Balancing the variables when it comes to real luxury
 

There are a number of criteria at play when choosing a true luxury hotel or resort:

Region
Where
Duration
Season
Category room/suite
Points or cash or combo?
Is it Aman?
How often do you invoke high-end luxe travel?
Which leads to: are willing to pay mega bucks?

I'll start, shall I?

Region: not Asia
Where -- usually Western Europe, the Americas, maybe Tahiti
Duration: for the purpose of this exercise let's say six nights
Season -- variable
Category room/suite -- close to highest end
Points or cash or combo? -- cash
Is it Aman? -- nope
How often do you invoke high-end luxe travel? -- at this level, twice or thrice yearly
Which leads to: are willing to pay megabucks? Often

I aim to stay at my first choice properties whenever I travel. The exception would be when choosing an hotel based on convenience, or if I feel that the best hotels in a city are a poor value proposition. If I will not be on property much and just need a place to sleep, I will sometimes scale back to four star hotels.

Region: Mostly Asia Pacific, North America, Europe.

Some locations are made for Aman, but in many others I will choose Four Seasons, Soneva, MO, Taj, etc... Or independently owned hotels/resorts.

If I feel that I will really enjoy the experience, I am often willing to spend whatever it takes to get what I want. I try my best to negotiate and look for good deals.

I don't know how to do that beyond the usual Virtuoso, etc., sort. And, truth to tell, since i travel at the highest level two/three times a year, I guess I'd just rather pay up front. Not that I would not want to save some bucks but my time is worth a lot and I have no savvy in this regard.

Oh, I pay the going rate for hotels and resorts. What I mean is that I try, within reason, to maximize value add and try to target high value upgrades. I often try to negotiate confirmed upgrades if possible.

Region: Asia Pacific
Where: mainly Korea and Japan
Duration: Never and rarely beyond a week
Season: All
Category room/suite: Depends but usually highest category room or suite.
Points or cash or combo? usually plastic.
Is it Aman? The first time in Otamachi wasn't the charm but I would love to try the beach getaway ones. I tend to stick to the ultra high-end when possible because my home city doesn't have any of those brands so there's MO, FS, Shangri-la, RC, etc.
How often do you invoke high-end luxe travel? Most of the time but sometimes have to scale back due to local conditions, location and/or work considerations.
Which leads to: are willing to pay mega bucks? Well, yes, that's the way to get all the variables in your favor. However, I'm only willing to pay for quality and expect reasonable service recovery when those megabucks expectations are dashed.

Region: APAC
Where: SE Asia, China, HK
Duration: 4 days max
Season: usually spring and fall
Category room/suite: club room, if no executive lounge, basic room with view
Points or cash or combo?: $
Is it Aman? Hell no. I Can't justify spending that much. See last question for details.
How often do you invoke high-end luxe travel? I don't understand why "invoke" is used here. Two-three international vacations a year, many for business, many domestic vacation.
Which leads to: are willing to pay mega bucks? For a good hotel - yes. For a good location - yes. For an "authentic" "experience" (sarcastic finger quotes) - no. Because I know locals who can show me the most authentic of experiences, I'm not willing to pay $1000+ for some hotel staff to show me how to write Chinese characters with a horse hair pen.

^^^

Region: Anywhere
Where: I like mountains, cities and beaches. I would absolutely choose location over the presence of a luxury hotel, but hopefully the stars can align and I can get both with miles for flights. But that takes a lot of work!
Duration: Usually 1 week in the fall, sometimes winter, 2 weeks spring and 3-5 weeks in the summer
Season
Category room/suite: Usually the cheapest
Points or cash or combo? Usually miles for flights and pay for rooms
Is it Aman? Sometimes. Going to Bagh, Kora, Taka, Sara, Walla, Galla, and maybe Jena in the next year.
How often do you invoke high-end luxe travel? Almost never. Fregate has been the only high end place we've gone, but Luacaula is on the radar.
Which leads to: are willing to pay mega bucks? Nope. Don't have the money!

I travel sometimes for a month or more at a time, so sometimes stay more expensive hotels/resorts for half of the time, and then balance that by staying at four star properties (which are still quite nice as I choose carefully). I find that doing that on long trips does not feel like much of a compromise, as I still have a lot of time at very nice hotels.

Re "megabucks" - I have never spent what I would consider megabucks, which would be upwards of $5k/night or so. I will some day when I have the budget and know that a certain villa or suite will be worth it for me.

