Some hotels, as we learned last month, charge five figures for a single cocktail. Others, which shall remain nameless — OK, it’s the Four Seasons Maui — deploy poolside staffers to cool down sunbathing guests with spritzes of Evian. And then there’s the Peninsula Beverly Hills, a hotel so exclusive that its true VIPs don’t even bother with the ho-hum 425-square-foot — and $425+ per night — standard rooms. Instead they stay in one of the Peninsula’s 16 villas, each of which has its own private entrance — and each of which costs between $885 and $6,000 a night. (In 2007, Britney Spears hid out from the paparazzi in one after she lost custody of her children to K-Fed.)
In honor of Sunday’s Academy Awards, the Peninsula Beverly Hills, or “PBH” as we in the biz (that would be the hotel biz) call it, has introduced something called “Recapture Classic Hollywood Glamor.” For a mere $950, guests can enjoy the “opportunity to be photographed in a style that brings back the famous black-and-white studio publicity portraits of movie stars in the 1930s and 40s.” Award-winning celebrity photographer Roger G. James “will set up a portrait studio in the guest’s room, complete with makeup, costumes, props and lighting. Within one to two hours, he will transform the guest into a glamorous star from the past, à la Lana Turner, Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable or Greta Garbo and capture the look on black-and-white film.” One such Garbo is pictured above. Not bad, as you can see here.
Awww. You're so cute I'm going to feed you caviar!
Some of the world’s most pampered pooches will strut their stuff today at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show: Their teeth will be clean, their toenails trimmed, and their fur arranged just so. Anyone who’s seen the Christopher Guest classic Best in Show knows that some pet people really love their pets, and will go to any lengths to keep them happy. And the current pet-friendly hotel trend means that it’s never been easier to spoil your dog rotten on the road. Below, we’ve listed five of the most extravagant pet services we’ve encountered during our travels.
Pet room service menus: Pet room service menus are almost de rigueur at pet-friendly hotels these days, and many of them offer a lot more than your run-of-the-mill dog food. The inventiveness, and prices, of some of these gourmet treats caused us to raise an eyebrow — or, in the case of the $98 caviar at Raffles L’Ermitage, two eyebrows. Here is a selection of the most elaborate offerings:
Fairmont Miramar Hotel Santa Monica: 8 oz. filet of beef ($34). For dessert? Peanut butter petits fours, organic frozen yogurt, and handmade truffles ($3-$9)
Raffles L’ermitage Beverly Hills: Far and away the most lavish — some might say ludicrous — pet menu we’ve seen. Tuna tartar ($19), foie gras ($25), Osetra caviar with hard poached eggs ($98)
One of the pool bars at the Clevelander Hotel, where we expect to find the Jersey Shore cast next season.
We caught wind on Tuesday (thanks, Gawker) that season 2 of MTV’s Jersey Shore will film in none other than Miami’s party central, South Beach. After getting over our initial confusion about the move (I thought the premise of Jersey Shore was that it takes place on the .. um .. Jersey Shore), we realized that there’s actually a ton of potential for booze-fueled debauchery in Miami. If the cast has to move somewhere, South Beach may just be the perfect fit.
If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of Snooki, DJ Pauly D, and the rest of the GTL crew — or hoping to steer clear of them at all costs — here’s where we expect them to be partying this season:
The Oak Bar at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston, which serves a $12,750 martini (not pictured, because, well, Oyster reporters' per diem is only $12,500 per day).
We were amused and intrigued last week when we saw this story about a $10,000 “proposal martini” available at the Algonquin Hotel’s Blue Bar, especially in light of the Great Recession. A little digging of our own – investigative, not gold – turned up a couple of interesting footnotes. First, that the Algonquin’s is not the only absurdly extravagant cocktail out there. (Not even close: We found at least two more drinks that cost as much as a Nissan.) And second, that people have actually purchased these drinks. In fact, according to Alex Aubry, Food and Beverage Director at the Algonquin, six men used the bar’s “Martini on the Rock” to pop the question in 2005, the year the hotel debuted the cocktail. Since then, that figure has fallen to two or three per year, perhaps because of the economy.
