TrophyCollector

FT "Luxury Hotels" appears to be the most sophisticated hotel forum and the most reliable free-of-charge-source.

As a relative newcomer, I'd be interested to understand the evolution of the forum, from a frequent flyer exchange to a board where Andrew Harper steps out of anonymity and The Tides Hotel Riviera Maya takes extraordinary steps to make unsatisfied guests happy (just to name 2 examples of the last 24 hours).

A question to the old hands: When was FT "Luxury Hotels" started? Who were the driving forces at the time? Who were the gatekeepers that managed to define "luxury - as defined by this forum"? Who is who today ...

I can see that moderators obscure2k and luxury have a long-time role.

Vuittonsofstyle seems to know personally more hotel properties and more management personnel than anyone else. She clearly prefers Four Seasons over historic Grand Dames.

Kagehitokiri seems to outperform anyone on depth, forum memory, research speed, facts and figures. He usually promotes neutrality.

Are there other well-known forum experts in specific areas of "luxury" ... ?

Tanyam99

Well, in comparison with Trophy Collector, I am a real newcomer. I think this forum is most refreshing, informative, vigorous and - frequently - highly entertaining. The only problem is it has already resulted in my booking several more very pricey trips! Would be most interested to know the history too.

QF Lad

Like you TrophyCollector I appreciate the sophistication of this forum. Although many people contribute to this forum, you get to "know" the prefecerences and expectations of a number of the regulars. This has meant that you are able to put their comments into context, and can rely on their advice. In this way this forum is in contract to Tripadvisor where you have no knowledge of other contributors and their expectations of a hotel (or their hotel "quotient"), and where reviews by management of some properties no doubt occur.

This forum is also an excellent resource. Through the use of the "search" funtion you are able to access views and opinions on luxury hotels in every major city in the world and many other tourist spots. I find this a very helpful resource whenever visiting a city for the first time.

The other excellent feature of this forum is the global reach, by both residence and travel habits, of the contributors. We pretty much span the globe. We have also had a number of interesting contributions recently relating to places "off the beaten track".

So please everyone, keep up the good work. May the sophistication and experience of this forum live on.

Raffles

If you go back far enough you will probably find that this forum is actually the unwanted offspring of mainstream FT!

FT was originally focussed on airline miles, and hotel points were the natural expansion from that with a raft of hotel forums and then the ubiquitous 'Other hotels'. My guess (since this forum predates even my 2004 registration I think) is that at some point, a view will have been taken that 'Other hotels' was getting a bit overrun with Four Seasons and Ritz-Calrton queries and that there was some justification in giving them their own forum.

Theoretically, as this forum has absolutely nothing to do with airline miles, hotel loyalty points or any other form of miles or points, it is substantially outside FT's remit! However, as FT attracts a very large crowd who enjoy flying in luxury (even if they don't like paying for it most of the time!) there is a natural audience for a Luxury Hotels forum here as well. There are, though, some people who contribute to this board who do not contribute elsewhere on FT to any large extent and as such it does have a bit of a life of its own.

QF Lad

By doing a google search on "Flyertalk archives Luxury Hotels", you can bring up the first post, which was made on 17 April 2002 by Dynasty who started a thread about the Four Seasons Shanghai.

You are correct Raffles in saying that this forum does attract a number of contributors who do not contribute in other forums. There is an emphasis in the Luxury Hotel forum of the "Best experience", with cost being a secondary consideration. And many of the Luxury Hotel experiences discussed on this board have to be paid with cash - miles/ points are often not an option at many of the hotels we post about.

TrophyCollector

Thanks! Good research.

Kagehitokiri

relevant old threads >
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...l-section.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...ite-forum.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...direction.html

ascending by thread start >
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxury-hotels-220/?pp=25&sort=dateline&order=asc&daysprune=-1'

historical >
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/htt...orum/Forum55/*
http://web.archive.org/web/20021004234706/http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forumcgi/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Luxury+Hotels &number=55&DaysPrune=5&LastLogin=

hope all is well for the great posters that have not posted in a while

personally >

vuittonsofstyle

This is the ONLY forum that I have ever contributed to on FlyerTalk because I really appreciate the knowledge and breadth of travel by fellow posters. The Luxury Hotels forum is not only entertaining, but is also incredibly informative. I have great respect for the majority of people who write here.

By the way, Trophy, I do not have an aversion to historic Grandes Dames as opposed to Four Seasons - just an aversion to poor service and food. There are, for instance, some historic Grandes Dames that I actually prefer over Four Seasons - Mumbai being a case in point.

bearbrick

kageh.....are you also half high speed computer ?.....how in the world can you remember all those past posts !!!.......very impressive !.....@:-)

MarshKing

Wow -- that name is a blast from the past. He certainly had a great number of contributions in the realm of luxury travel.

Your link that gives the 2002 view of this forum = very cool!

paul2

I agree Kage I too hope all is well with the previously regular posters missing for a while and thanks for the link to the original threads.

Can you comment further on B Watson,I am intrigued after reading so many old posts!

Ericka

Who knew this forum had so much history? Time flies!

Kagehitokiri

Pickles tried to (thanks ^) but its apparently not allowed. ill send you/others a PM. anyone can PM me.

TrophyCollector

I would find it interesting to learn more about the individual poster's travel style.

It makes a difference if an FT member

* frequents luxury hotels mostly for business travel
* is the spouse of a business traveller organizing private holidays or weekends
* seeks info for the occasional splurge
* is a constant private traveller / gallivanter
* is a hotel history & literature buff
* seeks a certain crowd or peer-group or high-level contacts
* stays preferrably in the best suite or villas
* is addicted to one specific hotel brand (e.g. "Amanjunkie")
* is motivated by service or food or design or surroundings or ...

Knowing those differences would soften some of the arguments and strengthen the community, don't you think so too?


Could it be a good idea if the FT "Luxury Hotel" regulars describe their travel style in short words, so it can be looked up for newcomers and future reference, but they still remain as anonymous as they want to be?

Let me try to give it a start. I am not the guy who cries if nobody follows


TrophyCollector has been a business traveller (paid by the client) for 20 years with worldwide stays at the Hilton/Sofitel/Radisson level and frequent attendance of events at famous hotel institutions and Grande Dames. A strong interest in those hotels' history & literature developed into a private hobby to "collect" famous hotels. The collector spirit grew beyond hotels to collecting countries. Private travelling is now almost a full-time job. TrophyCollector is content with the basic room category, not overly allergic to bad service, seeks authenticity, history and "soul" in a hotel and tries to be in the local Nr. 1 in order to meet the best crowd. Beautiful lobbies, ideally with a corner for cigar smokers make him very happy. TrophyCollector dislikes corporate mediocrity and favours the South-East-Asian Amans, some Taj and most Oberois in India, CCAfrica / &beyond, Serena, Exploras and anything that is hard and dangerous to reach.

DrivingRain

This thread prompted me to wonder when I first stopped by this forum.

It looks like March 2003. A good number of the folks from that time are still around.