What is real luxury in the hotel business? Many hoteliers I speak to say that these days, luxury is all about resort properties.
Once upon a time, high-end resorts seemed eye-wateringly expensive. Now they are about the same price as city hotels, because rates at city hotels all over the world have shot up.
Most people who stay in city hotels spend few of their waking hours in the hotel, and often breakfast is the only meal they will eat in-house. It's the opposite with resorts. The secret of a successful luxury resort is that even if you spend all of your time in the hotel, you should never get bored.
No destination embodies this principle as well as the Maldives. Because each hotel is on a coral island of its own, 99% of all guests do not leave the resort.
Every island in the Maldives is beautiful and every hotel has its own lagoon with water so clear that you can see the pebbles at the bottom of the sea. So, even if you stay in a mid-range resort, you still have the lagoon to enjoy.
But this also means that each resort has roughly the same natural advantages. How does any hotel rise above the others? I have stayed at about a dozen of the top resorts in the Maldives. Two stand out.
Nine years ago I went to Soneva Fushi and Cheval Blanc on the same trip and wrote a column here comparing the experiences.
I have since been back to Fushi many times, but I hadn't gone back to Cheval Blanc until last week.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 16, 2024-Ausgabe von Brunch.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 16, 2024-Ausgabe von Brunch.
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Nitesh Kumar
Para badminton athlete, Nitesh_Kmar
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This week, we're...
Faking a flex. If you have FOMO about concerts, you’re the right market for Get Your Flex. The Insta-based service sells concert video footage, so customers can pretend that they were at the Maroon 5 gig, or paid ₹30,000 for Dil-Luminati seats. For ₹99, you can also be tagged in a concert video by a cool “friend”, or get a clip that you can repost. Now, if there’s more buzz online than at the venue, you know why.
Man of the moments
Sunil Chhetri has retired from football, but he's not done yet. The 40-year-old legend talks about the moments that defined his careerand why his biggest achievement is off the field
