Well, the honest answer is that, if anything, it has driven them higher. Considerably higher. And it certainly hasn’t exactly furnished any concessions this year during the main season.
A sea-view junior suite with terrace, at one of our top three hotels on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, was offered to us last week at the nightly rate of €6,570. Junior suite, not actual suite, and at an increase of 80% on summer 2019 rates. Yet it was the last remaining accommodation for the month of July.
One of our favourite London grande-dame hotels has just released several newly designed signature suites designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon. They are undeniably beautiful, well proportioned and with attractive terraces. Priced between £18,000 and £21,000 per night during peak season, they are also equipped with a hefty price tag, not seen before in the city. Yet the hotel has never enjoyed a higher occupancy rate.
The priciest suite in Paris a 4- bedroom duplex with private elevator, own swimming pool, fitness centre, screening room, extensive terraces and views through panoramic glass walls across the Seine to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower , will set you back €40,000 per night. Located on the top two floors of one of the two most recent world-class hotels to have opened in the city for several years, it is undeniably pricey, yet offers fair value by comparison for size, amenity and appointment.
Not everything in the luxury category is at these levels. However, in this post-Covid period, with pent up demand higher than ever, prices across the board, especially in Italy, have risen significantly.
All the more reason to be sure you are taking the right advice when spending precious time and money.
A former subscriber to the original Nota Bene books once commented “if the price of my membership saves me from one bad meal, and the loss of one wasted evening during a 3-night stay, it has paid for itself”.
When it comes to entire trips, involving potentially greater losses, you need to be able to trust the people organising your travel. Both for advice and the service that follows.
You should feel that they understand you and have been to the places they recommend. Confident that they have listened to you, know your likes/dislikes and will inspire and impress you on an impartial basis.
Please take a brief moment to consider the following questions. Tick them accordingly and we will make contact.
Do you like your travel provider to be proactive as opposed to always reactive?
Do you expect the experience to feel completely effortless?
Do you resent being kept waiting at check-in?
Do you like specific accommodations to be recommended?
Do you want every travel detail taken care of?
If the answer to these questions is “yes”, then I’d say, with confidence, that we should SCHEDULE A CALL.