The hotel was badly damaged by fire in 1903 with only the imperial chapel unharmed.
 The fashionable architect Édouard Niermans was given the task of reconstruction.
 He preserved the exterior walls, which were tied into the reinforced concrete of the new structure.
 Niermans extended the south wing, added two stories, and a large bay holding a magnificent semi-circular restaurant looking over the sea.
 There were now three hundred rooms and apartments.
The new walls were covered with brick, stone and slate.
 The hotel contained larger salons for entertaining by the royalty who frequented it, and a salle des fêtes in Second Empire style.
 The project completed in 1905.

The hotel became a destination for the international elite, King Edward VII of the UK stayed at the hotel several times in the 1900s.
 He described his rooms as charming, and found that the sea air relieved his breathing difficulties, however he complained that Biarritz itself was smelly, and asked for something to be done about the drains.
 In April 1908, H. H. Asquith came to the hotel for the king to make him prime minister of the UK in succession to Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who was dying.

The hotel remained fashionable after World War I.  Biarritz in the 1920s was known as "queen of resorts and resort of Kings", and also attracted movie stars, gangsters and politicians.
 Alfred Savoir used the hotel as the setting for his comedy of high society Un Homme.
 After Spain became a republic in April 1931, many of the Spanish nobility moved to the hotel, near the border, to await the time when they could return.
The hotel was badly damaged by fire in 1903 with only the imperial chapel unharmed.  The fashionable architect Édouard Niermans was given the task of reconstruction.  He preserved the exterior walls, which were tied into the reinforced concrete of the new structure.  Niermans extended the south wing, added two stories, and a large bay holding a magnificent semi-circular restaurant looking over the sea.  There were now three hundred rooms and apartments. The new walls were covered with brick, stone and slate.  The hotel contained larger salons for entertaining by the royalty who frequented it, and a salle des fêtes in Second Empire style.  The project completed in 1905.
The hotel became a destination for the international elite, King Edward VII of the UK stayed at the hotel several times in the 1900s.  He described his rooms as charming, and found that the sea air relieved his breathing difficulties, however he complained that Biarritz itself was smelly, and asked for something to be done about the drains.  In April 1908, H. H. Asquith came to the hotel for the king to make him prime minister of the UK in succession to Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who was dying.
The hotel remained fashionable after World War I.  Biarritz in the 1920s was known as "queen of resorts and resort of Kings", and also attracted movie stars, gangsters and politicians.  Alfred Savoir used the hotel as the setting for his comedy of high society Un Homme.  After Spain became a republic in April 1931, many of the Spanish nobility moved to the hotel, near the border, to await the time when they could return.
Hôtel du Palais