The strangest services offered in hotels. As a star. Eden Rock Hotel St. Barth: Private Recording Studio

Some people need only a comfortable bed and a minibar in their hotel room, while others need a well-done steak for dinner for their dog and a personal butler. What are the most extravagant services provided to wealthy guests in expensive hotels?

Put the kids to bed

At New York's Benjamin Hotel, a special "sleep concierge" takes care of your offspring's nightly activities. He will make sure that the children go to bed on time, offer them small bathrobes, provide them with an iPod with lullabies, soft toys that are pleasant to fall asleep with, read a book at night and bring them milk and cookies. For an extra $495 a night, your little one gets whatever they want, plus a small bonus of four tickets to the Central Park Zoo.

Ride a Rolls-Royce

Are you really going to travel around the city by taxi when you arrive in New York, or (it's scary to think!) Go down to the subway? If you are staying in a hotel penthouse Four Seasons, then along with the room card you will be handed the keys to a luxury Rolls-Royce Phantom or Maybach car. The car will be completely at your disposal during your stay in this hotel. You can use it however you wish!

Pamper your dog

Pets are part of the family, so many hotels make sure that they, like two-legged guests, do not need anything. At various hotels, your pet will be offered exclusive dog massage sessions, barking lessons (which will then be recorded on a CD in a special studio), monogrammed towels, and grilled tenderloin according to special recipes for lunch.

Rent an iPhone

Have you accidentally forgotten your iPhone, iPod, e-reader or any other similar gadget at home? Do not worry! If your room rate starts at $1,000, every hotel will give you anything from a mobile phone to a DVD player to rent. Moreover, all the necessary local information will already be downloaded to your temporary cell phone: maps, addresses of bars, clubs and restaurants.

Take a shower with Evian water on the tennis court

In many hotels, even inexpensive ones, you can attend free group fitness classes, aqua aerobics, yoga, and dancing. And in the hotel Las Ventanas al Paraíso in the Mexican city of Los Cabos you will be offered to play tennis on courts with excellent coverage. Moreover, if during the game a dear guest wants to freshen up a little, he will be offered a chilled towel, wipe his sunglasses, hold the ball or even douse Evian water from a hose. You understand that any other water, except from glaciers during french alps, is not suitable for this!

Wash with soap from crushed pearls

If you find a tiny piece of nondescript soap and a crumpled bag of shampoo and bath gel "in one bottle" waiting for you at the sink in the bathroom of your room - you have chosen the wrong hotel! Any self-respecting person will reserve a room where he will be met by a huge bottle of Hermès perfume (as in Hôtel Fouquet's Barrière in Paris), massage oil from a rare cactus blooming at night (as in the InterContinental hotel in Arizona) or even crushed pearl soap or charcoal (which is in the Ace Hotel "s in New York).

Elite whiskey for greetings

Of course, hotel employees do not want to get you drunk at all, they just show hospitality when, as a welcome drink, you are literally offered an incredible high-end whiskey worth incredible money or a whole bottle of Don Julio tequila, as is customary in Mandarin Oriental in Mexico City, as a welcome drink. Ulcers and teetotalers will not be deprived either: they will be offered to choose any of the exclusive Chinese teas. In hotels of the same network in Oman you will be greeted with a cup of the strongest Arabic coffee, in Ottawa - with a glass of ice-cold prosecco.

Make personalized business cards

For business people it is very important to be constantly in touch, no matter where they are in the world, so immediately upon arrival at some hotels (for example, at Raffles L "Ermitage Beverly Hills in California or at Rosewood Corniche in Saudi Arabia) you will receive a set of freshly printed business cards with your name and hotel phone numbers. You will also be provided with a personal telephone number and your own fax line.

Use the Pleasure Menu

Many hotels provide different packages with accommodation. Usually we are talking about massage and other spa treatments. But the Canadian Drake Hotel decided to go further. After all, when you say "we were in Toronto", it means that you spent the night in the hotel of this city, and, therefore, you should have the most pleasant memories from this night. Therefore, each guest is offered a "Pleasure Menu": package No. 1 - "a daring offer to have a good time"; package number 2 - "any pleasure for those who seek thrill"; package number 3 - "feather + whip + vibrator + velvet + oil". Choose and enjoy!

