Bal Harbour Travel Guide
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Here We Go Again: The Regent Bal Harbour Is No Longer a Regent Hotel
The Regent Hotels has a problem picking and sticking with hotels. Today, tipsters sent us word that the hotel management company has effectively stopped managing the The Regent Bal Harbour in Florida. The hotel will now be known as The Bal Harbour Hotel.
The Regent brand dismissal is actually due to the bankruptcy of the hotel's owner, WCI Communities. Regent Hotels has put forth this statement:
Regent Hotels & Resorts is proud of its tenure managing The Regent Bal Harbour since its opening, having achieved strong positioning in the South Florida luxury hotel market. For example, the hotel was ranked by Travel + Leisure magazine among "15 hotels to watch" in the most recent "World's Best" issue. The brand is continuing to expand globally, including the opening of eight new hotels over the next three years in locations that span the world, from Puerto Rico to the Maldives.
Tags: Luxury Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel Opening Rates / Regent Hotels / Shopping Packages / → All Tags
The Regent Bal Harbour Has 'Special' Opening Rates of $775 a Night
The long-awaited Regent Bal Harbour (which was supposed to open on New Year's Day then in February) has finally opened this week.
And guess what? Those of you who are watching your disposable income, in these worrisome days of a possible recession, will probably rule this hotel out of your vacation plans.
For instance, we looked at dates for today March 11 through March 13 figuring that weekday rates might be a little lower. Nope. The hotel is offering opening rates for a Premier Deluxe Room at $775 a night. However, you do get a panoramic view of both the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay along with several high-tech room amenities.
A lower categories of rooms--the Superior rooms--were found to be about $200 cheaper but not available on the dates we selected. Go to the opening exclusive page to fiddle with the dates and rates.
Tags: Hotel Delays / Regent Hotels / Hotel Spas / → All Tags
Take Three: Regent Bal Harbour to Open in March
Sources have assured us that Miami's The Regent Bal Harbour, first scheduled to open January 2, then February 1, is really, truly, opening March 1. Indeed, we were able to make an online booking for the hotel's opening weekend (not so when we last checked in January). There even are a few opening rates available for bay-view Superior Rooms, panoramic Premier Deluxe Rooms and ocean-view Deluxe Spa Rooms--in some cases as much as $100 off regular room rates.
Why all the fuss? Well, The Regent Bal Harbour is said to be the first major property to open in Miami's famed Bal Harbour Village in nearly half a century. Plus, the hotel also was supposed to be the first to feature a Guerlain Spa here in North America, until New York's Waldorf Astoria beat them to it by opening theirs this past December, way ahead of its spring 2008 schedule. See what happens when you dilly-dally?
Tags: Hotel Spas / Hotel Openings / Regent Hotels / Hotel Delays / it was worth waiting for!!! / → All Tags
Yet Another Hotel Delay: Regency Bal Harbour
Never, ever plan your vacation around a hotel that promises it's going to open right at the start of said vacation. Our experience here tells us more and more that very few hotels hit their opening day. We've been excited about the Regent Bal Harbour having a New Year debut for a few months now--anticipating just how relaxing that Guerlain Spa was going to feel--and dumbly believing that their promised January 2 open date would take place.
Alas, January 2 has now come and gone, and you can no longer make online reservations for January. These days the website says (in small print, after you try to make a booking) that the Regent Bal Harbour is now accepting reservations for arrivals from February 1, 2008. Let's hope they didn't make a small typo and mean 2009. Because we don't want to have to rely on these hotel photos with weird airbrushed clouds in the windows for much longer.
Related Stories:
· Hotel Opening Rates: Regent Bal Harbour Plans New Year's Debut [HotelChatter]
· Coming For Winter: Guerlain Spa at Bal Harbour [HotelChatter]
· Florida Hotel Stories [HotelChatter]
Tags: Hotel Spas / Hotel Openings / → All Tags
Coming For Winter: Guerlain Spa at Bal Harbour
Lovers of luxury take note: there's a new spa a'coming. Down in Florida, the Regent Bal Harbour is about to get a "new generation" Guerlain Spa, which should be opening ready for the winter season of 2007.
Next to the Bal Harbour Shops in North Miami Beach, the Spa will be open both to hotel guests and outside visitors, but it's designed to keep it all private anyway, so it doesn't matter who else is there - each of the 15 treatment rooms even has its own ensuite bathroom, so you don't need to socialize at all. But if you want to, then you can relax on the waterfront terrace before your treatment, and afterwards get ready for "real world re-entry" in their "reflecting room" (healthy stuff like juice and tea provided).
There are a number of Guerlain Spas located around the world, and they all use the Spa Therapy Questionnaire to design your treatment: and if you travel to another Guerlain Spa, even on another continent, the staff will be able to access your questionnaire results and treatment records and continue your program exactly how you want it. Not bad.
You can get full-day packages with names like "Totally Transforming", or half-day, three-hour treatments like "Jet Lag" and "Pre-Flight". But the most impressive-sounding service is just a facial: the Exceptional Orchidée Impériale Treatment. For those with imperial qualities, of course.
Related Stories:
· Bal Harbour Hotel Reviews [HotelChatter]
· Travel Stories in Florida [Jaunted]
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