Inside Patrón’s Secret Invitation-Only Hotel

Patrón made headlines last January when Bacardi acquired the luxury tequila company for a whopping $5.1 billion. What was less publicized, however, was the brand’s secret 20-room hotel, which opened the year before at the brand’s headquarters in the highlands of Jalisco. Called La Casona, the invitation-only guesthouse is so incognito, it doesn’t even have a web site—and if you’re one of its lucky invited guests, your visit won’t cost you a single penny (save for all that tequila you’ll be going home with).

According to Peter Leder, the company’s director of hospitality, the idea behind La Casona was to provide visitors with a fuller, richer Patrón experience. To that end, the hotel has hosted some serious high rollers, including everyone from director Guillermo del Toro to Thomas Keller.

“Before, guests would be driven in from Guadalajara to spend just a few hours here,” Leder says. “Now, we can extend that to three days and two nights, and there’s more time to visit the agave fields and see the whole production process. And more time to experience—and taste—Patrón.”

Here, we take a tour of the exclusive La Casona—and show you what it’s like to eat, sleep, and live with the world’s best tequila.