Food, Home and Style

Downturn Deals: Luxury Travel for (Much) Less

Is this really the time to be booking an oceanside suite, basking in Italian linen sheets, indulging in butler service on the African plains?

Actually, yes. We’re not telling you to spend cash you haven’t got. But if you’re lucky enough to have time on your hands and dollars to liberate, this is an exceptional time to travel in style.

Thanks to the downturn, hotel occupancies are down, and companies from Starwood (which owns the W chain) to Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, which runs five-star hotels in India, have seen revenues drop. Renowned resorts, including the Greenbriar resort in West Virginia, have had to cut staff. According to the International Air Transport Association, demand for business and first class seats was down more than 20 percent this February compared to last.

All of which means prices have declined, the hottest destinations are less crowded, and upgrades are abundant. “You will get more space and privacy than otherwise,” says Pamela Lasser, spokeswoman for luxury travel company Abercrombie and Kent. “Hotels are trying to establish a relationship with clients, and they have more space available.”  A fantasy trip that seemed out of reach may now be doable.

“There is a certain level of travel that is now much more attainable even than it was six months ago,” says Kyle Anderson, editor of the luxury lifestyle site HalogenLife. “There is rarely a hotel that we talk to that isn’t offering some sort of third night, fourth night, fifth night free. A lot of them are comping spa services, providing food or drinks on the house.”

Some deals are being advertised, others are on company websites.  If you don’t see any discounts for your destination, call and ask for one.  You can also try bidding aggressively on sites like Priceline—someone we know got a long weekend at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for about 75 percent off. Here are some of the big bargains we’ve found. Snap them up—we would if we could.

• Abercrombie and Kent is having a sale today on a dozen trips, reducing prices by 5 percent every half-hour until 5 p.m. EST. Last we checked, a 10-day East African safari that originally started at $7,000 was priced under $4,000. A 20-day journey to Antarctica and the Falkland Islands had dropped from $15,345 to $8,440.
• One of the top-rated luxury spas in New England, the Mayflower Inn in Connecticut, has a number of deals, including 20 percent off a two-night pampering stay. (Reduced from $1,750 to $1,350.)
• High-end hotels, including the Setai in Miami, Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles, the Biltmore in Santa Barbara and the Plaza in New York, are tacking free nights onto bookings.
• Hawaii has been especially hard hit, and deals abound. The Four Seasons at Hualalai is offering a $1,000 resort credit, good for anything from meals to massages, with a four-night stay.

Tags: deals, Food, Home and Style, spending, travel, Traveling Tight