How Desires Hotels Are Making Sure Your Desires Are Met

November 23, 2009 at 4:50 PM | by juliana | Comment (1)

Raul Leal, President of Desires Hotels

With a name like Desires Hotels, this small collection of boutique properties has a lot to live up to. After all, don't all guests want their every desire fulfilled whenever they check into a hotel? And look no further than the recent introductions of specialized services in hotels like pillow menus, bath butlers, shopping concierges and even iPhone applications to understand that today's hotel guest is becoming increasingly needy.

But in speaking with Raul Leal, the president of Desires Hotels, we learned that his hotels have a few subtle ways to make sure that your need are taken care of when staying overnight.

For starters, the concierges at Desires Hotels (which include The Ironhorse Hotel in Milwaukee, The MAve in New York and The Besty Hotel in Miami) are called, Managers of Desires. Their sole purpose is to spoil you whether it be by accommodating special room requests, securing restaurant reservations and planning a day (or night out) on the town. Have a desire and want it fulfilled? This is a good place to start. But remember, these managers are not genies. Keep your requests reasonable (and clean.)

Beyond a personal manager of your desires, the hotel's guest preferences program is actually called, Your Desires. When you make a reservation at one of the participating Desires Hotel, you can select what sort of amenities you like and do not like in the room--from customizing the minibar to the type of music that will be playing when you step into your room.

According to Leal, about 80 percent of the Desires Hotels have this service and it will be soon company-wide. There are also plans to make it loyalty program as well, meaning guests would get rewards for their stays.

A room at The MAve NYC.

Yet Desires is not just about what the hotel can do for you, it's also about what the hotel room can do for you. Leal said that Desires tries to understand the needs of modern hotel guests when designing their hotel rooms.

We're intimately involved in the design process. We seek out less minimalism and more comfort.

When we asked Leal to name five important amenities in the room for guests, he gave us these priorities:

1.The Bed (Leal acknowledges that Starwood did a great job with the Heavenly Bed and that's sort of their benchmark with the beds.)
2. Great lighting.
3. Functional work area with a comfortable chair.
4. Ample space in the bathroom for both guys and girls to fit their own toiletries, razors and the like.
5. Great shower pressure.

That all sounds good to us. But let's get to the biggest problem with our hotel desires--the cost. Having your desires fulfilled will mean some extra charges. While the managers of your Desires cannot take care of you restaurant and show tickets, you do have control over how much you want to spend on the hotel room.

Desires has four hotels in Miami, each at different price points starting with The Wave Hotel and topping out with the luxe Sagamore Hotel. In New York, budget conscious travelers can shack up at The MAve or Hotel Mela. The upcoming five-star Cassa Hotel in Midtown Manhattan will open next summer.

But Leal promises that no matter which Desires Hotel you end up in, you will always have a unique experience as the hotels still retain their individual personalities. So the only true constant across these hotels is serving the guests' desires. And we're not going to argue with that.

Fun fact: Type "Desires" into Google and guess what comes up?

Have you stayed at a Desires Hotel before? How were your desires treated when you were there? Let us know in comments below.

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