Fred Sirieix on five-star hotels, royal treatment and the trip that left him in tears
Fred’s Ultimate Hotels Monday 8.00pm C4
Ed Grenby - 8 September 2026
Stay in five-star hotels and enjoy unforgettable experiences? It’s a tough job but FRED SIRIEIX is happy to do it.
So, So, Fred, what on earth persuaded you to make a programme where you travel the world and stay in its most outrageously luxurious hotels…?
Ha, I think you know! But look, the great thing about this show is that I’m not just experiencing the hotels as a guest, but also as a worker. At each place I joined the staff in different activities – I was basically an intern.
Intern, huh? What kind of things did they make you do?
At the Royal Mansour Marrakech (royalmansour.com/en/marrakech), I was supposed to organise an afternoon tea for a very special VIP. And this is a hotel where the top suite costs £30,000 a night, so it had to be special. But in fact they were playing a trick on me, and the ‘VIP’ was actually just the hotel’s general manager. Everybody else knew – I was the only plonker there who didn’t know it was a joke.
That doesn’t sound too much like hard work. Real interns are probably cleaning toilets all day, no?
Well I did clear out some dung at a safari lodge in South Africa, near the border with Botswana. It’s a lodge called The Royal Madikwe (royalmadikwe.com), and it’s just three suites and two villas.
The dung wasn’t even the worst of it. I did a game with the manager there, something they play in the bush: they collect some antelope poo, which are like little round pellets; they put them in their mouths; then the winner is the one who can spit them out the furthest. I did that too.
This is your definition of a luxury hotel?
All these hotels really are the ultimate. I took my responsibility very seriously, because it’s my reputation. If I’m going to do a show called Fred’s Ultimate Hotels, they all have to be the ultimate in some way.
So in Val d’Isère, in the French Alps, I stayed at Les Barmes de l’Ours (hotellesbarmes. com/en), where you arrive by helicopter – the pilot told me he’d previously flown Tom Cruise – and you have a Michelin-starred restaurant and you’re 10 metres from the Olympic Bellevarde ski slope.
It’s a real five-star palace hotel, the kind of place I learned to work in when I was in catering college, so that took me right back to being 20 years old.
That’s a bit more like it. Any others like that?
The Royal Mansour really is fit for a king – obviously, because it’s part owned by the actual King of Morocco.
What’s amazing there is that they built it from scratch [it opened in 2010], and they built the staff area first then everything else on top, so you never see the staff, they’re all running around in these underground tunnels.
The service is seamless, but they just appear and disappear like… poof!
I also went to Raffles (raffles. com/singapore) in Singapore. That opened in 1887, and it’s a living piece of history. It’s like staying at the heart of the British Empire, with this incredible colonial heritage and an amazing old façade.
It’s such an iconic part of the city that people say ‘While you’re in Raffles, why don’t you visit Singapore?’ rather than the other way round.
As for experiences, I did a buggy ride in the Atlas Mountains, a motorbike and sidecar tour in Singapore, paragliding, ballooning and a walking safari, which ended in a close encounter with two rhinos and an elephant.
We were sandwiched between them, and I thought ‘I could die’. I knew it was serious because the ranger dealt with the situation brilliantly but then gave me a hug and said ‘That was close’.
Way to work up an appetite! At least, other than the antelope poo, you must have eaten pretty well?
Of course! My favourite meal was at Barmes de l’Ours – but not its Michelin-star restaurant. That was very good, but I preferred its brasserie: tarte aux pommes, chocolate mousse… this is the kind of food I like to eat.
I’ve got a real soft spot for the simplicity of a brasserie.
And what was the best service you received?
I arrived at Raffles on Fathers’ Day, and the butler there had got a picture of my kids from the internet and used AI to mock up a card from them as if my kids had written it.
Look, I still have it! [He does.]
But the Royal Madikwe gave me more emotions than I’ve ever had on any trip, business or pleasure – I cried from the moment I arrived to the moment I left.
The staff come from the shanty town next door, they work their arses off, they’re passionate about their job, and they are singing all the time. Their voices are beautiful and they sing from the heart.
