Wealth-Bulletin’s Top Ten Most Expensive Hotel Rooms
Seemingly oblivious to the financial meltdown, the superrich are still willing to spend huge sums on staying at the best hotel rooms in the world, paying as much as $34,000 a night to lodge at the most luxurious suites, according Wealth-Bulletin’s survey of the Top Ten Most Expensive Hotel Rooms in the World.
The top two hotel rooms on the list – the Ty Warner Penthouse in New York and the Royal Penthouse Suite in Geneva – cost more than $30,000 a night to bed down in. And the hotels owning these suites say demand is as strong as ever, with waiting lists from now until the end of December.
Even staying at number 10 on the list– the Penthouse Suite at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes – will cost $9,300 a night off season. During the Cannes film festival week in May the price rockets to $48,000 a night.
Demand for the top end of the luxury hotel market has been unaffected by the credit crunch, keeping prices for the best rooms at very high levels.
“I’m not saying demand for luxury hotel rooms is bullet proof, but it is far less impacted by a recession than many other parts of the economy,” said Robert Barnard, a partner at the accountancy firm PKF in London, which has one of the best-known hotel practices.
As with other luxury goods, scarcity drives price, he added: “Most luxury hotels typically only have 200 to 250 rooms – and only a few of these are likely to be suites”
Any fall in demand from wealthy financiers is being offset by guests from commodity rich emerging markets, say hoteliers.
The very rich, no matter where they’re from, prefer “old money” cities like Paris and Geneva when it comes to spending on grand hotel rooms.
Nevertheless, rooms in hotels in Moscow and Abu Dubai make the list when they wouldn’t have five years ago. And future lists are more than likely to contain hotels rooms in other fast growing wealth centres in emerging markets, if global economic trends are anything to go by.
Wealth-Bulletin’s list was complied during early September. The list excludes villas at hotels and the cost of booking entire floors within hotels. Exchange rates used were during the first week of September.
Wealth Bulletin would like to thank Quintessentially for their help.
The World’s Ten Most Expensive Hotel Rooms
1. Ty Warner Penthouse, Four Seasons, New York. $34,000 per night
The Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons in New York, at $34,000 per night, tops Wealth-Bulletin’s most expensive hotel rooms list. The 400 sq/metre penthouse, covering the hotel’s entire 52nd floor, was created by billionaire Ty Warner, designer Peter Marino, and architect IM Pei.
All three wanted to create the best hotel suite in the world – which after viewing the incredible space it would be difficult to say they haven’t. The nine-room suite has towering, floor-to-ceiling bay windows, with incredible views of Manhattan’s iconic skyline – which could be argued gives guests the most extraordinary metropolitan outlook in the world.
The suite’s living room walls are inlaid with thousands of pieces of mother-of-pearl. There’s an indoor-outdoor Zen garden, a private spa room with a screen of living bamboo, and a book-lined library, which has at its centre piece a grand piano. The penthouse comes with its own private butler and a private chauffeur for travel around New York in either a Rolls Royce Phantom or a Mercedes Maybach.
2. Royal Penthouse Suite, President Wilson Hotel, Geneva. $33,000 per night
$33,000 per night
Previously known as the Imperial, the Royal Penthouse Suite at the President Wilson Hotel in Geneva is Wealth-Bulletin’s second most expensive hotel room in the world – and only $1,000 cheaper than the Ty Warner Penthouse.
Apart from its sumptuous luxury, the Royal Penthouse Suite, which overlooks Lake Geneva, has an emphasis on security. All doors and windows are bulletproof, and the suite comes with its own private lift.
Not much is known about the Royal Penthouse, largely because the hotel staff are reluctant to publicise it. But one insider said the suite is almost exclusively reserved for heads of state and celebrities. “Bookings are almost exclusively through the hotel’s chairman”, he said.
3. The Presidential Suite at Hotel Cala di Volpe, Costa Smeralda, Italy. $21,000 per night
Costa Smeralda is one of Europe’s most exclusive shorelines – a play ground for many of the world’s wealthiest since the Aga Khan popularised Porto Cervo as “the” destination for the rich and famous in the 1960s.
