The Hotel Martinez, the first Palace officially awarded in Cannes
Awarded Palace status on June 2, 2026, theHôtel Martinez wasted no time in transforming this institutional recognition into a powerful media presence. On Instagram, thelegendary Croisette address has established itself as the top-performing French hotel in the Travel & Tourism ranking published by Kolsquare for the first half of 2026.
With approximately €8.3 million in Earned Media Value (EMV) and an engagement rate of 26.2%, the Martinez far surpasses the other hotels in the ranking. Even more striking: it reaches second place in the overall Travel & Tourism ranking in France, behind Disneyland Paris, despite its own audience remaining significantly smaller than that of the tourism giants.
This performance tells a story that goes far beyond social media success. It shows how a contemporary luxury hotel can transform heritage, hospitality, cinema, gastronomy, architecture, and digital influence into a single source of desirability.
The word "palace" is frequently used in the language of luxury, but in France it has a precise legal and institutional meaning. The Palace distinction is not a sixth star: it distinguishes, within hotels already classified as five-star, establishments with characteristics considered exceptional.
Created in 2010, it is based in particular on the quality of services, the location of the establishment, its historical, aesthetic or heritage value, and the ability of its teams to deliver an exceptional level of service. Since the reform that came into effect on October 1, 2024, the distinction is awarded for three years, which requires establishments to regularly demonstrate that their excellence remains at the expected level.
The process goes far beyond a simple communications brief. Following the review conducted by Atout France, the application includes site visits and a hearing before a panel of qualified experts from the luxury hotel industry, tourism, gastronomy, culture, architecture, and services catering to high-net-worth clients. For the Martinez, the recognition on June 2, 2026, is all the more strategic as it officially introduces the Palace distinction to the heart of Cannes. The city's tourism office now presents the establishment as the first and only Palace in Cannes. This institutional rarity immediately becomes a brand asset.
A hotel opened in 1929 that has become an icon of the Croisette
The Martinez's digital power was obviously not built in 2026. It rests on nearly a century of history. The establishment opened its doors on February 17, 1929, under the impetus ofEmmanuel Martinez. Its long white façade, its location at 73 Boulevard de la Croisette , and its Art Deco gradually made it one of Cannes' major visual landmarks.
Following extensive renovations, the hotel joined The Unbound Collection by Hyatt in 2018. Interior designer and architect Pierre-Yves Rochon then worked to preserve its Art Deco identity while reinterpreting the colours of the Riviera and the Mediterranean.
Today, Hyatt announces 410 rooms, including 116 suites, in a complex where lacquered white, sky blue, solar yellow and references to the 1930s compose an immediately recognizable identity.
This aesthetic consistency is a decisive advantage on Instagram: the Martinez doesn't need to artificially invent a visual universe. It already has a brand architecture.
Why has the Martinez become the most influential hotel on Instagram?
The Kolsquare ranking published on July 21, 2026, provides a more tangible measure of this power. On Instagram in France, Disneyland Paris maintains its top position in the Travel & Tourism sector with approximately €14.3 million in EMV (Earnings Value). Just behind is the Hôtel Martinez with approximately €8.3 million, accompanied by an impressive engagement rate of 26.2%.
In the sub-ranking dedicated to hotel and accommodation, the Martinez comes out on top. The Carlton Cannes follows with approximately €3.7 million in EMV, ahead of theHôtel Barrière Le Majestic at around €2.9 million. The Four Seasons Hotel George V, Brach Paris, and the Ritz Paris are also among the most prominent players.
The result is significant because it demonstrates that, in hotel influencer marketing, the number of followers alone is no longer sufficient to explain performance. A hotel can have a smaller following than a tourist destination, an airline , or a major international brand while still generating greater media value thanks to the intensity with which its content is shared, commented on, and reposted. This is precisely where the Martinez excels.
EMV: What the 8.3 million euros really mean
EarnedMedia Value, or EMV, seeks to assign a theoretical monetary value to the visibility obtained through organic content, creators, and social interactions.
This metric should not be confused with revenue. The €8.3 million in EMV attributed to the Martinez does not mean that the hotel directly generated €8.3 million in bookings through Instagram. The metric is primarily used to compare the ability of different brands to occupy digital media space and generate engagement. In the luxury sector, however, it can be particularly valuable.
