Trend Alert: Hotels building super-rooms to lure the super wealthy

As economies trend up and down, prices of hotel rooms usually become similarly elastic. Not true with luxury hotel suites, however, which have prices that seem to go only one direction: Up. The rich keep getting richer, and nowhere is that clearer these days than in the size and price of top hotels' top suites. Just as airlines battle for high-profit First Class passengers, there is a war going on around the world to woo the richest of the rich with over-the-top hotel suites that cost USD $30,0000 and more per night. The 3-story Jewel Suite at the New York Palace hotel is assuredly opulent for its $25,000 per night price tag. The Mandarin Oriental in the same city has a slightly smaller suite for an even bigger price. The same trend is playing out in cities across the globe, from London and Miami to Hong Kong, Singapore and, of course, Dubai. While the people renting these rooms range from celebrities and sports stars to sheiks and oligarchs, hotels are finding that there is a "halo effect" that trickles down to the generic guests who want to stay in the hotel's standard rooms because of the opulence that is upstairs. Indeed, many hotels, including Dubai's flashy Burj al Arab, show off these fancy spaces during "manager's happy hours" that are hosted in the suites when they are not being occupied. Will we be seeing more super-expensive suites like these? Definitely so.