CHICAGO — Wealthy travel aficionados seeking a private, luxurious experience may not think twice when putting down $10,000 for an overnight stay in Versailles — its famous palace grounds are an example of the height of French opulence and decadence Marie Antoinette once reveled in.
But what about spending $10,000 for a 45-minute flight and overnight stay in Versailles (pronounced Ver-sails), Ohio, a rural town home to the recently opened boutique Hotel Versailles?
This month, the hotel launched its AmuseAir charter service in Chicago to attract residents to its 30-room inn, which also includes restaurant Silas Creative Kitchen and an event space. The airline name is a reference to the French term “amuse bouche,” a bite-size hors d’œuvre meant to excite diners before a meal. Flights will be operated by Chicago-based Triumph Jets.
The hotel, which opened in a historical building in the small town in May 2022, will offer two customizable packages that include round-trip airfare, transportation between the airport and the hotel in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, dinner and gifts for four to 14 guests, said Jack Olshan, director of hospitality at Midmark Corporation.
Travelers will fly from either Midway Airport in Chicago, Chicago Executive Airport in suburban Wheeling or Gary/Chicago International Airport in Gary, Indiana, into Darke County Airport, about 2 miles from the hotel, Olshan said.
The overnight package costs $10,000-$20,000 and includes transportation, dinner at Silas Creative Kitchen on the night of arrival, a welcome amenity in each room, breakfast the next morning, a late 2 p.m. checkout and a “departure gift,” Olshan said.
Same-day round-trip service is also offered for the dinner-only package, which includes transportation, a welcome cocktail and the choice of a four-course à la carte dinner or the six-course chef’s tasting menu before returning to Chicago with a “send-off gift.” Pricing starts at about $8,000 for two people but can be scaled up, Olshan said.
Trips require a 72-hour notice and can be booked during weekdays and evenings, Olshan said.
The extravagant venture is meant to be an all-inclusive luxury experience particularly aimed at foodies, Olshan told Block Club.
“It’s a little bit cheeky, if you will, that obviously Chicago is a great foodie city,” Olshan said. “There’s some great food in Chicago. And here we are saying, ‘You know what, leave Chicago and come to this small rural town of 2,200 people and expect to be blown away by the cuisine.’ I mean, that’s pretty brazen to kind of put that out there.”
Environmental Impact Of Private Flights
Short-hop private air travel is drawing increasing scrutiny and criticism for its environmental impact.
A 2023 report from the Institute for Policy Studies concluded private jets emit at least 10 times the pollutants than commercial planes per passenger.
Private air travel has increased by about one-fifth since the start of the pandemic, spiking those emissions by 23 percent, according to the report. Around 1 percent of people are responsible for half of the world’s airplane carbon emissions, according to the report.
Transport & Environment, a Belgium-based non-governmental organization that pushes for cleaner transit in the European Union, wrote in 2021 that private jets can emit 2 tons of carbon dioxide in an hour.
In general, driving can be more environmentally friendly than flying for shorter-distance trips, especially when using electric or hybrid vehicles and carpooling, said Gilbert Michaud, assistant professor of environmental policy at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Environmental Sustainability.
“For a short trip from western Ohio to the Chicago area, flying in luxury charter jets is considerably worse than driving from an emissions perspective,” Michaud said. “Moreover, some estimates suggest that flying in such private jets emits about 10 times more greenhouse gases than traditional commercial flights.”
Turboprop planes, like other jets, are combustion-driven and emit substances like carbon dioxide and soot aerosols, which are among the largest sources of global warming, said Katherine Ambrose, a student of Michaud and pilot-in-training at Chicago Executive Flight School, where one of the hotel’s flights depart from.
Most of the emissions occur during the cruising stage of the flight, Ambrose said.
“It’s important to note that casual air travel in its current form has an exponential impact on emissions, and that the benefits received from convenient travel become more elusive when considering flight aspects beyond airtime,” Ambrose said.
Ultimately, to what extent a charter service like AmuseAir would be a “big deal” on the environment will depend on how many people use it, Michaud said. “But the trend toward this type of travel is rather alarming from an environmental perspective,” he said.
The “fundamental underpinning of this type of luxury amenity is to offer a unique and extravagant experience, so it’s unlikely that the facilitators of this service are overly concerned with emissions,” Michaud said. “They likely care more about privacy, comfort and convenience.”
Charter flight routes are typically established and agreed upon by pilots and Air Traffic Control. In order to not create a new route, the hotel would have to use routes already in existence between the Chicago-area airports and the Versailles airport, Ambrose said.
Olshan said he’s not trying to establish a new route, but rather accommodate people already likely to use private planes. Packages start with smaller turboprop planes that hold four passengers and can go up to jets that seat over a dozen.
If guests are going to fly anyway, Olshan hopes the hotel’s sustainable food practices will sway them to stop there, he said. The hotel operates its own 85-acre organic farm and sources additional ingredients from local farmers, he said. The restaurant uses a nose-to-tail approach for meat to use as much of the animal as possible with an aim for zero waste. Vegetable trimmings are composted and put back into the farm, he said.
“We’re inviting people that would have taken these means of transportation, regardless of the destination,” he said. “But we’re inviting them [to come here] instead of going to a place that doesn’t have the same philosophies as we do. You come to Hotel Versailles where our cuisine has a great deal of responsibility.”
As for the hefty price tag, does Olshan believe Chicagoans will actually go for it?
Based on experience so far, “Surprisingly, yes,” he said. Travelers should look at the trip as an upscale destination experience that exposes them to fine dining and small-town life in rural northwest Ohio.
“If you drove here, whether you were coming from Chicago or whether you were coming from the South, once you get off the interstate it is corn and soybean fields as far as the eye can see,” he said. “And then you come upon this cute little Hallmark town of Versailles and have this hotel and have this restaurant, and people are continually blown away that it exists up here.”
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