Butler for every need

The Ritz-Carlton hotels are renowned for having a butler available 24 hours a day for any need. He can fix your laptop or completely set it up for Internet use (this is done by employees of a hotel in Doha). And the butlers working in Sound Beach will surround you with care on the beach: they will set up an umbrella so that a shadow falls on you, they will smear you with oil or sunscreen.

The client has the right to everything, even to be dead

No one will be surprised by the all-inclusive system, huge SPA complexes, beautiful views from the window and chic decoration of the rooms. Hotels somewhere in the trees or in the ice are also no longer a curiosity. Today, hotel guests are offered to change their lives in almost one day or try something they never dreamed of.

Stars above your head

Hotel Null Stern("Zero Stars") is located in the canton of Graubünden (Switzerland) at an altitude of about 2 thousand meters and has no walls and roof. Sleeping guests under open sky but on a king size bed. In the morning, your personal butler brings you breakfast in bed. You can book a single room from spring to late autumn. The owner of the hotel explains his concept in this way: “Zero stars, but there are billions of them above your head. Walls and roofs are not needed so that nothing comes between you and your impressions.

Cold and sad

In the Japanese city of Yokohama, there is the Lastel Hotel, in which all eighteen rooms are occupied by ... the dead! The living come here only to say goodbye to the dead, until their turn in the crematorium has come. Usually, it takes about four days due to overcrowding. Rooms where those who have gone to another world wait in the wings are equipped with automated system cooling and decorated with flowers. The remaining days before parting, relatives of the deceased visit them to cry, to come to terms with death, which took the most precious thing.

I want to know and be able to do everything!

The AKA Central Park hotel chain (New York) is waiting for adults who have not fulfilled their childhood or youthful dreams. Here under the program Live It! visitors will be taught what they have longed for, but never realized: baking cupcakes, dancing flamenco, drawing, singing, taking pictures, playing on the stage of the theater, performing circus acts, horse riding, surfing. The most sophisticated can undergo rejuvenation courses under a special program and even completely change their appearance.

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Divorced and happy!

in dutch Carlton Hotel Ambassador for the weekend come spouses who are on the verge of divorce. They are met by specialists from a law firm who are ready to settle all legal, economic and psychological issues related to divorce in a short time: division of property, children, pets. And they will also tell you how not to quarrel completely, but on the contrary, to remain in good relations.

Cry, baby, cry!

In the Japanese hotel chain Mitsui Garden Yotsuya, an exclusively female “crying room” is periodically opened, in which the guest, along with tears, will pour out all the accumulated negativity. Here you can mourn a difficult parting with a loved one, problems at work and in the family, some life difficulties. There are all conditions for this: a comfortable bed, sentimental books and CDs with relevant films on the shelf, a pile of napkins on the nightstand next to it. When all the tears dry up, the visitor will be offered a warming pad and a hydromassage mask for tired eyes.

my goldfish

IN English hotel Happy Guests Lodge (Cheshire) will not let lonely guests get bored by offering them any number of goldfish as neighbors. True, you have to pay for each. According to the owner of the hotel Jeff Riley, almost no one refuses this service. It is good to relax with shiny fish, you can pour out your soul to them and just admire how they beautifully wave their tail in the water. Suddenly, a secret desire will be fulfilled.

Covered with a newspaper

In the Swedish hotel Faktum (Gothenburg city), any guest can own skin experience all the difficulties of a homeless person's lodging for the night. Optionally, you can spend the night in the park on a bench, in an abandoned building, under a bridge. Guests will be offered a shabby sleeping bag for warmth, old tent, newspapers, cardboard, rags. For hotel owners, this is a way to draw public attention to the problems of those living on the street. Payment for the "homeless" room goes to charity.

