JOIN THE CLUB
Join the Club - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Join the Club | |||||
| By: Hillary Doling, Issue 33 - Summer 2008 | |||||
| (Sofitel Wentworth – Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) | |||||
| WHY JUST STAY FIVE STAR, WHEN YOU CAN STAY FIVE STAR PLUS? SOFITEL WENTWORTH LAUNCHES ITS NEW CLUB. | |||||
| “Indulge Your Inner Celebrity,” says the marketing blurb for the new Club Sofitel at Sofitel Wentworth. Okay, you don’t have to ask me twice, J.Lo eat your heart out. Clearly the commuters in the downtown Sydney CBD rush hour have not recognised my Inner Celeb (I.C.) because no one lets me change lanes in front of them and there is a sad lack of autograph hunters on arrival. The staff at Softel Wentworth however have got the message. My celebrity limo, cunningly disguised as a Toyota is spirited away to be valet parked and I bypass the busy reception desk and am elevated to the fifth floor where I am handed a Cartier pen to sign in with – no self respecting I.C. would use a mere biro after all. Before you can say ‘preferential treatment’ I am sipping complimentary champagne and dithering over which canapés to choose. From gridlock to bubbles has taken less than ten minutes. So this is the hotel experience Club Sofitel style? So far I like it a lot. Around $10 million has been spent on the Sofitel Wentworth’s most recent upgrade and much of this has gone into the on the Club Sofitel concept. 110 rooms and suites at the top of the hotel have been give an executive revamp and the fifth floor has been redesigned to encompass a new club lounge and the refurbished Club Court restaurant. Executive floors in hotels are not a new thing, well traveled business people are well aware of the advantages of paying a premium to book into a room that has its own exclusive facilities. A large number of Club World customers will be busy executives but Sofitel Wentworth are also aiming their hotel-within-a-hotel concept at leisure travellers, those who would like to indulge their I.C. with a little extra pampering for a weekend away or a short break. The free cocktails and the attentive service are making me feel like an Oscar winner already. Now where’s my entourage? I only have an entourage of one, my husband. He arrives late and is notably un-obsequious. Where have all the yesmen gone? We eat in the refurbished Garden Court restaurant, just across from the private club lounge. The restaurant is now decked out in stylish black and white, even the wine decanters have a designer appeal. The new menu from executive chef Nicolas Devic would please even the fussiest superstar. The executive rooms have Bose radios, iPod connections and new high definition LCD flat screens. They also feature the new Sofitel Mybed which are supposedly the last word in mattress comfort. Picky trainee celebrities get a pillow menu so they can get their beauty sleep and Club Sofitel also offers a whole range of added extras such as complimentary shoe shines and clothes pressing. At a small extra charge you can also engage the services of a butler to unpack your luggage, book a box at the theatre and generally perform all those services celebrities take for granted. My husband has commandeered the car so in the morning I have to take the train. I’m late and there’s a queue, “Don’t you know who I AM?” my inner celebrity screams at the ticket seller but nobody can hear it. I join the back of the line. | |||||
| Details: Sofitel Wentworth Sydney: www.sofitelsydney.com.au | |||||
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