From duvets to pillows, beauty bars to bath selections, latest hospitality trend lets guests order up personal preferences.
"I'm a guest room, and I'll be your waiter." If upscale accommodations could talk, that's probably what they'd say these days thanks to the new hospitality trend toward in-room menus that offer everything but food. With an eye toward guest satisfaction, many luxury hotel and resort properties are now offering in-room menus enabling guests to pick and choose just the right comforts and personal care products for their stay.
What might you find on the in-room menu at your next destination? Read on:
• Best Bet in Bedding: They know how to make beds right at the Cotswold House in the Chipping Campden, England, where an in-room Bedding Menu assures a snuggly evening's sleep. Should guests at the glorious Regency townhouse hotel not be perfectly happy with the traditional selection of bedding - which includes Frette linens, soft hollow-fiber Aerelle pillows, and Texler wool underblankets and duvets - they can substitute with something more to their liking. The Bedding Menu features wool blankets and wool duvets, as well as choice of pillows including Orthopedic, Comforel Supreme, White Goose Down, White Goose Feather and Down, and Duck Feather. Meanwhile, those tucking into the Montrose Suite #16 can enjoy the U.K.'s only Ammique bed, a high-tech mattress created from 10,000 capsules that conforms to the body for a blissful night's sleep. Pleasant dreams???. For info and reservations at Cotswold House, call (011) 44 1386 840330, or visit www.cotswoldhouse.com.
• So a Guest Walks Up to a Beauty Bar???: There's a whole new blush on pulchritude at Viceroy Santa Monica with the in-room Beauty Bar. The Kor Hotel Group property, which is set at the Southern gateway to Santa Monica overlooking the Pacific Coast, has a luxury mini-bar in the bathroom vanity area of each guest room where guests can pick and choose upscale body care products to primp with during their stay. Among the many luscious selections currently available are Davies Gate Garden Made Walnut Scrub for gentle exfoliation of rough skin; Water L'Eau Sea Bath Salts for easing muscle tension and toning skin; Voluspa Tabac Vanille Candle, a clean-burning and classically scented traveler's torch that illuminates and perfumes for over 55 hours; and Acca Kappa Cedro Shave Foam, a rich, creamy lather with jojoba oil and aloe extracts. For info and reservations at Viceroy Santa Monica, call 866-891-0947 or visit www.viceroysantamonica.com.
• How to Rest Your Weary Head: Could there be anything less restful than the wrong type of pillow when you're out on the road? Langham Hotels sure doesn't think so, which is why guests at the international hotel collections six luxury properties offers guests cushiony perfection with an in-room Pillow Menu. Choose from Feather Pillows filled with a combination of 80% goose down and 20% goose feathers; Foam Pillows with soft synthetic filling; and Cozy Pillows that are extra long with 25% duck down and 75% duck feathers; Ziao Mai Pillows, traditional Chinese pillows filled with buckwheat for firm support; and for the littlest guests, small Children's Pillows filled with 25% duck down and 75% duck feathers. Pillow Menus are available for the all six Langham Hotel properties in Boston, Auckland, Melbourne, London and Hong Kong. For info and reservations at Langham Hotels, visit www.langhamhotels.com.
• Above and Beyond Mere Baths: The White Barn Inn & Spa has taken en-suite soaking to a whole new level with its luscious new Bath Menu. Guests at the Relais & Chateau retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine can kick back the tub and enjoy delights such as a bubbling, fizzing Light of the Moon Plunge with marine pebbles infused with mandarin, orange and lemon essential oils; a relaxing and effervescent Hydrating Bath; an Elemental Body Cocktail of sea salt rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements to relieve muscle fatigue while increasing the body's metabolism; and an Aroma Sea Bath with "secrets of the sea" like marine algae and trace elements to soothe muscle aches and pains and nourish, tone, re-mineralize and detoxify skin tissues. All Bath Menu selections are $55. For info and reservations at the White Barn Inn & Spa, call (207) 967-2321 or visit www.whitebarninn.com.
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