Proudelitist

I do find that the ratings systems are usually pretty broad and generally unstandardized. I tend to go by the Michelin ratings.

That said, the expectations tend to be higher so the disappointments are more common.

I have been surprised by some chains. Hyatt in particular. I once stayed in a high end Hyatt in Denver. The toilet paper was 1 ply, my lamp was broken and the tub wasn't draining properly. That room was 243 dollars a night. Meanwhile, over in Oklahoma City I stayed at one of their lower end properties, a Hyatt Place. Everything was perfect, clean and well equipped. That room was 110 a night.

The really high end places such as exclusive resorts tend to deliver what they promise, provided you are prepared for ridiculous fees tacked on. The rooms are great, the bedding is comfortable, the service is wonderful. Still, you have to wonder why a 400 a night place cannot provide free, fast wifi while a whore-ridden 40 dollar a night Days Inn by the airport can.

I tend to be most pleased with the mid-high places that offer all around clean , modern rooms at reasonable rates. I guess you could call them 3 stars. The new model Holiday Inns are pretty good.

darthbimmer

That's the problem right there. You talk about high-end places but then you start talking price. Expensive is not the same as high-end. I've paid $400+/night plenty of times in NYC for an ordinary, 2.5 to 3 star hotel. The first time or two I was disappointed-- but that came from my unwarranted expectations. "For this kind of money I should be treated like a king!" Wrong. The fact that the same price will buy a posh suite in some other city is irrelevant.

Qwkynuf

This is probably going to run long, so the summary is "No one is responsible for your expectations but you."

Here are two opposite examples from my experience:

Many years ago, I was moving from Alabama to Washington state. I was driving alone, with a U-Haul trailer, west on I-10 and then north on I-5. I was pretty young, and on a very tight budget - but I had misjudged how severely the trailer would impact my gas mileage. By Texas, I realized that "the plan" was out the window, and everything was going to have to be secondary to gas money. I decided to drive as many hours per day as possible, sleep in the car, and skip meals. At about 9pm, I pulled off the freeway into a little nothing town somewhere in New Mexico, planning to find a place off the road to park my car & trailer and grab a nap. I pass a little motor-court motel with a sign out front that advertises "Rooms - $7"

How horrible could it be? I thought. This was 1988, so it was going to cost me about 2 meals at McDonald's to try it out. In today's money, it would probably work out to $13-$14.

When I checked in, they directed me to a place to park where I could back my trailer up against a wall, so that my stuff would be safe. The room itself was more or less what you would expect. No phone. No TV. It didn't even have a tub. The shower was a 4'x4' tiled area with a chest high wall separating it from the rest of the bathroom. The worst part was that the shower head came out of a 4" hole in the wall, about 5 feet from the floor. I am only 5'9", and I had to get on my knees to rinse the shampoo from my hair!

But.... when I turned back the covers on the bed, I discovered starched, ironed cotton sheets - and one of the most comfortable mattresses I have ever slept on. It was magnificent!

On the other end of the price spectrum, many years later I decided to splurge by taking my wife to Seattle for a long weekend to celebrate her birthday. We were much better off than I was back in the day, but still a long way from wealthy.

I wanted it to be special for her, and decided that most of the budget would go toward a high end hotel. I did a bunch of research, checking prices, looking for deals, etc. Some were clearly out of our price range - the W, Four Seasons, Edgewater for example. I found a coupon deal for the Renaissance that was going to work out to about $180/night (2001 dollars). I didn't tell her where we were staying - the nice hotel was going to be a birthday surprise.

The day finally came, and I ended up having to work late. got home about 6pm and still had to finish packing and drive to Seattle from just outside of Portland. We arrive at the hotel, hand the car off to the valet, and go to the front desk to check in.

Where they are very sorry that they "don't have a record of my reservation". Not only that, they claim that not only do they not have a room at that price, they claim that they have *never* had a room at that price.

