We've grown accustomed to the Ritz-Carlton Moscow having extraordinarily expensive rooms, food, drinks, and basically everything. But they seem to have a knack for finding even more pricey stuff to make us feel jealous of.
This time it's one of the most exclusive champagnes you'll ever find. Two hundred bottles of 1907 champagne was recovered from a 1916 shipwreck and these bottles are now on the wine list at Moscow's Ritz-Carlton.
Naturally the price reflects their rarity ... you'll find 700,000 rubles (just over US$27,000) added to your bill if you drink this stuff. We're wondering if it even tastes any good after being buried at sea for most of a century.
Today we're hotel-chatting with Louis Sailer, General Manager of the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore. This month the hotel is gearing up for the Formula 1 Grand Prix on September 28 which will speed by the hotel on its course. The race is going to be the world's first night-time race and will surely be a sight to see. But if you can't get to Singapore later this month, the Fullerton is still going to be there. In fact, it's been there since 1928 but not as a hotel. Keep reading to find out more.
HotelChatter's newest contributing editor Scarlett Lion is filing her stories from Uganda. Every now and then, she'll be sending us dispatches about the hotel scene here. Got questions? Send 'em to us and we'll get them answered. Enjoy.
If it weren't for that guy peeing in the street about a hundred meters away, a stay at the Serena Hotel in Kampala, Uganda, might feel a lot like a stay at any nice hotel, just about anywhere.
The lobby houses a fountain and plush couches, as well as well-mannered waiters ready to serve you cocktails for New York prices. And the rooms are New York-priced too.
While a prostitute-filled lodge on the other side of town might cost about $2 a night, don't expect to pay less than $250 for a small Hilton-esque room, and up to $550 for a suite.
There are not many hipper holiday spots Down Under than Byron Bay, where celebrities hide away and Sydneysiders come up for weekend breaks. After some renovations the Watermark @ Wategos boutique hotel is an ocean-front place to stay that's had some good press lately.
Watermark does try to be trendy--you can see that just from the "@" in the name--but it usually manages to pull it off too. Guests get either upstairs or downstairs studio apartments that have marble bathrooms and designer furniture, although the rooms are not especially big.
The location is the best bit, right on famous Wategos Beach. It's also only about a fifteen-minute walk into the town center. But like many boutique spots in Byron, the Watermark @ Wategos doesn't come cheap. Rates vary between A$390 (US$330) and A$590 (US$500) a night depending on the suite and the season so it's not a place for the average surfer to bed down.
We first heard about the Casa Dell'Arte in Bodrum, Turkey from the Travel + Leisure list of this year's top 30 new hotels, and now we can see for certain it made this list for a good reason.
Casa Dell'Arte--"Hotel of Arts and Leisure", as the website says--is a genuine art hotel, run by a family who also have an art gallery in Istanbul.
Just six weeks or so into its life as a luxury hotel, the Four Seasons Florence is getting very impressive feedback: almost everyone gives it a 5-star rating on TripAdvisor and a recent write-up in the UK Times made it sound the best hotel the reviewer had ever stayed at.
It certainly has some historical and artistic advantages over regular hotels, being created out of two Renaissance palaces joined by the largest private garden in Florence. There are frescoes on walls, cherubs on the ceilings and artworks galore throughout the hotel. It's kind of like going sightseeing around Florence but without actually having to go anywhere.
We were a bit scared when we clicked over to look at the room rates, but they're nowhere near as shocking as you'd expect. Coming up to the winter season the Four Seasons Florence is offering special rates from €350 (US$515) a night although the usual standard rates go from €500 (US$740).
So, the hotel industry? Not doing so great this year. Not even in Beijing. But, MSBNC reports, the fanciest hotels are all doing their best to stay afloat, and they continue to lure wealthy heads onto guestroom pillows worldwide. Their secret strategy?
Why, baller amenities, of course.
At most high-end properties these days, flatscreen TV's, iPod docking stations and other high-tech gadgets pretty much come standard, so the luxe hotels have opportunities to distinguish themselves by offering super high-touch service.
Not surprisingly, butlers have become more and more popular in luxe hotels and there are more than 150 hotels with butler "programs" -- individuals assigned to anticipate and cater to a guest's every whim -- around the world.
The article even discusses something called a baby butler at the Keswick Hall-- which sounds like a nanny to us, really. Essentially, a baby butler does all the things mom is supposed to be doing...up to and and including rocking the baby to sleep "while mom soaks in the tub." Lord.
While it seems most of the ordinary and extraordinary visitors to Beijing are holing up at the Intercontinental, anyone with a ton of money will surely bypass all other hotels for the Pangu Plaza. That is, when it finally opens.
Shaped like a dragon -- and stretching the length of seven football fields -- is a colossal row of stone buildings that boast a high-rise office tower, shopping mall, seven-star hotel and what the developer insists is the world's first traditional Chinese "courtyard in the sky."
According to the website, the hotel has 270 suites that are "especially designed for top-ranking officials in the world, leaders from all fields and top riches in the world." Translation: You gotta be very important to stay here.
Indeed, dinner in the Japanese restaurant inside starts at $600 a night and the cost of the presidential suite is up to $30,000 per night. God, we'd hate to hear what the standard suite rates are like.
And you will probably get your money's worth if you stay here. All rooms will have killer views of the Olympic stadiums like the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Plus you will be able to do some world-leader spotting too.
It's just a shame the hotel couldn't open in time for the Games. Word is it will open in a few weeks.
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by amandak
