Five-star hotels today offer everything from personal butlers and private pool villas to chauffeur-driven Bentleys and sprawling marble suites.
But few luxury resorts offer their well-heeled guests use of their very own fully customised £85million private jet.
The popular Five Hotel and Resorts in the lavish city of Dubai has just launched its private plane service with a fully personalised on-brand ACJ TwoTwenty. And guests can charter the 16-seater jet dubbed Fly Five for as little as £10,500 – or £656 per person – an hour. However, a minimum spend is likely to apply.
It features a master suite with a king-sized bed and deluxe shower, a dining table for eight, a fully-equipped kitchen as well as free-flowing champagne and caviar.
Designed to bring the famed party hotel’s lively vibe to the sky, the plane is called Nine Hotel Five and features ambient lighting, sleek interiors and a state-of-the-art sound system.
Passengers are provided with an iPad each, Nine Hotel Five branded pyjamas, silk sleeping masks and Molton Brown toiletries.
It also features high-speed WiFi, two ultra large 55 inch TV screens, a printer scanner and the aircraft’s seats and sofas can be turned into seven further bed spaces.
A seven hour flight from London to Dubai will cost as much as £73,500 – but passengers can also expect to pay a fee for the ferry journey from its base in the UAE to the UK.
‘Flying FIVE will be an unmatched, flawless, curated experience for customers seeking the unique ‘Vibe at FIVE’ in the sky,’ the hotel said of the service which was launched over the weekend.
The group’s chairman and founder Kabir Mulchandani said there had already been plenty of interest from potential customers looking to charter the jet. He said the versatile aircraft had a lot to offer and could cater for everything from business travel and meetings to private parties and marriage proposals.
The aircraft has a 12-hour flight radius covering most of the world’s major cities and all of Europe.
Technology engineers at Swiss Aviation firm Comlux developed the one of a kind jet equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines.
The hotel group said it was committed to ‘completely offsetting Fly Five’s annual emissions’ by supporting forest conservation projects by aligning itself with Nature-Based Carbon Credits.
Hotels in Dubai – a city famed for its glitz and glamour – have consistently been hitting high occupancy levels with demands for the most lavish resorts running at above industry average.
Travel experts have said that established hotels in the UAE are being forced to step up their game to retain their customer base as newer and shinier resorts continue to pop up.
As a result, travellers are likely to see many more luxury experiences on offer such as Five’s new private jet services as well as yacht rentals and partnerships with designer brands.