The luxury travel market is suddenly being inundated with a new term – “Pop-up”. While the term is common in temporary pop-up seasonal shops, it is also now being applied to hotels. One British company calling itself the “Pop-Up Hotel” specializes in crafting temporary spaces for events and retreats, and other hotel chains are now joining in.
While temporary usually equates to cheap, in the case of the Papaya Playa Project in Mexico, it is anything but. Priced at up to $675 per night, the hotel group Design Hotels has created a pop-up hotel in a series of cabanas and casitas right on the beach at Tulum. Claiming that it offers a luxury “glamping” experience (being a type of glamorous camping) it does promise high thread count sheets, a spa incorporating Mayan shamanism and food from KaterHolzig, better known for its Berlin Bar 25 fame.
Design Hotel Founder Claus Sendlinger also plans to bring famous DJs and musicians to perform on the natural amphitheater on the beach, introduce an on-site designer boutique and offer the luxury traveler perks such as sustainable and organic food-on-the-go.
Not to be outdone, the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas luxury hotel is offering a Pop-Up Wedding Chapel for a short time. There is a choice of ceremonies: the Hitched in a Hurry economy package which includes a photo booth picture and space eraser rings, or the deluxe “Going to the Chapel” package which has a silk flower bouquet, logo tee shirts and party favors.
by Gillian at Luxique
Five star hotels are frequently the preferred location for weddings, birthdays and other family events. Now luxury hotels in the Netherlands are completing the collection of family-oriented services by offering three-day breaks for couples to get divorced.
The idea is the brainchild of entrepreneur Jim Halfens who explains that couples first go through an extensive interview process and then choose their preferred luxury hotel to complete the divorce over a weekend. “It’s a divorce in three days, roundabouts, in a hotel,” Halfens explains.
One participant of the new scheme is the five star Hotel Karel in Utrecht where couples can book in, not for a chance to re-bond, but to commit to a quick low-cost divorce. Typically divorces can drag on through lawyers for anything from three months to three years, putting lives in limbo and costing a fortune. The Divorce Hotel solution comes in at around $3,500 including accommodation in two separate rooms, of course.
The three days include intensive meetings with mediators and other legal specialists including notaries and psychiatrists if necessary! Due to different divorce laws in different countries, so far only Dutch couples can actually complete the divorce process, but the idea could rapidly catch on in other countries.
Visitors describing a stay in a top luxury hotel as “out of this world” may have to revise their thinking when Orbital Technologies opens its first hotel in 2016. Their hotel will be just that!
Russia has just announced plans for its first space hotel, orbiting 217 miles above the earth. The hotel will accommodate seven guests in four comfortable cabins, boutique hotel style, and prices will be steep – an estimated £100,000 ($160,000) for the accommodation, plus the cost of Soyuz transport. Rocket transfer will take two days – costing another £500,000 ($800,000). At least when you get there, you won’t have to budget for designer shopping or knocking up high-end restaurant and bar bills.
The restaurant food will be prepared on planet earth and delivered by rocket to the space hotel, a great improvement on the freeze-dried food suffered in the past by astronauts. Alcohol will be strictly prohibited but there will be an assortment of mineral water, fruit juices and iced tea.
Huge windows will look out on space from the hotel rooms and guests will be given cameras and binoculars to marvel at the views – intergalactic ones of course. The self contained Commercial Space Station will recycle waste water, and air will be filtered and then returned to the cabin. Due to weightlessness, guests will sleep vertically in bags attached to the walls and showers could be particularly tricky to manage.
This new idea in adventure travel is aimed at wealthy individuals and companies wanting to send individuals into space to do research. It certainly adds a new aspect to luxury hotel vacations.
by Gillian
Scientific research suggests that over half of all couples lose between one and five hours deep sleep per night due to the snoring and snuffling of their partner. Over time this adds up to a decade of lost sleep and a less than harmonious start to each new day.
