SanDiego1K

I was intrigued to see that Maserati is a sponsor of the Caresse Hotel in Bodrum. Pashminas are draped over chairs on cool evenings that have both the Maserati and Caresse names embroidered on them. A building on the beach level has the Maserati name on it. During the season, guests are met with Maseratis for the airport transfer. Is it common for luxury cars to link up with hotels?

hannisen

I've never seen it done like that, but hotels that have house cars usually have a financial relationship with the car maker. The fact that the house car at Four Seasons London at Park Lane is a Rolls Royce, which is standing outside the hotel pretty much as an ad, is not a coincidence.

It would be interesting to know how such deals are structured.

RichardInSF

Seems rather like stadium naming rights, a source of a little bit of extra revenue for the hotel. Unless, that is, there is an ownership tie or an attempt at reflected glory.

Does the Peninsula chain get anything from Rolls Royce for using their cars for airport transfers?

FlyingDoctorwu

Not sure if it's a sponsorship but more of a tie in at some places like Blackberry Farm with Lexus and BMW with Amangiri which allow you to take a vehicle out for a couple hours. We had a 6 series convertible when we were at Amangiri which was fun... but no signs of towels or any other branding really...

FDW

scented

I wrote about this a number of years back when Park Hyatt Dubai had the glorious idea to sell out to Audi during Ramadan, which resulted in comical conditions. I consider this sort of marketing tacky. They had Audi logos on the tables in the restaurants and a car mock-up standing in the driveway, illuminated at night. Yikes...

It is wonderful if a hotel sports a luxurious car fleet but please don't do logos or marketing. I love advertising but anything being advertised is dead to me.

My experience with this industry is quite limited but from personal experience with the brand I do not believe that RR would pay FS to have a Ghost standing around. Very unlikely -- they just don't have to put up with that kind of marketing. My guess would be that FS got favorable leasing rates and conditions.

Yes, a huge invoice.

IIRC HK billionaire Stephen Hung placing the biggest RR order ever for his Macau casino hotel didn't get him much of a discount.

Ericka

The St. Regis New York has the "Bentley" "Tiffany" and "Dior" suites.

And the Ocean House in RI has a small outdoor bar/cafe co-sponsored by Veuve Clicquot. Lots of their cool orange packaging and a menu full of champagne cocktails and specialty bottles.

MikeFromTokyo

St. Regis hotels often have Bentley house cars. St. Regis Florence promotes tours of Tuscany using the vehicles. Some StR have co branded themed suites called Bentley Suites. I know New York and Istanbul have them.

LM225

A few weeks ago, I was looking at the Hotel Wailea (the new-ish Relais & Chateaux property on Maui), and noticed this rate:

Rates were equal to BAR.

Raffles

I have seen this in Germany at 5-star A-Rosa hotels - even the room keys were BMW branded.

MSPeconomist

It's not true luxury, but let's not forget that Acura had a deal with most W hotels in the USA for years, where there would be free Acura car service within about three miles for hotel guests. The promotion would be advertised in the lobby, often with a special desk to book the rides. During the ride, you were asked to fill out an optional market survey about your plans to buy a new car and your impression of Acura.

The Raffles property in Beverly Hills provided similar car service to guests, but with a local car service using Cadillacs that all had DIVA-number license plates.

Related but somewhat OT is the way a number of airlines offer rides across the tarmac to certain HVC, for example DL started this with Porsche, IIRC UA now does this with Audi, and LH uses Mercedes at MUC and especially to go to and from the FCT at FRA, etc. with different airlines being associated with different luxury car brands. [Beyond DL, I might have the brands confused, but I'm sure someone here can correct these details.]

scented

True -- and LH isn't charged for these cars by Porsche and Mercedes.

MikeFromTokyo

Air France usese Infiniti (Nissan) branded cars at CDG for F pax

Ericka

Lots of these car brand partnerships. Just in the last week, I stumbled on Ocean House/Mercedes and Blackberry Farm/Lexus.

MSPeconomist

I'm surprised they didn't pick a French brand.

vuittonsofstyle

The Ritz-Carlton Wolfsburg is "Germany’s most prosperous city and home to Volkswagen’s worldwide headquarters" - I guess you can't get more blatant than that! http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/germany/wolfsburg