Kagehitokiri

breakfast can sometimes be included as benefit via travel agency

uber requires you to have smartphone? how would hotel know?
also taxis (including ubertaxi) are not uncommon, plus uberblack

Skatering

This particular hotel had its own executive car service, with an 'expectation' that you'd want to use them. So to wait outside for an Uber involved telling at least three hotel employees you'd arranged your own transportation, followed by incredulous looks.

pinniped

I've never had a hotel give me strange looks for arranging my own transportation, and this includes St. Regis and Ritz that may have had house cars waiting nearby.

There are many reasons a traveler would arrange their own car at all quality levels of hotel. For example, we use the same company for all of our Manhattan-to/from-airport travel. It would be frowned upon if I jumped in the hotel's car at 2x-3x the cost of what we already have negotiated.

Kagehitokiri

could easily be attitude, or possibly because you didnt say 'what' transportation
taxis are common most places, and public transport is common some places

and uberx could be business associate or friend, unless staff recognizes driver

Proudelitist

That would irk me. The hotels business and partnerships are not my concern or responsibility. I can do what I like so far as non-hotel matters are concerned.

stut

It's amazing what the lure of commission (or the less above-board variants) can do, though. Or worse, in areas where certain taxi ranks are controlled by mafiaesque organisations.

Of course, good service is not exposing all of this to the customer.

darthbimmer

A shirt printed with the hotel's logo is more something you'd find in a gift shop. Those are hardly exclusive to high end hotels. Typically they're in upper mid-scale hotels as well. And usually they're off to the side of the main path through the lobby, making them easily ignored. I'm talking about shops selling name-brand, designer fashion and accessories. Because these aren't cheap to start with the shops need prime location to generate foot traffic, meaning the hotel is built with these shops between the front door and the elevator. At some hotels it's like going through a shopping mall each time I enter or leave.

cbn42

To answer OP's question, I think any "high-end" product will be disappointing if you evaluate its utility vs. price on an objective basis. High-end products are usually meant to be status symbols, and give you a sense of importance. In terms of product performance, a $1000 name-brand handbag is for the most part functionally equivalent to a cheap one from Target. While its nice to stay at the Ritz or Four Seasons if you have the money and want to be pampered, you will likely be just as comfortable at the Hilton, especially if your activities in the destination city do not center around the hotel.

SwissBritMiss

I really wonder whether the tide is changing with Millennials. I'm finding my circle far more likely to talk about local places where the difficulty of getting there is "high end" and "time-price" is costly, than staying at the *insert name here* resort in the Maldives - surviving the wilderness after a 45 hour trip from Europe to a remote East Timor peninsula carries more status.

FWIW, the most incredible place I stayed was a tiny, family-run resort (Phanom Bencha Mountain Resort) in the middle of the rainforest in Krabi, Thailand. The owner and his family had the incredible gift of making people from every culture feel completely at home, greeted everyone by name and their favourite dish for breakfast or dinner after just one day, and made arriving, staying and leaving utterly seamless. They even have a beautiful, natural, spring-water infinity pool overlooking the mountains, from a tapped stream. All this for USD17 per double bungalow...

LondonElite

Reading this thread, I get the sense that many people think that charging $250 per night constitutes a 'high-end' hotel. When you start spending $600+ per night and find these rooms dull and sterile, please let me know. This is not to say that you need to spend a lot to stay in a nice hotel, of course.

TomBrady

Personally, I would prefer a Nice full service marriott where im treated well, than a Uber Luxury hotel, where because of my income I am not the top dog. But it all depends on the service level, not specifically the hotel.

darthbimmer

I agree, people should not conflate "high end" with absolute price. US$250 doesn't buy much of a hotel room in New York or San Francisco these days, but in some parts of the US-- let alone many parts of the world-- it can buy quite posh accommodations and service.

As for the "dull and sterile" phrase being tossed around, I understood that as pertaining to brand-name hotels like Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, etc. They are often boring in their what-business-travelers-want generic sameness. They are not high-end hotels, of course, though many inexperienced travelers may mistake them as such, especially when the rates in big cities seem astronomical to small-town sensibilities. How did you interpret the phrase?

LondonElite

That's what I meant as well. A $350 Marriott in LA or Paris is going to be very bland.

eponymous_coward

I car camp all the time. I've never been tempted to "glamping".

worldiswide

I have to say that i so much wanted to love Silky Oaks Lodge but found the service as in most Australia places to be severely lacking especially given the price. I wrote my service issues on the feedback card but of course never heard from them. I can't remember what they were and enjoyed the area around silky oaks. That's what makes horse races

OTOH the regent resort in chang Mai now a four seasons on a working rice farm was outstanding in room, service, atmosphere..as was the Taj in varanasi which provided a horse drawn carriage to the river at dawn to witness sunrise over the ganges..as well as banyan tree lijiang and ring ha in Yunnan China ..beautiful complexes decorated with local color..