MAY 2017 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA 039
In some ways, Jackalope resembles
traditional luxury accommodation —
there’s a large team of seasoned staf
and standard amenities such as a spa
and 24-hour room service. What’s
unusual for a hotel in Australia is how
visually distinctive the property is. It
suggests that the local market may at
last be catching up with the northern
hemisphere, where small luxury hotels
are expected to be aesthetically unique.
Jackalope’s general manager,
Tracy Atherton, previously worked at
Canberra’s Hotel Hotel, which helped
introduce high design to the Australian
accommodation market. “I opened Hotel
Hotel in Canberra three years ago and
it was a turning point for the industry in
Australia,” she says. “Back then, there
were unique small hotels around the
world — especially in London, Berlin
and New York — but nothing that
stood out in Australia.
“I see Jackalope changing the
landscape again but in a diferent way.
Here, we want to merge art and
hospitality at a deeper level.”
Li has plans for more Jackalope
hotels around Australia. Until then,
Atherton’s confident the Mornington
Peninsula property holds enough secrets
to encourage return visits. “There are
stories everywhere,” she says.
http://www.jackalopehotels.com.Top hotels are curating
exclusive programs
to provide authentic
encounters for guests.Inside
Scoop
T
his year, travellers hoping
to skip the queues in
bustling Manhattan,
observe rare wildlife
in remote Asia or wander down
hidden laneways in historic London
should consider entrusting their
itineraries to their hotels.
As guests’ demand for ‘insider’
travel grows, some of the world’s
most prestigious properties are
competing directly with tour
operators and guidebooks by
launching ambitious programs
that promise locals-only knowledge
and access for visitors.
“Authenticity is a growing
trend,” says Rainer Stampfer,
president of hotel operations for
Four Seasons in the Asia-Pacific
region. “Travellers increasingly
want to feel connected to local
people and culture. We can provide
visitors — even well-travelled ones
— with that connection.”
At Four Seasons Hong Kong,
for example, guests can tour the
alleyways of Kowloon with the
hotel’s in-house chef, the three-
Michelin-starred Chan Yan Tak, and
sample Cantonese food at local
haunts. In Langkawi, Four Seasons
visitors can take a boat journey
through parts of the UNESCO-
endorsed Langkawi Geopark with
a naturalist. The tours are part of
the ‘Extraordinary Experiences’
program, which is in operation
at a growing number of Four
Seasons properties worldwide.
According to a recent report
from brand consultancy L2, it is
programs such as these that will
keep travellers loyal to certain hotel
brands in coming years, even as
online search tools encourage