bLavish

China Welcomes Tibet’s First Luxury Hotel

November 2, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Estate of the Day, Tid Bits & News at 8:47 am | Comments off

The very first luxury hotel in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region opened on Monday, giving tourism hope that more luxurious travelers are on their way.

The St. Regis Lhasa Resort, the first international luxury hotel in Lhasa, the regional capital, reportedly covers nearly 32,000 square meters and is a green hotel.

Xinhua quoted Wang Songping, deputy chief of the region’s Tourism Administration as saying: “The opening of St. Regis ends Tibet’s history of no luxury hotels. Shangri-La Hotel and InterContinental Hotel will be built in Lhasa in 2010. High-end hotels will help boost Tibet’s tourism.”

We’ve come a long way since Seven Years In Tibet, haven’t we?

Grissini Restaurant’s 600 gram White Truffle

October 19, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Tid Bits & News at 9:13 am | Comments off

Even though quantity doesn’t always mean quality, the 600 gram white truffle recently unveiled at the Grissini Restaurant is still pretty impressive.

Located at the rand Hyatt Hong Kong, the Grissini Restaurant unveiled their impressive specimen on Friday which is about the size of two baseballs.  While the luxury restaurant is not yet disclosing what they paid for the truffle, they did reveal that they plan on charging customers around $19 per gram which, if we have our math in order, about $11,600 total.  Now that’s a lot of truffle!

Abraham Lincoln’s 150-Year Old Hair Going To Auction

October 15, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Tid Bits & News at 8:04 am | Comments off

Wow.  We’re not quite sure how the producers of the TLC TV show Auctioneer$ got their little hands on some of President Abraham Lincoln’s hair, but it’s going to be an interesting auction nonetheless.

Along with pink slippers worn by actress Katherine Hepburn in the 1933 production of Little Women, a 2,000-year-old Holy Land coin and a Royal gift locket, a part of Lincoln’s mane will hit the auction block and we can’t wait to see what this luxury item will bring in.

But seriously, where on earth did they come up with Lincoln’s hair?!

Adriana Lima Wearing This Year’s Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra

October 6, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Tid Bits & News at 9:30 am | Comments off

Always the highlight of the fall Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is the Fantasy Bra that’s covered in luxurious diamonds and the announcement has just been made that supermodel Adriana Lima will be wearing the bra down the catwalk this year.

The highlight of the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is always the luxurious Fantasy Bra and this year will certainly not be an exception with supermodel Adriana Lima wearing the diamond-studded bra on the catwalk.

The 2010 Fantasy Bra has already been unveiled in NYC and features a starburst design with 2,000 diamonds and is being appraised at $2.38 million. Don’t forget to put November 30 on your calendar for the CBS presentation of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

We never miss this show, and we can wait to try to contain the drool on this luxury lingerie!

Amazon Purchases BuyVIP for $96.5 Million

October 5, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Tid Bits & News at 7:31 am | Comments off

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon has made quite the luxury purchase, spending $96.5 million on BuyVIP.

With more than 6 million members worldwide, BuyVIP is a nice aquisition for Amazon.  The company specializes in selling luxury apparel at discount prices and is a great fit for Amazon, especially given that it would work well with Zappos with the growing Groupon-phenomenon and discounted luxury websites such as ToVieFor.

We can’t wait to see how Amazon turns this luxury site into something more accessible.

Kate Moss & Fiancé Jamie Hince To Run Luxury B&B?

October 4, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Estate of the Day, Tid Bits & News at 7:51 am | Comments off

Apparently supermodel Kate Moss and her fiance Jamie Hince are thinking about running a luxury B&B in a village near Cornwall, England.

Reportedly Moss has her eye on a five-bedroom detached house with he rsights on finding out the best way to run a luxurious bed and breakfast in the UK.

According to a source, this is something that the model has wanted to do for a while, saying, “She’s yearned for a seaside retreat for some time.”

