Staying at the Savoy - Planning and booking

In a short time, my wife and I will be staying a few nights at the Savoy hotel in London. The Savoy is, as I described in a previous post, one of the oldest and grandest of the London hotels. And I am, as I also has posted earlier, a hotel nerd. So staying at the Savoy has been on my list of things to do for a long time. Earlier we have stayed at several of the other grand hotels in London including the Ritz, the Dorchester and Browns. In my mind I have given them all human characteristics.

• The Ritz: Slightly stiff and faded royalty (this was a number of years ago and may have changed)
• The Dorchester: A grand, but kind old lady
• Browns: The traditional British, tweeded gentleman (this was before they re-decorated, it may be different now)

What will the Savoy be like?  

Only for the rich?

If you read this, you may think I am an overly rich bloke who only stay in expensive hotels. I would have liked that to be true, but I am afraid it is not. I am afraid I do not possess the rather expanded economy needed in order to stay at world class luxury hotels every time I travel. But I always spend a lot of time finding the right hotel. I feel that a bad hotel can easily ruin a holiday for me. Just ask my wife. She knows. And you can find good hotels in most price ranges. But every now and then I find great pleasure in staying at great hotels when I find occasion for it. And I am rather good at finding occasions.

Some of the people I know will not even think of staying in a hotel like the Savoy because they feel that they do not fit in. The are afraid they will be frowned upon and classified as second rate. My findings are that if you look relatively decent and behave in the vicinity of civilised, you will be well taken care of. And if not, it just is not a good hotel. 

I once heard an interview with a manager at the Crillon hotel in Paris where he said that many of his guests were either business people who did not pay for the stay themselves, or they had so much money that staying in luxury hotels was an everyday experience and nothing special, and the cost of it did not really matter.  

But then there were also the people who can only afford to stay in top hotels a few times, perhaps to celebrate special occasions. And the amount of money they spend may be equivalent to one, perhaps two months earnings. They have had to save up for this. These, he said, are the most important guests.  They have really invested in order to take part of the magic and he saw it as his task to pay them back in experiences and memories.

So if you always wanted, but never dared, do it! They are there for you. And if you have had bad experiences of not being "good enough" while staying at a hotel, I want to know about it. Please let me know by commenting on this post!

Booking

There are several ways of booking a hotel. There are a number of web sites that let you search for hotels at given dates and give you a list of hotels with vacancies so you can compare features and prices. Many of these also boast lower prices than you can get from the hotel directly. But more and more I find that you can actually get the same or even lower prices when dealing with the hotels directly. 

Most hotels have online booking systems built into their website. Some of these also give you more control over your booking when it comes to room categories etc., and the better ones also take you through an optional menu of pillow types and other options.

You can also initiate your booking by sending an email to the hotel informing them of your needs and requesting an offer. This is often my preferred method. In the email you can at an early stage explain any special needs or occasions, and if you send of the email to a number of hotels, you can choose where to stay based on the content of the replies. I would suggest being a bit personal in your inquiring email to see if the person at the other end just emailed back a standard reply or if he or she took the time to assert your situation and find the best solution based on that.

Many years ago I was planning a trip to London with my wife and, at that time, only daughter who was around four years old. This was before the widespread use of email, so I wrote proper letters to a number of hotels asking for offers and also asking for suggestions of what to do in London with a four year old. There was a broad range of replies. Some did not reply at all. Some just sent me a brochure and price list.  Some sent a fairly standard letter with an actual offer. But a small hotel named 22 Jermyn Street sent me a thick envelope. In it was a long letter answering all my questions and giving me an offer for a room. They had also supplied a copy of their newsletter describing restaurants etc. near the hotel, and a separate newsletter where they described what was good for kids in London at that time. I felt that there was a person in Jermyn Street that actually cared about us even before we had booked, and I felt sure that that person would also take good care of us once we arrived. Needless to say, I booked at 22 Jermyn Street, and that is one of my best hotel memories ever. Sadly, the hotel is no more. The building was taken down a few years ago to give way to a modern office block. It is sadly missed by many. See http://www.22jermyn.com.

There are several reasons why I often start the booking with an email besides being able to compare the responses from multiple hotels. First of all, I want to build as much of a relationship with the hotel as possible as early as possible by actually introducing myself. I want to stand out and not just be booking number 4588372 or whatever, if possible. This is probably more efficient at a small hotel than a large one. The thought behind this is that it just may lead to better service once we get there. Another reason, if I am booking for a special occasion, is to inform about that and to drive that home as early as possible.

