Ever wondered how celebrities can stay at hotels – the same hotels that other regular people stay at – and never be seen? How they get to take those perfect Instagram snaps from expansive, empty decks and tour their lavish suites and be as secluded as they want in their own private quarters?
Well, it turns out that hotels have top-secret, ultra-luxurious rooms for certain VIPs. These rooms aren���t advertised, aren’t on the books and are never, ever shared with the plebs like you and me. These rooms are only for the super famous (or super-rich).
Take The Retreat at the Blue Lagoon just outside of Reykjavik, Iceland, for example. The resort hangs over the thermal waters of the Blue Lagoon and has become a tourist destination for anyone seeking to swim in the sulfur-rich pools. The website says that it boasts 62 suites but, in fact, it has 63.
This extra suite is spread across a sprawling two floors and boasts kitchen and dining areas, a hidden deck, sauna, spa and – here’s the kicker – a completely secluded cordoned off area of the Blue Lagoon in which to swim. There’s a two-night minimum stay, and at more than $10,500 a night, that’s a pretty hefty price tag for a hotel room. But considering the suite isn’t advertised on the resort’s website, and no-one knows about it except for ultra-VIPs – you can’t even see it from the other parts of the hotel – we’re guessing that it’s purely for celebrity guests wanting the one experience that money can buy: Total isolation.
“No-one ever needs to know you’re there,” Mar Masson, director of marketing for The Retreat’s parent company told Australian Business Traveller. “It’s not visible to other guests, and there is nothing that indicates it is there.”
The Retreat isn’t the only hotel to offer a top-secret hotel room for very special clients. The NoMad in Los Angeles and Hotel Bennett in Charleston also keep their most expensive, most extravagant room off the books. At the Hotel Bennett, the suite is booked by invitation from the owner only. Over in Las Vegas, at 21 Boulevard, the only people who can reserve the penthouses are those who drop more than one million on the tables in the high roller rooms.
The purpose of these rooms isn’t necessarily to make truckloads and truckloads of money. Many hotels make a point to have their private, top-secret suites always available, on the off chance that a super VIP might turn up out of the blue. Often, these rooms run at a loss.
The point is to be seen – at least, in the circles in which it is important to be seen – catering to the A-list’s desire for utmost discretion and confidentiality.
Not a celebrity? If you have the cash to splash for a high-end hotel room like this, you might still be able to stay in one. Even though the rooms aren’t advertised on Booking.com, you can still rent them if you receive the go-ahead from hotel management.
Send an email through to the manager and ask for the property’s most private, most secluded room. Once confirmed, you can live like a celebrity for a night or two. Bon voyage!