Raffles London at The OWO. Photo / Supplied
Starting rates at London’s new Raffles and Peninsula hotels mean the capital is following in the footsteps of Paris, writes Mark C. O’Flaherty
There’s a LOT of money out there right now. Obscene amounts. None may be passing through your fingers but there’s a growing demographic of young, wildly wealthy individuals internationally, who want to spend it. This is why we’ve seen a boom in hotels where the cheapest room is £1000 ($1950) a night (breakfast not included). What better way to burn through money than by booking a weekend away that costs more than most people’s monthly rent?
A recent study by Deloitte found that at the top end, Expedia is out of fashion and the travel agent is back in favour. The super-rich want experiences tailored to their needs and to feel they are getting a certifiable luxury experience. They want frills. One of the buzz terms agents are using to sell products is “ultra-premium”. That’s not really quantifiable but then neither is “luxury”.
Whether they have their cash from crypto, inheritance, or currency exchange turmoil, the luxury-hungry rich are a dream demographic. These people want to pay to feel like they are getting something special, even if it’s not, and there are a lot of people who want to take their money.
The Deloitte report found that the luxury travel industry had a global market value of US$1.2 trillion in 2021, with a projected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.6 per cent until 2030. This is where the £1000 a night hotel comes in. Demand. People can afford it and want to pay it. And London leads the way. We recently saw the opening of the Peninsula and Raffles at the OWO, where rates start at £1300 and £1,100 respectively. Both are busy. Coming soon, in the same price bracket are a Six Senses in Queensway and the Chancery Rosewood at the former US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.
While we’ve seen the price for a room at the top end double in London over the past decade, those tariffs have been common in Paris for some time. To be able to call yourself a “Distinction Palace” hotel is something only 31 properties in France can do. The category is beyond five-star but amorphous, down to fairly subjective consideration of history, architecture, service and food. Each has to be investigated by Atout France, the organisation that promotes the country internationally as a tourism destination.
When the Hotel de Crillon (cheapest room currently £1700 per night) was refurbished a few years ago, the project cost US$300 million (NZ$487m). I was in the New York studio of artist Peter Lane a few months before the hotel reopened and watched him meticulously piece together the sculptures that would decorate the pool area. I can’t imagine what they cost, but I know how much a single lamp from Lane costs: US$10,000. When I saw his work in the bar at Yannick Alléno’s new Pavyllon restaurant at the Four Seasons London, on Park Lane, it felt like insider code to mark out the space as super-luxe.
These hotels can afford the art, because they know what they’ll be charging their guests to see it. And fundamentally, you can’t create a dream palace with a jar of glitter and a pot of glue. “People come to us not just for a stay, but for an experience they will remember,” says Lynn Brutman, General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane. “The intricate interior design by Chahan Minassian helps our guests create true multi-sensory memories that they will remember well, long after they return home.”
Although that may sound like marketing speak, it’s a solid business model and one of the reasons many wealthy travellers feel an allegiance to the Four Seasons over other brands. Ditto the Aman and Peninsula customers who will fly to a destination purely to stay in one of those groups’ new hotels. A room at the Aman New York starts at US$1950 a night this month (but does include breakfast!). These brands don’t distil their customer to a single type. With the world in such geopolitical flux, no one bets anymore on being bankrolled by a single nationality.
Last year, Reuters ran a report on how Russian money was seen as “toxic” in Europe and previously big spenders had seen their accounts frozen. This summer, the same news outlet reported that Chinese bankers were being advised to curb their spending on fashion and five-star hotels as part of an austerity drive and an attempt to quash corruption in the country’s US$57 trillion financial sector. “It’s not possible to standardise the luxury consumer today,” says Silvio Ursini, Group Executive Vice President at Bulgari, which has recently opened in Rome with rates starting at £1300. “We aim to predict our customer needs and customise the experience. Generation Z is interested by whatever is authentic and real, and we need to consider the way they utilise technology [when we] communicate with them, rather than change anything about our style or service”.
Price per night: £1300 ($2535)
Mark C. O’Flaherty writes: “While this is a universe of absolute luxury, it’s also one of genuinely good taste. There are marble bathrooms galore and everything is high-tech to the point of science fiction, but there are also low-key landscape paintings by artists from the Royal Drawing School. All the doors are heavy. Everything feels like it cost an absolute fortune.”
Price per night: £3176 ($6193)
Mark C. O’Flaherty writes: “The most expensive hotel in Manhattan is a luxury bubble of chic tranquillity, high in the sky off Fifth Avenue, with a members-only club, velvet-roped speakeasy jazz bar at ground level, incredible views of the Midtown skyscrapers, and a monochrome Zen palette of colours, lavish materials and textures.”
Price per night: £1381 ($2693)
Nick Trend writes: “For more than a century, this grand, historic hotel has encapsulated Parisian elegance and sophistication, even managing to stand aloof from its rivals in the city. A lavish four-year renovation has brought it bang up to date and it is winning back its reputation for fine food and wines.”
Price per night: £1100 ($2145)
Fioan Duncan writes: “What a hotel. It has been beautifully done, the vision of the late Thierry Despont, who died last August, as well as interior designer Shalina Hinduja. They have injected the velvet touch of utmost luxury without losing any sense of history, endeavour and intrigue, no mean feat in a building, completed in 1906, that required 26,000 tons of Portland stone, 26 million bricks and hundreds of thousands of floor mosaics to create 2.5 miles of corridors and 1100 rooms.”
Price per night: £1319 ($2572)
Hannah Meltzer writes: “The Italian jewellery company’s first opening in Paris is the stuff of fantasy – sleek, sensual and luxurious. Expect marble floors, velvet furnishings and a Roman-style spa fit for Caesar. However, guests can still expect the warmth of an old-fashioned Italian welcome. The understated, thoughtful touches, such as cashmere blankets on the beds, are the most gratifying element of a stay here.”
- This story originally appeared in the The Daily Telegraph, UK
Telegraph: “A bingo card of disappointments.”