Coming to rest in another country and checking into a hotel, guests are provided with all kinds of services for a comfortable stay. But the tourist service, like other areas of life, is constantly evolving, expanding the range of services provided and offering its visitors to take advantage of extravagant hotel services that will add zest to the upcoming vacation. In the continuation of the article, nine luxurious services await you that will surprise even the most sophisticated guests.

Tanning Manager: The Ritz-Carlton South Beach, Miami Beach

Hotel chain The Ritz Carlton renowned for its impeccable luxury service, this Miami hotel has upped the ante by offering a tanning manager to its guests. His responsibilities include being on duty by the pool in order to help vacationers apply sunblock (even on hard-to-reach places), as well as offering sunscreen, glasses and other beach accessories.

Animal Psychologist: Hotel deLuxe, Portland

The Hotel deLuxe in Portland (USA) is real paradise not only for vacationers, but also for their four-legged pets. For furry guests, amenities include luxury bedding, full bowls of food, toys, and extras like massages, walking, acupuncture, housekeeping, and a personal psychologist.

Gondola Masseur: Loews Coronado Bay Resort, San Diego

The fleet of gondolas available at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort is available not only for boat trips, but also for relaxing treatments. While the gondola glides along the water surface along the private jetty, a personal massage therapist will knead all parts of the body for those who wish.

Monogrammed robe: Hotel Ritz Madrid, Madrid

Sometimes the most seemingly ordinary and familiar things in a hotel can become a unique and pleasant gift, especially after an exhausting transatlantic flight. At the Hotel Ritz Madrid, each guest is entitled to a personal bathrobe, which will be waiting in the room, tied with a red ribbon and decorated with rosebuds.

Animal Gourmet Menu: Lowell, New York

Lowell has gone one step further and outdone the Hotel deLuxe by offering pet-friendly exotic treats to order: lamb stew, organic buffalo, filet mignon tartare with potato, rice or sardines. And for dessert, cats and dogs can taste ice cream, fish skin biscuits brought from Iceland, and much more. For animals, special shampoos, oils and aromatic sprays are provided.

Artists and Books: Andaz Fifth Avenue, New York

For art lovers and book lovers, the Andaz Hotel on Fifth Avenue is a godsend. An art project was launched there, thanks to which visitors can see live how artists work. The hotel also partners with the New York Library, located directly across the street, which lends over 700 books to guests.

Smell Butler: Rosewood Hotel Georgia, Vancouver

The Rosewood Hotel Georgia has everything you need for a luxurious stay, from plush furnishings to fragrant… guests. In fact, the hotel has its own “scent manager” who helps guests select and purchase their favorite perfume from a variety of high-end fragrances, such as Chanel No. 5 or Hermes Terre d'Hermes.

Tea sommelier: Lanesborough, a St. Regis Hotel, London

The English take their tea tradition very seriously, but the Lanesborough Hotel has taken the humble tea leaf to new heights by offering guests a personal tea sommelier. During afternoon tea, he will personally select the most suitable type of tea for everyone, talking about the benefits of several dozen varieties of tea leaves.

Soap Concierge: Viceroy Riviera Maya, Mexico

The Viceroy Riviera Maya has exceeded the expectations of the most demanding guests with its unusual feature - a soapy concierge. This service is truly unique. the soap concierge offers hotel guests to get acquainted with the numerous types of natural soap, created according to the recipes of the Mayan Indians. Soap can be used during your stay at the hotel or take away with you as a souvenir. The range of flavors is varied: from peach and lemon to chocolate and cinnamon.

In hotels, in addition to bed and breakfast, you can get many additional options: from a companion fish to walking with lions. Looking through hotel offers different countries world, we have collected for you the most exotic and unexpected.

1. Number for sobs

The Japanese hotel chain Mitsui Garden Yotsuya has an unusual offer from March to the end of August this year: “The Wailing Room”. The room is offered to be rented by women who want to get rid of stress with the help of tears. To create the right atmosphere, clients are provided with a dozen sentimental films, including the melodrama "Forest Gump" with Tom Hanks, Japanese manga comics, books with a sad story and soft cashmere napkins. After cleansing sobs, the hotel offers to make a steam hydromassage eye mask and use a warming heating pad. "Crying is a happy privilege for a woman," the network's website claims. Accommodation in the “sobbing room” is possible only in solitude, the price is ¥10,000 (4400 rubles).

