Rosewood Hong Kong Manor Club: The World's Best Hotel Club Lounge?

View is indeed amazing but I question how much I would use this lounge while in an amazing city like Hong Kong. I expressed my thoughts on how I personally pick hotels and in places where I want to be as much as I can exploring the city I don’t think it is worth to spend that much money for something I will barely use. I would happily pay for something like this in a remote location where the hotel is the main part of the trip but not in big cities that offer so much outside the hotel.

Understand there are some crazy US prices, but to be fair, some of these are just ripoffs. E.g., picking a random 3 days in San Francisco in April, the Golden Gate Suite with an amazing view at the Fairmont at the top of the hill is 1300/night. The massive 1500 sq ft, 270 degree view Fairmont Suite is under 4k/night. Other than penthouses, this is probably the fanciest suite in the most expensive city in the US.

I actually find the hotel room prices at top city hotels in European cities in summer to be particularly crazy. But the common denominator is "these are places where the global very rich stay".

I totally agree. This might be the "best club lounge in the world" in a vacuum (simply comparing lounges side-by-side), but I would personally give more weight to a fantastic club lounge in a more remote resort property, given the lack of competing food/drink options in easy walking/driving distance.
On the extreme end, I guess a fantastic club lounge at a super expensive Maldives or Bora Bora property (I'm not sure how many Maldives/Bora Bora properties have club lounges) might take the cake here. But I'm sure there are plenty of other remote luxury properties with lounges outside of those areas.

Again - probably should state it very very overtly that you got this stay for free.

On the topic of lounges, to go to lounges, in cities like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, etc. lounges are almost redundant given the properly good food that you can get in the city if you're a willing traveller. Most of these lounges are either for foreigners or for local people on staycations to take selfies.

A couple months ago you posted asking for suggestions and advice on how to position yourself going forward. I'm not sure how sponsored content raving about overpriced hotels was your conclusion from all of the feedback you received.

Regardless, I struggle to think you truly believe it makes sense to spend $300 a night extra to have access to a hotel buffet when you're in one of the best food cities in the world. You should obviously do what makes you happy with your website, but a lot of your recent content, particularly when you review hotels that are not available on points, seems better left to the people of Conde Naste and similar.

Drinks menu, do they serve champagne all day long?

@ Ben -- I know you love to take pictures of empty lounges, and you say the experience was like "Crazy Rich Asians". Was the lounge overrun and were people eating like hogs at the buffet? That was our recent experience at an upscale Asian hotel at the new Korean Airlines business class lounge at ICN. They both felt like Delta Sky Clubs full of people who had been starved for a week.

i don't get it. you are in hong kong, why in god's name are you paying a premium so you can spend more time cloistered in your hotel.

Hong Kong is not worth the risk, especially for anyone with an online or social media presence. If the CCP reviews your comments and has a problem, then you will definitely find out when you travel there!

Hmm sounds exactly like a certain western country that is currently prosecuting people for social media posts that don't align with their leaders viewpoint that somehow still proclaims to be the most free best country

Humidity?

$700 per night per room and up? (and no way to redeem on points or other methods) Regardless of how nice it is, another place I likely will never get to visit. I guess this is another voyeur post to see what I'm missing out on.

Thanks for the full disclosure Ben. It is the professional thing to do and is not taken for granted.
That being said - like other comments, I feel that something in the uniqueness of the blog is fading with the growing number of reviews where you and Ford are guests of the property or are staying at a much reduced rate.
I think this used to happen very rarely, but is now becoming much more common.
I am not going to speculate how much of the free stuff Ford is getting is related to the property expecting you will join and review. I may have a guess based on knowing people in the industry but will keep it to myself. Let’s agree it’s a number lower than 100% but definitely higher than 0%.
I am in no way suggesting you should not join Ford or refuse to receive these invitation. What I am saying is that maybe rethink your policy and exclude these properties from what you’re reviewing in the interest of blog ethics.
Food for though. Your blog is definitely evolving, and not all the ways it is evolving in are necessarily positive.

"Humidity?"

Amongst a million other possible, equally valid, reasons.

One senses that the majority of commenters here have only travelled to Hong Kong (or any other country that's not the USA for that matter) as tourists, not for business, which almost *always* changes the calculus for how, where, and when one spends one's time.

Often when you talk about other bloggers and prior to your AF La Premiere flight, you mention how airlines never pay you for your flights.
That’s one part I’ve always liked about your reviews.

However this seems to be the opposite for your hotel stays. More and more for these luxury hotels these are comped stays on behalf of Ford.
To be honest I would rather you stated that you paid for these hotels outright (you can certainly afford them) rather than have these comped…as now you are doing exactly what you said you didn’t do for your flights.

