Zeca Camargo: what is a luxury hotel – 02/08/2023 – Tourism

I was recently in a wonderful hotel in the Mediterranean. Large lobby, classic furniture, interesting people circulating through the halls, rooms with stunning views of a historic center — and yet, none of this could compare to the feeling that passes through us when crossing the entrance to the Copacabana Palace!

Or from Alvear, in Buenos Aires. Or Raffles in Singapore. Or the Ritz in Paris. Or the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. Or Okura in Tokyo. Or Claridge’s in London. Or the Taj in Mumbai. Or the Plaza in New York. Or the Mandarin in Bangkok.

Each of these hotels spread around the world is quite different from one another, but they all have one characteristic in common, they share an adjective that is easy to evoke and difficult to define: they are iconic.

They are luxurious hotels too, but beware of quick conclusions. As I tell you in another text, your well-being during a stay does not always have to do with the luxury that polishes appearances.

In the case of the hotel I described there, whose name I do not reveal for the sake of discretion, all the investment in dressing it up in elegance was not enough to make it an iconic symbol. But in all the others I’ve mentioned, just walk through their halls, go up in their elevators, look out of the windows of the rooms, and you immediately feel special for staying in them.

With the exception of the New York Plaza and the Thai Mandarin, I’ve had the opportunity to stay in all of them, experiences that I keep in a precious folder of memories. However, even if they are vivid, describing what I experienced in those spaces is not an easy task.

Of course everyone’s atmosphere is imposing. Stepping into the Ritz, for example, is an invitation to feel intimidated — even more so if it’s your first time. When I was there for just one night, for a romantic birthday, on my way to Istanbul, I was put in a room so far away that I felt as if I had crossed the block.

However, all I had to do was arrive at the magical room, even if “backwards”, to be enchanted. In less than two minutes, I and the person accompanying me were having a pillow fight, laughing like two children lost in a luxury temple.

When I entered Mumbai’s Taj for the first time, it was quite different. In the chaos of India’s largest city, I was instantly enveloped by an unexpected serenity, embraced by unfamiliar and gentle scents, and surrounded by care as if I were, pardon the cliché, a maharajah.

That feeling of being privileged to simply spend the night in an iconic hotel is transformative. My first time at Alvear, I literally slept on the floor, due to overbooking — I was there for the launch of a big magazine and ended up staying with friends. But who said I was calling that? The important thing is that I was at Alvear.

I slept much more comfortably at the Ciragan (today, from the Kempinsky chain), also just for one night —in fact, I barely slept, I was so mesmerized by the view of the Bosphorus cutting through Istanbul from my balcony. The anxiety of the interview that I would do the next morning was diluted in that fluid city.

What was the interview like? Daniel Craig, still in the role of 007. And, by a strange connection, it reminded me of another iconic hotel I stayed at, the Okura, in the Japanese capital, where part of one of the best James Bond adventures was filmed: “Only You Live Twice”.

I went there in the late 1990s to interview none other than Björk, who received me dressed as a traditional geisha in her room, all with rice paper screens. If the atmosphere was already dreamlike, walking through that modernist lobby, with a Japanese accent, was a dreamlike journey worthy of Spirit.

That Okura is no more. It closed in 2015 and was completely renovated for the Tokyo Olympics. I still haven’t had the chance to see how it turned out, but I bet it managed to reinvent itself, while still being an icon.

As it has always done, just remembering, the Copacabana Palace itself, which is now a hundred years old, and after going through countless small and large metamorphoses, still retains a charm that is as imposing as it is casual. Of course, its location on an iconic beach also helps. But it takes much more than a perfect location to make a hotel like this.

The history of the Copa involves memorable parties; guests ranging from royalty to Hollywood’s noblest pantheon; small scandals (say the Chateau Marmont, in Los Angeles, USA); restaurants that mix gastronomy and the “right” tables; impeccable service; and at least one pool so everyone, even non-celebrities, can model.

Of everything that the next hundred years may bring, modernity, amenities, novelties, I am sure that the Copacabana Palace and all its iconic peers will not fail to lose this quality that is so difficult to define, but so delicious to enjoy.

And look, we won’t even be here to check it out in 2123. But don’t doubt that’s going to happen…