Four Seasons Atlanta and Whistler luxury hotels are giving their room service menus an overhaul – and guaranteeing a speedy delivery to your door. The new service aims to satisfy guests that are tight on time but need a hot snack.
The latest in-room menu will offer a range of fast-food items and guarantees the order will be delivered to your room within 15 minutes of ordering. Each Four Seasons hotel (and Luxique offers 52 of them worldwide) has a different twist on what to offer. For example the Four Seasons Hong Kong will have traditional quick and easy favourites such as wonton noodle soup with Chinese greens while the Four Seasons Hampshire England will lay on a typical British ploughman’s lunch. Hot snacks will include nachos with Winchester cheese and chive crème fraiche.
The second neat idea from Four Seasons is the “to go” menu which offers packed meals that are airline-friendly. Simply order from your room 15 minutes before checking out and pick up your meal-to-go at the front desk as you head for the airport.
Four Seasons Scottsdale at Troon North offers delicious portable lunches that will also suit guests wanting to enjoy a picnic as they enjoy the local sights. It includes tequila-lime chicken wrap with slaw, kettle chips, iced tea and a chocolate chip cookie.
According to the Miami New Times, luxury hotel breakfast buffets are being seriously affected by the economic downturn. Locals are apparently posing as guests and helping themselves to free hot breakfasts, muffins, bagels, fruit and whatever else may be on offer. Hotel General Managers in luxury hotels in Miami are reporting that the problem is worse in hotels where the buffet is on the first floor, or visible from street level.
Many luxury hotels have a two-tier system; free breakfast for those with room keys and a charge of anything from $12-30 for non-residents. In practise, these hotels rarely ask guests to show their room key. They simply ask for their room number before seating them, for fear of causing barely-conscious guests a bad start to their day. However, this is allowing brazen free-loaders the chance to enjoy a tasty breakfast for free on a regular basis.
Some on-the-ball restaurant managers in boutique hotels know all their guests on sight. However, many city hotels in Miami have a stream of one-night guests who are catching flights. Adam Zembruski, spokesperson for Pharos Hospitality was quoted as saying, “When I was GM, I was very hands on and knew most, if not all of my guests personally. More importantly, they knew me. So, I was out there at breakfast every day – and knew the regulars (so) the ‘outsiders’ stuck out like a sore thumb.” While some hotel managers involve the police, others either give the offender the bill or remove them as quietly as possible.
by Gillian at Luxique
Green is apparently “in” in top hotels worldwide. Luxury hotels in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles are recognizing the importance of offering guests some tranquil garden space, even if they are situated in the middle of a busy city.
During the summer guests prefer an outside space to sit and enjoy in drink amidst flowering shrubs and shady trees. For hotels where outdoor space is limited, innovative designers have created full-scale rooftop gardens with waterfalls and cool reflection pools. Some hotels have totally embraced the idea and are growing their own herbs, fruit and vegetables in the gardens and some even have bee-hives!
The Kyoto Grand Hotel in Los Angeles is one to look out for. This Asian inspired hotel has meandering footpaths and calming water features in its gorgeous Japanese gardens which offer great views of Downtown from its rooftop position.
The Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City has a chic garden on the roof with a retractable glass roof for showery days. The herbs and garnishes used in cocktails and cuisine are grown onsite.
A colorful array of summer flowers can be enjoyed in the English gardens at the Surrey, also in New York City. Sip Muddled Lemonade surrounded by the scent of lavender in this serene space.
Those staying at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY can take exercise classes on the roof in the shady green terrace gardens where plants attract butterflies and birds. Horticulturists will enjoy staying at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. They can potter around the basil and pepper plants in the herb garden and admire the dwarf cherry, pear and plum trees which fruit in season. There is also a bee hive and the honey is used in the kitchen of the signature restaurant.
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
Fairmont Hotels continue to come up with some innovative new luxury hotel packages for food and drink lovers. How about the aptly named “Keep the Catch” Boston Harbor Lobster Packages at the Fairmont Battery Wharf Hotel?
Guests accompany the chef on a private lobster boat to learn the secrets of baiting, dropping and hauling in lobster traps around historic Boston Harbor. At the end of the trip, guests return with their catch, which is then prepared in the kitchen to their liking. The cost includes a night’s stay in a deluxe waterfront room, a boat tour, a souvenir lobster book and a place at the Chef’s Counter in the Aragosta Restaurant. It’s the perfect stay for lobster aficionados and guests are sure to learn plenty of tips for catching and preparing this gourmet dish.
