Ozchinois

Received my pair of Tiffany champagne flutes courtesy of Leading Hotels celebrating their 80th anniversary. I love their special functions and they do it in style, limo transfers, great venues combined with a sumptuous meal, fine wines, entertainment and gifts. My favourite is when there are about 20 hotels participating and they each have a stand. Once I was seated next to an Italian gentleman whose family owns the lhw in Amalfi. Any other similar programs out there?

Raffles

Design Hotels do 'showcase receptions' occasionally if you get on their e-mail list - usual mix of champagne and canapes hosted by a member hotel in your city.

LHW also do similar receptions in London, although I've never been to anything where I got a full meal!

Flyr

Do LHW still do the showcase events?
I am a Leaders Club member (base level membership - no fee) and the last event I was invited to was well over a year ago and have had no invites since - which is worrying as I quite enjoy the events.
Could this be due to the fact that I haven't actually utilised my Leaders Club membership? I swear I mean to, its just that each time I stay at a LHW property I get better rates by dealing with the hotel directly (and more often than not also receive an upgrade anyway).
Or is it possibly due to my lowly non-fee paying status? I've certainly never received any gift from Tiffany's - I think a scented candle was as much as I have recieved from them!!
I used to work in the tourism industry and attended quite a few fabulous events at many of the Firmdale chain of hotels (London only) - I think if you utilise the events space at many of these hotels or are a VERY regular customer you get all the invites.

Ozchinois

Thanks Raffles but there are no Design Hotels in Sydney. The lhw functions in Sydney are all silver service at fabulous venues. The next is at the Sydney Opera House forecourt. I don't think you need to be access level to be invited, you just need to spend a certain amount through lhw. As you know that's how they make money through commissions and membership fees. I find some lhw hotels charge the same rate on their own website, some do charge lower and oddly sometimes higher.
Don't know if the Tiffany glasses were just in the Asia Pac region but the condition was simply to make a booking before 31/07/2008.