A luxury hotel booking rarely follows a linear conversion funnel. A traveler might discover a suite in a Reel, save the post, see the hotel's name again during the Cannes Film Festival, then consult Google, read an article in the international press, and finally book several weeks later through their travel advisor or concierge service. Influence, therefore, acts upstream on desirability, brand recall, and preference.
Cannes is a machine for producing Earned Media
To understand the Martinez's dominance, one must also consider geography. The luxury hotel is located on the Croisette, facing the Mediterranean and near the Palais des Festivals. Cannes benefits from a concentration ofinternational events that is particularly favorable to the image economy. In 2026, the Cannes Film Festival took place from May 12 to 23.For nearly two weeks, stars, photographers, media, brands, producers, fashion houses, jewelers , and content creators converged on just a few hundred meters of coastline.
For a hotel situated within this ecosystem, every arrival can become content. A suite can serve as the backdrop for preparations before walking the red carpet. A terrace becomes a backdrop for an interview. Lunch produces gastronomic images. A private event triggers dozens of posts.
This characteristic helps explain why the top three hotels in the Kolsquare ranking are located in Cannes: the Martinez, the Carlton, and the Majestic. The city itself acts as a giant audience multiplier in the spring.
But having an address on the Croisette doesn't guarantee first place. The Martinez seems to be converting this event-driven context into visibility more effectively than its neighbors.
The Palace transforms every space into potential content
Luxury hotels possess a strength that product brands don't always have: they can tell a complete story.
A bag, a watch, or a perfume must build its universe around an object. A luxury hotel simultaneously possesses a façade, a lobby, rooms, suites, a spa, restaurants, a beach, a swimming pool, terraces, gardens, various trades, and dozens of service rituals. At the Martinez, this narrative richness is particularly pronounced.
The Art Deco façade offers a heritage setting. The suites provide access to privacy. The beach and the Mediterranean Sea add a destination dimension. La Palme d'Or, a Michelin-starred restaurant, enriches the gastronomic experience. The southern exposure and outdoor spaces cultivate a sunnier and more accessible vision of the Mediterranean lifestyle.
This gives a brand enough content to publish regularly without giving the impression of repeating the same advertisement. This is a key advantage for Instagram.
From heritage to "content engine"
The Palace distinction further reinforces this dynamic. Heritage provides legitimacy. The Festival brings current events. The spaces provide aesthetic appeal. Clients and celebrities provide social proof. Creators bring their own audiences.
The palace thus becomes a kind of content engine, a machine capable of constantly producing different but coherent stories.
One morning, the story might be about breakfast overlooking the Mediterranean. A few hours later, it could be about a chef's movements. In the evening, it might be about a figure descending the stairs before a premiere. The next day, it could be about the tranquility of a suite or an Art Deco detail. This constant renewal helps avoid one of the classic pitfalls of social media in the luxury sector: posting beautiful images but always telling the same story.
The new strategic role of the Palace distinction
This is where the timeline for 2026 becomes particularly interesting. When theHotel Martinez officially receives the Palace distinction on June 2nd, it already possesses considerable cultural and digital influence. The label, therefore, does not create its prestige from scratch.
He confirms it. And this distinction is essential.
The award provides institutional proof of excellence to a brand that already enjoys decades of renown, a globally recognized location, and strong social media presence. From that moment on, each post can implicitly carry an additional message: the location shown on screen now belongs to the official circle of French Palaces. Atout France explicitly emphasizes that this distinction contributes to the international prestige of France as a destination. For the Martinez, institutional and algorithmic recognition are therefore mutually reinforcing.
The luxury hotel is becoming a media outlet, like a fashion house
This evolution extends beyond the Martinez alone. Grand hotels are increasingly operating as true cultural brands. They no longer simply sell hotel rooms: they organize events, host collaborations, create objects, work with chefs, artists, designers, or fashion houses , and produce their own narratives. This transformation brings the hotel industry closer to the world of haute couture.
A luxury hotel now has an art direction, an editorial calendar, seasonal campaigns, collaborations, and key events capable of generating organic content and earnedmedia. The difference lies in the fact that its product is physically habitable.
The customer does not just wear the brand: they spend several hours or several days inside its world.
An aesthetic sufficiently identifiable to become a social signature
The best luxury content isn't necessarily that which features the logo most prominently. It's that whose overall feel allows you to identify a brand even before you read its name.
