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"For guests used to staying in the best rooms at luxury hotels, the top suite at the Four Seasons Hotel New York may offer the ultimate in bragging rights: To sleep in it, you have to stomach its $35,000 a night price tag.
The Ty Warner Penthouse, named for the Beanie Baby mogul and the hotel's owner, is the most expensive hotel room in the country outside of Las Vegas, an important distinction in the industry since rooms in the gambling capital are often comped for high rollers. The suite has sweeping views of Manhattan in every direction, bathroom sinks made of solid blocks of rock crystal and a personal butler on-call 24 hours a day. Guests have the use of a Maybach or Rolls-Royce—with driver, of course. Room service from the hotel's restaurants, including one run by celebrity chef Joël Robuchon, is included in the price and nearly unlimited (though one guest was charged for a $1,000 order of caviar).
The suite, which opened in 2007, cost $50 million to build and took seven years to design, the hotel says....
The suite has about 850 light bulbs: Mr. Graziosi keeps about 30 different types on hand for quick replacements. The dark mahogany lacquer bookshelves in the library alone feature about 400 bulbs illuminating a history, art, and biography collection. The $120,000 chandelier over the dinning room table is made of more than 100 tiny fiber optic bulbs.
Only four of the 42-person housekeeping staff are allowed to clean the room. They receive two extra weeks of training, says Margie Garay, director of housekeeping at the hotel, learning how use special chemicals that won't erode the room's delicate surfaces. "We don't use Pledge," she says....
Staff say they try to anticipate penthouse guests' preferences. The hotel keeps files on all return guests detailing their habits and favorite food, drink and even toilet paper. After reviewing one incoming guest's file, staff discovered they needed to track down a particular "tissue," says Ms. Garay. It wasn't easy. Two employees went out separately searching to find the needed "ultraplush" paper product, she says.
Once the penthouse is booked, it's "all hands to the fire," says Anthony Zamora, executive chef at the hotel. The kitchen staff wants to know "do they like tea sandwiches automatically throughout the day or just on request? Should we pre-order caviar from our supplier just in case they request it?" says Mr. Zamora. If a guest is from the Middle East, he may preorder Hildon water, a brand bottled in southern England and popular among guests from the region, he says. Louis Roederer Cristal, the champagne that retails for around $200, is pre-stocked in the room unless the guest prefers something else.
If the guest is coming to the hotel for the first time, intelligence gathering is harder. The three person "special services department" or the general manager's assistant will speak to the guest or his or her assistant about the reason for the visit and the guest's preferences. Employees also scour the Internet for clues and check in with other Four Seasons properties where the guest has stayed. While some guests enjoy the personal service, "others are a little taken aback—'why do you need all these details?'" says Mr. Schmidinger, the general manager.
During a penthouse guest's stay, their personal butler, often Johannes Walz, a soft-spoken 45-year-old from Germany, acts as intermediary between the guest and all hotel staff.
The placement of every object in the room is detailed in a book of more than 50 pages. Then housekeeping staff knows "how many hangers are in the closet, where flowers are placed on tables, how far is a table placed from the piano. How far is the Montblanc blotter from the lamp on the desk," says Ms. Garay. The room is dusted daily and cleaned weekly even when there are no guests in residence.
Changing any aspect of the set up goes through Ms. Aslanian and is ultimately Mr. Warner's decision. It's "like amending the constitution," says Leslie Lefkowitz, director of public relations for the hotel.