I'm tired. and I'm pissed. I just drove for almost 4 hours after working for 10, and now they are trying to weasel out of my reservation which priced out at nearly a 50% discount on the room that I reserved. I managed to not yell, but I don't know how.

I asked them if they had any rooms available -"yes". I asked how much it would cost me - their least expensive room was $350 per night. I told them that I would take that, but only for one night, and only because I was exhausted and beyond dealing with it. But I assured them that I would be moving out in the morning.

in the elevator, as we were finally going to my room, I realized that I had my laptop with me, and that as soon as I could get internet I could get into my email and find the confirmation - and I was going to go back down to the desk and really let them have it.

So, I find the email, and call my wife over - "See? Right here. Renaissance Seattle, $180 per night, 3 nights starting tonight."

Wife says "Honey, this is the Four Seasons."

Yep, I went to the wrong hotel and tried to check in.

So I called down to the front desk (SO relieved that I didn't make a scene earlier) and explained about the mistake that I had made. I told them that I appreciate them accommodating me, and that we would check out and move the the Renaissance the next day.

About 5 minutes later (close to midnight by now) there is a subtle knock on our door. It was the assistant General Manager, who apologized profusely for the "confusion" - like it was somehow his fault that I am a dumbass - He said that "for our trouble, he could reduce our room rate to $240", though he couldn't match the rate for the other hotel. He also said that he could extend that rate for the duration of our trip if we wanted to avoid the hassle of packing and moving, and that he would personally contact the Renaissance and cancel our reservation for us if that's what we chose.

The extra $60/night wasn't trivial for us back then, but we opted to stay because of the dignity that they treated us with (even if they laughed like crazy at me once they were back in the break room).

Two other things that really made them stand out - over the 4 days that we stayed there, every single time we went outside, the doorman greeted me with "Good morning/afternoon/evening, My Qwkynuf, will you be needing your car?" - even though I never once told him my name. One afternoon as we were walking around Seattle, I mentioned to my wife that I had had a favorite restaurant when I lived there as a child. On the way back into the hotel, I stopped at the concierge desk and said "When I lived here back in the 1970s, there used to be a restaurant near the University called Ivar's Salmon House. Is it still around?" She said "Absolutely - would you like for me to make you a reservation"?

In the amount of time that it took us to cross the lobby, ride the elevator to our floor, and make our way to our room, the concierge had somehow managed to make us a reservation, print it out, put it in an envelope, and slide it under our door before we got there.

In short, it's the service that makes it a high-end hotel, not the price.

gfunkdave

The only hotels I've stayed at where I was wowed were:

• Aman i Khas, India
• Silky Oaks Lodge, Australia

The JW Marriott in Bangkok was certainly very nice, but definitely not in the same class as the above two. And really, the Aman was a few notches more amazing than Silky Oaks. But that was mainly because of our personal butler and the fact that there were only about a dozen "rooms".

Otherwise, all mainline Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, W, Westin, etc properties are all pretty interchangeable to me.

And TOTALLY agree with the above sentiment that it's the service that makes a high end hotel.

ou81two

Mostly they're disappointing because i have to pay an amenity fee, internet fee, water bottle fee, buy the snack I accidentally knocked off of the magnetic minibar, towel fee, gym fee, etc.

A luxury hotel with Hampton Inn level of service would be nice.

pinniped

I've stayed in some excellent luxury-level boutique hotels that didn't go fee-crazy. Internet/breakfast/parking included in rate...sometimes even an extra like an afternoon reception with wine. (Granted, these places are often very much on the small inn or B&B end of the spectrum. The big-hotel amenities that sometimes generate fees simply are not there.)

