[trip style = luxury]
Recently I've noticed a slight obsession in the luxury travel market for websites that bring together curated, hand-picked hotels and resorts worldwide and promote them to haute holiday-hoppers who think W Hotels aren't that stylish and Sofitel properties are for sissies. These people are in search of unique properties in both commonplace and abstract destinations. Here are some curated hotel collections that will narrow your luxe boutique search when a vacation comes knocking at your door.
Boutique Hotel Collectives Tablet Hotels Tablet is a group of hand-picked, tightly edited hotels in destinations all over the world. The list is created and maintained by anonymous visits from travel experts, reviews by a team with “a low tolerance for boredom" and reviews by guests. There's no room for error either. If a hotel's rating falls below a 15 out of 20, the hotel is no longer part of Tablet.
Kiwi Collection Kiwi Collection hotels is a curated list of properties aimed at 'people who care where they stay' with options that veer more towards luxe than boutique hotels, with properties like Shanghai's recently redone Fairmont Peace Hotel or the Viceroy Anguilla Resort. Similar to Tablet, if a hotel's rating falls below a pre-determined threshold, the hotel is out, a perk I appreciate given a terrible hotel stay I just had in Sydney {not part of the collection}. With 2,200 hotels in 128 countries, I'm sure you'll find something to suit your fancy and trip style!
Mr and Mrs Smith For this selection, I need to give credit where credit it due: while I was in Australia, my third stop took me to Wilson {my review here}, an island at the base of the Great Barrier Reef with only 6 tents, gourmet food, secluded beaches, baby turtles and friendly reef sharks {more on this May 20th}. While there, I had the pleasure of meeting two couples from the UK who both mentioned a boutique hotel finder they'd used to find the stylish shipwrecked island.
Mr and Mrs Smith is a boutique and luxury hotel finder with a particular focus on Australia and Euro properties. They say it was created for romantic and swanky couples escapes, but I think anyone can be inspired by its hundreds of listings worldwide. For those of you who are most interested in the North American options, there are 85 with well known indi-popular properties like the Ace Palm Springs and Portland, Clift San Francisco, Chateau Marmont LA, Calistoga Ranch Napa Valley, Delano South Beach, and so on.
Join one of their three membership tiers to take full advantage of what a relationship with Mr and Mrs Smith has to offer!
An App For That StayHip is a boutique hotel finder that mixes budget conscious and luxe boutique options in 400 destinations worldwide. Perfect for when you're lying in bed staring at your iPhone or you're on the go.
{Note that I've put this trip style as 'luxury' because unless you're staying at the reasonably priced Ace in Palm Springs, boutique properties are usually on the more expensive side of travel.}
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[photo by @tripstyler taken of Qualia at sunset. Qualia is part of Mr and Mrs Smith's listings for Austraila.]