Anokhi Fashion Lifestyle Entertaiment

Staying at a hotel can be one of the best perks about a vacation. Aside from sightseeing, days are split between the restaurants (or room service), the pools and the spa. Tourists are streaming in and out of the lobby and the languages of the world are on display. For most, it’s a distant summer experience they cherish. But, for some, it’s daily life.

Christopher Heard has lived in hotels for more than two years. The writer has called Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York, his home. For him, it was the realization of a lifelong dream.

“I was literally conceived in the Royal York and my grandparents both worked there in the ’30s and ’40s. When I was 12, I sat in the lobby of the Royal York with my father and told him that I wanted to live in that hotel one day,” says Heard. His upcoming book, The Suite Life: The Magic and Mystery of Hotel Living, details his experience living in a hotel.

Many, like Heard, are drawn to the hotel scene. But the hefty price tag bars many from exploring it. More and more people are opting to combine the convenience of living in a condominium with the advantages and excitement of hotels. Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, is now embracing the trend of hotel-condo living. One of the most hotly anticipated projects is the Bisha Hotel & Residences, a chic, hip boutique hotel that offers its transient and permanent residents an exciting lifestyle.

The 41-storey building at King and Peter streets in the city’s entertainment district will have 100 hotel rooms and more than 300 condo suites. Visitors and residents alike will have access to Bisha’s state-of-the-art fitness facilities, an infinity pool overlooking the city, room service (for those late-night snacks) and two restaurants. People will be milling in and out of the 24-hour café. They can get their hair cut in the hotel’s hair salon, get their car sparkling clean at the carwash and entertain guests in a private lounge or on the rooftop patio. Bisha’s luxurious lifestyle includes easy access to personal services (at cost) such as pet walking and feeding and grocery delivery services.

Services like these were valuable for Heard, who was in the midst of writing two books while living in hotels. “I found living in a hotel enormously productive that way,” he says. “All the minutiae of daily life is removed. You need to think about nothing else but what you are working on.” For him, the comfort of knowing that anything he may need was a phone call away was invaluable.

Heard notes that the hotel-condo combination even takes care of the few disadvantages he sees to his lifestyle. “I found the fact that I was eating out virtually every meal every day a disadvantage because I liked to cook,” he says. The condos are fully equipped, giving their residents the option of cooking their own meals. He also says that, for some, living in the hotel side can get lonely, as the neighbours are never there for too long, but living in the condo side gets you the lifestyle with a more regular entourage.

So who’s going to be living in these new hotel-condos and in Bisha? Mel Pearl of Lifetime Developments says it could be anyone from the young professional, like Heard, to a family with children. The variety of suites attracts different people, from bachelor pads to multi-bedroom suites that could even be ideal for families.

“The trend is here to stay,” says Pearl. “Condominium living is very much Toronto because people love the urban experience.” Hotel-residence combinations are increasing in popularity among investors, too, as they don’t have to rely solely on income generated by filling temporary rooms. They can now rely on the income brought in by those who buy condos in the building. The whole project becomes more financially feasible. Globally, Miami has embraced the trend, according to Heard, but it has not picked up much in the rest of the United States. He adds that it is slowly growing in the United Kingdom, where American boutique hoteliers are building hotel-condos.

For those looking to experience some of the magic of vacations every day, hotel-condo living can offer just what they need. But even then, residents need a vacation…and then where will they go?

“Funny that when anyone else goes on vacation, they go to a hotel — when I take a vacation, I get out of the hotel,” jokes Heard who takes his breaks in quieter, regular homes.

BY SARAH-TAISSIR BENCHARIF / PUBLISHED IN THE FASHION, STYLE & HOLIDAY ISSUE OCTOBER 2011