I guess you’ll be criticized either way…I still love your reviews either way. Just my two cents.

He didn't pay for it

Whenever travel advisors rave about Rosewood, I do wonder if it's genuine, or because they offer 50% higher commission than almost all other luxury TA programs.

I think he explained this well in the post on how his hotel stay habits have changed: https://onemileatatime.com/insights/hotel-industry-evolved-preferences/ He still reviews plenty of points hotels, and as a reviewer I truly trust and enjoy, I'm glad this splurge content is out there even if the odds are long I'll ever stay at most of the places. He's offering us content we're not going to get anywhere else and I don't think it seems to detract from his other content.

Ben's coverage from two "quick look" posts on this hotel -- before he even has written his whole review! -- is vastly better than what you get from Conde Naste. It is not clear to me that this "review" was even written by someone who actually visited the hotel. https://www.cntraveler.com/hotels/hong-kong/rosewood-hong-kong I would not spend $700 a night on that level of detail -- but on a splurge, with the level of detail Ben offers about why this place is so great, I might actually consider it.

"...somehow still proclaims to be the most free best country"

You mean the cuntry that is ruled by the most transparent Prime King Minister Knight Prince Princess Queen Orange Nazi ever in the history of all living things in the entire solar system?

No, definitely not the best in the world. Try the outstanding Mandarin Oriental Club in Hong Kong with free flowing Ruinart from breakfast until 10 pm. Or try the lounge at the recently opened Mandarin Oriental Downtown Dubai with a complete new dining concept. There is no traditional evening spread anymore! Instead you will be served a 4 course tasting menu fit for one Michelin Star together with Bollinger Champagne. The kitchen is right in the lounge with 3 chefs working on your food. For breakfast there is Osietra Caviar with traditional accompaniments. All this combined with world class service.

I don't understand, do rich people go all the way to HongKong and then spend their entire time in just one building having breakfast lunch canapes and dinner? Like ... what's the point of travel if you'll spend every meal in one building and all your interactions are with that building staff who you're basically paying to be nice to you?

Please tell me you had a meal outside? Went and took the ferry? Walked around some crowded neighborhood that wasn't a hotel building?

That’s fair and personally I don’t mind if a review is a points review or not.
My issue is with the objectivity of the review.
If you are staying at a hotel free of charge, as a guest of the property, your ability to review it objectively suffers.
Obviously this is a decision for Ben to make, and obviously there may be different opinions, but I am putting mine out there

Foreigners and the typical "white folks" do.
They stay at the hotel and then think they've been to the country.
Whatever makes them happy.

To meet other similar people ?

Ew, you are mistakenly talking about typical American travellers of all colours and creeds. As for “Foreigners” please do not stereotype all those people who are of your colour, class or creed, yes?

Once again an article brings out contributors who post gobbledygook about a particular hotel, located in a country, to which few appear to have travelled. Some who post here are so narrow minded, furthermore, they make their ignorance of the subject abundantly clear.

Yoshi, trust me, there are much better options in HK, don’t you know old bean?

The amount of shade Ben is getting while being totally transparent is simply astounding.

So he got comped and he liked it... get over it.

Please do not review comped hotels or airlines. I've been reading OMAAT for years and independence is a key to your success.

Dear God, this is a travel blog post about a hotel club lounge, not a personal diary... Why would he post what else he did on that trip (to a city he's visited many, many times over the years I might add) ?

+1

Hahahaha... touché

Ben please ignore these people complaining about your luxury hotel reviews. There are many people like me who LOVE these aspirational posts, and I for one would much rather read an article like this over a boring regular points hotel factory. Also, I don't care if this is a Ford comped stay or not, you are reporting on your experience and thats that. THANK YOU and keep it up!!!

So he can review it on his travel site?

I'd go with that.

Agree. Nice to read about these luxury hotels, many of which I’ll never get to stay in. But hard to judge how objective they are when it’s comped or when there’s a vested interest in driving business to Ford. I really valued the objective take on airlines but seems to increasingly be an issue for hotels.

Agreed.
It’s not like he a mainstream journalist. He’s an opinionator.
Enjoy the ride or get off.

I don't think these are "aspirational" hotels, I think people are just upset that it sounds like a sponsored post more than anything.

I agreed. He is now the sponsored train. Something he was against in the past.. A

@Ben,

You don't mention it, but I am curious what the champagne hours of the manor club is? Even the Grand Hyatt which gives club access based on status serves champagne all day, and a very decent one. So what are the options here?

I agree that a great club lounge can make an ordinary hotel extraordinary. The RC experience without a club lounge will be mediocre at best. Add club access and the hotel within a hotel vibe kicks in and the experience changes entirely.

Are Rosewood hotels not available via Amex/Citi/Chase travel? If they are why can't you redeem points?