And the Presidential Suite at Hotel Cala di Volpe near Porto Cervo is no doubt where many of today’s rich and famous decide to stay and play when visiting this exclusive Mediterranean location. The suite comprises three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and an outdoor saltwater swimming pool. The hotel charges $42,000 a night during July and August.
4. Royal Armleder Suite, Le Richemond, Geneva. $17,500 per night
Geneva solidifies its reputation as a city for the rich notching up another hotel on Wealth-Bulletin’s list. The Royal Armleder Suite at the Le Richemond Hotel is named after the wealthy family who used to own the famous hotel before Rocco Forte bought it in August 2004. The renowned hotelier closed the hotel for nearly two years for a total refit – the centre piece of which was the new Royal Armleder Suite.
The three-bedroom suite, which stretches over 250 sq/meters on the seventh floor, has a 100 sq/metre terrace, with panoramic views of Lake Geneva, a real log fire, and floor-to-client bullet proof windows. The suite was designed Olga Polizzi, Rocco Forte’s sister and well-known hotel interior designer.
5. Royal Suite, Burj Al Arab, Dubai. $18,000 per night
Fifth on the list of Wealth-Bulletin’s most expensive hotel rooms is the Royal Suite at Burj Al Arab in Dubai, at $18,000 a night – and the only room on the list outside of Europe and the US.
Since it was build in the mid 1990s, the extraordinary Burj Al Arab has become one of the world’s most instantly recognisable hotels with its billowing sail-like structure stretching out on an artificial island into the Gulf of Arabia.
The 780 sq/metre Royal Suite on the 25th floor has a marble and gold staircase, leopard print carpets, its own private lift and a rotating four-poster canopy bed – and of course extraordinary views across the ever rising skyline of Dubai and out to the Gulf of Arabia.
6. The Ritz-Carlton Suite, The Ritz-Carlton, Moscow. $16,500 per night
Moscow’s Ritz-Carlton is purported to be the world’s most expensive hotel – or that was at least before the rouble took a dive in recent months. Even with the local economy looking a great deal less healthy than a year ago, to stay at the best suite in the hotel it will cost more than $16,000 a night.
Furnished in Russian imperial style, the 237 sq/metre suite has extraordinary views of famous Moscow sites like the Kremlin and Red Square. The suite comes with a living room with grand piano, dinning area, library, office room and boardroom – and a necessity for the always security conscious Russian billionaire, a panic room with its own energy and telecommunications facilities.
7. The Royal Suite, Four Seasons George V, Paris. $16,000 per night
The Four Seasons hotel group seems to specialise in the world’s most expensive suites, with two entries in Wealth-Bulletin’s list. Eighth place actually goes to two suites at the hotel, both priced at $16,000 per night.
For that price guests get a 245 sq/metre one bedroom suite, with their own private terrace. The antique-filled suites feature a marble entrance foyer, living room with marble fireplace, a dinning area, a kitchen, and a fully equipped private office.
8. The Imperial Suite, Park Hyatt –Vendôme, Paris. $15,500 per night
The Imperial Suite at the Park Hyatt in Paris is the second of two suites in the list from Paris – confirming the French capital’s reputation for luxury living. The 250 sq/metre suite has a huge living room with dining room, kitchen and work area.
Apart from its unrivalled luxury, the Imperial Suite also provides guests with an “In-Suite-Spa” concept – with the bathroom/spa comprising a whirlpool bath, steam shower room and massage table.
9. Brook Penthouse, Claridges, London. $10,000 per night
At the top of possibly London’s most luxurious hotel, the art deco-style Brook penthouse has been the favourite suite of many a visiting celebrity. The two bedroom suite has possibly the capital’s most spectacular roof terrace overlooking London’s West End.
The suite also comprises a sitting room, dinning room, and comes with a personal butler and a Rolls-Royce round-trip to a London airport.
10. Penthouse Suite, Hotel Martinez, Cannes. $9,300 per night
The place to stay in Cannes is one of the two Penthouse Suites at the Hotel Martinez. The 500 sq/metre apartments include include a sitting room, dining room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms with Turkish bath, shower, and spa bath, dressing room and sauna.
But the real wow-factor of the penthouse suites is two 200 sq/metre private terraces overlooking the Bay of Cannes. During the Cannes Film Festival the Penthouse Suites go up to $48,000 a night.
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