3rd Quarter 2017

DANIEL HOSTETTLER

CULINARY EXPERIENCES DEFINING RELAIS & CHÂTEAUX

SPOTLIGHT ON

Mecure Kooddoo: Pre-opening challenges:

a case study

ORACLE HOSPITALITY

HOTEL 2025 INDUSTRY REPORT

AMERICAN EXPRESS

INTEGRATING LIFESTYLE & DESIGN

LUXURYHOTELIERS

54 The Innovation Imperative

Insights from Oracle Hospitality’s Hotel 2025 Industry Report on emerging technologies

changing the future

66 Design Hotels™ Presents The Hitlist of

Hot Hotel Design Objects When objets d’art are the signature identity

of a hotel

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60The Artful Lodger:

American Express Salon Series: How Lodging and Lifestyle Converge

74 5 Top Bars in Vietnam

What is your preference? A tipple in a piano bar, beach club, historical site or stylish city

venue?

92 Sounds Great to Me

Hallie Engel on discovering your brand’s voice

48 5 Hotel Items worth Stealing

What would you covet? Taking a slightly different look at special hotel pieces

80 Leading Macro Trends Driving Business

Decisions at Top-Performing Luxury Hotels

How can you take advantage of these key trends influencing our guest?

96 High-End Hotels Renew

Interest in High Tea After High Noon

Hotels from Tokyo to Bangkok are indulging in this favorite past time

86Shower Intelligence

Using technology and design to reduce costs and improve safety

and environmental features

100The Ritz-Carlton New York,

Central Park, Chef Concierge Susanne Carter

On storytelling, New York Fashion Week, and other delights

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5HOTEL ITEMSWORTH STEALING

Back in the day when things were a lot less sophisticated, and thieves settled for less, hotels lost a lot of towels. These days there’s so much more to want from a hotel as they spend lavishly on art, decor and wine. While no one in their right mind

would think about lifting any of these objects, there’s no prohibition against coveting. Here’s what you may want to pay closer attention to next time you pass through Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, Saigon and Taipei.

The staff may look twice if you were to try pass off the ‘Isidoro’ vintage-travel-trunk-style minibar as your own luggage when you leave this plush Vietnam hotel. A prominent feature in the Saigon Suite, the hotel’s top abode, the Pelle Frau® saddle leather Isidoro is a vintage luggage-inspired bar designed by Jean-Marie Massaud for Poltrona Frau (entrusted by prestigious car manufacturers such as Ferrari with the upholstering of their interiors). The stylish item has transformed the guestroom minibar into a chic conversation piece.

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PALACE HOTELTOKYO

With over 1,000 pieces making up Palace Hotel Tokyo’s extensive art collection, there are more than a fair few that guests wouldn’t mind relocating to their homes. Upon check-in, visitors are captivated by the large Echoes-Crystallization wall installation by Shinji Ohmaki,

which depicts an endangered species of Japanese flowers through crystal powder and marble. Another sizeable piece, a bit too large to tuck into luggage, is Masahito Katayama’s Sunflower painting, that would bring a bit of sunshine and warmth into anyone’s living room.

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The Sanchaya’s glass-walled cellar and wine and cheese tasting area, called The Decanter, showcases hundreds of bottles of premium and discovery wines, including a certain 2000 Chateâu Mouton Rothschild Rehoboam 5L (pictured with The Sanchaya’s alluring new estate sommelier Jeroen L’abée). Priced at a cool US $16,000, this remarkable bottle of red ranks as the Pauillac estate’s most pricy wine of the past 30 years. The Sanchaya still has two of only 5000 ever produced, and the bottle in itself is a collector’s item, adorned with a gold reproduction of the Augsburg Ram, a chased silver-gilt drinking vessel created around 1590 by master goldsmith Jakob Schenauer.