2. Companion fish


The British hotel Happy Guests Lodge in Cheshire has taken care of those who need to communicate: it rents out goldfish for £5 (430 rubles) per day. Owner Geoff Riley claims the service is a great success and, after publications in the world media, calls his pets "world famous". “Many of our guests spend many days away from home,” he explains. - One who travels without company may suffer from loneliness, and the fish gives them unconditional love, you can talk with her and express everything that has accumulated after a hard day.

3. Accommodation class "homeless"


IN Swedish city Gothenburg Hotel Faktum offers to feel like homeless. For 100 SEK (677 rubles) you can spend the night in a park, under a bridge near a highway and near a river, in a closed paper mill or under a cart in the port. Accommodation is possible in a sleeping bag, a makeshift tent, on a bench, cardboard boxes, newspapers - there are ten options in total to choose from. Thus, the hotel is trying to draw attention to the problem of the homeless, of which there are about 3,400 people in the city. You can rent a place for a rooming house for yourself or as a gift to a friend - the money goes to help the poor.

4. Deep sleep


Berlin's Swissotel sells guests Deep Sleep, a package that treats insomnia, depression and even helps to lose weight. This is a set of procedures developed by German somnologists based on scientific data on healthy sleep. It includes: a 30-minute morning bright light treatment session, an invigorating herbal energy drink and aromatherapy, a daytime rest on a special physiotherapy bed and evening treatments to promote sleep (inhalation of mountain air, lavender and geranium scents and a relaxing herbal drink). The owner of the Deep Sleep package falls asleep on an audio pillow that recreates binaural beats that are beneficial for the brain. The price of the service is €199 per night.

5. Sex menu


The Canadian Drake Hotel has a wide range of pleasant services: in addition to romantic "rose petals", chocolate and wine in the room, customers are offered an assortment of sex toys to choose from. A section titled "Pleasure Menu" lists a dozen and a half accessories, ranging from a "naughty, cheeky suede whip" to a "flare feather train" to tease and tickle. Naturally, all sex toys are disposable and cost between $8 and $600.

6. "Perfume" bar


in Berlin The Ritz Hotel Carlton opened the world's first perfume bar. Customers are offered a wide range of cocktails based on world famous flavors by local bartender Arnd Heissen. Drinks repeat the scents of Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Guerlain and other popular brands. It is noteworthy that the recipes are not kept secret and are described in the "perfume menu". The price for a cocktail is €11–14.

7. Opportunity Camp


The AKA Central Park hotel chain resembles an adult camp. Program Live It! means that you, while living in a hotel, will learn everything that you didn’t have time for in ordinary life: learn to dance tango and make chocolate soufflé, you will take lessons in painting, theater, circus art, surfing, horse riding and photography. From exclusive offers: a sleep school, sound therapy and the Reboot program, which includes a wide range of services - from rejuvenation procedures to a complete change in appearance.

8. Divorce Services


Several hotels in the Netherlands, including the Carlton Ambassador, provide help and support for couples seeking a divorce. Usually the family arrives on Friday, during the weekend DivorceHotel specialists help them settle all the legal, economic and psychological aspects of the divorce: come to an agreement on the division of property, child custody, properly draw up all the documents, stay friends. Ideally, by Monday, the guests are leaving, being divorced and happy. The creator of this service, Jim Helfens, plans to expand the number of hotels with which his company cooperates to the global scale. The service is already available in New York. The cost of a divorce in the US this year is about $5,000 (€4,500) and depends on the complexity of the case.

9. Walk with a lion


South African hotels have their own exotics. In the Limpopo province of South Africa, near the city of Polokwane, there is a Protea Hotel Ranch Resort offering a unique option: walking with lions. Close contact of tourists with predators takes place under the supervision of a guide who has 15 years of experience with lions. A walk with wild cats, according to the organizers, attracts the attention of people from all over the world, has good recommendations from their clients. However, while squeezing lions, one should not forget that in Tanzania alone, about 70 people die every year from the attacks of the kings of beasts. Although hotel lions have become accustomed to humans since childhood, caution does not hurt.

