The café was a huge success, and in 1891, the Wielemans-Ceuppens family purchased the next-door building, a former property of the Caisse générale d'épargne et de retraite (ASLK/CGER), and turned it into the Hotel Métropole, inaugurated in 1895.

Following their purchase, the Wielemans brothers commissioned the French architect Alban Chambon [fr], who was already responsible for the decoration of the Café Métropole, to design a luxurious hotel of international class.

[3][7] The Hotel Métropole is famous for having hosted numerous national and international events, including the first Solvay Conference on Physics and on Chemistry in 1911, which brought together personalities such as Einstein, Marie Curie and Henri Poincaré.

Great statesmen, artists and entertainers visiting Brussels all stayed at the hotel: Eisenhower, the General De Gaulle, the Shah, Jacques Brel, Maurice Chevalier, to name a few.

[7] On 28 February 2002, the hotel's façade and ground floor, as well as the Belle Époque lift and ironwork, were protected by the Monuments and Sites Directorate of the Brussels-Capital Region.

As of June 2021[update], its former brasserie, the Café Métropole, located next door, temporarily reopened under a pop-up lease,[12][13] before it finally closed as well in February 2022.

[13] In November 2022, the Métropole's owners, the Bervoets family, sold it to the American private equity firm Lone Star Funds for €100 million (€400,000 per room).

The current modern awning, originally in iron and glass, spans the entire width of the façade and is rounded in a barrel above the entrance.

[3] The hotel's reception, lobby, and lounge are overtly ornate in an eclectic style of French Renaissance character, with Corinthian columns, rich furnishings, gilded details, and chandeliers, largely preserved in the state made by Chambon.