Mary Gostelow

This is not a hotel but a lifestyle stage, says Charles Oak firmly. He’s the perennially-youthful creative GM of The Londoner, the two months’ old theatre of a hotel at the south-west corner of Leicester Square. From many of the 350 rooms, look out at the buzz – the square currently hosts wood masts imagining mythical animals. Look around, at live…

Marco Den Ouden, GM of Patina Maldives Fari Islands, does not believe in Googling people, and this undoubtedly helps attract real top-flight celebs. "Look,…

This must be the most intimate working chapel in Greece - St George’s, at stunning Santa Marina Mykonos, high above Ornos Bay, in the south-west of this…

New York’s icon, The Carlyle, a Rosewood Hotel, is so called because when it was being built, in 1930, Diana Ginsberg Jaffe, daughter of the developer, Moses Ginsberg, was reading all-round British brain, Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881. (Interestingly, Carlyle’s best-known work, On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History, is just as relevant…

If influencers attract others of that breed, The Beaumont is key in London. Last week it seemed every one of the six front-of-hotel tables now permanently…

Next time in London, take at least an overnight out-of-that-city to experience the more relaxed uniqueness of Bath. Do not even think of driving. Much of Bath…

The key to consistent, highly-rated service is a dream team, says Mario Egger, GM of Augustine, Prague. The 101-key hotel has, consistently for the last four months, topped customer service ratings for Marriott’s Luxury Collection brand, Europe-wide. Egger has 65 on his full-time staff, of whom 15 are supervisors or managers level.

Many niche hobbyists already know The Peninsula’s Quail Lodge and Golf Club in Carmel, California. Car enthusiasts, for instance, have on their annual diaries…

At least a considerable part of Switzerland’s wealth, in the form of gold, at least, was hidden in bunkers under Gstaad Palace during WWII. No, it has long…

The 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, 15th August 1771, is being celebrated not only in his native Scotland but around the literary world (who realises, incidentally, what ups and downs he had in his financial life as a result of continual share speculating?).