Deciding What 'Preferred Lifestyle' to Choose from Preferred Hotels

August 20, 2010 at 12:28 PM | by juliana | Comments (0)

iPads, be damned, we're loving our stroll through print land and our ongoing look at a dying hotel amenity--The Hotel Magazine. Sure, most hotels stock their guestrooms with the trendy magazines of the day or at least place some localized publication on the desks but there are actually a few hotels out there that still publish their own magazine. We've got our hands on a few copies of these rare breeds and we'll be documenting our finds for you here. Know of a hotel magazine we should see before it goes out of print? Send it to us!

The other week when we took a look at the Preferred Hotels and Resorts , we found out that not only do they get the pre-opening skinny on new hotels along with great rates for existing hotels, they also put out a magazine called Preferred Lifestyles.

We got our hands on the newest issue from this year and spent some quality time perusing the different "lifestyles" to lead.

Having such a wide range of hotels to write about, the magazine can touch on pretty much every destination in the world. And that's what's great about the mag's in-depth articles. They aren't built around a hotel but rather a destination, like South Africa (just before the 2010 FIFA World Cup), Utah, Boston and Rome. Suggested places to stay (of course, all Preferred Hotels) are then listed at the end of the articles.

There are some hotel-centric pieces to be found but they aren't straight-on property reviews. The one we particularly liked was the piece on the art galleries in Preferred hotels around the world, since it coincided with our recent For the Sake of Hotel Art series.

But what we found more exciting were the peppy "every issue" columns like the Concierge Picks where concierges from hotels detail their must-dos, Passports which details events going on around the world and the What's In Your Bag column where Preferred picks a different person in the luxury world to detail what they always travel with. (This issue featured Countess Gitta Lambsdorff, head of Tiffany for Germany and Austria.)

Another layout that caught our eye was Gadgets & Goodies featuring a Louis Vuitton clutch, the Swarovski crystal-encrusted Olympus Pen E-P1 camera, luxe toiletries like Babor Anti-Stress, Anti-jetlag cream and a frothy white umbrella called the Cancan Parasol from Guy de Jean. The only thing is prices are not listed for these gadgets and goodies which is a bit confusing. (We want the parasol, now!)

There's also a section full of news from different properties that give special attention to hotel restaurants, spa treatments, new packages and fun amenities like the guitars on-loan at the Hard Rock Chicago.

Our favorite, though, was the back page's Time Capsule where they spotlight a hotel's history. In this issue it was the Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como built in 1910. The page shows a yellowing photo of the hotel in 1920 juxtaposed with a current snapshot today. George Clooney would approve.

Flipping through this magazine, you can rest assured that every hotel mentioned is in the Preferred Hotels collection. But in case you needed a quick listing, you can find the collection's entire roster at the back of the magazine as well as read about the newest members. The only problem with this magazine is deciding where to stay. There are so many "lifestyle" options to choose from!

Preferred Lifestyles publishes twice a year and can be found in the rooms at Preferred Hotels and Resorts. For more on Preferred Hotels go here.

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