The question of mega-bucks is purely subjective. decline, you say you won't spend mega bucks, yet to a lot of people staying in an Aman would fall under that criteria. Staying in 7 Aman's would definitely fall into that criteria for 99.8% of people. I'm staying at Iniala and North Island at Christmas and end of April respectively and for me they are large sums of money, yet to someone else it's inconsequential. If asked me two years ago to spend that sort of money on a hotel I'd have responded with several four letter words of disgust, whereas now I'm ok with it; I would have said any Aman would have fallen into mega-bucks only a few years ago.

Region: Anywhere
Where: Nothing specific - cities, mountains, beaches - everything has it´s charme
Duration: Totally different, normally not much more than 3 weeks
Season: Depends on location
Category room/Suite: I had a "Suite only" policy so far. Perhaps I should think about it....
Points or cash or combo?: Hotels always cash, Flights Points if possible but often I have to pay
Is it Aman?: Only stayed at 1 Aman (Amangiri) and wasn´t really impressed. Would like to do some other Amans, but not sure when it will be. One Problem is, that I prefer separated bed- and livingroom, which is often not Aman-like. Also if I pay Aman-Prices I expect a private pool at resorts. But if you have to pay 500 or more $ additional per night only to have your own pool it´s simply not worth it. But I can´t really stand to stay in a room without for money-reasons;)
How often do you invoke high-end luxe travel? If I travel and high-end is available I normally take it.
Which leads to: are willing to pay mega bucks? Willing yes, able is another thing:(. In general I have no problem to spend a lot of money, but In woudn´t for example pay 3000 or 4000 $ for a suite in Monte Carlo or Cap Ferrat. Perhaps for North Island or something like this.

Region - anywhere but I'm particularly enjoying travel in Asia these days
Where - not specific, tends to be driven by the kind of holiday I feel like having at the time
Season - solo or with friends usually spring or autumn; family holidays in summer or winter
Room category - depends on the hotel, whether upgrades are available etc. If there is a club lounge I usually choose at least a club level room.
Points/cash - points/cash for flights, cash for accommodation
Is it Aman - no reason why it should be; depends on the location
Preference for luxury - yes if available but lack of luxury would not stop me from choosing a particular destination
Mega bucks? Too subjective to be meaningful. If I think it's mega-bucks I'm probably looking at a room category I can't afford! :)

Region - anywhere
Where - anywhere. my partner and i have started travelling in recent years so we still have a lot to tick off our lists!
Duration - short haul - 4-5 days; long haul 1-2 weeks
Season - any, it really depends when we can get time off work. this will influence where we go and what kind of holiday we want at the time
Category room/suite - majority of locations suites.
Points or cash or combo? cash
Is it Aman? have no yet stayed at any Aman resorts, but looking at staying in some when we go to Asia next year.
How often do you invoke high-end luxe travel? whenever we travel
Which leads to: are willing to pay mega bucks? that will obviously differ from person to person. however, im willing to pay more for certain places compared to others.

short & infrequent - have spent megabucks
when good low season discount, will do it
(when fixed annual rate - absolute peak)
cash, no points from business or spend

i think i will choose countryside over beach
agree i prefer luxury outside expensive cities

aman has no brand competition, it appeals
(including property scale and occupancy)
i definitely look forward to aman venice

some agents will do it for their clients
one of few posted examples of negotiation >
~67% off 2nd best suite at peninsula bangkok

high value upgrades are basically the only reason ill use an agent
when i refer to upgrades im interested in, always mean high value
i agree with many here, i will pay for / dont care about low value

stereotypes (applies to luxury hotels) more than the reality
how one values property scale and occupancy is huge factor

fregate, laucala, kora (safari?) = megabucks
although sometimes theres zero additional cost

even rooms (not suites) can be megabucks
for villas ive done both 'cheap' and expensive

north and laucala are the only ~$5K properties
though others can have huge holiday premiums

great idea for thread, in terms of the specific things listed in OP
prior discussion was more general http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...ry-hotels.html

Region: Anywhere but prefer places convenient from HK

Where: Less beaches these days as I find them boring

Duration: 1 X 2-3 week long vacation and 2 X 4-7 days shorter one

Season: during school holidays

Category room/suite: prefer those that can fit 4, otherwise a room with decent size

Points or cash or combo? Points for flights if possible and plastic for hotels

Is it Aman? Never been to one but I guess Trisara is similar?

How often do you invoke high-end luxe travel? Always pick the location first and then look at the top properties for that location. As I almost always travel with kids, I want to stay at the best properties without being over the top. I want to travel well without spoiling them

Which leads to: are willing to pay mega bucks? Not sure what mega bucks is these days anymore as there are plenty of hotels that charge US$1k+ per night and we do splurge if it is worthwhile