The Suite Life

When you take every effort to travel in luxurious comfort, from Bose headphones to Kiehl’s travel toiletries, restrictions from security and the dismal food courts often leave little for luxury travelers in terms of food. Rather than run into the safety of the airline’s private lounge or subjecting your stomach to fast “food”, airports are now offering a third option, luxury eateries.

Travel+Leisure reported on the new luxury rest stops that are landing in an airport near you, here’s an excerpt:

JFK Airport in New York – Vino Volo wine bar in American Airline’s Terminal 8 creates an intimate atmosphere filled with carefully chosen bottles from both popular and remote wineries around the world.

Logan International Airport in Boston – Todd English opened the third installment of his Bonfire restaurant serving up South American fair to those who rather have their meat with avocado crema than pickles and ketchup.

LAX in Los Angeles – Oneworld is luxury southern-Californian style as an eco-lounge made with natural materials and complete with shower suites for First- and Business-class travelers, so you can reach your zen before reaching highest altitude.

Heathrow Airport in London – Plane Restaurant brings luxury comfort food to travelers. The new Gordon Ramsay terminal 5 spot offers both breakfast and special picnic baskets, helping jet-setters start their day off right.

And those are just the food options. There’s also spas, shops and museums opening at airports around the globe, so check them out, it might even be worth getting to the airport by the suggested 2 hours prior to flight-time…

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By Sarah Ziering for Perfect Escapes

The Chicago Tribune recently reported that hotels in the Windy City are stepping up their high-tech amenities in an effort to make guests feel more at home. While the general consensus is that nothing is as important as impeccable service when it comes to a hotel experience, it can’t hurt to lavish guests with high-tech amenities to accompany the custom pillows and service. In a world where people are plugged in to some sort of device almost constantly, hotels are reaching out to high-tech lifestyles who live in a luxuriously gadgety world.

The Hard Rock Hotel Chicago is installing HDTV’s into every guest room, while The Peninsula is upgraded cell-phone coverage and many area hotels are succumbing to the almost now standard amenity of free wireless internet.

Many Chicago hotels are also offering video game consoles, more accessible outlets, and in-room laptop storage safes in addition to the giant plasma TV’s and entertainment systems.

When you mix luxury with high-tech you can lay in your turned-down, fluffy bed, watching your HDTV, while your ipod charges in the alarm dock next to you, all while a concierge happily arranges for the phone charge your forgot to be replaced and dropped at your hotel room door. It’s virtual hotel bliss.

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No, those people aren’t racing to catch their plane, they are speed-walking to burn off a few calories before their next flight.

Lambert-St. Louis International’s new airport paths give people a chance to work off extra calories, stress, and tight muscles in between their flights. It has long been known that shorter more frequent exercising is as beneficial if not more so than one long set. So even just squeezing in 20 minutes of walking around the airport can really boost travelers’ health before they get back in a plane for many more hours. This is especially true if they are carrying quite a few pounds of luggage as well, since nothing is mentioned about a place to store baggage during a walk. However, make sure your walk doesn’t take you into the fast-food joints, candy kiosks or gift stores, window shopping does not count as cardiovascular activity, unfortunately.

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By Sarah Ziering for Perfect Escapes

Business and leisure once seemed like oil and water. As busy executives travel more throughout the global economy, a majority can’t find the time to group more than a long-weekend of vacation days together at a time. Frequent business travel has replaced the time for an actual vacation. However, by extending business trips to include a few days of leisure, the next red eye to Tokyo may seem less like a work obligation and more like a vacation escape.

Popular business travel destinations such as London, New York and Hong Kong are easy to navigate in terms of finding the leisure activities and luxury accommodations that make business travel more leisurely. However, as travel for business extends to more remote and less-urbanized areas, planning the leisure part of a business trip becomes a little more foreign.

That’s why Forbes Travel put together an article with tips on traveling to these less expansive destinations. At the heart, the article says to research and be prepared. Since these culturally rich destinations don’t always have the same sort of luxury and service on hand, make local contacts, find out good places to eat from local business contacts, cab drivers, etc. Let the locals guide you. And in case you don’t gain enough knowledge from word of mouth, come prepared with your own arsenal of must dos while in your destination.

While you are rushing from meeting, to dinner, to gala, take the road less traveled and enjoy some leisure time beyond a coffee break between conference sessions. It will certainly make a rushed trip more leisurely, and may even improve business relations as well.

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Most people would agree that first impressions are paramount to a successful business. But many industries, especially the luxury hotel industry have the greater goal of creating long-term brand loyalty.

This is especially true with business travelers, who travel frequently and with little time to spare. Having a hotel that can remember what you like and how you like it, and provide it before you even have to ask makes a daunting business trip almost, dare we say, pleasurable.

Enter Ritz-Carlton, the guru of all things customer service. With a simple and detailed formula, the brand has managed to remain at the top of the luxury hotel food chain for many years. Their bragging rights are certainly large, but not unearned. Here’s a few of their formula basics that every customer-facing business should employ, and that every frequent traveler should enjoy.

Respect: Ritz-Carlton follows the motto: “we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen”. Setting the stage for polite, warm, and professional guest and staff interactions, Ritz-Carlton aims to make sure its staff treat each other and their guests with genuine respect at all times.

Education: Ritz-Carlton wants their employees to know the company, know the strategy, and know the industry. All employees are expected to have formal training, to know the area around the hotel and to constantly look for ways to improve the hotel. They create an atmosphere of welcome and knowledge to ensure each guest is equipped with everything they need.

Service: Once employees are well taken-care of and guests receive personal attention, Ritz-Carlton takes the extra step of making sure no issue goes unsolved. Every telephone call is answered, every incident is recorded in detail and every complaint is handled immediately. Any request receives a 20-minute follow-up call to ensure its completion. Employees are to walk guests not just point out directions, to “own their customer’s complaints”, and are free to spend thousands of dollars without authorization to not lose a guest.

Guest retention is key in the competitive business world today. A quick look at the luxury hotel industry shows that the ones who are on top are the ones who spare no effort or expense to ensure customer satisfaction. So whether you are hosting clients at an event, or you are the guest, take care of business by employing some of Ritz-Carlton’s formula and perhaps testing out their impeccable service for yourself.

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Find Luxury Hotels around the World at Perfect Escapes.

Planning your next Business trip or retreat? Get luxury easily with the Perfect for Business section of Perfect Escapes.

Read more about Ritz-Carlton’s formula for service excellence in the Portland Business Journal.