Staying at the Savoy - Arrival, the Savoy way

And so the day has arrived. If you have read my previous posts, you will know that my wife and I are celebrating our recent 50th birthdays with a couple of nights at the Savoy hotel in London. We will be entering this epitome of luxury in a little while. We are currently seated in great comfort in a black leather seat. The slight London rain is gently tapping on the black, highly polished metal that encase us and makes it looks as if the winged lady on the bonnet is sweating as she pulls us along the London streets.

As I have described earlier, I am a hotel nerd and I find great pleasure in seeking out and staying at great hotels. My goal is to find the perfect hotel. Or at least the hotel that is perfect for me. My goal is also to produce great memories for my wife and me. One should of course endeavour to inflict a little magic into every day life, but every now and again I want to create singular points in time that we can look back at and say "That was something special". Great hotels often come with a rather high price tag attached. For some people, staying at these hotels actually is every day life and possibly does not generate especially great memories. But for most people, staying at this kind of hotels is something that can only be savoured at special occasions and it is something that will take a rather large sum off the budget. Staying in top hotels becomes an investment. And that is how I see it. Our stay at the Savoy is an investment in future memories. And as an investor, I am a bit nervous. Have I invested in the right object? Have I invested the right amount of money? Will we be leaving in two days feeling that with the help of the staff at the Savoy we have produced great and kind memories that we will look back on and talk fondly about when we get older and our capital of fond memories is the most valuable we have? We will soon know.

Against this backdrop of investing in and crafting memories, I also become a script writer and director for our future capital of reminiscence, and as such, I need to think of how I can inflict as much magic as possible into our adventure within the budget I have given myself. As anyone in the film business will know, the first five to ten minutes of a movie can make or break the experience of the film. Look at the James Bond movies. The first ten minutes take you on a roller coaster ride that ensure that you love the movie even before it has properly started. That is why I often consider how we are transported to and arrive at the hotel.

Great hotels often offer several ways of greeting guests and transporting them to the hotel. The most special version of this often includes being met at the airport. This may be as you come out from customs clearance, but it may also include being met at the airplane door and being followed all the way through passport control and luggage collection. We tried that when we stayed at the Crillon in Paris, just to have tried it. A friendly lady met us as we disembarked the airplane and followed us through the airport until she handed us over to a chauffeur who drove us to the hotel. As much as it is fun to have experienced that, I felt that it was not really worth it. We did not save any time and it did not really have any other practical influence. I have heard from colleagues, though, that in some countries, most notably in Asia or Africa, a representative from a good hotel may be able to speed up and simplify the arrival process greatly. But in Europe I would not consider it as long as you are used to being in airports and can find your way around.

Transport between the airport and the hotel, however, may be worth looking into if you want to do something special. I find that if you really are trying to scoop up a bit of magic, pulling up in front of your hotel in a great car is a nice Bond way of starting your movie entitled "Our new, great adventure". So I have been in contact with the Savoy concierge asking for suggestions for how we may be transported, and they came up with a list of cars. Driving from Heathrow to central London may take some time, especially if there is a bit of traffic, and the Heathrow Express train only take 15 minutes and leaves frequently, so I decided that we take the train into Paddington and that we are met there by the car. But which car? The list given to me gave me a choice of several. What would be the correct way of arriving at the Savoy for our first stay there? Looking at the list I realised that there was only one correct answer to that question.

I needed a very special car. A very British car. A car that gives associations to the Savoy in as much as the entrance of the Savoy actually looks like it is modelled after the grille of this car. That is why we are currently turning into Savoy Place in the Rolls Royce Phantom with the iconic registration plate S8 VOY. And as the winged lady on the bonnet pulls the huge car down the only street in Britain where driving actually is on the right, turns and comes to a halt under the legendary Savoy entrance canopy that so closely mimics the Rolls Royce grille, the car door is opened by the doorman saying "Welcome to the Savoy, sir". The adventure has begun.