The hotels featured in our special this week have one thing in common: they are selling more than a room for the night. They are selling a lifestyle. A firm bed and friendly service are no longer enough. From the cocktails served in the bar to the designer clothes worn by the staff, this new generation of hotels have become showcases for interior design, food, music and fashion. And as a logical next step, they are allowing guests to buy a piece of the action. Instead of smuggling out a shampoo bottle as a souvenir of their stay, guests are being encouraged to buy anything that catches their eye.
Hence, you can sample the coolest new CDs in the comfort of your room (Alias Hotels); buy gorgeous toiletries from Scandinavian brand Ren (Great Eastern Hotel, London); or, if the urge takes you, buy up the entire contents of your bedroom (Ian Schrager's Sanderson Hotel).
Trendy American chain W Hotels has even opened its own store in Times Square, New York and an online 'lifestyle' shop where you can buy anything from an embossed leather condom-carrier to a king-size bed. And what better way to buy a bed than to spend the night in it? If impulse purchases aren't your style, the hotel-cum-furniture showroom allows you to, quite literally, sleep on it.
Alias Hotels (whose latest addition is the Rossetti in Manchester) has just signed a deal with record shop Rough Trade to supply a changing selection of CDs in its guest rooms - break the seal and you pay for the CD on check-out. Rupert Kenyon of Alias says: 'Retail is too strong a word for it.It's more a nudge and a wink to our friends to tip them off about something good.'
According to Marcus Black of Rough Trade, whose job it is to match the music selection to the demographics of each hotel's guests (funky for Manchester, and, well, not quite so funky for Cheltenham), it's about exposing people in a relaxed environment to something they wouldn't normally find in shops. 'When you are travelling you are much more open to new experiences,' he says.
This is what's known in retail circles as 'pinpoint exposure' - hotels know more about their customers' likes and dislikes than a shop ever can and, once there, guests are a captive audience. The owner of a luxury B&B once told me about an American couple who came to stay and bought up the entire contents of their room, from the four-poster bed to the curtains at the window, including some antiques belonging to the owner's grandmother.
It's a trend that looks set to continue and could bring a whole new meaning to the phrase 'boutique' hotel.
