[2] La Païva had already acquired a luxurious mansion at 28 Place Saint-Georges in Paris but dreamt of building another on the Champs-Élysées, which she thought was the most beautiful avenue in the world.

[3][2] Once the hôtel was built, she received many notable people there, including the Goncourt brothers, Théophile Gautier, Léon Gambetta, Ernest Renan, and Hippolyte Taine.

In 1877, suspected of espionage, La Païva and her husband, Prussian multimillionaire Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, whom she had married in 1871, left France and withdrew to Silesia, where she died in 1884.

The double entrance to the courtyard of the hôtel has been preserved: one door was for the entry of cabs and the second for their exit, avoiding the need to turn around.

La Païva commissioned architect Pierre Manguin to build the hôtel in Italian Renaissance style.