Another Pillow For Your Chocolate, Sir?

Built into each of Singapore's A380 Airbus jets, Suites class offers private cabins; Givenchy sheets, duvet covers, sleep suits and puffy slippers; amenity packs from Ferragamo, and fresh flowers throughout. Entertainment is accessed through a private 58cm screen, which offers more than 1,000 on-demand choices, including 100 movies and 700 music CDs. Two of the 12 private cabins are outfitted with a full double bed and come with two of the 58cm screens. Even the Suites-class bathrooms are double the size of a standard aircraft lavatory.

More than ever, luxury service is tailored to a customer's tastes. The two-starred Michelin restaurant Le Cinq, at the Four Seasons Hotel Georges V in Paris, has a perfectly trained wait staff that dotes on diners—many of whom pay about $500 per person—with a warmth not often found in the upper reaches of Parisian dining. The hotel's Caroline Mennetrier says diners often fall in love with a wine over dinner. "If they're so inclined, it is the sommelier's pleasure to make a few calls and get our guests access to private tours at first-growth wineries in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne," she says. Recently, a visiting American couple boarded their private jet with Le Cinq's director Eric Beaumard for private tastings that included Château Margaux and Château Cheval Blanc in St-Emilion. "That was an exception to have Mr. Beaumard accompany them," says Mennetrier. "But we are always happy to provide access to great wineries for our guests."

The Rocco Forte Collection of hotels is nipping at the Four Seasons' Christian Louboutins when it comes to pampering its guests. This growing luxe hotel group, with properties in 11 European cities—including Brown's in London and the Balmoral in Edinburgh—has baseline service that would make even a jaded sheik happy. Guests staying in any suite automatically receive special services at no extra cost, including unpacking and pressing garments upon arrival, and then gently repacking, complete with tissue paper—"just like they used to do in stately English houses," says the group's managing director, Richard Power.

"People at this level don't want to be nickel-and-dimed. There's nothing worse than paying $5,000 for a suite and then haggling over whether or not you used the Internet or ate a Mars bar. That's a bad way to end a luxury experience."

When it comes to shopping, that luxury experience always means personalized attention. Harry Winston, for one, will even take the store to the customer. "People who are used to having things brought to them don't like to go into stores," says Harry Winston's Nancy Murray. "We work at the high end of the consumer pyramid, so it is a part of our DNA to cater to people who are used to being catered to." On an average day, Harry Winston associates in each of the company's 18 salons will deliver jewelry to customers who want to road-test the products. "We'll do it for one carat and we'll do it for 100 carats," says Murray. "Someone who wants to wear a piece for the day just to see how it catches the light, we'll do that." Winston's pieces start at $20,000 and top out above $10 million.

As demanding as today's customers are, Iceology's Brown wonders if things aren't about to get worse. "Though we have many more people today with considerable wealth, we are more insecure than ever and require reinforcement by way of buying the right brands and requiring an insane level of service and extravagance," he says. Generation Y is even more demanding than the boomers, he says, with a much greater need for instant gratification. For them, choosing the décor of a favorite hotel suite may only be the start of the kind of luxury service they expect.

© 2008