Its architect was Georges Wybo, who had designed the Casino de Deauville and the reconstruction of the Printemps Haussmann following the fire of 1921.

The George V was bought in 1931 by the banker François Dupré and a new wing was built by the original architects, containing apartments that could be rented year-round or seasonally, with the residents enjoying the services of the hotel.

Dupré brought many objets d'art to the hotel, including tapestries from Flanders, Boulle furniture, a Renoir and a Dufy.

In World War II, during the German occupation, a "round-table" of French and German intellectuals met at the hotel; including the writer Ernst Jünger, the Nazi legal scholar Carl Schmitt, the publisher Gaston Gallimard and the writers Paul Morand, Jean Cocteau, and Henry Millon de Montherlant.

[3] In 1996 Saudi businessman Al-Waleed bin Talal bought the hotel from the Forte Group, spending $185 million for it.