HotelChatter

Orphan Hotels

Want a Luxury Hotel on the Cheap? Head to St. Louis

May 24, 2007 at 12:21 PM | 0 Comments

The Wall Street Journal ran an article yesterday about some of the "orphan properties" of luxury chains like the Four Seasons, Ritz Carltons and The Small Luxury Hotels of the World group.

To qualify as an "orphan" the hotel has to be located in a secondary or tertiary market. But the beauty of it is that, as a guest, if you want to finally experience the luxury of a Four Seasons you don't have to go to New York to do it. You can swing on down to the Four Seasons Houston where rooms only cost $205 a night on the weekends. (Four Seasons New York is $625).

You can also stay in luxury at the Hotel Maxmillian in Prague where rooms are only $199 a night. In the winters, everyone's look to stay in Miami, Naples or Palm Beach but if you head to the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, you can get a room for $300 a night in January.

There doesn't seem to be a downside at first to this luxury hotels on the cheap trend but some guests say that these "orphan properties" have more wear and tear than some of the brands' premiere hotels.

At the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis, rooms are $179 a night on weekends but "the furniture was slightly banged up and a wooden armoire housed an old-school bulky TV." Other hotels were cited for scruffed up desks, more old TVs, 1970s-esque carpeting and in some cases, poor service.

And you know they are still going to charge you $10+ for internet access, so is staying at a luxury hotel in a secondary market really worth it?