I\u2019ve stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, and it\u2019s without doubt a lovely property. I didn\u2019t stay in the penthouse suite; I\u2019ve gazed up at it from street level and simply can\u2019t fathom how the owners came up with the nightly rate. It\u2019s not high enough for the views to be mind-blowing (in comparison, the London Suite at the Shangri-La at the Shard is located on the 38th floor), and there don\u2019t appear to be any added extras to justify the price tag \u2013 which, given that guests can only check in after 3pm and must check out by midday, works out at around $9222 an hour.<\/p>\n
To me, these eye-wateringly high nightly rates smack slightly of greed. Just because you can slap such a price tag on a room or suite doesn\u2019t mean you should, no matter how many headlines result from doing so.<\/p>\n
Book Claridge\u2019s Penthouse suite, and your bill will be even higher \u2013 $134,000 a night. Yes, there\u2019s a Steinway piano and some artwork by Damian Hirst (items which, judging by their prevalence in obscenely priced hotel suites, are increasingly seen as essential amenities by hoteliers), but the justification for the nightly rate is unclear. On a personal level, a Steinway piano would be wasted on me. But macrons, chocolate-covered strawberries and a chilled bottle of Veuve Clicquot, which arrived shortly after I checked into the Shangri-La The Shard\u2019s London Suite? Sign me up.<\/p>\n
Shangri-La Hotel, At The Shard, London. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
But the other aspects that set the London Suite apart are the nods to the location. Without bragging, I\u2019ve stayed in countless insanely-priced suites, including one at the Ritz Paris shortly after it opened. It was ridiculously opulent but still felt somehow identikit. Sure, gold-plated taps might do it for some, and the same might go for the bullet-proof windows (another amenity wasted on me because my name doesn\u2019t, at least to my knowledge, appear on any hit lists), but what about nods to the location? There weren\u2019t any. Not so at the Shangri-La The Shard, where my bedside table was piled with books about the UK\u2019s capital. My favourites turned out to be Simon Phipps\u2019 Brutal London, a photographic tribute to the city\u2019s post-war architecture, Christopher Winn\u2019s I Never Knew That About the River Thames, and Underground: Tales for London, a compendium of stories about London\u2019s metro penned by 12 writers. In the bathroom, a huge bathtub was perfectly positioned to make the most of the views over Tower Bridge and the serpentine River Thames, while a telescope in the living room came in useful for identifying landmarks referenced in the London-themed literature.<\/p>\n
The Shangri-La suite includes a telescope for viewing London landmarks mentioned in curated bedside books. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The books are a reminder of the growing demand for suites that offer genuine insights into the destination. \u201cIn recent years, there\u2019s recently been a real push to offer something that\u2019s not just luxurious, but deeply personal and experiential,\u201d says Kurt Macher, general manager at the Shangri-La The Shard. \u201cGlobal travellers are no longer satisfied with just a beautiful room \u2013 they want something which tells a story, something which feels like it couldn\u2019t exist anywhere else in the world. And London, with its rich history, international energy and world-class design, is the perfect city to bring that to life.\u201d<\/p>\n
London Suite 21 At Shangri-La Hotel, At The Shard, London. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Kurt\u2019s reluctant to relay anecdotes relating to former guests who\u2019ve graced the hotel\u2019s most expensive suites (hardly surprising, when you consider they include royalty, heads of state and iconic pop stars) but I sense there\u2019s no shortage of tales. \u201cThere are always stories,\u201d he admits. \u201cOne that stands out is the guest who was attending a wedding in our ballroom. They were so enchanted by the chandeliers that they asked if they could take one of the crystals home as a memento. We couldn\u2019t quite part with the chandelier, of course, but we did find a way to offer a special token that captured the spirit of the night!\u201d As for me? While I\u2019d love a telescope like the one in my suite, it wouldn\u2019t quite fit in my suitcase. So I opted for the next best thing and snaffled something just as lovely \u2013 the pen by my bed (sorry, Shangri-La).<\/p>\n
The journalist stayed courtesy of Shangri-La The Shard. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, and it\u2019s without doubt a lovely property. I didn\u2019t stay in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[66414,9526,6375,138,9349,3602,8815,6043,13848,6735,296,1619,6431,111,139,2551,66413,69,66411,19257,66408,66409,66412,66410,313,13847,223,1961,15142,102,379],"class_list":["post-87713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-66414","tag-another","tag-appeal","tag-business","tag-checks","tag-earlier","tag-explore","tag-exploring","tag-hinson","tag-hotel","tag-into","tag-london","tag-londons","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-nightly","tag-nz","tag-penthouse","tag-rate","tag-shangrila","tag-shard","tag-suite","tag-suites","tag-super","tag-tamara","tag-the","tag-this","tag-unveiled","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}