Paris (2021) and the Seychelles (2024). According to Garret the pace will stay that way, with a maximum of one new hotel every four or five years. She compared it to a collection: the Arnault family, which controls LVMH, collects rare things, and the hotels are part of that.

It is a strategy that runs directly against the rest of the industry, where the large groups sign new hotels almost weekly. The next Cheval Blanc after Pitrizza is a project on Naia Island in Dubai, still several years away. The brand has also looked at Greece, London and New York, without changing its tempo. The United States currently accounts for around 45 percent of guests.

Gastronomy is a large part of the explanation for the wait. Le 1947 in Courchevel, Plénitude in Paris and La Vague d’Or in St-Tropez all hold three Michelin stars, and a Cheval Blanc without an ambitious restaurant is barely a Cheval Blanc. That is why a new fine-dining restaurant is part of Pitrizza’s final phase.

LVMH’s Growing Presence on the Costa Smeralda

Pitrizza is part of a larger shift on the coast. With Belmond at Romazzino and Cheval Blanc at Pitrizza, LVMH now runs two of the best-known Costa Smeralda luxury hotels, both among the original 1960s properties. In recent years the coast has also drawn international names such as Zuma and Nikki Beach, and in June 2026 Langosteria opened on the old harbor in Porto Cervo. It is the same Italian restaurant group that has run Langosteria at Cheval Blanc Paris since 2021 and opens at Cheval Blanc St-Barth on October 22.

Our Take

Pitrizza has lasted more than 60 years by staying discreet, and it is easy to see why LVMH wants it. The difficult part will be making it more expensive without making it more visible. Three years on 65 keys suggests Cheval Blanc understands that. We will return when Cheval Blanc Sardinia opens under its new name. Until then, our guide to the best new hotels in Europe for 2026 and our look at the Aman Sveti Stefan reopening cover more Mediterranean addresses worth planning around.

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