Pikes Hotel

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Pikes Ibiza
Pikes Hotel is located in Ibiza
Pikes Hotel
Location within Ibiza
General information
LocationNear, Sant Antoni de Portmany, Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain.
Coordinates38°59′28.9″N 1°19′12.28″E / 38.991361°N 1.3200778°E / 38.991361; 1.3200778
Opening1978
OwnerAndy McKay
ManagementIbiza Rocks
Technical details
Floor countTwo
Other information
Number of rooms26
Number of restaurantsone (named Room 39)
and two bars
ParkingYes
Website
Pikes Hotel

Pikes Hotel, now known as Pikes Ibiza, is a luxury hotel in

Ibiza Town. A 15th-century stone mansion which was a finca
(farm estate), it was converted into a hotel in 1978 by British-born Australian Anthony Pike.

The hotel, cited as one of the most famous or infamous hotels on the island,[2] developed a notorious reputation for hedonism in the 1980s, and is associated with being a playground for the rich and famous.[3][4] It is best known for being the location of filming for Wham!'s 1983 hit "Club Tropicana" and for Freddie Mercury's 41st birthday bash in 1987, cited as one of the most lavish parties ever to be held on Ibiza.[5][6]

By the 1990s the hotel had fallen into difficulties and after Pike's son was murdered in 1998 attempting to sell the hotel, it was later sold to the

Ibiza Rocks Hotel
in the nearby town. Today it has 26 rooms, and the restaurant, named Room 39, has earned critical acclaim on the island.

History

Tony Pike arrived in Ibiza in 1978. Yachtsman[7] and former hat maker Pike led a very colourful life, which had already seen him shipwrecked in the Caribbean, injured in a bobsleigh accident, serving in the military, indulge in heavy drinking, and married and divorced three times.[5] Pike had rented a finca for three months during which time he met his next partner Lyn.[5] Together they bought a derelict finca called Ca’n Pep Toniet in the countryside east of Sant Antoni and they decided to renovate it into a hotel.[8] Tony, along with Lyn and his two sons, did most of the work themselves.[5] Bo Palk, the managing director of MGM Studios, checked into the hotel just as Pike was finishing the last bathroom of the hotel. An acquaintance of Palk’s, Simon Napier-Bell, visited him at the hotel whilst scouting for a video shoot location.[5] As a result,

cocktails.[9] The scene of the trumpet-playing took place in the pool itself. Tony Pike got on well with the band and he was persuaded to take a small part in the video as the barman in one of the scenes.[5] The success of the video and Wham!'s status at the time firmly placed Pike’s Hotel in the circles of the music industry and within a short time the hotel was attracting other stars and people connected to the industry.[5]

In the 1980s, the authorities on Ibiza grew very concerned about the wild orgies and drug use which were taking place at the hotel. They showed particular concern over the extensive

Moet & Chandon champagne,[6] and a cake in the shape of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Cathedral were provided for the party, although the original cake collapsed and was replaced with a 2-metre-long sponge with the notes from Mercury's song "Barcelona".[3]
The bill, which included 232 broken glasses, was presented to Queen's manager, Jim Beach.[6]

By the 1990s the hotel was beginning to lose its reputation and a slow decline in popularity began. In 1998, Pike had put the hotel up for sale. He signed a deal to sell it to the Italian TV producer

Enrico Forti. His son, Anthony Dale Pike, flew to Miami to deal with Forti in person, since Tony had been diagnosed with AIDS-related dementia. Dale was killed on February 15, 1998, shot twice in the head and dumped in a secluded forest at Virginia Key beach.[12] The police arrested and questioned Tony's longtime friend and Forti's neighbor, Thomas Heinz Knott
, who was later convicted of running up $90,000 on Tony Pike's credit cards. In June 2000, Forti was convicted of murdering Anthony Dale Pike in Miami. Forti is now serving a lifetime prison sentence at the Everglades Correctional Institution in Florida. In Italy the verdict has been viewed as a miscarriage of justice, because of the lack of a valid motive and solid proof because Italian media only presented Forti's version of the story without publishing the trial transcripts that Forti keeps secret.

[13][14][15]

Pike estimated that the hotel was worth $5 million (£3.2 million) in 2002.[3] He later sold it to Ibiza Rocks in 2008. A television documentary, screened on Sky Living that same year, also showed him and the hotel in an unfavourable light, and it appeared to be living on its past reputation.

