How come shop windows are so sensational that you just wanna go in? See the Dior image above, reproduced courtesy of Girlahead’s prized columnist The Sybaritic Single. Don’t you want to go in and browse-and-buy?
The late-lamented TRUMP HOTEL VANCOUVER had thematic water features outside its front door, but they quickly became outsized swimming pools for fag ends, and other detritus, thrown with glee by passers-by and others who went there specially. The also now-late DILLY on London’s Piccadilly was supposed to have buskers by its front door but they never happened and now that historic property is going to re-emerge as a much more plausible LEONARDO.
Thinking globally, as this column always does, THE PENINSULA BEVERLY HILLS wins the gold for ‘design windows’ wanting you to come in. Drive or walk into the porte-cochère and you are, further attracted by valet parkers who always seem to be smiling, naturally enticed into the hotel. THE PENINSULA HONG KONG is one of the runners-up. As one of its Rolls purrs up to the Salisbury Road entrance you have ahead of you Stefano Ricci on the left, St John on the right.
Yes, you might correctly say, but what about Peninsulas in China? THE PENINSULA BEIJING has three floors of outstanding glass-fronted retail, once you enter the hotel. THE PENINSULA SHANGHAI has a good hike of Chanel, Gucci and the like, best seen if you enter the sumptuous property from The Bund entrance.
The message today seems destined for developers. Build retail prominently into the ‘first sight’ of a hotel, to attract locals and to make staying guests even happier they have chosen your expensive investment rather than a competitor.
