Business | Puttin’ it up at the Ritz

Are vacationing plutocrats the true victims of inflation?

The microeconomics of luxury hotels

TTMJD3 USA, California, Los Angeles, Bird's eye view of the pool at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Four Seasons Resort on Rodeo Drive

Jul 21st 2022|London, Paris and San Francisco

Pity those looking for a slice of luxury this summer. Consumer prices are rising fast the world over but at the fanciest hotels they are soaring. Last year you could book a night at Le Bristol, Paris’s best, for less than €1,000 ($1,170) a night, if you looked hard enough. Now rooms are going for hundreds of euros more. The price of a gin martini at London’s Dukes hotel (straight from the freezer, and hands down the city’s best) is shooting up faster than the tippler’s blood-alcohol level after the first sip. A basic room on a Monday night in November at a new Four Seasons in California’s wine country is going for about $2,000.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Puttin’ it up at the Ritz”