Most Expensive Hotel Suites in the World

Sep 22, 2010
Rupert Taylor

Hugh Hefner Sky Villa’s Pool. - Marc Levin

Not many people are able to pay for a hotel room costing $65,000 a night, but those that can get every imaginable whim catered to.

In the opening to his 1925 short story Rich Boy F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” For one thing they get to stay in the world’s most expensive hotel suites.

The Royal Penthouse Suite

The President Wilson Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland caters to the many dignitaries that visit the United Nations whose bills are picked up by their country’s taxpayers; for those travelling on their own dime a double room costs around $883 a night.

But, heads of state can’t be expected to sleep in a room occupied the night before by a family from Montreal. For these VIPs there’s the Royal Penthouse Suite at a heart-stopping $65,000 a night, (breakfast not included).

For this kind of money what does the busy national leader get? The Times lists some of the luxuries (“The World’s Most Expensive Hotel Suites,” by Ian Belcher, August 26, 2007): the four-bedroom suite is “bristling with surveillance cameras, bullet-proof windows, armoured doors, and bedside panic buttons – as well as a butler and views across Lake Geneva to Mont Blanc…it’s littered with period pieces, including a 1930s billiard table and a Steinway grand.”

There’s a dining room for 26, half a dozen bathrooms, and a helicopter evacuation is available should someone get careless about smoking in bed.

Hugh Hefner Sky Villa, Las Vegas

There aren’t a lot of diplomats looking for a night’s rest in Las Vegas. Here, the clientele with deep pockets is more likely to be sports superstars, entertainers, and bankers. For them, there’s the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa at $40,000 a night, unless you’re Hugh Hefner – he stays free.

USA Today’s Steve Friess (“$40,000 to Make Like Hefner for a Night,” September 29, 2006) describes the accommodations that include “an indoor waterfall; a round, rotating bed with ceiling mirrors; and a pool cantilevering off the edge of the new Fantasy Tower at the Palms Casino Resort…plasma TVs, a massage room, sauna, exercise room, media room, and two bedrooms.”

Neither breakfast nor bunnies are included, again, unless you are Hugh Hefner.

Ty Warner Suite, New York

Budget-conscious billionaires can indulge their taste for luxury at the Ty Warner Suite at Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan at a mere $35,000 a night.

The Guardian reports ("Room for the Night – Yours for just £15,000,” August 31, 2007) that guests “get the entire 52nd floor of the hotel, comprising four main rooms (bedroom, living room, library, spa/exercise room with unlimited treatments from a masseuse)…. walls are inlaid with mother of pearl, curtains with gold thread, the bathroom floor with onyx, and the coffee table is appropriately covered with shark skin.”

Relaxation is provided by a Zen room with a waterfall or a soak in a tub overlooking Central Park.

There’s a chauffeur on standby with either a Rolls Royce or Mercedes Maybach should there be a need for one.

Less Expensive Suites

Dirjournal.com provides a rundown of some of the less expensive suites available but they’re still too pricey for those who have to ask how much they cost:

Villa La Capula Suite, Westin Excelsior, Rome, $29,000;
Presidential Suite, Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo, $25,000;
The Bridge Suite, The Atlantis, Bahamas, $22,000;
Imperial Suite, Park Hyatt, Paris, $20,000; and,
Royal Suite, Burj Al Arab, Dubai, $19,000;

At the other end of the scale is a standard room at the Sayang Maha Mertha Hotel, on the Indonesian island of Bali. At $12 a night the place is fully booked most of the time.