10. Departure to Nirvana


In Nicaragua, at the Mukul Beach Hotel, Golf & Spa (Rivas), you can experience the ancient Ayurvedic rituals that were practiced by Indian and Tibetan hermits and sages. The menu of procedures that help cleanse the aura, enlighten and transition to nirvana includes massage of active points on the face, herbal wrap, traditional Ayurvedic massage and the sacred Shirodhara ritual with an effect on the so-called "third eye". You can select all options at once - this procedure is called "Nirvana - indulgence."

For many travelers, a hotel, no matter how expensive, is just a place to spend the night and store things. Of course, unusual and exclusive services are addressed not to such tourists, but to those who can appreciate the flight of fantasy of hotel owners.

But they really try to surprise! Helicopter shopping? Handcuffs in the room? Massage in a gondola? Yes please!
Please everyone
The other day, one of the travel portals published an annual top list of hotels with the best service in the world. Visitors to the site called the services of the Moroccan Riad Kheirredine hotel exemplary, the top three also included the Hamanasi Adventure and Dive Resort in Belize and the Akademie Street Boutique Hotel and Guesthouse in South Africa. Tourists noted the hospitality and helpfulness of the staff, the relaxed atmosphere and color, as well as other important details for a pleasant stay.
Still, service is subjective. It is enough for someone that the room is clean, and the receptionist is friendly. And offer someone a delicious breakfast - and he will be dissatisfied with the lack of his favorite oatmeal. Well, some tourists are so sophisticated in matters of hospitality that they won’t show you to the hotel without a personal servant assigned to the apartment.
To please demanding guests, hoteliers go to great lengths, sometimes offering eccentric and luxurious, and sometimes simply funny services. I decided to explore the market for unusual and interesting services, invented by hotel owners for their guests.
Everything for the client
The New York hotel The Benjamin has a sleep manager (concierge of a dream). The hotel has long noticed that many requests and complaints from guests are connected precisely with “night” problems: sometimes it’s too stuffy, sometimes it’s noisy, sometimes the pillow is wrong, sometimes the blanket is thin. This is how the concept was born, according to which the guest either sleeps well or gets his money back. The latter, however, is unlikely.
The Benjamin offers soundproof rooms, evening massages and aromatherapy, satin sleep masks and a menu of 11 types of pillows, including anti-snoring. Before bed, you can indulge in sleep-inducing foods, such as banana bread with peanut butter.The Benjamin is one of the few hotels in the world that takes sleep so seriously.

The Sleep Manager at The Benjamin will help you choose the most comfortable pillow
The Brazilian Hilton Sao Paulo Morumbi has taken care of another important customer problem - city traffic. So that guests of Sao Paulo cannot feel the "charms" of the local traffic, they are offered a helicopter with a driver, and you can fly as much as you like short distance- even to the beach, even to the store.
Another interesting way to transfer guests came up with the Omani hotel Six Senses. Guests can land at the entrance of the hotel by paragliding, accompanied by a professional skydiver.
Special target audience
People traveling with animals often feel constrained: not all hotels accept animals, and if they do, then with many conditions. At Nine Zero in Boston, the opposite is true: dogs, cats and even more exotic creatures are so welcome that they are ready to walk them, sit with them in the room, and even give their pet a massage. The animal will be offered a separate bed and their favorite food will be prepared.
It is with treats for four-legged friends that they plan to surprise travelers with animals at The Lowell in New York. Meals for dogs and cats can be ordered from the gourmet menu, such as lamb stew, organic buffalo, filet mignon tartare, Icelandic fish chips or dog ice cream. Special shampoos and aromatherapy sprays were provided for animals.
California Loews Coronado Bay Resort & Spa "specializes" in entertaining dogs who love to swim: they are taken to teach surfing. Animals catch a wave under the guidance of instructors from a nearby surf school.