The Martinez has several codes particularly suited to this logic: ArtDeco, the white facade, the light of Cannes, the Mediterranean tones, the balconies, the views of the sea, the beach and this constant relationship between historical glamour and contemporary Riviera.
Thehotel can therefore adopt the fast-paced formats imposed by Instagram—Reels, Stories, vertical videos—without abandoning its own unique style. This is probably one of the major challenges for digital luxury in 2026: being compatible with the platforms without becoming a mere platform aesthetic.
A brand that replicates every viral trend ends up looking like everyone else's. A luxury brand, on the other hand, must use contemporary formats to reinforce what makes it impossible to mistake.
UGC becomes an extension of the palace's communication strategy
A hotel's social performance also depends on content it doesn't produce itself. In the hospitality industry, User Generated Content (UGC) holds particular value. A guest who photographs their room, a view, breakfast, or the preparations for an evening event demonstrates that the brand experience is truly present.
In Cannes, this dynamic takes on a new dimension with the designers, photographers, journalists, celebrities, and guests present at major events. The role of the luxury hotel then becomes less about creating "Instagrammable backdrops" and more about designing spaces and experiences that are naturally photogenic. This distinction is fundamental to the luxury sector.
A spot created solely for photography can quickly appear artificial. A staircase, a garden, a table, or a suite that becomes iconic because it is an integral part of the place's identity, on the other hand, produces a much more lasting desirability.
Luxury influencer marketing is no longer about accumulating influencers
The Martinez's dominance also highlights an evolution in the industry. For a long time, an influence strategy could be summed up by the number of creators invited or their follower count. This model is now showing its limitations.
In high-end tourism, a creator specializing in architecture, gastronomy, cinema or premium travel can offer more value than a generalist profile with several million subscribers.
The quality of the audience, its geographic location, its purchasing power, its affinity for luxury, and its ability to produce images consistent with the brand become crucial. For a luxury hotel, the challenge is therefore not to get everyone talking. It is to become an address that the right people want to talk about.
Instagram has become the hotel's primary lobby
The phrase may seem provocative, but it reflects new habits quite well. Even before entering a luxury hotel, many travelers have already explored its spaces on their phones.
They saw the room. The bathroom. Breakfast. The spa. The restaurant. The terrace. The view from the bed. The light at sunset. Instagram functions as a virtual lobby, accessible 24/7 to clients located in New York, Dubai, London, Paris, Singapore, or Los Angeles.
The platform obviously doesn't replace luxury travel agencies, concierge services, press relations, or booking sites. It intervenes earlier in the process: at the very moment desire is born. And in the luxury industry, capturing that moment of desire is already a significant part of the commercial battle.
France: Luxury hotels benefit from a still strong tourism market
The strength of these institutions is also part of a favorable national context.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, France welcomed 102 million international visitors in 2025 and international tourism receipts increased by 9% over the year.
In this extremely competitive market, France cannot, however, rely solely on its heritage.
High-end travelers compare Paris, Cannes or Courchevel with London, Milan, Dubai, New York, Tokyo, Singapore or the major Mediterranean resorts.
The ability of French hotels to master digital communication, video, creators and storytelling is therefore becoming a key issue in tourism competitiveness.
In this respect, the Riviera constitutes a particularly interesting laboratory: historical hotel heritage, international clientele, global events and image culture have coexisted there for several decades.
Martinez, Carlton, Majestic: Cannes also dominates the hotel rankings
The Kolsquare ranking reveals a remarkable phenomenon: Cannes' dominance is not limited to the Martinez.
The Carlton Cannes comes in behind it in the Hotel & Accommodation category with approximately 3.7 million euros of EMV, while the Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic reaches nearly 2.9 million and makes significant progress in the ranking.
The Four Seasons Hotel George V comes next, ahead of Brach Paris and the Ritz Paris.
This situation demonstrates that digital competition is no longer simply between Paris and the rest of France. During certain periods of the year, particularly around the Film Festival, Cannes possesses a media concentration capacity strong enough to rival the capital.
The Martinez simply takes this mechanism further than its competitors.
Why is the number of subscribers becoming a secondary KPI?
One of the most interesting lessons from the ranking is precisely to put the raw size of communities into perspective. A large audience is obviously useful. But it doesn't tell us how many people actually see the content, whether they're interested in it, whether they share it, or whether they have any affinity whatsoever with the world being presented.
