Beginning in 1995, Dionísio Pestana decided that five hotel openings would coincide with the birthdays of his wife and four children.
The Pestana Hotel Group has opened more than 100 hotels over the years, but there are five inauguration dates the chairman never forgets. Or rather, there are five dates that Dionísio Pestana never forgets – and they’re the opening dates of five of the group’s hotels. Confused? Maybe a third sentence will help: from the mid-1990s, a time of major growth for the Group, and to highlight the importance of family in his life, the founder began opening new hotels on the birthdays of his wife and children.
First was the Pestana Ocean Bay in Madeira, where they all lived, which was inaugurated on 14th November 1995, the day Carlota turned six.
Then it was Lourenço who celebrated his fifth birthday on 15th January 1997, the day the Pestana Village opened.
This was followed by the Pestana Miramar inauguration, which coincided with Manuel’s seventh birthday, on 31st August 2000.
And then it was the turn of Vasco, who enjoyed his second birthday when his father opened the magnificent Pestana Palace on 18 May 2001, in Lisbon, which would become the Group’s flagship hotel.
The fifth and final honour fell to the chairman’s wife, Margarida, when the Pestana Buenos Aires opened for business on 12th November 2004, full of the flowers she is named after.