Loews Coronado Bay Resort & Spa Annual Surfer Dog Competition
But with the greatest reverence for fluffy guests are in Portland's Hotel deLuxe. Plush bed, massage and à la carte food - that's what! The hotel has room service for animals (although it is not entirely clear how dogs and cats will be able to make a request). Hotel deLuxe is ready to treat a person's friends by offering them acupuncture and psychological services.
But at the Fitzpatrick Hotel in Washington DC, they are ready to give a warm welcome to ... dolls. If you inform in advance that you will arrive with a child and tell about the toy that he carries with him, upon arrival the receptionist will greet the doll by name, she will be provided with a crib, a table and even tiny slippers.
They try to please children in the Florida hotel The Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach. Here you can order a pillow fight. One call and 30 silk pillows, two pairs of boxing gloves and instructions for a variety of pillow games will be delivered to your room.
Happy to serve
Own servant, or butler, is, of course, the height of bliss for a tourist. Such specially trained people are not uncommon in luxury hotels, but sometimes they offer unusual services.
At The Ritz-Carlton South Beach in Miami, a tanning butler is assigned to guests. He is on duty near the pool, helps guests to apply sunscreen (even on hard-to-reach places), offers sunscreen cosmetics, sunglasses and other beach accessories.
The soap concierge is an innovation of the Viceroy Riveria Maya Hotel in Mexico. The specialist introduces the guests to the soap, created according to the recipes of the Mayan Indians, who were great connoisseurs of bath procedures. The concierge helps to understand the variety of fragrances and talks about the properties of soap, which is not forbidden to take home as a souvenir.
The Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver offers the services of a Master in Flavors. A local butler helps hotel guests select and purchase perfumes from a variety of luxury and selective brands on offer.
The Lanesborough Hotel in London has a tea sommelier. Of course, the traditional afternoon tea is not uncommon in British hotels, but the "tea manager" has taken this ritual to an unprecedented level. He teaches guests the intricacies of the ceremony and talks about the benefits of choosing one or another variety of tea leaves.


The Tanning Manager at The Ritz-Carlton South Beach
Interest club
The owners of the Drake Hotel in Toronto, unlike the previously mentioned New York colleagues with their sleep manager, believe that there is just no need to sleep on vacation. In the hotel rooms, guests are waiting for sex toys and contraceptives (on request, of course). The range is wide enough to cover a wide variety of preferences.
With all the desire, not everyone has the courage to call the reception and ask for a pair of fur handcuffs. For shy guests, the Morgan hotel chain offers a mind-blowing minibar. This is a medium-sized box that contains the book "250 Ways to Start a Conversation", a collection of quotes, notebooks and pencils for writing down your own smart thoughts.
Bookworms know how frustrating it is to be on vacation without a book. Clients of the Andaz Fifth Avenue hotel in New York are not in danger: there is not some miserable shelf with books left by departed guests, but a whole library consisting of more than 700 publications. Books are provided by the New York City Library, which is located directly across the street.
The Houstonian Hotel in Houston has more than a hundred various kinds activities, in addition to the usual swimming in the pool and exercising in the gym, there is the opportunity to play basketball and rock climbing.
The Geejam Hotel in Jamaica has a recording studio. Guests are offered to become a pop star for a day: record a song or even an entire album. Amy Winehouse and Bjork managed to work in the studio at one time.
A trifle, but nice
The Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego has its own gondola fleet. The gondolier takes guests on a boat in a private marina. If desired, you can hire a massage therapist who will massage directly during the boat trip.

Goldfish in the rooms at Happy Guest Hotel Lodge in Cheshire
Forgot your swimsuit or swimming trunks at home? The Standard Hotel chain has vending machines for beach equipment. True, the choice is small: black swimming trunks or a black bikini. But for those who did not take with them the main vacation accessory, and that is happiness. But on the belt of each item is printed a mini-guide to local attractions - the names of places worth visiting.
At the Ritz in Madrid, bathrobes embroidered with their initials await guests in their booked room.
Well, at the Happy Guest Hotel Lodge in Cheshire, guests can rent an aquarium with a goldfish so that they are not lonely.