“Jamie’s quite a bookworm so he turned her on to the Cornish writer Daphne du Maurier, who lived in Fowey, and since then Kate has been researching the area. They are planning to convert it into a luxury B&B for their friends. She is excited about decorating the suites. She’s looking to the next phase of her life and thinking about where she’d like to be.’

Well, we guess this makes as much sense as anyone else opening up a luxury B & B, right?

Russian Firm Plans Luxury Space Hotel

October 1, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Tid Bits & News at 10:42 am | (2) Comments »

With all the recent news that space tourism will soon be a reality, it makes perfect sense that Russia-based Orbital Technologies has revealed their mighty plan to launch a luxury space hotel by the year 2016.

The company has plans to put the hotel where it would be right on the same path as the International Space Station, which is pretty smart we guess.

While CEO Sergei Kostenko does mention things like well-appointed suites and food cooked up by celebrity chefs, it’s not entirely clear that the firm has the funding to build the thing or even who will be doing the construction, although Energia (Russia’s state-controlled spacecraft manufacturer) has been mooted as the project’s general contractor. But this isn’t merely a rich man’s plaything — as Kostenko points out, it could be used as a place for astronauts to flee to in case the ISS comes under alien attack (although he didn’t say it in exactly those words).

Dallas Cowboys Dez Bryant Gets Stuck With $54,000 Restaurant Tab

September 30, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Tid Bits & News at 2:52 pm | Comments off

Wow, talk about a million other ways $54,000 could have been spent, right?  Apparently after months of refusing to carry on the rookie tradition of carrying teammate Roy Williams’ shoulder pads during training camp, football player Dez Bryant got stuck with a $54,000 restaurant tab from Pappas Bros. Steakhouse.

After Bryant refused to carry the pads in July, Williams shrugged off the snub and casually suggested an alternative: just take him out to dinner. Bryant agreed.

But what the rookie didn’t know was that Williams decided to invite not just a few guys but the entire defensive team.

The final tally at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse: $54,896.

According to Watkins, the players ordered everything off the menu and took bottles of wine home with them.

Said Bryant’s adviser David Wells: “They got the young fella. What could he say? He had to pay it unless he wanted to wash dishes for a month.”

For a month?  Wow, I wanna be a dishwasher at Pappas Bros.

$4,000 Of Rare Grapes Stolen From Grand Reve Vineyard

September 27, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Tid Bits & News at 9:24 am | Comments off

Wow, someone was jonesing for some luxurious grapes, weren’t they?

According to the owners of the Red Mountain, Washington-located Grand Rêve Vineyard, $4,000 worth of rare grapes were stolen off their vines in the last week.

Coined ‘The Great Grape Caper of Red Mountain’ the theft was clearly well planned and cleverly executed as the thieves made off with a ton (literally) of very specific and exotic grapes called Bushvine Mourvedre. Because they ignored every other kind of grape and did such a clean and complete job it’s being considered the work of professionals. “Whoever it was, knew what they were doing.” said Ryan Johnson, one of the vineyard partners and manager. “They were very thorough.”

Okay, which one of you was it?  We won’t tell, just share!

Ritz-Carlton Rewards Loyalty Program Launches

September 16, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as Tid Bits & News at 8:44 am | Comments off

On Wednesday the luxury hotel brand Ritz-Carlton finally launched a loyalty program that rewards their repeat customers.  Sheesh, how long did this take to come up with and implement, guys?  Like fifty years?!  Well better late than never we suppose.

The Ritz has partnered with high-end brands such as Vera Wang and Neiman Marcus to reward their loyal customers with the new Ritz-Carlton Rewards program.

Much like competing programs such as InterContinental’s Priority Club or Hilton HHonors, guests will also be able to redeem points for flights.

“No other luxury hotel company comes close to providing such a full range of opportunities to earn and redeem points and experience some truly exceptional and exotic adventures,” said Ritz-Carlton boss Herve Humler.

Ritz-Carlton has long shied away from a loyalty club, maintaining that its customers were different from those of its parent chain Marriott and wouldn’t be interested in such a program.

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