So when I was leaving they started to sing, and I was crying. I was trying not to show it because I thought it was embarrassing, but then the production team came and everybody was crying.
I know it’s funny telling you that, but that’s my story.
So, So, Fred, what on earth persuaded you to make a programme where you travel the world and stay in its most outrageously luxurious hotels…?
Ha, I think you know! But look, the great thing about this show is that I’m not just experiencing the hotels as a guest, but also as a worker. At each place I joined the staff in different activities – I was basically an intern.
Intern, huh? What kind of things did they make you do?
At the Royal Mansour Marrakech (royalmansour.com/en/marrakech), I was supposed to organise an afternoon tea for a very special VIP. And this is a hotel where the top suite costs £30,000 a night, so it had to be special. But in fact they were playing a trick on me, and the ‘VIP’ was actually just the hotel’s general manager. Everybody else knew – I was the only plonker there who didn’t know it was a joke.
That doesn’t sound too much like hard work. Real interns are probably cleaning toilets all day, no?
Well I did clear out some dung at a safari lodge in South Africa, near the border with Botswana. It’s a lodge called The Royal Madikwe (royalmadikwe.com), and it’s just three suites and two villas.
The dung wasn’t even the worst of it. I did a game with the manager there, something they play in the bush: they collect some antelope poo, which are like little round pellets; they put them in their mouths; then the winner is the one who can spit them out the furthest. I did that too.
This is your definition of a luxury hotel?
All these hotels really are the ultimate. I took my responsibility very seriously, because it’s my reputation. If I’m going to do a show called Fred’s Ultimate Hotels, they all have to be the ultimate in some way.
So in Val d’Isère, in the French Alps, I stayed at Les Barmes de l’Ours (hotellesbarmes. com/en), where you arrive by helicopter – the pilot told me he’d previously flown Tom Cruise – and you have a Michelin-starred restaurant and you’re 10 metres from the Olympic Bellevarde ski slope.
It’s a real five-star palace hotel, the kind of place I learned to work in when I was in catering college, so that took me right back to being 20 years old.
That’s a bit more like it. Any others like that?
The Royal Mansour really is fit for a king – obviously, because it’s part owned by the actual King of Morocco.
What’s amazing there is that they built it from scratch [it opened in 2010], and they built the staff area first then everything else on top, so you never see the staff, they’re all running around in these underground tunnels.
The service is seamless, but they just appear and disappear like… poof!
I also went to Raffles (raffles. com/singapore) in Singapore. That opened in 1887, and it’s a living piece of history. It’s like staying at the heart of the British Empire, with this incredible colonial heritage and an amazing old façade.
It’s such an iconic part of the city that people say ‘While you’re in Raffles, why don’t you visit Singapore?’ rather than the other way round.
As for experiences, I did a buggy ride in the Atlas Mountains, a motorbike and sidecar tour in Singapore, paragliding, ballooning and a walking safari, which ended in a close encounter with two rhinos and an elephant.
We were sandwiched between them, and I thought ‘I could die’. I knew it was serious because the ranger dealt with the situation brilliantly but then gave me a hug and said ‘That was close’.
Way to work up an appetite! At least, other than the antelope poo, you must have eaten pretty well?
Of course! My favourite meal was at Barmes de l’Ours – but not its Michelin-star restaurant. That was very good, but I preferred its brasserie: tarte aux pommes, chocolate mousse… this is the kind of food I like to eat.
I’ve got a real soft spot for the simplicity of a brasserie.
And what was the best service you received?
I arrived at Raffles on Fathers’ Day, and the butler there had got a picture of my kids from the internet and used AI to mock up a card from them as if my kids had written it.
Look, I still have it! [He does.]
But the Royal Madikwe gave me more emotions than I’ve ever had on any trip, business or pleasure – I cried from the moment I arrived to the moment I left.
The staff come from the shanty town next door, they work their arses off, they’re passionate about their job, and they are singing all the time. Their voices are beautiful and they sing from the heart.
So when I was leaving they started to sing, and I was crying. I was trying not to show it because I thought it was embarrassing, but then the production team came and everybody was crying.
I know it’s funny telling you that, but that’s my story.
Fred’s Ultimate Hotels Monday 8.00pm C4