As a former MBB Consultant (slang for the big 3 strategy firms), I'd agree with Kat as far as my own personal preferences and experiences go. I remember meeting with someone in global brand mgt for the Park Hyatt brand which had taken a view that their kind of luxury is only really doable at 150 rooms or below. I don't know if that's still a Park Hyatt brand standard, but it seems a good number to me, and is coincidentally the same as the number of people which in behavioural psychology move you from being in a small to a large business (e.g. where people would say hello to a new colleague in the lift).

I can totally see that one can be expensive and large (for some reason the Middle East and the Ritz Carlton brand are two things which come up), but the elements of luxury which I value more than gold-leaf faucets are around personalisation and a feeling of attentiveness by staff - that is very difficult to do in mega hotels unless they're being clever about segmenting (different towers, different sub-hotels, club areas, etc.). Is this perhaps why some Ritz Carlton Club Floors are so well received by those so inclined? They're actually in many ways 25 room hotels with the associated service level, but in a big corporate building in a major city.