Cheese-lovers may prefer the Grand Fromage Package offered by the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. Described as a farm-to-fork tour, this artisan adventure offers a cheese-making course at a cheese farm in Agassiz. The luxury hotel stay also includes a three-course tasting menu paired with wines at the hotel’s Griffins Restaurant, dinner for two at Au Petit Chavignol (one of Vancouver’s best restaurants for artisan cheese), and a surprise welcome with local wine and cheese.
Still in Canada, Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York offers a more down-to-earth experience for food buffs. Chef-led experiences include a trip to the St Lawrence market with secrets on how to choose the best cuts of meat and produce. The rest of the two-night stay is pleasantly taken up with coffee for two at Pasta Mia, sample tasting at Golden Orchard Fine Foods, pea meal bacon sandwiches for two at the Carousel Bakery, a walking tour with a local historian and a six-course menu in EPIC, the hotel’s signature restaurant.
These great short packages in luxury hotels are ideal for those wanting to enjoy more than just a spa package. Fully organized themed trips can be a great way to experience luxury hotels around the world and memorable vacations for little more than the price of a hotel room.
by Gillain at Luxique Luxury Hotels
If you are one of those people for whom the day does not start until you see the bottom of your Starbucks mug, then this is great news for you. Starbucks has agreed to supply coffee to half a million luxury hotels in the U.S. with their single-serve coffee being provided for coffee machines in partnership with Courtesy Products.
Although Keurig has the lion’s share of the single serve coffee maker markets, sales of Kraft’s Tassimo coffee makers are also likely to shoot through the roof as discerning travelers staying in luxury hotels get to sample the convenience of a freshly brewed Starbucks by their bedside.
For those who do not speak fluent espresso, the Tassimo/Keurig coffee makers are hot beverage systems which produce a variety of beverages (tea, hot chocolate, café latte, espresso or even macchiato) by being fed a neat sealed disc of ingredients which the natty machine interprets from the barcode, opens, processes and drips into a real pottery mug.
Starbucks continue to make inroads into single-serve coffee since their launch of sachets of on-the-go instant coffee called VIA, also made with travelers and office workers in mind. Although instant coffee is the norm in the UK, in America it has always been looked down on as an inferior product. However, the new single-serve coffee machines manage to cater to both parties, providing freshly brewed coffee without having to faff around with correctly sized coffee filters and dispose of messy grounds.
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
If you’ve got something to celebrate, then consider inviting a few friends to share the occasion at a champagne party at the May Fair luxury hotel in London. This is the newest offering for oenophiles from the 150 bar, named after the magnum-sized 150cl bottles of bubbly which are served at this exclusive bar. The focal point is the floor-to-ceiling glass magnum fridge holding one of Europe’s finest collections of premium magnums, among them a limited edition set of Dom Pérignon bottles in vivid colours.
The 150’s latest indulgent offering is a series of semi-private magnum champagne parties which include vintage champagnes paired with a delectable menu of small plates which are prepared to complement the champagne by head chef, Silvena Rowe. The packages come in all tastes and sizes but the most decadent has to be the Dom Pérignon Vintage Rose 1998 Experience. Designed for 12 discerning guests and priced at £4,400 (approx. $6,800), the package includes four magnums of Dom Pérignon Vintage Rose 1998, paired with four delicate canapés for each guest. They include seared diver-caught scallops and sevruga caviar remoulade; crispy spiced jumbo prawns with avocado and tahini; West Mersea native oysters with sevruga caviar and finally, pomegranate glazed foie gras.
If you want to participate in the Moët & Chandon Imperial Experience, make sure you take the empty bottle home with you – it is personalized with Swarovski crystals!
Finish the party in the May Fair’s Palm Beach Casino in the Grand Art Deco Ballroom which has one of the largest gaming rooms in London. And after all that fun and bubbly you may want to book a night so you can stumble into bed in one of this luxury five star hotel’s signature suites.
by Gillian at Luxique luxury hotels
The Ritz in London – favoured by Royalty and Presidents – has always been at the forefront of the world’s luxury hotels, with its history, elegance and style.
It’s also stuck stubbornly to sartorial tradition: the statement on the hotel’s website is clear enough: in the dining areas, ‘gentlemen are required to wear a jacket and tie’.
But ever so quietly, the strict formality has been allowed to slip a little. It’s now possible for Ritz patrons to wear jeans to breakfast, although the denim must be ‘very smart’ and not accompanied by trainers.
A spokesman for the luxury hotel said: “It was a management decision to change the policy … to make guests feel more comfortable.”
Actress Joan Collins – never knowingly underdressed – is unsure. “I only like jeans in the country, but I’m not too bothered about this. There are some very nice designer jeans, but then you sometimes see someone wearing a pair that look as if they’ve been covered in paint.”
