Are you also one of the guests who start rearranging furniture when entering a hotel room, switch off the TV and air conditioning and put ad folders and hotel brochures into the drawers? Or do you travel with your private pillow and bring your scented candles and plaids with you? IRMA was curious and asked a couple of well-travelled guests.
The beautiful sisters and cooking duo Melissa and Jasmine Hemsley changed the way of eating healthy for many people when they first had their food column in British Vogue.
IRMA: What is the first thing you do when entering a hotel room?
JASMINE HEMSLEY: Check if there is a fridge and a kettle, get some fresh air into the room, then pull the cushions and bed throws off and put them in the cupboard.
MELISSA HEMSLEY: Spray some lavender room spray, make a cup of herbal tea and get hydrated.
INÈS DE LA FRESSANGE
The former model and muse of Karl Lagerfeld in the 80s Chanel era embodies la Parisienne like nobody else. She gives advice to shoe designer Roger Vivier and writes a book and a weekly newsletter about Parisian style and she has her very own fashion label, INÈS DE LA FRESSANGE, PARIS.
IRMA: What do you do in the first 5 minutes when you enter your hotel room?
INÈS DE LA FRESSANGE: I light a perfumed candle. I am a maniac, but imagine arriving in paradise, if it doesn’t smell good, it’s not paradise anymore, isn’t it?! So I bring my candle in my suitcase …
SOFIA SANCHEZ DE BETAK
The New York-based Argentine art director, author, model has been a regular on the best-dressed lists. She writes columns for Condé Nast Traveler, designs travel goods for the luxury collection luggage by Globe-Trotter and recently published her first book, Travels with Chufy (Assouline).
IRMA: What is the first thing you do when entering a hotel room?
SOFIA SANCHEZ DE BETAK: I turn off all TVs and ACs!
LINDA RODIN
The founder of the famous face oil Rodin Olio Lusso is known for her elegant, cool style and pictures with her beloved poodle Winky. Besides being a role model for aging gracefully, she has worked before as a model, an art gallerist, a bookseller at Rizzoli, an original Soho concept retailer (Linda Hopp), a Harper’s Bazaar magazine editor, a stylist and a beauty entrepreneur when selling her company Olio Lusso to Estée Lauder.
IRMA: What do you do in the first 5 minutes when you enter your hotel room?
LINDA RODIN: I look at the room service menu!
AERIN LAUDER
Aerin Zinterhofer Lauder launched her own lifestyle brand AERIN within her grandmother Estée Lauder’s cosmetics giant. Aerin recently launched the line bearing her own name on sale at ritzy Net-A-Porter and her own stores. You can read about her latest travels on her blog, WORLD OF AERIN.
IRMA: What do you do when entering a hotel room?
AERIN LAUDER: Any room can be made cozy and inviting when you add candles, so I love bringing one with me wherever I travel. Rose-based scents are perfect for a bedroom, so I always bring the AERIN Rose de Grasse candle to make my hotel room instantly feel like home.
The AERIN Rose de Grasse candle is currently only available in the US.
OLGA POLIZZI
Olga was born in London in the late 1940s and is the eldest daughter of the late Lord Forte, arguably the world’s best-known hotelier. She is director of design for Rocco Forte Hotels and owner of Hotel Endsleigh in Devon and Hotel Tresanton in Cornwall.
IRMA: The first five minutes in a hotel room that has not been designed by you, what do you do?
OLGA POLIZZI: I never enter a hotel room without immediately moving the furniture. It’s extraordinary how you can improve the look of a room by a little reorganization. Centering the chest of drawers under the picture or mirror, pulling chairs forward so they are not pushed tight into a corner, placing the floor lamp near a chair and table so you can read comfortably and drink a coffee with ease, pushing bedside tables back tight against the wall and close to the bed, collecting into one pile all the brochures covering every surface of the room. Once this is done, I can relax.