Check in room, check out the Porsche

By Chris Woodyard
USA Today

The well-heeled are becoming the well-wheeled as the makers of luxury autos woo affluent hotel guests.

Hoteliers and automakers are teaming on marketing deals aimed at taking the best hotel customers for a spin to introduce them to the charms of new high-end autos.

Among the deals:

• Maybach. Top hotels have been using Mercedes-Benz' super-luxury brand to squire special guests around New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Now, the automaker is going to formalize the program by placing specially built Maybach 62s at unidentified high-end hotels in the three cities plus Washington, says brand manager Wayne Killen.

Some guests might be allowed to take the wheel of the $385,000 cars.

• Porsche. Fairmont Hotels will launch a package deal at its Turnberry Isle Resort in Florida that includes use of a Porsche Boxster, says spokeswoman Lori Holland. The program copies a similar deal by Fairmont in Scottsdale, Ariz.

• Volkswagen. A fleet of $64,600 Phaeton sedans were given a total of 1,933 test drives during the three months they were offered to W Hotel guests.

The hotel chain divided 28 Phaetons among hotels in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco at a time when few had seen the talked-about car.

"People drove in just to see it," says W executive Ross Klein.

• Mercedes-Benz. A room-car deal at Ritz-Carlton hotels might be expanded from the current 17 locations to as many 24, says Michelle Cervantez, a Mercedes vice president. The program has used various Mercedes-Benz models, from the convertible in Los Angeles to the sport utility vehicle in Colorado.

At least 150 guests who drove a Mercedes through the Ritz "Key to Luxury" program later became buyers, says Cervantez.

Bruce Seltzer, 54, an investment adviser from Marin County, Calif., says he requests the Mercedes package whenever he stay at the Ritz in Marina del Rey, Calif., but often can't get it.

"They need at least two more cars," he says.

Luxury carmakers like the soft-sell approach that hotel settings provide.

"We don't sell the car — the car sells itself," Maybach boss Killen says. Hotels like the programs because they get an enticing bauble for guests at little or no cost.

Other hotels have variations on the idea.

The $570-a-night Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Colo., has offered a Maybach 62 to shuttle guests to their private jets during busy months, says spokesman Steven Holt.

The Mosaic Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., offers a Mercedes C-class or a Mini Cooper for $10 a night more than the $269 regular room rate.