Search This Blog

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Plan a Trip to a Luxury Hotel of Your Choice -- Luxury Link

Looking to visit a luxury hotel in the near future? If you have flexible travel dates or if you are willing to take a trip on somewhat short notice, check out Luxury Link.  The site offers various packages at luxury hotels around the world in two different ways.  First, you can participate in an auction for an extra discounted package or you can choose the 'Buy Now' option at a higher price if you're not up for the suspense of waiting to find out if you won the auction.  Honestly, the latter option does not appear to cost too much more, so if that's what you feel comfortable with, you're talking a difference of a few hundred dollars, but still at a discounted rate from what you are likely to see on the actual hotel website.

You can search on Luxury Link in a variety of ways, including destination, interests (e.g. beach, golf, spa, etc.), or property type, but I think the best ways to search are the auctions that are closing soon and the best deals categories.  Auctions that are closing soon allow you to jump in late in the game and have a better idea of whether or not you might get the reservation.  You also don't have to wait for days and possibly weeks to finalize your vacation.  Obviously the best deals section is something you want to check out because you could find a real steal, but these are likely to be pretty popular for auctions.  The Buy Now option could be a pretty good choice for these items, but you can always play the auction and see if you can get under the Buy Now price.  If you're flexible, then you won't ruin your plans by taking a chance with the auction.

Finally, if you like a little suspense and you're more of the free spirit type, there are also mystery auctions where you can bid for a stay at a luxury hotel at a given destination.  These auctions have a lot of potential because the bids appear to be pretty low, and they do post clues as to where the destination is as the auction proceeds so it's not a total risk.  If anyone out there has won a mystery option on Luxury Link, please share!

If you're skeptical and are wondering how they can offer these deals, there are constraints on the dates of travel, which are probably limited to off-peak times.  However, if you're really interested in the hotel like I am and all it has to offer, this seems like a better time to go anyway.  Also, there is a $40 handling fee that I guess is the price you pay for the site managing the auction.  In the end, you should probably still come out way on top compared to the retail prices, but you should definitely do your pricing research before you throw out a bid.  This site was rated one of the best travel websites by Travel and Leisure, so it's probably been vetted pretty thoroughly if you're wondering about being scammed.  I plan on using Luxury Link for one of my next trips so I'll let you all know how it goes.  Also, for those more family oriented travelers out there, Luxury Link has a partner site called Family Getaway that offers the same opportunities for more family friendly places.

More tips, resources, and hotels coming soon as well as my first Hotel Hopper review.  Check back soon.

.sb06

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

My Inspiration....Hotel de la Paix

You may be wondering what made a regular person like me (I am a regular person, I promise) become so interested in luxury hotels.  I think I always knew there were really nice places out there, from TV and movies and whatever else, but of course, regular people financial constraints has always prevented me from being able to go all out and splurge.  As a result, I never paid too much attention to the world "on the other side" until....I was reading a magazine (can't quite remember...maybe Men's Health or some other random magazine like that) and happened to see an ad or article that featured Hotel de la Paix and I remember thinking "I have to go there!".  Well, I haven't gone yet because it's in Cambodia, but maybe I'll make it happen someday.

Hotel de la Paix is located in Siem Reap, which is the capital city of the Siem Reap Province in central/western Cambodia.  The hotel is designed using a fusion of modern and Asian design, which is quite possibly my favorite design because I am definitely a minimalist.  Hotel de la Paix also houses a very stylish lounge, pool, restaurant, fitness center, and the Indochine Spa, which offers a pretty full menu of services.  Unfortunately, the gallery on the hotel site seems to be down (maybe it's just me and my elderly laptop), but you should be able to check out the rooms on the Facilities tab.  Hotel de la Paix is a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World Club (link is listed in the resources at the bottom of the page) and was selected by Travel + Leisure readers in January as the #1 hotel in Cambodia and #33 in all of Asia, which makes me wonder about the top 32.  SLH also features a gallery of photos of Hotel de la Paix that does work, so take a look.  And if you're wondering if Cambodia has a lot of nice hotels, there are actually six hotels in Cambodia that are members of the Kiwi Collection, which is a pretty exclusive club.  For more info on the T + L Top 500 hotels, click here.  More on this list later.

So anyway, there is my inspiration for my interests and part of the reason I wanted to start a blog and research more luxurious destinations.  We'll see how my newest discoveries compare.

.sb06

Monday, March 8, 2010

Oyster and Raveable -- New items added to the Hotel Resources List

More additions!

I've just added two more resources to the link list at the bottom of the page.  I thought about adding a separate list for hotel reviewing sites, but figured most of you were already well aware of the Kayak, Expedia, etc. type of sites so I figured I wouldn't crowd the page with commonly known resources.  I also didn't want to add too many review sites because they can be cumbersome to browse through and incredibly subjective.  I suppose my reviews will be subjective as well, but for the most part, the design is the primary focus, and nice features are pretty much nice features no matter how you look at it.

The two new sites I just added are Oyster and Raveable, which provide hundreds of reviews of hotels good and bad.  Both sites focus exclusively on hotels, versus more travel oriented sites that discuss hotels as just a part of the total travel package.  In addition to being able to search for hotels and reviews, both sites feature extensive listings of the best hotels by city as well as categories, themes, and features.  Oyster also features very extensive photo galleries for the hotels on the site, which is very helpful for getting a good feeling about the hotel.  Raveable also features a blog list of the best travel blogs out there on the web.

Reviews on both sites are very thorough, although Oyster claims to post professional, unbiased reviews versus Raveable, which pulls reviews from real customers primarily through TripAdvisor and MyTravelGuide.  I think both types of reviews can be useful, but it depends on which you trust more.  Both sites also allow viewers to check rates and availability for the hotel you are checking out...just some added convenience so you don't have to bounce around between multiple sites.  The only downside to the sites is that they are basically limited to US and nearby destinations at this time, so you world travelers out there will have to wait until they extend their coverage.

Until next time!

.sb06

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Great Sites for Luxury Hotel Browsing

Hey everyone,

While I continue to get the site up and going with content, layout changes, and so on, I want to let you know that I've found some really great sites out there for exploring various types of luxury hotels around the world.  I've posted a growing list of these sites at the bottom of the page, so check them out.  I haven't had a chance yet to take a thorough look through each and every site, but all of them appear to be excellent from what I've seen.  Once I can get through all of them, and maybe find some others, I'll post about which ones are my favorites and why. 

There are also a few feeds listed at the bottom of the page, including the newest one that I added today from Trendhunter.com, which features articles and image galleries of the trendiest hotels and themes.  I also have some interesting blogs that I've found in my searches that I think have a lot of interesting content and focus mostly on hotels.  Enjoy the sites and check back for my next post!

.sb06

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

New Luxury Hotel Openings for 2010

Another interesting article I just happened to come across....lots of new places to check out!

.sb06

Purchase a Piece of Luxury from Your Favorite Hotels

An interesting article a friend of mine sent me (thanks K!), check it out and let me know what you think! Personally, I wouldn't want to mix and match from everywhere, but hey, to each his own :p

.sb06