Crowne Plaza has taken the issue seriously and has designed nine “snore absorption rooms” at various Crown Plaza hotels around the world. Those wanting to try out the gadgets, perhaps with the view to installing similar ideas at home, will find a range of anti-snoring devices in the specially designed bedrooms. First of all the walls are soundproofed to absorb some of the sound and help eliminate the reverberation of snoring. The beds also have a special sound-absorbing headboard to do the same job closer to the source of the noise.
The silently suffering partner is not forgotten as the rooms have a white noise machine to help drown the noise of snoring and hopefully aid relaxation.
The bed itself has special anti-snoring pillows which uses magnetic fields to stiffen the upper palate and control the mouth’s vibrations during snoring. The snorer will also sleep on an anti-snoring wedge pillow to keep them more upright with less chance of the tongue lolling backwards in sleep, another cause of snoring.
The anti-snoring room may work very well. With all these strange new contraptions, first time users are unlikely to find it easy to drop off to sleep at all.
by Gillian
Business and leisure travelers may soon have something new to worry about before taking their next trip abroad. The debate between balancing security with personal privacy continues as more invasive body scans are rolled out at airports worldwide. The Israelis have always led the way in the field of security and Israeli scientists have come up with a new method of scanning travelers for explosives and drugs.
According to the New Scientist magazine, mice have been specially trained to trigger an alarm when they sense traces of explosives. The developers claim that mice are more accurate than dogs or x-ray machines and less objectionable than traditional patdowns. The mice work in four-hour shifts and are securely contained in concealed cartridges within a full-body scanning chamber.
The device was trialed in a Tel Aviv shopping mall by inventor Eran Lumbroso and his company BioExplorers. The mice correctly identified 22 people carrying mock explosives, but I wonder what the hit rate was for cheese?
If fully developed, this new idea ticks all the right boxes as being cheap, effective and less open to abuse than the full body scanners. However, how will musophobes - those with a fear of mice and rats - feel about being locked in a scanner within inches of small furry creatures? Squeak up!
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
Imagine filling in your business expenses and submitting a sizeable claim for sleeping in a tree-house, an airliner or even a helicopter. These are just some of the contraptions that wacky hotel entrepreneurs have converted into guest rooms with luxury hotel price tags.
Sweden, known for its eco-friendly policies, has had to overcome many problems when it began building its Mirrorcube Tree Hotel hideaway. Reached by a series of inclines and ramps (there is no elevator) the 173-square foot tree house is built around a single tree trunk. The design called for mirrored glass sides so that it reflected the surrounding forests, making it almost invisible. Unfortunately birds and wildlife couldn’t see it either and the glass panels had to be lined with an infrared film visible only to birds. It certainly offers a room with a view.
Those flying into Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport will be hard pushed to spot their novelty hotel known as JumboStay. Parked on the tarmac like any other, the Boeing 747 offers less-than-luxury accommodation in coach class which has been converted into a four-person dormitory, but the upstairs cockpit has been turned into a luxury honeymoon suite. Hopefully the sound-proofing is up to it as aircraft frequently land nearby at this busy international destination.
Costa Rica also found a new use for a retired 727 aircraft whose final resting place is in the treetops. It has been fitted out as a VIP suite. Rather more cramped is the decommissioned Coast Guard helicopter placed in a barn at the Winvian resort in Connecticut. This boutique hotel boasts that every guest room is different, and this idea is probably the most off-the-wall of them all. Other cottages include a log cabin, beaver lodge complete with pond, a greenhouse and even a “Gordon Brown” house.
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
Las Vegas is the epitome of the wealth and success that a gambling Mecca can create. With 19 of the world’s 25 largest luxury hotels, and a total of 124,270 hotel rooms accommodating the 36.7 million annual visitors, it is no wonder that other states and countries look on enviably and want to emulate its success.
Now Russian plans to build its own Las Vegas city - in Siberia. This Last Vegas East will be called the “Siberian Coin” and the proposed site is near the border with China, perhaps the only positive thing going for it, as the Chinese are notorious gamblers.
