Opening doors and drying nails

Hong Kong. It has a touch of James Bond: The limousine careens along its way from the Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong in the glittering shopping quarter of Kowloon to Aberdeen, a former industrial quarter on Hong Kong Island. Dilapidated factory buildings everywhere, no one on the street … Here sits the technology brain of the five-star hotel group. As the only hotel company in the world Peninsula Hotels disposes of its own research and technology department that solely looks after the optimisation of the technology in the guestrooms. Moreover, it is less about the latest gadget, but more about a simple and well thought-out usability and the integration of different systems. A visit to a somewhat different "garage company".

Hong Kong/McLean, Virginia. More and more hotel brands are competing to attract the growing number of rich and ultra-rich. But, how narrow it can become in the top segment is now indicated with the breakdown of the niche by the new luxury brand index that was introduced one week ago at the Ecole de hôtelière Lausanne: This index arranges the luxury niche into three categories - "Upper Upscale", "Luxury Chains" and "Luxury Exclusive". Within this – supposedly – uppermost segment, all are promising quite a special service and experience offer. This begins long before the arrival of the guest and continues later at the hotel. hospitalityInside.com wanted to know in detail what the super-service is all about and set off on the search for that "certain something" with two well-known, high-end brands: The luxury veteran Peninsula Hotels and the Waldorf Astoria, the relatively young elite brand from the Hilton family. Luxury against luxury – a comparison.

Hongkong/München. Peninsulas Vorfreude auf das erste europäische Hotel in Paris ist gross. Bis zu dessen Eröffnung Anfang 2014 aber feiert die asiatische Luxuskette noch die Wiedergeburt ihres Flaggschiffs The Peninsula Hong Kong – u.a. mit einer neuen Zimmer-Technologie, die laut COO Peter Borer erneut weltweit wegweisend ist. Ausserdem denkt Peninsula über spezielle Resorts nach.