The hotel is of course not required to do anything extra for you even if you are celebrating something, but more often than not I find that good hotels tend to take the opportunity to do a little extra something on these occasions. I mean, I love to do things for other people, and if someone came to stay at my house without informing me that it was their birthday or whatever, I would feel like I was being robbed of an opportunity for doing something nice. So all I am doing with the hotel is giving them the opportunity to show me how good they are. This often takes the form of an upgrade, bottle of champagne a cake or something similar. When we stayed at the Crillon in Paris to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, I booked their smallest double and ended up with a duplex suite with a clear view of L'Hotel des Invalides, Grand Palais and the Eiffel Tower. And a cake. And champagne.

In the case of the Savoy, I booked through the online system on their website. Booking worked well. I did not choose the cheapest room as that was a queen bedded room more suitable for one person, but I booked the smallest double, a Deluxe King.  The Savoy offers Superior Queen, Deluxe King/Twin, Luxury King and Luxury King with river view before we start talking about suites. Since the Savoy is situated right next to the Thames river, many room categories may be had with either inner courtyard/city view or river view. River view is of course preferable, but it comes with a cost attached. While the view may be staggering, the extra cost may be from around a hundred pounds to several hundreds depending on room category.

Following up - the concierge

Since I booked through the online system and not by email, I needed to get in contact both to inform them that we were coming there to celebrate that both my wife and I had recently turned 50 and to request a few specific services. Often, when I have booked a good hotel, the confirmation email will state the email address to the concierge in case I need them to do anything for me in preparation for my arrival. The email from the Savoy, however, held no such information, so I sent an email to the generic address listed on the web site. In the email I told about the occasion and asked for suggestions on how they could help me make this stay extra special. I also wanted them to book me some restaurant tables. The response consisted of a suggestion for a champagne cruise on the river and a list of items I could order for our room. These included fruit, chocolate, champagne, wine, flowers etc. I did choose a few items from the list, but I cannot say what I chose as it is a secret for my wife and this is out before we leave... 

They had also sent my table booking requests on to the concierge team and they would be in contact shortly. The response from the concierge never came, so there had clearly been a small glitch there. But since the concierge email address was in the last email I had received, I was able to contact them myself. 

The concierge team at good hotels may be a hidden secret to many. Many of the people I know have no idea what it is, and that is a shame because a good concierge is a gem. The concierge is your local expert on anything and your expert helper on any subject. Need to book restaurant tables? Theatre tickets? Need tips on where you can buy specific items? The concierge can help you. When staying in a top hotel, the concierge is a very valuable asset. Use him!

For our stay I wanted the concierge to book me a table at the Savoy Grill and a table for Afternoon Tea, also at the Savoy. Why would I want a concierge to book me a table? These days I can of course do this myself using an online booking systems or an email directly to the restaurant. There are however a couple of advantages. First of all the concierge can recommend restaurants for you. Part of his job is to know what is good. Also, many good restaurant can be difficult to book because they are very popular and sell out quickly. The concierge from a top hotel will have much more leverage and a better chance of getting that table than a normal bloke will have. Also, for restaurants requiering a re-confirmation of the booking later on, the concierge will see to that as well.

We wanted to go and see a musical, so I asked the concierge what was good. The only response to that was a brochure from a ticket agency, so that was a bit lame. I had expected perhaps a few words on which shows had had good reviews or something. I ended up asking the concierge to book me two tickets for Billy Elliot. I specified that I wanted mid-range tickets and was a bit surprised when the response was with a suggestion for the most expensive tickets in the house. I ended up going to the shows web page, finding out where I wanted to sit and especially ask for those tickets. They were purchased and are now being kept for me by the concierge at the hotel.

I partly booked the tickets through the concierge to test that service. These days it is easy to book tickets on-line. My experience now is that when it comes to theatre tickets, unless it is tickets that are hard to get, you should book those yourself. The reasons for that are

• Better control of seating
• The concierge used an agency and that made the tickets a bit more expensive than booking directly

The up-side is that the tickets are waiting for me at the hotel, but from previous experiences I know that picking the tickets up at the theatre 30 minutes before the show is no big inconvenience. 

But all in all I am very satisfied with the concierge service at the Savoy so far. There have been quite a number of emails back and forth. All emails (except for the initiating one) were answered promptly. Also, the emails were friendly and not overly formal. Thank you so far Jack, Veronica and Dean.