THE SANCHAYA BINTAN

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Given that Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit is the only hotel in Thailand’s capital with an art gallery, it’s no surprise that Sofitel Luxury Hotels’ flagship property in Southeast Asia houses some of the coolest pieces this side of Paris. The most

coveted might just be the very symbol of the City of Light itself -- a miniature Eiffel Tower, which sits on a table in the ballroom foyer and has undoubtedly beckoned the kleptomaniac in every guest to notice the remarkable little replica.

Taipei’s most seasoned luxury hotel is well-known for its sizeable collection of contemporary art and calligraphy works by Taiwanese artist TK. Many of TK’s black and white paintings adorn the walls of the hotel’s 853 guest rooms and suites, including one of a large swirl, which is proudly

displayed in the entrance to one of the corner suites. The framed painting might be a little tricky to squeeze through the hotel’s revolving doors undetected, but it would certainly make for a cool souvenir to brag about to your friends back home.

THEGRANDHYATTTAIPEI

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Once a haven for backpackers and, for a decade or two, the beneficiary of the ubiquitous, ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ headline, it is evening in Indochina at last, and there are a number of really cool venues for

knocking back a cold one. Here’s how to crawl across the country from one great hotel bar to another, each with a story all its own.

5TOPBARS INVIETNAM

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If you get bombed at this bar, never fear — there’s an air raid shelter just below. Joan Baez sought refuge here during the Christmas Bombings in 1972, and recorded a portion of her album, “Where Are You Now, My Son”, in the subterranean warren at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi. Excavated in 2012 and opened to hotel guests as a memorial, the shelter opens every day at Happy Hour. Otherwise, Le Club is the social hub of one of South Asia’s grand dames, built in 1901 and so completely refurbished in 2011 that the leading magazines hailed the hotel as one of the world’s most stunning debuts. Le Club itself emerged from a complete makeover in August 2016, looking a lot more like a speakeasy from the Roaring Twenties.

LE CLUB01

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TIMES SQUARE

There’s no shortage of space to belly up at this serpent of a bar, a 48-meter long counter that stretches between Saigon’s most fashionable street, Dong Khoi, and its most monumental avenue,

Nguyen Hue. Opened in September 2014, The Long (which literally translates as Dragon in Vietnamese) anchors the ground floor of the city’s most sumptuous new hotel, The

Reverie Saigon, but hearkens back to another era, when Dong Khoi was known as Tu Do Street, a wild, wooly thoroughfare of go-go bars and night clubs during the Vietnam War.

In the lobby bar of 1930-built La Residence Hotel & Spa, the Arc of Life curves with the rotunda wall, depicting scenes of Vietnamese daily life. Inspired by frescoes on the walls of the Musée des Colonies in Paris

and the main post office in Lyon, this one-of-kind ‘Arc of Life’ mural was created by French artist Roland Renaud. If the beauty of the arc alone is not worth the price of admission, indulge a little history: It was through

these doors at Tet in 1968 that Viet Cong cadres infiltrated the hotel and made off with the highest ranking South Vietnamese official abducted during the war.

THE LONG @02

03LE GOUVERNEUR

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surface, to a backdrop of white sands and turquoise waters, dotted with the occasional sampan and coracle and picturesque islands in the distance.

Dramatic headlands named “Song Lo,” meaning the wave next to the mountain, rise up to the immediate north and west. The Beach Club and

infinity pool make for the pièce de résistance of the new resort that celebrates its grand opening in April 2017.

just because all 31 cabins feel like 5-star hotel suites (although that feature would certainly suffice). No, Paradise Elegance is also in a class by itself for

its bygone-era-feeling watering hole, where a grand piano is put to use every night by the ship’s resident, classically-trained musician. While King Kong

might be lurking behind this karst or that karst, you’ll likely be too lost in the bar’s exquisite tapestry of sound and setting to care about anything else.