The planning of a casino in Russia seems to fly in the face of earlier edicts by President Vladimir Putin. He banned casinos in all major cities in Russia in 2009, allowing gambling only in four remote regions, one of which is Siberia. That move was estimated to cost Russia half a million jobs and $1billion in tax revenues. Perhaps he’s having to rethink his hasty decision, which he insisted was to tackle the growing problems of gambling addiction and money laundering which went on within the industry.
Businessweek estimates this audacious new project will cost around $50 billion which will include 15 casinos and 30 hotels. But, will luxury hotels be lured to this risky venture or will they stick with what they are sure of? Certainly the sunny desert climate, infrastructure and available workforce in Las Vegas make the investment in a luxury hotel there far less risky. And currently Siberia is a very long train ride from anywhere.
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
Some luxury hotels offer massage services, some are pet-friendly and some luxury hotels in Las Vegas have seen a new opportunity to combine the two. Their new special offer packages provide both dog owners and their pets with an in-room massage.
This idea comes from the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas as the ultimate for pampered pooches. Promoted as a Paws Massage Package, it costs $150 and provides a 30 minute massage for the owner followed by a similar treatment for the dog – a new take on his ‘n’ hers massages.
The deal includes a dog bed, pet treats and bottled water with a doggy bowl, but with the price of the rub downs, plus room rate (starting at around $189), taxes and gratuities and a non-refundable $200 cleaning fee it is not a cheap afternoon in.
Dog owners apparently thought the massages were a great idea but the dogs made “no comment”.
Most visitors however may find it more relaxing to leave fido at “Camp Bow-Wow” and drop the $600 on a shopping splurge at the Fashion Show Mall just across the road.
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
Airport security hardly seems to stay out of the news, but this catalogue of errors really takes the biscuit.
One JetBlue pilot, who is probably currently filling in job applications by the dozen, was boarding his plane for pre-flight procedures when he set down his backpack to pass the time of day with a fellow crew member. During boarding, a passenger on a different flight picked up her bags, including the pilot’s backpack and got on her plane. Stories of misplaced luggage are an everyday occurrence in airports, but unfortunately this backpack held the pilot’s TSA issued 40-caliber handgun provided, ironically, as part of the Federal Flight Deck Officer Safety Program.
When the passenger realized the backpack was not hers, she set it down on an empty seat on the plane. Fortunately another passenger noticed the “unattended baggage” and reported it to the crew who alerted the authorities.
Meanwhile the pilot was frantically searching high and low for his missing backpack, delaying his own flight in the process. Concerned for his position, he took 40 minutes before ‘fessing up to the airline about the incident, at which point he and his bag/handgun were reunited. However the TSA in their wisdom confiscated his gun whilst conducting an investigation into the incident.
We all make small mistakes at work, and most go unnoticed, but had the backpack continued on its journey, it could have arrived in Florida in the hands of a complete stranger. Imagine explaining that to the Customs officers!
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
Those who have not returned to their pre-holiday trimness may be considering extreme measures to shed those pounds. Consider one of the luxury boot camps which seem to be the new health farms. These luxury wellness retreats have been nicknamed “pamperdomes”, but the going can be tough.
Camp Biche in southwest France looks like a spa and sounds like a vacation, but don’t be fooled. Libby Pratt’s original luxury fitness boot camp – an oxymoron if ever I heard one – promises a “week long house party where you get fit, lose weight, eat delicious vegan food, drink wine and have fun”.
Those who have previously undertaken the challenge have described Camp Biche as one of the best experiences of their life. Guests stay in a gorgeous French manor house and can look forward to an hour-long massage every day. Perhaps after joining in the six yoga classes, Pilates, circuit training, intensive abs classes and long hikes, your aching muscles may need that soothing touch. The blow is softened with delicious gourmet vegan cuisine and a glass of wine whilst promising guests should shed 4.25% of their body fat on average, during a week-long stay. I remain a little skeptical of the weight loss, as I read that Tatler voted Camp Biche “one of the 1001 best spas in the world”.
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