For a luxury hotel, several KPIs must therefore be considered:
- Earned Media Value (EMV) and content reach;
- engagement rate, sharing and backups;
- volume and quality of content produced by third parties;
- Geographic origin and affinity of audiences;
- Brand searches and direct traffic;
- requests received via private message or through concierge services;
- press coverage generated around the collaborations;
- and, where attribution allows, influenced bookings or revenues.
The challenge is to measure luxury without turning it into a simple Excel spreadsheet.
The risk: becoming too visible to remain exclusive
Social success does indeed have its paradox. Scarcity fuels luxury. Instagram fuels widespread availability.
The more a luxury hotel becomes identifiable, photographed, and shared, the more it risks becoming a collective backdrop rather than a space reserved for a privileged clientele. The authentic experience must therefore remain paramount.
A customer who spends several thousand euros on a suite has no reason to accept that their stay is disrupted by a constant production of content, crowded common areas or a succession of commercial activations.
The best social media is therefore often the one the customer doesn't notice. It captures the experience without degrading it.
What the Martinez case reveals about the new French luxury
The Martinez's performance ultimately provides a good indication of what is changing in French luxury. Legitimacy is not disappearing; it remains essential. The Palace distinction, the architectural heritage, the gastronomy, the service, and the location still constitute the foundations of its value.
But these assets must now be able to circulate. A facade becomes an image. A suite becomes a Reel. A chef becomes a narrative. An event becomes earned media. Institutional recognition becomes an immediately shareable international signal. Contemporary luxury thus unfolds at the intersection of two temporalities.
The first is slow: the process of heritage, architecture, craftsmanship, and the decades required to build a reputation. The second is instantaneous: the process of the feed, the Story, the Reel, and content published in seconds from a hotel room. The Hotel Martinez seems particularly effective when it combines the two.
From official Palace to media brand: the real victory of the Martinez
On June 2, 2026, theHotel Martinez received an official award recognizing its excellence in hospitality. A few weeks later, Kolsquare data revealed another form of legitimacy: that of attention. These two forms of recognition are very different. The first is based on institutional criteria, visits, and a commission. The second measures a brand's ability to be seen, talked about, and shared.
Their convergence is precisely what makes the Martinez case so interesting. The Cannes palace doesn't dominate Instagram because it has abandoned traditional luxury codes in favor of social media. It dominates because its history, architecture, location, and hotel experience naturally generate content compelling enough to circulate online. This is probably the main lesson for the sector. In luxury hotels, digital doesn't replace genuine excellence. It amplifies it.
Reference data
| Indicator | Hotel Martinez |
|---|---|
| Opening | February 17, 1929 |
| Address | Croisette, Cannes |
| Palace Distinction | June 2, 2026 |
| Position in Cannes | First and only establishment distinguished as a Palace |
| Rooms and suites | 410 rooms, including 116 suites |
| Kolsquare France Travel & Tourism Ranking | 2nd |
| Hotel & Accommodation Ratings | 1st |
| Earned Media Value | Approximately €8.3 million |
| Engagement rate | 26,2 % |
| Key event of Q1 2026 | Cannes Film Festival, May 12-23, 2026 |
Sources of the influence study
Kolsquare – Top 100 Travel & Tourism brands mentioned on Instagram, published on July 21, 2026. The report notably ranks the Hotel Martinez second in the Travel & Tourism sector in France and first in the Hotel & Accommodation segment, with approximately €8.3 million in EMV and 26.2% engagement.
Journal du Luxe – “Which luxury hotel reigns on Instagram in France?”, published on September 1, 2026, originating the topic and incorporating the main results of the Kolsquare barometer.
3 official French sources
- Atout France – “Palace Distinction: Atout France unveils the 33 jewels of French hospitality”, press release updated on June 2, 2026.Atout France confirms the 2026 collection of 33 Palaces, including six new establishments, as well as the three-year duration of the distinction.
- Légifrance – Decree of 24 January 2024 amending the decree of 3 October 2014 relating to the Palace distinction, published in the Official Journal on 2 February 2024 and applicable since 1 October 2024.The text specifies the eligibility conditions and strengthens the operation of the Palace distinction.
- Cannes Tourism / City of Cannes – Hotel Martinez, a local institutional source confirming that the establishment became the first and only Palace in Cannes, as well as its main historical and hotel features.
