It’s the job of a good hotel to curate lovely items for guests to enjoy during their visit. Hotel designers and consultants scour the globe for the right linens, paint colors and fragrances to make a guest’s stay just right — and some offer those items for sale in gift shops and online stores.
At the end of a year that kept most would-be travelers at home dreaming about travel instead of actually doing it, gifts from hotels may make the holiday season a little brighter. Here are gifts that bring the glamour, comfort and hospitality of a hotel experience home.
Food and drink
The DoubleTree Cookie, $15.50
The free cookie on arrival at a DoubleTree hotel is a great American tradition, and you can enjoy it at home this holiday season. DoubleTree by Hilton sells them online (all year, for the record) in tins of six for $15.50.
And if you’re feeling ambitious, you can bake them yourself — the hotel revealed its secret recipe earlier this year.
Bar Hemingway cocktail glasses, $113
It’s going to be a long winter. Embrace it Ernest Hemingway-style with the right accessory: a perfectly made martini in iconic glassware. Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris sells cocktail glasses in sets of two, so you and your pandemic drinking partner can toast accordingly.
Savor 552 pages of recipes from NoMad Hotel’s former chef Daniel Humm, his business partner Will Guidara and bar director Leo Robitschek in this cookbook that also doubles as a beautiful coffee table book. Recipes range from dishes, such as tagliatelle king crab with Meyer lemon and black pepper, to pandemic-soothing cocktails, including classic Pimm’s Cup.
The Breakfast Edition from Claridge’s Hotel, $200
There’s breakfast, and there’s a 5-star luxury hotel breakfast. Without a highly trained chef and access to the best ingredients, replicating a Claridge’s Hotel breakfast at home is a challenge. Luckily, this breakfast hamper can help. Start your day like royalty with loose-leaf tea, coffee, preserves and elegant tableware.
The Connaught cocktail shaker, $147
For the cocktail lover, visiting the Connaught Hotel in London can feel like a spiritual awakening. The award-winning Connaught Bar is one of the best places in the world to get a drink. Until you can travel to the martini paradise again, you can shop the Connaught bar collection online for bar cart staples, like this professional-grade cocktail shaker. Once it arrives, pull up these tips from Connaught’s director of mixology, Agostino Perrone, to perfect your cocktail shaking technique.
[I stayed at 3 hotels during covid-19. The best option surprised me.]
Beds and bedding
Four Seasons Signature Sleep Collection, starting at $3,800
Not loving the mattress you bought online after hearing 30 ads for it on a podcast? For the ultimate upgrade, there is the Four Seasons Signature Sleep Collection, which includes the mattress and topper (with optional foundation), a sheet set, duvet cover set, duvet insert and two pillows. If the ultra luxurious, absolutely pricey full set is out of your budget, you can buy individual pieces to bring touches of a Four Seasons sleep into your bedroom.
Wynn Resorts down pillow, $100
What happens in Vegas you can try to replicate at home, thanks to the Wynn At Home collection. The hypoallergenic Wynn Resorts down pillow is made with 25 percent CentroClean down and 75 percent feathers. Prefer an option to take on the road? The pillow also comes in a travel size.
The Westin Heavenly Bed, starting at $1,395
It took years of research before Westin Hotels & Resorts landed on the perfect formula for its signature bed. The resulting Heavenly Bed mattress and box spring was built to complement all body types and designed with pillow-top construction for comfort and support. Guests immediately took notice. Requests to purchase the Heavenly Bed poured in and haven’t stopped since. Customers can buy the whole setup, or parts of it, online at the Westin Store.
[How to re-create the magic of an incredible hotel bed at home]
Robes
Indian Springs Resort seersucker robe, $90
Slipping into this seersucker and terry spa robe from Indian Springs Calistoga feels like you just finished a massage treatment in California wine country, even if you’re actually watching Netflix on your couch.
Hotel San Jose robe, $190
The Hotel San Jose’s robe captures the beauty of an Austin sunset. The robe is designed by hospitality organization Bunkhouse and is made of 100 percent cotton. Want one with pockets? The sister property Hotel Magdalena has you covered with a similar unisex option.
Kimpton Plush leopard robe, $74.25
Fans of this leopard print robe made of 100 percent ring-spun Turkish cotton use words like “huge” and “plush” and “obviously cool looking” when describing this Kimpton Hotel amenity. For a terry version, Kimpton also sells one in zebra stripes.
Candles and toiletries
The Ritz-Carlton Antica Farmacista candle, $23
The Ritz-Carlton creates signature scents for each of its properties. In New York, the hotel’s candles nod to Central Park with scents of elderflower. For D.C., the sakura candle captures the city’s springtime cherry blossoms. You can give the gift of a Ritz hotel stay, or at least the fragrance of one, by choosing your preferred destination’s candle.
The Fairmont’s Le Labo Rose 31 Travel Kit, $45
For when we can travel again, travel luxuriously with this Le Labo toiletry kit, which has shampoo, conditioner, hand wash and shower gel. Should your budget allow for it, there’s also the much more extravagant $355 Le Labo Experience that contains even more bathroom luxuries.
The Royal Hawaiian Malie candle, $35
The magical aromas enjoyed by guests at the Royal Hawaiian is courtesy of Malie, a local, organic beauty brand. The Waikiki hotel stocks Malie products in the rooms and gift shops, and it is partial to the fragrance Koke’e, which brings together scents of Hawaii’s native maile vine, fresh pineapple and dewy jasmine.
EDITION candle, $68
Fans of the EDITION Hotels candle say it lasts forever. Made in France, it features notes of black tea, citrus, smoke, chocolate, pepper and Sicilian bergamot. Not a big candle person? Try the Edition fragrance diffuser set that lasts approximately 300 hours.
Travel during the pandemic:
Tips: Safe holiday travel | Coronavirus testing | Sanitizing your hotel | Using Uber and Airbnb
Flying: Pandemic packing | Airport protocol | Staying healthy on plane | Fly or drive | Best days to fly
Road trips: Tips | Rental cars | Best snacks | Long-haul trains | Foliage finder | Art road trips
Camping: First-time | Camping alone | Meal planning | Glamping | National parks
Places: Hawaii | Machu Picchu | New York | Private islands | Caribbean | Mexico | Europe
More Stories
7 Best Walks On The Northumberland Coastal Path
Inclusive Tourism | Business Owners Should Take a Look in the Mirror – Hotel Magazine
Austria: There’s More to Salzburg Than Just The Sound of Music