Credit: La Residence Hotel & Spa
PACKAGES whose prices can make the eye tear are appearing, their sellers confident that the super-rich don’t so much as sneeze when China coughs.
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Asia-Pacific recently designed a mighty US$100,000 package anchored on the F1 race in Singapore this weekend. A 10-night, three-destination adventure for two pax, sold on a first-caller basis which takes the pair to its Bali resort for three nights, followed by four nights in its Singapore hotel and a three-night pitstop in its Maldives resort post-race.
The chain worked closely with many partners and parties to ensure the package is worth its price – even tycoon Ong Beng Seng, who brought F1 to Singapore and owns the Four Seasons in the city, gave his support, according to a spokesman. In Singapore this weekend, the package will include helicopter city tours, VIP table seating, VIP access to the Amber Lounge after-party and VIP Deck concert passes.
Luxury planners who missed selling the Four Seasons package can turn to Quintessential Collection Vietnam’s US$20,000 package available till December 22. This includes two nights in each of the collection’s five luxury products, The Reverie Saigon, The Nam Hai, La Residence Hotel & Spa, Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi and a Paradise Peak cruise vessel – working out to a princely US$2,000 per night per person.
Transfers are in Bentleys and Rolls Royces, while exclusives include portraits of the client painted by a distinguished Vietnamese artist; quiet time spent with scholar Phan Thuan An at his house, where a royal dinner also awaits; a private dinner cruise along the Saigon River; and an afternoon with City Treasure Hunt’s Rosemary Cook, a highly informed expat who provides day-long tours that incorporate furniture, home decor, antiques and fashion.
“Anyone can visit Hue, but to understand it and know it on any sort of meaningful level, you have to talk to the right people,” said Phan Trong Minh, La Residence’s general manager. “Mr. An is a fountain of knowledge, and the cooking techniques his wife uses are generations-old.”
Said Quintessential Collection Vietnam’s managing director, Jim Sullivan: “Increasingly, (there is) a cohort of travellers to Vietnam that wants to travel in a Rolls Royce or a Bentley, that has the resources to indulge in Vietnam’s most refined opportunities, and that wants to interact with some of the country’s most compelling personalities.
“Vietnam does a really good job serving the the budget-minded traveller – and a great job on the high-end. We’re trying to fill another niche with this package – a niche that’s just opening up as Vietnam matures from a stop on everyone’s bucket list to a holiday destination.”
He believes at least 15-20 of these packages will be sold. Asked where the demand is coming from, Sullivan said: “The days of Good Morning, Vietnam are over. There is now a stratum of really capable five-star properties in Vietnam, and then there is yet another stratum – the quintessential stratum that comprises properties that are not only the best properties in their destination but among the best in the world.”
For more on the ‘quintessential stratum’ people, look out for the next issue of TTG Asia Luxury, out December 1.