04THE BEACH

CLUB

It’s all too easy to while away the time at The Beach Club, a semi open-air bar affording a panoramic prospect of one of Vietnam’s most pristine locales, Cam Ranh’s Cheshire grin of a coastline. The Beach Club lounges by The Anam’s 600-square-metre infinity pool, with sunbeds hovering over the water’s

PARADISE ELEGANCE’S

PIANO BAR

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The newest luxury cruise ship on Halong Bay launched in March 2017 as the biggest and baddest vessel to ever ply the waters of Vietnam’s most famous natural attraction -- and not

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AFTER HIGH NOON

HIGH-END HOTELS RENEW INTEREST IN

HIGH TEAAll the tea in China isn’t necessarily drunk in China. Nor is all

the high tea consumed in England. This spring, hotels from Bangkok to Tokyo are reaching new heights with new high tea specials that drink in great views, exalt chocolate, invoke gay

Paree and look stunning in lacquer.

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“As high-falutin’ and old-fashioned as high tea sounds, it’s still a major part of our day, every day,” said Sammy Carolus, general manager of the Grand Hyatt Taipei. “People used to talk about the power lunch. Today we’re talking about the power tea. Increasingly it’s how guests are beginning to explore a particular destination’s culinary appeal.”

In Taipei, the deliciously over-the-top afternoon tea buffet takes place at the Grand Hyatt Taipei’s Café restaurant. Designed to resemble a gourmet marketplace, this is possibly the most high-powered high tea experience in Asia, with more than 10 live cooking stations, 120 different international delicacies, and 280 seats for guests. Highlights include a sushi and seafood bar, a salad bar, a fresh juice bar, Chinese, Indian as well as Western fare, and a dessert station filled with cheese, all-you-can-eat cakes and pastries, and a matcha chocolate fountain to top it off.

In Tokyo, the ever-popular high tea service at Palace Lounge, Palace Hotel Tokyo’s cozy bar and restaurant, marries seasonal selections with premium teas, specialty coffees, and champagne. With sweeping views of the surrounding Imperial Palace gardens and moat, this high tea adds a seasonal twist with pastries and sweets inspired by spring. Treats featured in the spring tea set

include mini bacon and onion quiche, Japanese rice balls with green leaves, and freshly baked scones — all artfully presented in an elegant, three-tiered jyubako lacquered box.

In Bangkok, and in particular at Le Macaron, Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit’s gourmet, Parisian-style cafe, a taste of afternoon tea tradition is served up daily from 2 to 5 p.m. Treats include homemade French pâtisserie — from green tea cakes to scones with jam and vanilla whipped cream — and all manner of teas.

In Hanoi, the high tea takes place at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi’s recently revamped Le Club, a Roaring Twenties speakeasy-style bar, built on top of a wartime air-raid shelter. Here guests can choose between a traditional afternoon tea, a delectable three-tiered

spread of reinvented French classics, or a lavish chocolate buffet featuring pralines, ganache, mille-feuille pastries, and a chocolate fountain — while listening to the sweet sounds of live jazz.

On Indonesia’s Bintan Island near Singapore, The Sanchaya serves up afternoon tea on a veranda overlooking powder white sands and aquamarine waters dotted with picturesque islands. Savory treats from the Classic English, Southeast Asian and Artisanal-themed afternoon teas include roasted beef with beetroot and horseradish relish, ‘tahu isi’ stuffed local tofu with mixed vegetables, and lobster ceviche on crostini respectively, topped off with sweets such as fresh berries with vanilla custard, fried ice cream in bread and spring roll skin and creamy dragon fruit tartlet.

And in Colombo, afternoon tea at one of the oldest hotels east of the Suez pays homage to the Ceylonese past. Amid the Verandah’s colonial al fresco setting at The Galle Face Hotel, traditional English afternoon tea is underscored by fine Ceylon teas. Finger sandwiches, smoked salmon on rye and savory pastries are followed by dainty Nuwara Eliya strawberry shortbread, passion fruit and date cake, opera slice and papaya, lime and ginger tart desserts. The freshly baked scones stake a claim to Sri Lanka’s best and are served with homemade jams and real clotted cream.

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