How do you book exclusive hotel rooms if they’re not listed online?
How are you supposed to book a room that is not listed on a hotel’s website?
Well, you probably cannot, unless you are connected enough to have heard about it by word of mouth.
That is often the case with ultra-luxurious rooms and suites that high-end hotels purposely omit from their listings.
There are no photographs, no descriptions, and no prices available; to anyone who isn’t in the know, it is as if they don’t exist.
Hotels keep such rooms secret for a variety of reasons, whether protecting the hotel’s assets or protecting the guest’s identity and privacy.
Then, of course, there’s the thrill of exclusivity.
The New York Times said that hotels use these unlisted rooms “as a way to delight valued guests or generate buzz”.
These rooms go by a variety of terms – owner’s suites, such as partnership suites – but one thing they have in common is a hefty price.
Take, for example, Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa in a lava field near Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula, which is one of Iceland’s most recognisable tourist attractions.
The Retreat is a luxury hotel with 62 suites that can be booked online, some of which offer direct access to the lagoon.
Yet tucked away within The Retreat is The Blue Lagoon Suite.
There is no mention of it on The Retreat’s website, but, it reportedly costs US$10,050 a night – and requires a minimum two-night stay.
Booking details vary for these unlisted rooms.
In some cases, an interested guest has to call ahead and specifically request the suite.
Other hotels require that their penthouse suites be booked by email in advance, so that managers have time to vet the guest before making a decision.
Even if booking an unlisted hotel room is a bit (or a lot) out of your budget, there are still ways to customise your five-star hotel experience with some semi-secret perks.
That can include free champagne or chocolate-covered strawberries and even special decorations in your room.
There is no mention of The Blue Lagoon Suite on the website of the luxury 62-suite Icelandic hotel The Retreat, next to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa
However, hotels are not the only businesses that build a name for some of their products – if not their entire brands – by choosing not to advertise them.
Goyard, a two-century-old luxury Parisian trunk and leather goods brand is one such example.
Its prime press strategy is silence.
Goyard foregoes any advertising, e-commerce, and celebrity endorsements. It rarely grants interviews and very occasionally makes products available to the mass market.
In some cases, not talking about your luxury product is the best way to make people want it.
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It pays not to advertise for high-end hotels, which deliberately keep quiet about – and make it hard to book – their ultra-luxurious suites to add to their cachet