By Chrissy Iley
Four Seasons are a hotel group synonymous with luxury. Luxury with “no worries we will take care of that ‘’ attitude. I have been to the Four Seasons in LA many times. It is a place where film junkets are held, red carpet events and it has a bar where extremely nice cocktails are made and you hang out with agents and superstars. I have been to the four seasons in New York, which was grand, and the Four Seasons in Dublin, which is the hotspot for celebrity gossip and goings on. Every time I have been there I sat next to an A-lister who was making a film in Ireland. The beds are gorgeous, the service impeccable, the food a delight.
Recently I had to visit Denver to interview someone who was on tour there. It is by far the most expensive hotel in Denver, other hotels looked similar but they did not quite have the status the Four Seasons commands. Besides, I wanted to make sure I did not lose my interviewee. The music industry is notorious for losing people. I arrived and a beautiful man in grey suit was impeccably pleasant. My room had a nice view to Denver but the mini bar would not open. I was desperate for water.
I learned later that because Denver is in the mountains and has a high altitude the air is thin and we need to drink more. One of the nice man in impeccable grey suit said he would unlock the mini bar. Who, when staying in a hotel with a huge bath tub does not want to immediately go in it and cover him/herself with bubbles? But there were no bubbles, I had to use the shampoo.
By this time I felt like a snack. A woman alone does not want to go down to the restaurant or wonder around an unknown city to find a friendly table for one to eat a few nuts. Besides – I had no time to wander around looking for a Kind bar or a Starbucks. The snacks had been removed. I called down to a man in a grey suit, who said they would be replaced. They never were.
Suddenly there was no sense of luxury; there was a sense of being treated like someone who could not pay the bill or had been forced into a no bar situation by AA and had over-eaters got in on the act and taken away the snacks? Luxury hotels are about excess not restriction. They are about choice not having to work hard. A nice grey suited man brought up water but no snacks.
In the morning I can’t function without coffee and as I had to work coffee was important. There was an espresso machine provided but it did not work either. A nice grey suited man was very sympathetic and made me a cup of coffee with cream.
It was great coffee and his politeness and efficiency was much appreciated, but I am thinking this: the staff believes they are working in a luxury establishment. The hotel rooms think they are holiday inns.
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Address:
1111 14th St
Denver
CO 80202
United States
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