Breakfast with a Picasso, a caviar hotline: Hotels are redefining luxury, again

It’s a trend propelled by the pandemic, says Rakhee Lalvani, a luxury tourism consultant who worked with the Taj hotels for 30 years. In the pandemic, hotels had to reinvent, cater more strongly to the local staycationing population; essentially, redefine their purpose.

“Experiential travel, already a trend, got a whole new meaning,” Lalvani says. In the search for new experiences in a largely-locked-down world, new boundaries were crossed.

This has given regular customers added incentive to return, says Nikhila Palat, a consultant to luxury hotels and brands and also a former employee with the Taj Group. “This is vital as competition from other hotels and lavish homestays grows.”

Add-ons have always defined the luxury hotel market. En suite bathrooms prompted gasps at the Ritz in Paris, in 1898. The wall-to-wall carpeting was considered the height of extravagance (and fast became an elite interior-design trend). Reports of the time made special mention of the closet lights that turned on when the door was opened.

“The idea of what constitutes luxury does need to be revisited regularly,” says Lalvani. Take a look at some of the most recent twists and turns in that definition.

An en suite orchestra

In partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Milestone Hotel & Residences in London offers in-room private recitals and performances for guests, in their suites. The experience can include a solo harpist or a string trio. (Room tariffs starts at about ₹45,000 a night.)

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Breakfast with a Picasso

The painting remains on the wall for the duration of the guest’s stay, protected by a state-of-the-art security system. The inclusion, and the breakfast offering, mark the master artist’s 50th death anniversary year.

The painting, incidentally, depicts the historic Villa Chêne Roc in Juan-Les-Pins on the French Riviera, painted during a summer holiday Picasso spent there in 1924.

The breakfast spread includes soft-boiled eggs with maple syrup and caviar, smoked salmon blinis, a basket of fresh pastries, seasonal fruit and chilled champagne. (The room costs about ₹1.6 lakh a night.)

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A caviar hotline; wine on tap

The Park Lane hotel in New York introduced a caviar hotline this year. Dial 5 from the house phone, any time of day or night, and a caviar spread can be brought to the room in minutes. The menu features a range of dishes featuring ossetra caviar, including nachos, devilled eggs and smoked salmon blinis. (Room rates start at about ₹88,000 a night.)

A Royal Nanny-approved stay

Norland College in Bath is known for training the nannies who care for children of royal families. These nannies learn to drive safely at high speeds to avoid paparazzi, practice martial arts in case of a kidnapping attempt, and can even make spinach seem delicious to a child.

Louenna Hood graduated from this academy and, after a 20-year career caring for the children of the royal and famous, founded the Louenna app (nicknamed Nanny in Your Pocket), in 2020.

This year, she worked with Hotel Café Royal in London to create the Tiny Traveller programme. Rooms have “nanny-approved” bedding, mini bathrobes and slippers.

There are white-noise machines, organic bath products, and vetted toys, books and sensory cards for little ones of all ages. The idea is to offer a frictionless experience for the entire family. Amen to that, but room tariffs start at ₹80,000 a day.

A gourmet dinner for dogs

This year, Marriott Executive Apartments in Mumbai introduced a four-course gourmet dinner for dogs and their human families, hosted in a private cabana by the city’s Powai Lake, for resident guests.

Rugs and cushions let dogs and humans sit side by side.

On the pets’ menu is an amuse-bouche, two main courses and a dessert, prepared according to the pet parents’ instructions. (It can be all-chicken, for instance, or anything but.)

Menus have included an amuse-bouche of turkey cotelettes (turkey and cranberry nuggets served on coconut oil-spritzed shavings of sweet potato, carrot and baby zucchini), followed by the Ultimate Grin Bowl (a bit of an Eton’s Mess of chicken tenders, whole eggs, carrots, broccoli, honey, toasted nori, red pumpkin, fresh sardines and watermelon popsicles), and Doggizza (chicken breast in a hearty bone broth, with whole eggs, chicken livers, zucchini, grape tomatoes, baby spinach and young cheddar).

Each course is artfully plated; which is incidental since dogs will eat as dogs do and it’s all gone in about a minute anyway.

Meal costs start at ₹2,000 per pet. Room rates starts at ₹9,000 a night.

A meet-the-authors soiree

The Soneva Fushi hotel in the Maldives hosts an exclusive literature festival open only to resident guests. Its second such event was held in February, and was an intimate edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival. Literary guests included Booker Prize-winning authors Howard Jacobson and Damon Galgut, and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.

Amid bean bags, beach chairs and candlelit tables, the three-night event aims to offer direct engagement in small groups or one-on-one. Prices start at about ₹5.3 lakh for the three-day package.

“It was a unique experience. Where else do you get to engage with the world’s brightest minds amid such beauty,” says writer Neha Khilnani, 41, who has attended both editions of the event. “Panellists can be more candid with a small audience. The Sufi musical evenings were fantastic too. Kutle Khan (Rajasthani musician) had us swaying through the night under the palm trees and starry skies.”