I think the fee-nuttiness appears mostly in the chain hotels either (a) in resort areas where they have a captive audience or (b) cities where they know the hotel is full of business travelers who don't care about the costs.

isocblrg

The whores need the Internet to book their next John, and represents enough repeat business to influence the hotel pricing policy?

cblaisd

Similar to my experience with Hilton HHonors properties. Downtown Hilton hotels, often catering to the convention trade, often have tiny rooms, and you get nickel-and-dimed for everything. Given the choice between most (not all, but most) Hiltons and a Hilton Garden Inn, I will take the latter everytime (and will take a Hampton Inn and Suites almost every time) over the Hilton. Those properties normally have free coffee (not $11/pot room service), free parking, free internet, and free breakfast (for Golds/Diamonds, anyway, at the HGIs).

s0ssos

Problem is "expensive" is not definable.

Say, in Siem Reap a hotel $200 is very expensive, given it is 20 times the price of the cheap one I stayed in. That means for a hotel in NYC to be expensive it has to be $2000 (considering a cheap hotel is $100). I'm sure if you think about it, that is ridiculously expensive, even in NYC.

But, as you say, going by absolute amount isn't accurate either, because price depends on location.

So, how do you define your expectations? Reviews on Tripadvisor? Name of hotel/brand?

s0ssos

Is it because mainline chains have rules and guidelines? I don't mean it facetiously, because Four Seasons and Aman are still chains.

I agree with the service, but I think that is because the hard-product at most high-end places is up to snuff, while the soft product isn't (I don't know why we don't use that term also in hotels, as compared to flights)

Annalisa12

That's what I thought too. It's just what you are used too.

Annalisa12

I agree. I would rather pay $550 a night all inclusive than $500 PLUS $50 for internet or some other feel. I guess it's all in the perception.

Duke787

I've had mixed experiences with high-end hotels.

For me it usually comes down to service. The best hotels pick up every little detail even if you don't explicitly mention it (and they remember those details when you stay in the future).

For example when I stayed at the PH Sydney, my bags were heavy with wine I'd picked up in New Zealand and Australia. I apologized to the porters taking the bags out of the taxi for the weight citing the wine. The next night a nice bottle of Australian Shiraz was left for me in the room with a note from the manager. He mentioned that he "heard I was big wine fan and he wanted me to try one of his personal favorites from the hotel collection"

That right there is what makes a high-end hotel a high-end hotel. The finishes, the beds, etc., are all fairly standard but it is the personal service and attention to detail that really takes a hotel from being just another expensive hotel to being a truly high-end hotel.

matrixwalker2012

These days where you can google for everything on your smartphone, the need for a lot of that service is eliminated, especially for me. For me now, my idea of luxury is giving me all the tools to do things the way I want. Example is Hilton digital key. With it, I can zip into my room with everything already prepared for me, do what I need to do, and then, in the morning, zip out at my leisure all without having to interact with any staff.

With the app, I can have all my preferences saved to my profile so that when I arrive, the room is already set up to the way I like it. No need to call for room service to deliver X and Y to me.

Luxury service of yesteryear was a value add because it was a great source for information and it also proactively took care of a lot of things. Now, with Google in our pocket, the luxury service is more of a nuisance and becoming more and more obsolete. Eventually with self driving Teslas, the valet will become obsolete as well, as I can command my Tesla to meet me wherever the heck I may be , on top of that, I don't have to tip my Tesla!

mikew99

You and I might not see eye to eye on some things, but on this issue, we agree completely! My travel is 100% leisure, so it's my choice if I go or not. If I can't stay in a place that's nicer than my home (which I'm already paying for), then I'd rather stay at home.

In general, I'm cheap, and I try to get away with paying as little as possible for hotels, but I'm almost never disappointed by splurging on a well-reviewed luxury hotel that's more expensive than I'd like. Conversely, when I try to save money and go for a bargain-priced value hotel, I inevitably regret it and wish that I hadn't been so cheap.

And for the record, I don't care a lot about "fancy" lobbies and such, but I do value English-speaking employees, twice-daily (and on-demand) room cleaning, and clean, well-appointed rooms with sofas and luxurious bathrooms.