Posted by Leonard Steinberg on August 27th, 2014

I am currently comfortably settled in my hotel room at the tip of a peninsula overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the famous Faraglioni rocks of Capri. Looking around this room I am reminded why so many buyers of luxury real estate around the world use the quality of hotel finishes as the baseline for the finish out of their homes. Once you have lived with ducted central air conditioning, heated bathroom floors and towel racks, beautifully appointed bathrooms, useful technology, not to mention services on call, it is easy to see how the consumer compares life in a high end hotel to life in a home. A great hotel room can spoil you quickly. Terraces with views. Super-comortable bed linens. Outstanding closets. The list goes on and should serve as a reminder to all that quality hotels around the world are forever changing the expectations of the consumer. Anything less than this level of finish out is considered a step down. Aside from finishes, the ease and convenience of a full array of services on call can spoil the consumer too and already we are seeing the effects on this with buildings such as One 57, 215 Chrystie, 50 Gramercy, Trump Soho, etc offering full hotel services to a consumer spoiled by hotel life.

The challenge for all developers and designers alike is how to make a home feel like a home and not a hotel, although we hear of many high end buyers who really WANT their home to feel like a super-luxe hotel. I am beginning to understand why….