Anytime, anywhere; welcome to the new hotel dining experience
If the words ‘room service’ summon up memories of limp Caesar salads and 30 per cent delivery charges added to your bill, you might be pleased to learn that in this Covid-19 era of travel, hotels are having to rethink.
A scaling down of diner numbers in resort bars and restaurants to ensure guests are socially distanced at all times has inevitably resulted in some creative alternatives. The best in the business realise most of us still want to experience the magic of travel, just not necessarily share a buffet, so now it’s all about decent room service menus, flexible dining and 24-hour service.
Take the Hotel Bel Air in LA, which has reopened with a new in-room dining option from celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, including champagne, artisanal cheeses and charcuterie, a Mediterranean mezzo platter and Santa Monica farmer’s market crudite, all served on your room’s private patio.
In New England, elegant Ocean House Hotel has scrapped its traditional sociable cocktail hour and now brings the party to you courtesy of a bright red BarMobile cart, pushed room-to-room laden with complimentary canapés and drinks at sunset, plus there’s a new Taco Shack by the beach, so guests can grab-and-go to snack wherever they please.
Similarly, Mallorca’s Castell Son Claret is reopening with a ‘garden service’ alongside its usual room service, so guests can enjoy food and drink at tables and chairs set up just for them for them in private corners of the hotel’s extensive grounds, all delivered free of charge.
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Formalities are also being shaken off in France, with boutique escapes such as Hotel Chateau du Grande Lucé in the Loire allowing guests to eat anywhere (in-room, al fresco in the gardens, in the private dining room, even the neighbouring village picnic-style) and to order from all menus, not just its former ‘standard’ room service menu. It feels almost revolutionary in its casualness.
To avoid breakfast buffet queues, Padstow Townhouse is delivering morning hampers to rooms and the inventive St Moritz Hotel, also in Cornwall, now offers guests the chance to have breakfast in its cute beach huts; dropped off before you arrive and enjoyed in private overlooking the Camel Estuary.
Gourmet picnics are now more coveted than any fancy tasting menu thanks to a Covid-beating combo of fresh air and social-distancing, so it’s little wonder hotels have been quick to roll out their blankets and baguettes. Seaham Hall near Durham is going the extra mile providing rugs, deckchairs and bottles of Tattinger along with food-filled hampers, while in the Lake District Linthwaite House’s Henrock restaurant, run by Michelin-starred chef Simon Rogan, is offering gourmet picnics when it reopens on July 31. Cliveden has not only scrapped pricey room service charges so you can enjoy dinner in your suite (ok, bed), but has also started offering picnics to eat where and when you please in the grounds. Let’s hope it’s a dry summer.
Of course if you really want to dine without coming into contact with other humans, a private island is the way to go. Coco Bodu Hithi in the Maldives doesn’t disappoint with its new Coco Sanctuary experience; dishes from any of the resort’s five restaurants delivered to your villa’s pool deck, in-villa spa treatments, even a private outside film screening, complete with comfy seats, drinks and popcorn. The ultimate in splendid isolation.
