Luxury Hotel Amenities (Hotels Gone Wild)

No longer is a bed, a bath, and a Gideon Bible sufficient for today's affluent hotel patrons. Decadent hotel amenities abound, and each luxury inn is trying to outdo the other. The competition is heavy, in an industry where you're only as good as your next extravagant perk.

It's not enough anymore, to just have a terry cloth robe awaiting you, by the bath, in your luxury hotel room. At the Ritz Madrid in Spain, those robes come monogrammed and tied with a red bow, with a rosebud tucked in. (Flat screen TVs, free high speed Internet access,and DVD players are now standard fare amenities, so in order to really impress, a hotel has to be over the top in luxury. )

How about room service for your dog? The Lowell New York luxury hotel will gladly accommodate. Or a baby butler for your little one? In the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, at Keswick Hall mansion, baby butlers will furnish you with a crib and a rocking chair, but that's not all. They will warm your baby's bottles, and even rock him to sleep, while you enjoy the view. (Talk about luxury hotel amenities.)

And more and more luxury hotels are adding around-the-clock personal butlers for the adults. Butlers will serve your morning breakfast and tea, draw your bath water, or lay out your chosen daily wardrobe. The butlers exist to anticipate your every need. Other amenities at luxury hotels, might include a Rolls-Royce ride from the airport, a personal shopper and adviser, a helicopter tour of the city, luxurious spa treatments, and a poem on your pillow, at the end of a busy day.

At the Enchantment Resort, a luxury hotel located in Sedona, Arizona, room service will provide you with a choice of the finest beef, to cook on your private terrace grill. Or how about a TV screen embedded in your vanity mirror? The Charles Hotel In Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, make sure that you won't miss a thing, while you brush your teeth or comb your hair. (Did you get that? There's a TV in your bathroom mirror!) Or how about fingerprint access to your room? Many trendy luxury hotels have eliminated the need for a room key or card. (Of all the luxury amenities, this might be the most practical, for those of us who have a tendency to lose things.) And I'd be remiss not to add, that some luxury hotels also provide a goldfish in each room.

Hotel trade shows are marketing some unbelievable futuristic technological ideas, such as an automatic body dryer system, a bed that takes your blood pressure (beware), and a room that can be changed into different areas and configurations, by the touch of a button, to accommodate guest requirements.

Sometimes it's the little amenities that can make a difference. The Hay Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C., not only offers a Bose CD system, a goose down comforter and pillows, plush bathrobes and slippers, but also an umbrella in each room. (Well, when it's raining, there's no better luxury!) The Tides South Beach Hotel provides a personal assistant upon check-in, a completely stocked honor bar, a plasma television, and a DVD/CD player, with a nice collection of CDs to choose from. At the New York Palace Boscolo Hotel in Budapest, you'll find lovely fresh flowers, and soothing background music, to welcome you to your room. (Yes, little things mean a lot.)

But probably, the most outlandish luxury hotel amenity, that I've run across in my research (in fact, the amenity of amenities) is the world's only "refrigerated beach." (Yes, you heard me right.) The Palazzo Versace hotel, in Dubai, has decided that hot sand is an inconvenience for their guests, and will provide a system of pipes installed under the beach, to absorb the intense heat, as well as giant wind blowers. (Let's hope that they don't blow the sand in people's faces.) Apparently, the super-wealthy despise walking on the hot sand. Dubai is already the location of the first ever 7 star hotel, called Burj Al Arab.

So for all you adrenaline junkies with "champagne taste and caviar dreams", the sky is the limit in opulent luxury hotel amenities . (And don't worry, if you forget to bring your toothbrush, the butler will bring you a new one.)

Sources: http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,23483,24236358-5012160,00.html

http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/8/21/8055/65877/hotels/Luxe_Hotels_Lure_Customers_with_Insane_Amenities

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2003549911_webdeluxehotels31.html

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/hotels/2006-05-25-amazing-amenities_x.htm

http://www.hayadams.com/dc-boutique-hotels-amenities.php

http://www.tidessouthbeach.com/hotel/amenities.html

http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/new-york-palace-boscolo-hotel.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1094797/Worlds-refrigerated-BEACH-built-luxury-hotel-Dubai.html