November 13, 2007

US & CANADA | EUROPE | ASIA

The Little Luxe League

By Nicole Cotroneo

Even dolls get posh accommodations when hotels target tomorrow's VIPs.

Children should not only be seen and heard, but waited on hand and foot. That’s the latest thinking from a growing number of savvy hotels. At Vail’s recently renovated Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, kids aren’t kicked out of the lobby bar — they’ve got their own cocktail. The new non-alcoholic “Yukitini” is named after the hotel’s dog-in-residence, Yuki, and comes with a chocolate “dog bone” garnish. Ritz-Carlton Chicago is also indoctrinating tykes into the finer things of adult life: its in-room bath menu now includes a children’s “bubble experience,” complete with “scrubby” animal loofah, bath toy, milk and cookies. And at the Beverly Hills Hotel, VYVs — that’s “very young VIPs” — get “credit cards” to cash in on free milkshakes at the poolside café.

If you want to have your heirs-apparent mind their manners as well as their money, the ever-proper Fairmont Royal York in Toronto offers Kidiquette classes for seven to 12-year-olds December 1, and for teenagers January 4. Junior guests at One & Only Reethi Rah in the Maldives, however, are encouraged to get their hands dirty — in new complimentary cooking classes with the resort’s own Chefs de Cuisine. Yet the gold star has to go to Fitzpatrick hotels in Manhattan and their popular “American Girl Experience.” Here, even your daughters’ dolls get the VIP treatment from personal check-in to miniature beds with turndown service. In fact, the staff has been “specially trained” to speak to the dolls — let’s just hope none of them start talking back.