Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Hotel Heaven: Confessions of a Luxury Hotel Addict by Random House.
Hotel Heaven: Confessions of a Luxury Hotel Addict will transport you to far-flung destinations, deluxe hotel suites, stylish hotel lobbies, and glamorous jet-set life, where you sip cocktails with multi-millionaires, share lifts with movie stars and eavesdrop on celebrities.
“A truly good luxury hotel cannot hide its brilliance, no more than a fake one can mask its incompetence.”
Award-winning travel writer and journalist Matthew Brace knows what he talks about. As a five-star hotel reviewer, he has visited the most fascinating and luxurious places around the globe for more than a decade. We all have addictions, for Matthew it’s luxury hotels. From Paris, London and Venice, to Bangkok, New York and Bali.
Matthew gives an honest, personal account of 80-odd hotels which all encompass what a real luxury hotel should be: “memorable, character-filled, efficient, chic and fun.” His hilarious stories include fashion crimes in first-class airport lounges, celebrity hunting in Beverly Hills, and how he finds himself face to face with a hyena in Stanley’s Camp in Botswana. Not to mention a funny incident involving ‘a smooth fluffy dog of toy’ in Buenos Aires. Or what really plays out by a hotel’s swimming pool.
“Australians think it bizarre and unnatural for a luxury hotel not to have a swimming pool because it is such an integral part of their home culture. Germans really do like sneaking around shortly before dawn and spreading their towels on loungers by the pool to ensure they get a seat in the sun. English people like removing them.”
Matthew also finds answers to questions we can’t help but wonder about. Do real-life guests receive the same service as celebrities and travel writers? Will you get a limo from the airport even though your name isn’t Pierce Brosnan?
History inclined readers will appreciate the chapters on traditional British hotels such as Brown’s, Savoy, Claridge’s, The Ritz and The Goring. Fans of Jimi Hendrix, Dylan Thomas, William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol can enjoy tales from these legends’ former hang-out in New York — the infamous Chelsea Hotel.
Hotel Heaven takes in high-tech, future-lux, eco-luxe, the best pet-friendly hotels, romantic hotels, and — my favorite part — the best butler in Bali. This butler’s excellent assistance speaks volumes about how a top-notch luxury hotel should be, because (no matter the state of luxury) a guest’s experience very much rely on the service of the staff.
When I had finished reading the book, I contacted Matthew Brace to learn more about the world of luxury hotels and his work as a hotel reviewer.
Erica Johansson: I read that you first stayed in a luxury hotel during a family vacation at age 13. What made you decide to finally start reviewing them?
Matthew Brace: I was a foreign correspondent for years, for the UK national newspapers, and often stayed in rather ordinary hotels while on assignments. I was also a travel writer but for the budget end of the market so it was one-star all the way. Then a great friend of mine, the London Evening Standard’s film critic Alexander Walker, told me to ‘upgrade’ myself and start writing travel and hotel reviews for the stylish magazines such as Tatler and Harpers & Queen. Suddenly the doors to the world’s most opulent hotels opened.
You probably get this question (too) many times. Which is your favorite hotel? Or let’s put it this way, if you could return to any hotel suite in the world, which would you choose?
I’m torn between a private villa at the Club at the Legian in Bali and a suite at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles. Can I have both please, for about two weeks each!? These are the properties I really miss the most. I also adore Singapore, and long to check back in to a Palladian Suite at the Fullerton.
Have you ever considered reviewing hotels in the pretence of being a regular guest, without revealing you’re a travel writer?
I have done this a lot in the past and still do occasionally. I cannot do it more often because a) budgets at magazines have tightened meaning editors rarely fund lavish hotel stays for reviewers, and b) I am not a millionaire so cannot afford to stay in them at my own expense. However, I have a problem with the whole ‘Truth in Travel’ philosophy that says all reviews must be anonymously conducted. It heavily implies that professional reviewers like me can be ‘bought’ by limos and expensive champagne. The real truth is that any genuine professional travel writer can see through the hype and examine the hotel at face value. I may get a Rolls Royce at my disposal and a much Krug as I can drink but if the hotel is not up to par I shall say so – or simply refuse to write a review at all. I have done that.
You write you have a cause of hotel kleptomania, but — I must ask — what about your conscience? I once took an issue of Travel+Leisure, and another time a Crabtree & Evelyn shampoo bottle, from a luxury hotel in London and had such bad conscience about it I actually considered returning or replacing them. (I never did by the way.)
Erica, come travelling with me and we’ll come home with a suitcase so full of soap and shampoo and gifts that we could open our own stand in Covent Garden market.
I don’t think many guests realise just what they can take from a hotel room. If you have a bathroom full of Hermes cosmetics they are yours to take. So take them, all of them, every day, and once the cleaners have been in, voila, a new set is there. You don’t need a conscience – you’ve paid for these things; it’s factored in to the room rate. Of course, if you are planning to steal paintings and furniture, then yep, you have a problem and should seek professional counselling immediately!
Atlantis on Paradise Island
How do you view the future for luxury hotels? I am mostly thinking about the popularity of the new minimalist design hotels versus the traditional, often extravagant luxury hotels.
In my book ‘Hotel Heaven’ I have a chapter on design hotels and another on the extravagant ones. The concept of design hotels has been around for some time, since 1960 really when the first design hotel the Radisson SAS Royal in Copenhagen opened (designed throughout by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen). I love that hotel, especially the new corner suites with the swan chairs and the views over fabulous Copenhagen. I think design hotels will continue to be popular but the future lies in increased exclusivity – wealthy hotel guests want more and more privacy and personal service so expect to see more private island retreats and exclusive suites and villa resorts. You have all the luxuries you can hope for in a resort – now the trick is to have them all to yourself and banish the other guests.
Last, if you had all the time and money in the world, where would you like to travel?
When I was researching ‘Hotel Heaven’ I had the great pleasure of interviewing the visionary Dutch architect Hans-Jurgen Rombaut who has designed (on paper) the first hotel for the Moon – called The Lunatic. I may be almost 90 when they build the hotel but I’d love to check in.
More down to earth – I would love to recreate the Grand Tour of Europe which I have always thought the height of elegant luxury travel. I would spend at least two months travelling with my wife by private jet, private train carriage and yacht through France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and the Mediterranean. We would explore the numerous layers of strata laid down by centuries of civilisation, fly in good friends for weekends and parties, and of course stay in the most glamorous hotels, resorts and private houses.
Hotel Heaven can be purchased through Amazon.co.uk.
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To the point and an excellent article.