A few weeks ago I was invited by Sofitel, the French luxury hotel chain, to travel to Morocco and experience their hotel in Essaouira. I travelled via their hotels in Heathrow Terminal 5 and Marrakech. My reason for staying at Heathrow is that the flights to Morocco, the main destination, were at seven in the morning and there was no way I would have been able to get from Manchester to Heathrow comfortably on the day. So Sofitel offered to put me up at their Heathrow destination.
Arrival
On my arrival on the Sunday evening, I took the lift to the Sofitel floor and walked through the long, glossy corridor to the reception desk. I was greeted all the way by warm and genuine “Good Evenings” and smiles. The reception was nothing but lavish, with a gorgeous central water feature, marble floors, candles and serene lighting.
What greeted me in the room was consistent with the entire atmosphere of the hotel. I’d been put in a ‘King Suite’, with the beautiful ‘MyBed’ (I’ll get onto that), a full desk setup, armchair and footstool. There was a four-piece en-suite bathroom, with a walk-in shower, a bath and a TV.
L’Occitane
For the majority of suites, L’Occitane provide the toiletries, which make a hugely welcome change to the usual ‘in-house’ products that are often offered and never used. The products are from the Verbena line, a quintessentially L’Occitane range. There was shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and lotion, and after using some of them for the first time, I’m really impressed. My hair was left soft and shiny and my skin was left cleansed, hydrated and smoothed. There was one concession to the L’Occitane products: the bars of soap are Sofitel’s own and were actually really gorgeous, lathering easily and not leaving your skin feeling dry and uncomfortable. In all honesty though, I prefer the L’Occitane shower gel.
Food & Drink
Because I arrived at around 8/9pm on a Sunday, none of the restaurants were open, but there was room service. Not wanting to splash out £13 on fish and chips from room service, I opted to nip out of the hotel into the terminal building to the M&S Simply Food that sat right in front of the elevator, stocking up on some bits and pieces.
Once back in the hotel I really felt comfortable and ‘at home’ in the suite. I sat in the bath with a drink and some chocolate, watching QI on Dave. It was absolute bliss. The stress of knowing I needed to be up at 4.30am the following morning, and the journey that awaited me, seemed to completely disappear.
Sofitel MyBed
The bed was amazing. The MyBed concept has been designed exclusively for Sofitel and is a layered bed of exquisite sheets on feathers and cottons and so much softness. You simply melt into it. They’re fairly high up for a shorty like me, so once I’d clambered on, you melt. I was sat trying to write this at the time, but lasted 15 minutes before I passed out asleep.
Okay, so this was paid for by Sofitel and I genuinely have to consider the following question: “Would I book and pay for this myself?” My answer is yes, I would, but not every time I travelled. For a special occasion, or for the one big yearly summer holiday, it would help get things off to a relaxing start. This is luxury and shouldn’t become your everyday, because then it wouldn’t be the treat this fabulous hotel really should be.
Business
If you are more of a business client on the other hand, are sick and tired of booking into budget-rate hotels, and have a decent expense account at your disposal, then this is a great concept. I would also recommend paying the extra for the higher rate of internet access, as the speed of what’s included is almost unusable at around twice the speed of dialup (56kbps vs 128kbps).
Apart from the first two images, which are from Sofitel, the rest of the photos are mine, so please ask and reference me before using any of them.
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