Two reporters from the Mail on Sunday newspaper decided to put the new Ritz luxury hotel dress code to the test and found ‘men and women wearing jeans with casual indifference’. Two men even wore T-shirts with light blue scruffy denims; only one guest – a man in his 60s – wore a jacket and tie.
by Andy Moreton
The Ritz is the last word in luxury London hotels. Book it through Luxique.
There are many reasons for visiting the Capital and staying in one of the the top luxury hotels in London – the world-class shows, theatre, opera and ballet; the unrivalled opportunities to truly shop ‘till you drop, even at London prices; the museums and art galleries, many of which are now free to enter, and the legendary gourmet dining. There are at least 5570 restaurants in London, according to the Yellow Pages, and many more pubs and coffee houses, snack bars and take-aways so you should be able to dine somewhere different every night for the next 27 years without having to repeat yourself.
However, in reality, we are creatures of habit, and having found somewhere good to dine out, we would rather return there than risk disappointment elsewhere. Many of London’s finest restaurants are an integral part of the luxury hotels in London which are found in Capital’s most prestigious areas. With expensive taxi fares and impossible parking, it makes sense to dine where you are staying. Here are some of London’s very best restaurants, complete with adjoining luxury hotel accommodation.
One of the city’s best restaurants is tucked inside the five star Connaught Hotel in Mayfair. Although you may feel out of place without a jacket and tie, Hélène Darroze, one of France’s most distinguished chefs has brought her Michelin-star cuisine to London for a gastronomic experience to savor. The more informal Espelette restaurant also offers signature dishes by Hélène, along with delectable afternoon teas.
Equally Michelin star-studded is the Foliage restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental. Nestled in one of the top luxury hotels in London, the restaurant enjoys a Royal Park on either side hotel and al fresco dining on the terrace in the warm summer evenings is an unrivalled experience. Attention to detail includes the waiting staff collecting leaves from Hyde Park and placing them beneath the bespoke glass plates to truly set the scene for an amazing experience.
The five star luxury Berkeley Hotel in London boasts possibly the finest dining with not one but two award-winning restaurants. Gordon Ramsay takes on New York’s café scene with his Boxwood Café whilst Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley presents a total food euphoria.
Finally, be prepared to be dazzled by an exciting international restaurant set in one of the premier luxury hotels in London. Nobu offers a delectable Peruvian-Japanese menu in the Metropolitan Hotel. Founded by world-renowned chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa and presided over by Executive Chef Mark Edwards, this specialty cuisine cannot fail to impress. Coupled with the legendary service and contemporary interior design, this luxury hotel in London’s Park Lane makes a truly refreshing place to dine and to stay.
by Luxique - A Unique Collection of Luxury Hotels in London
El Bulli, the Spanish restaurant consistently voted the world’s best, is to close for two years in 2012.
The restaurant’s head chef, Ferran Adria, says the two years will be devoted to ‘thinking, preparing and planning for the future’. Once it reopens in 2014, El Bulli intends to be ‘constantly challenging the possibilities of the concept of a restaurant’.
Adria serves his 200 Euro (£174/$277) tasting menu to 50 people a night for just six months of the year at his three Michelin-starred restaurant in Roses on the Costa Brava, where he has been head chef since 1983. It’s said he receives requests from two million people for the 8,000 seats available each season.
One food writer said a visit there was like a night at the opera, with a sequence of extraordinary, provocative and magical sensations.
by Andy Moreton
You probably won’t get a reservation at El Bulli, but if you want to press your nose up against the window, try Luxique for luxury Costa Brava hotels.
Back to a recurring theme – the efforts by Venice to cling on to its cultural heritage in the face of all kinds of 21st century threats.
The city council has now outlawed for two years any new takeaway outlets selling pizzas or kebabs in Venice’s historic centre. The Mayor, Massimo Cacciari, said the proliferation of such places was contributing to the ‘impoverishment’ of restaurants and affecting the quality of the architecture.
While Venice is making a specific stand (by including the traditionally Italian pizzeria), Italy is witnessing a national campaign against ethnic food restaurants, led by some conservative local authorities. Earlier this year, the city councils of Milan and the Tuscan town of Lucca restricted non-Italian food outlets.
The Italian Agriculture Minister, Luca Zaia, has applauded these local initiatives aimed at protecting Italy’s culinary traditions. “We stand for the safeguarding of our culture,” he said.
by Andy Moreton
Browse Luxique’s selection of exquisite luxury hotels in Venice. All the top names are there.