After communicating with the concierge team at the Savoy, I had an idea. During my planning I have been in contact with three different members of the concierge team and you keep being passed around from person to person according to who is on duty. This way you end up writing an email to one person only to get a response from another person.

At the Savoy, they have personal butlers. At least in the suites. One thought behind this is, I believe, to provide a single, personal point of service. To provide "my man" (or, indeed "my woman") at the Savoy. What if this could also be carried over to the concierge team? What if a guest, if he takes contact prior to arrival to organise everything beforehand, is assigned a personal concierge? I have not seen it in any hotel yet, but why not be the first.

This would produce an even more personal feel even before checking in. I would feel that I have a person working for me, someone that knows the history of my wishes for that stay.  (Note that this was not a problem in my case). It will also change the experience of continuing an email thread by starting an email with "Dear Veronica" only to have an answer ending in "Kind regards, Dean Maddison". This may mean that your request needs to wait until "your" concierge is again on duty, but often that will do quite nicely, and perhaps it could be an option for those who want it.

So I have my room booked, the hotel knows about our birthdays, I have tables and theatre tickets booked. I have also booked an hour of massage for my wife at the Savoy Spa. Everything should be ready. We will be entering the Savoy in a few days. How will it be? Will it meet my high expectations? Will this rather large investment in future memories pay off? I will keep you updated, so stay tuned!

The Savoy - An old lady reborn in London

Many who know me are familiar with my passions.  These include, but are not limited to, good food - including the new concepts such as molecular gastronomy and modernist cuisine, bass guitars, gadgets, friends - or actually people at large, fun cars, most things British, traditions, etc, etc.  And hotels.  And it is, I think, the hotel bit that people find most intriguing and strange.  They claim that hotels are boring and just a necessary evil in order to have somewhere to sleep in a place where you do have your own bed.  And they are often right.  There are many boring hotels in the world.  And I am absolutely not passionate about them.  I am passionate about good hotels, and that is another story entirely.

So, based on this knowledge of my strangest passion, a group of people came together and gave me a gift certificate for the Savoy in London for my birthday this year.  What a great thing to get!  I have a list of hotels I want to stay at.  Many of them are in London since I love London, and at the top of this list right now is the Savoy.

The Savoy is one of the grand old hotels in London.  London has many good hotels, old and new, but there are some that has been there for a very long time and that, to me, defines British luxury and tradition.  These include Browns, the Dorchester, Claridges, the Connaught, and the Savoy.

The Savoy opened the doors in 1889.  The founder, Richard D'Oyly Carte, had opened the Savoy theatre on the site of the old Savoy Palace in 1881.  Carte built his hotel next to his theatre, and when it opened, it contained a number of new, exiting features including

• all electric lights throughout the building (the theatre had been the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity)
• electric elevators
• bathrooms attached to the bedrooms
• hot and cold running water

Just about every movie star, famous musician and other A-list celebrities have stayed at the Savoy. George Gershwin gave the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue here.  Frank Sinatra played the piano and sang here.  Other guests have included King Edward VII, Sarah Bernhardt, Enrico Caruso, Lillie Langtry, H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Nellie Melba, Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Errol Flynn, Fred Astaire, Marlene Dietrich, Lionel Barrymore, Harry Truman, Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland, Josephine Baker, Cary Grant, Babe Ruth, Ivor Novello and Noël Coward.

Everything gets older, and that also includes old luxury hotels.  So in December 2007, the Savoy closed down for a total makeover.  The building was totally stripped down and renewed.  After having spent £220 million, the Savoy again opened the doors in October 2010.  The old Lady was reborn.  Everything is new and fresh, but she retains the old style and grandeur from the past.  

So this is the world that my wife and I will be entering in a few days.  Will the old lady be kind to us?  Will my high expectations be met, or will I be disappointed?  Over the next few weeks I will be reporting on our experiences as we enter the magical world of the Savoy.

What is a good hotel?

What is a hotel? As indicated elsewhere in these pages, I put a lot of energy and, at times, money into finding and staying at good hotels. And usually when I talk with people I know about this, they start preparations for convicting me to the loony bin. All that work and money just for a bed? Just somewhere to sleep for a few hours every night?

To me a hotel is not just a bed enclosed in a weather proof shell. It is a place to be.  It is my home when I am in a place where I have no home.

