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Renowned tennis champion, Serena Williams criticised a luxury hotel in Paris in a social media post on X, previously known as Twitter, that received huge attention from millions of viewers worldwide, after she and her family were denied entry to the hotel’s restaurant on Monday.
Sharing a post on X Williams said: “Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids.Always a first.”
The Peninsula’s rooftop restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc that offered a view of the Eiffel tower, responded to the post and said: “Dear Mrs. Williams, Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved.”
With another message followed, stating: “We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again.”
While some X users expressed their support for Williams, arguing that the restaurant should have accommodated her, while another said, “Elites publicly whining about not getting VIP service is so dystopian…”
A staff member at the Peninsula Paris restaurant, Maxime Mannevy, told media outlet Variety that Williams arrived at the restaurant looking “unrecognizable” and reportedly requested a table on the rooftop. “When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel,” Mannevy said.
“My colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal,” she added. Although Mannevy was not present during the occurrence, she received information from a coworker who was on duty that evening.
In a statement to The New York Post, The Peninsula Paris said: “In response to Ms Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests, we reiterate our deepest apologies that we were not able to offer her a table at our rooftop bar when she arrived with her family and without a reservation.”
“We do always try to make space for walk-in guests but sometimes this is not possible,” they added.
“On August 5th, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked, and the only unoccupied tables at that time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully reserved. As an alternative, Ms Williams was offered an outside table downstairs at the hotel’s La Terrasse Kléber,” the statement concluded, adding that they “have reached out to Ms Williams directly,” the New York Post reported.
Williams, who has won four Olympic gold medals, participated in the Paris Games’ opening ceremony as one of the torchbearers. She was much more positive after the Games’ July 26 opening ceremony, saying on X: “Have you ever had an unforgettable moment? That was yesterday for me. Truly unforgettable. From being part of an amazing Open Ceremony at the Paris Olympics – to riding in the boat in the rain – and it was pouring! So much so my lashes came right on off. Unforgettable!”
Sharing a post on X Williams said: “Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids.Always a first.”
The Peninsula’s rooftop restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc that offered a view of the Eiffel tower, responded to the post and said: “Dear Mrs. Williams, Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved.”
With another message followed, stating: “We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again.”
While some X users expressed their support for Williams, arguing that the restaurant should have accommodated her, while another said, “Elites publicly whining about not getting VIP service is so dystopian…”
A staff member at the Peninsula Paris restaurant, Maxime Mannevy, told media outlet Variety that Williams arrived at the restaurant looking “unrecognizable” and reportedly requested a table on the rooftop. “When she came there were only two tables available and they had been reserved by clients of the hotel,” Mannevy said.
“My colleague didn’t recognize her and feels terrible, but he told her what he would have told any other client, which is to wait downstairs in the bar for a table to become available. That was absolutely nothing personal,” she added. Although Mannevy was not present during the occurrence, she received information from a coworker who was on duty that evening.
In a statement to The New York Post, The Peninsula Paris said: “In response to Ms Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests, we reiterate our deepest apologies that we were not able to offer her a table at our rooftop bar when she arrived with her family and without a reservation.”
“We do always try to make space for walk-in guests but sometimes this is not possible,” they added.
“On August 5th, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked, and the only unoccupied tables at that time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully reserved. As an alternative, Ms Williams was offered an outside table downstairs at the hotel’s La Terrasse Kléber,” the statement concluded, adding that they “have reached out to Ms Williams directly,” the New York Post reported.
Williams, who has won four Olympic gold medals, participated in the Paris Games’ opening ceremony as one of the torchbearers. She was much more positive after the Games’ July 26 opening ceremony, saying on X: “Have you ever had an unforgettable moment? That was yesterday for me. Truly unforgettable. From being part of an amazing Open Ceremony at the Paris Olympics – to riding in the boat in the rain – and it was pouring! So much so my lashes came right on off. Unforgettable!”
