I believe $30,000 for a night's stay in any hotel room is evidence of mental instability, and $47,000 a night - even in Cannes - ought to be grounds for immediate involuntary commitment to a rubber room. Yet there are such places, and people who pay to use them, according to The Wall Steet Journal today (May 28, 2008, pg D1).
One of these places, in the Waldorf Astoria in New York, is called the Presidential suite and has been temporary home to very president since Herbert Hoover. Our prez, however, negotiates a "government rate" for each stay. Does this mean he pays some eighty dollars a night, like a Army corporal on temporary duty somewhere?
What makes a hotel room, even for a President or a mogul from some oil-rich country, or some celebrity not known for trashing premises (known trashers are excluded), worth that kind of money?
Suppose you simple want to impress some chick, or some guy, do you take her/him to Cannes in the expectation that sex will be that much better at $47,000 a night than elsewhere for a grand or two, or even a toss in a nearby Ramada for two hundred bucks?
There are lesser accomodations, some in the $5 to $12 thousand range, all the way from Dubai to Washington but if once you stay at some $30,000 dig these might feel like Motel 6.
Yesterday I looked at some old family pictures. One showed our young daughter sleeping on a blanket on a carpeted floor in a motel more than 30 years ago when we were on vacation. She had been sharing a bed with her sister but went to the floor during the night. It was customary to have the girls and boys double up when we travelled to cut expenses. I wonder if for $5, $12, $30 or $47 thousand dollars a night, there would be separate beds for each family member. If you get to check it out, let me know.