Imagine going to a place where you have a good friend living. A friend that really loves you and who does everything in his power to make your stay truly great. Before you came there, you probably communicated with him about what you would like to do while in his city. He would check to see what events, concerts, shows you could go to. He would make sure that you got a table at a fantastic restaurant (provided that you, like me, is a bit of a food nerd). If you did not know the city, he would help you experience it to the full. When you arrived, he would probably meet you at the airport or train station. He would drive you home. He and his entire family would greet you with a smile, they would know you by name and they would really care for your well being while you were there. The outcome of all this would be that you felt at home. You would suddenly have, although temporarily, a home in this new place.

On the other hand, let us imagine you in a strange city, checking into a cheap hotel after having spent the whole afternoon trying to find it. The seemingly only person employed in the hotel looks at you as if you were just another annoying customer and hands over your key without the slightest trace of a smile. Your room is tiny, facing the railway tracks where a train goes by every two minutes. It may not have been cleaned properly for some time. And when you complain about that, the lonely employee just shrugs his shoulders. It is obvious that you are alone in the world, and it is all up to you. And it is probably raining outside. Ok, so it`s a bit overstated, but you get the idea.

What would you choose?

To me, staying in a good hotel should be like staying with that good friend. The difference of course being that you have to pay for it. What? Buying phony friendships for money? No. I do of course realize that friendships do not enter into it. You cannot buy friendships, and on most occasions you will not be striking up a friendship with the hotel employees. But I do believe that there are hotel employees and owners that care about their guests. I do believe that there are hotels where the staff takes pride in and find enjoyment in making guests feel at home. These, to me, are the good hotels.

But even if the feeling-at-home-business, which all comes down to the quality of the staff, may be seen as the heart of a good hotel, there may be other aspects as well. There is for example the hotel building itself. I must admit that since my professional work is all about great visuals, I do care about what things look like. If I on my way to breakfast happen to be walking through the lobby of the Ritz in London admiring the marble columns, the gold leaf and the craftsmanship that went into making all that for then to enter into what is perhaps the most magnificent restaurant in London with art literally stuck to the walls and ceilings, that gives me something. Or the fresh and striking look of a new and well designed city hotel.

It does not have to be exclusive or expensive. I once stayed at a hostel in Stockholm. Very inexpensive. My room was very simple, and it was evident that the budget that had gone into making that room had not been very big. But it was also evident that whoever had designed that room had put some thought into it and had come up with a good and practical design for it. It told me that someone had cared. And caring is a key word. That one time I stayed at the Ritz in London, we had a great room. Huge. Lots of antiques. Expensive place. Elegant. Gold and marble. It had everything. But it was just in bad shape. The paint was coming off the bathroom door in sheets. There were burn marks from cigarettes on the bed side table. The wardrobe was such in need of repair that it almost broke down. Amidst all this glitter and marble it looked like nobody cared, and then everything just falls apart. I have not stayed there since, but I really hope that this has changed.  Berhaps I will go back and check on that some day.

Then there is atmosphere and history. If I go to London, I would like my hotel to feel like I am in London. I know there are hotel chains where the concept is that "we look the same no matter where you are". This is supposed to give guests a familiar feeling in a strange place. That is not for me. Some years ago, my family went to London and stayed at Browns hotel. Browns has been a hotel since 1837. History and tradition was dripping from its oak paneled walls. Royalty have stayed here for more than a hundred years. When Alexander Graham Bell came to London to show off his new invention, the telephone, this was where it happened. Londoners have been coming here for their afternoon tea for a century. When you enter Browns, you know that you are in London, and you somehow feel as if you were part of London`s history.

When you stay at a hotel like that, you may actually experience the city from another angle. Try going to the same city twice, stay in different good hotels and see if the experiences you get are not a bit different each time.

And then there is a make-believe part of it. Every once in a while it is fun to try a new way of living. Try to look at the world through different eyes. It is all about experiencing something different. I do think that adds to a holiday or weekend off. Why not try to stay at the Crillon in Paris to experience that world? Or, indeed, on that good farm hotel. Again, it does not have to be expensive or exclusive, It just has to be good. Even though more often than we like to think of it there actually is a link between quality and price.

So that, to me, is the perfect hotel. The hotel where I can soak up tradition and atmosphere, marvel at the thought and care that went into making the place, feeling at home and cared for and generally experiencing a touch of magic in the midst of all of life`s boring sides. And then it may not matter at all if it is raining. And if it actually is raining, you can probably borrow an immensely big umbrella and carry some of the magic with you.