In the summer of 2011, Pikes Hotel was re-launched as Ibiza Rocks House at Pikes Hotel. The hotel has been restored under the ownership Andy McKay, the man behind the Ibiza Rocks, Ibiza Rocks Hotel and Mallorca Rocks brands, with new décor, whilst trying to maintain its rock'n'roll image of its most glamorous years. The new owners made Tony Pike the first full-time resident of the hotel and he lived permanently in Room 25 until his death in 2019. Ibiza Rocks publicizes the hotel and its chain as "After sex and drugs, comes rock and roll."[16] Scottish rockband Biffy Clyro and Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue stayed at the hotel during the Ibiza Rocks Festival in 2011.[17][18]

Features

Pikes Hotel is a luxury hotel,[1] set in a 15th-century stone mansion,[19] a finca, which was a farm for centuries. It is accessed off a long lane leading off the main road from Sant Antoni de Portmany. Stuart Husband of The Independent describes Pikes Hotel as "a notorious Ibiza hotel where anything goes".[3] It is considered to be one of the most famous or infamous hotels on the island and has been cited as one of the "world's true spiritual homes of rock n’ roll hedonism".[2][4] Iain Stewart of The Rough Guide to Ibiza considers Pikes Hotel to be an "almost legendary, relaxed and idiosyncratic rural hotel, popular with visiting celebrities".[20] Anthony himself said: "it's been claimed we break every law, but I wouldn't be in business if that was the case."[3] Boy George referred to Pike as the "Hugh Hefner of Ibiza".[3]

Pikes Hotel has 26 rooms with king-sized beds, one restaurant named Room 39 which has received much critical acclaim,[20][21] and two bars.[22] As of 2009 it costs £157 to stay at the hotel.[23] The rooms retain the sense of the original farmhouse, and are furnished in the Moroccan style with some heavy dark wood furnishings.[20] The rooms each have different themes, including "Honeysuckle" and "Sunset", the latter of which is set behind the middle of three dark wood doors on the second floor of a small outhouse.[24] According to author Stephen Armstrong, this room had a "modest sitting room with a huge antique mirror, plush sofas and a CD player which didn't work". The bedroom was enormous, and the bathroom was decorated in a vaguely Moroccan style with a curtained bath nestling behind a low arch.[5]

A wide range of entertainment is put on at the hotel, from flamenco shows to costume balls.[22] The hotel also offers a VIP card to visitors to many of the notable clubs, bars, and casinos in the town.[25] The garden has a memorial to Anthony Dale Pike (1955-1998), which says, "In loving memory of eldest son Dale. Here a portion of his ashes are laid to rest while the remainder flow within the currents of his beloved Pacific Ocean. May his spirit strive no more but rest within this tree in peace and tranquility. I loved you, my son."[5]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-2-7469-5729-9
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  2. ^ a b "24Seven: Clubs: Dave and Huey tear it up in Ibiza". Liverpool Echo. 30 July 2004.[dead link]
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Husband, Stuart (4 August 2002). "The Beach: Hedonism - LAST OF THE INTERNATIONAL; PLAYBOYS ; Pike's is a notorious Ibiza hotel where anything goes". The Independent. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  4. ^ a b McMonagle, Mickey (19 August 2012). "PAOLO DON'T BE HASTY; We go backstage as singer thrills fans in Ibiza... and he reveals he won't release album until it's perfect". Sunday Mail (Scotland).[dead link]
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4481-2671-2
    .
  6. ^
    The People. 26 May 1996.[dead link
    ]
  7. ISBN 978-1-58573-298-2
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  8. ISBN 978-0-330-33541-6
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  9. The People. 12 August 2012.[dead link
    ]
  10. ISBN 978-84-96222-79-3
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  11. ISBN 978-0-7481-2907-2
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  12. Birmingham Evening Mail. 27 February 1998. Archived from the original
    on 11 June 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  13. ^ Moriarty, Erin (May 4, 2019). "The case against Enrico Forti: Is he the Italian Amanda Knox?". CBS News. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  14. ^ Zama, Gaston (November 27, 2019). "Chico Forti, la presunta truffa a Tony Pike e il ruolo di Thomas Knott". Le Iene. RTI, Gruppo Mediaset. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  15. ^ "Chico Forti, il caso e le bugie dei media italiani". Giornalettismo (in Italian). 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
  16. ^ "Business as usual as Ibiza keeps rocking on". Liverpool Echo. 8 August 2008.[dead link]
  17. Scottish Daily Record. 22 April 2011. Archived from the original
    on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  18. Scottish Daily Record. 29 July 2011.[dead link
    ]
  19. ISBN 978-1-74104-554-3
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  20. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84353-063-3
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  21. ISBN 978-1-84537-814-1
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  22. ^
    ISBN 978-1-118-18592-6
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  23. ISBN 978-1-4090-8214-9
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  24. ISBN 978-1-74220-379-9
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  25. ISBN 978-1-118-10186-5
    . Retrieved 9 April 2013.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pikes_Hotel&oldid=1216133366"