This video had us laughing our butts off when we watched it on Consumerist.com on Friday. Funny guy Aziz Ansari, appearing on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien last week, made a public service announcement after being duped by a false thread count (on sheets he expected to be hotel quality).
As Consumerist reports, and we can attest, the correlation between quality and thread count is a bit rough once you get past about 300 threads per inch.
Think Aziz’s run-in with 296 thread-count sheets was bad? Check out what we found waiting for us on the sheets at Negril Escape Resort and Spa last year:
Um? So this is where pregnant chicks like to stand?
First we did creative toilet paper. (Actually, hotels did it. We just took pictures.) Then came clever do-not-disturb signs. Now we present — with inspiration from, and apologies to, one of our favorite travel-related websites, Engrish.com — a few of the silly/baffling/grammatically deficient signs we’ve encountered at hotels we’ve covered.
The Standard Cabin at the Jane Hotel, 50 square feet, $99
Ah, New York. There’s really no place like it. It’s one of the only cities in the world where you can pay hundreds of dollars for a hotel room smaller than your office cubicle. We’re hardly exaggerating: Below, check out photos of some of the smallest hotel rooms Oyster has ever seen.
But good things can come in small packages. If the price is right, some of these exceptionally teensy spaces can actually be good values (although we’d steer clear of the Jane Hotel until it sorts out its little bedbug problem). Be sure to peruse the hotels on our best values list as well, to make sure you get the most bang for your buck.
KLM staff checks into Courtyard by Marriott San Francisco Downtown
Call it a meditation on the current state of the travel industry — or a nod to the new normal: We weren’t expecting to see an airline crew checking in to the comparatively casual Courtyard by Marriott this past Saturday. The corporate-friendly hotel, on 2ndStreet just south of Market in San Francisco, is a perfectly nice value play – but it’s a far cry from the mod lodgings we always associated with flight attendants and pilots. (That we saw more families than crew at the hotel bar is, now that we think about, probably a good thing.)
But no sooner had we gotten over our surprise than we checked out of the Courtyard and into the not-as-luxurious-as-it-claims Parc 55 hotel, also just off Market on 5th Street. Among the uniforms we recognized there were those of Lufthansa, British Airways, and Cathay Pacific.
Could Downtown San Francisco be the new home of globe-trotting jet setters? Nah, we’re chalking it up to the sub-$200-a-night room rates during the post-Thanksgiving-and-pre-Christmas lull. Even cash-strapped airlines can afford those rates; it only takes 10 checked bags to come up with 200 bucks these days!
Hotels do more than just put gold stickers on toilet paper to separate themselves from their competitors. Even things as mundane as the ubiquitous “Do Not Disturb” signs have taken a turn for the quirky (and punny, and bawdy, and…).
The following are from hotels owned by companies known for bringing a light touch to their management (check out Le Parker Meridien’s website to get a taste of their sensibility):
The Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco is well-known for its uniformed Beefeater doormen — one of which is the city’s most famed hotel staffer, Tom Sweeney, who has been posted on Powell Street for over 25 years. According to local legend, Mr. Sweeney holds the honor of being the most photographed person in San Francisco.
But he — and his Beefeater colleagues — just might have some competition. Meet Doorman John from the nautical-themed Argonaut Hotel: he’s friendly, he’s fun, and he’s rockin’ puffy sleeves and a sweet hat like it ain’t no thang.
Doorman at the Argonaut Hotel
Both hotels are run by Kimpton, a hotel company that is apparently quite skilled at finding and hiring gentlemen who are very, very good sports. Give the Argonaut a few more years (it opened in 2003; the Drake has been around since 1928), and those sailor-ish uniforms just might creep into just as many San Francisco photographs as those Beefeaters.
Insights and stories on travel from the company that brings you professional hotel reviews. Got a question, a hot tip or a cool idea? Email us. Also, visit our Founders' Blog or the new Oyster Locals Blog
