Books aimed at affluent, style-conscious, travelers

A new class of guidebooks is starting to advise tourists on the best way to do Europe – on thousands of dollars a day.

Breaking from the time-honored travel-book tradition – advising vacationers on the finer points of penny-pinching and doing things just like the locals do – the new titles take the opposite approach and instead feel more like highbrow coffee-table books than dog-eared guides.

“Mr & Mrs Smith,” a British guidebook series that will start selling in the U.S. early next year, recommends the high-priced Babington House in Somerset, England, as Britain’s best getaway for “spoilt urbanites.”

Another British line, “A Hedonist’s Guide,” came out with six guidebooks in October and will add another six this year, including one on Miami.

Rather than offering objective accounts of tourist spots, books like these often feature sassy, opinionated writing that doesn’t shy from addressing readers as “darlings.”

“Luxe City Guide,” for instance, alerts travelers that Wednesday is model’s night at the Dragon-I nightclub in Hong Kong – but says that anyone who has been “hit with the ugly stick” should pick another time to go.

The books also emphasize fashionableness over museums and monuments. “City Secrets,” a series of four books launched in 2001, sometimes specifies which waitress to ask for, as well as what to order: At the Oyster Bar in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, “ask Charlotte for a half-dozen briny, luscious cherrystones, followed by the creamy, plump oyster pan roast.”

The books are mostly aimed at relatively young, style-conscious consumers, who are starting to show a willingness to outspend previous generations on vacations. Travelers born in 1965 to 1980 (loosely defined as Generation X) now spend more on both leisure and business trips than their elders.

Along with the growing popularity of boutique hotels and vacationers’ tendency to divide their travels into shorter and more frequent breaks, industry experts say the trend is fueled by a new class of affluent, design-minded travelers who expect swank surroundings.

It’s also an effort to capitalize on the overall boom in luxury travel in recent years. U.S. hotel-room and occupancy rates are rising, and luxury hotels are reporting strong profit growth.

In New York, for instance, occupancy rates in the most expensive hotel rooms rose to 84 percent in 2004, a jump of more than seven percentage points from a year earlier, according to research by PKF Consulting, an international hotel-advisory group.

At the same time, hotel room prices were up 9 percent, yielding handsome revenue growth for luxury hotels. Many are upgrading everything from mattresses to maid uniforms, and adding perks such as concierge floors and exotic spas.

While conventional guidebooks are either comprehensive – offering a broad range of rooms and restaurants – or see young readers as budget-backpacking types, the new travel books target people who take vacations to impress.

For instance, “Nota Bene” – a series of chic, slim guide booklets launched in 2000 – gives advice on which hotel rooms at the Mandarin Oriental in Miami are the best (the Biscayne Suites, which go for $3,500 a night) as well as guidance about which tables are “coveted” at The Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles. (They are VIP tables 36 or 37, located against the wall of the patio.)

A Nota Bene subscription costs $450 a year for 10 issues. Subscribers get regular updates and can call in for personalized travel advice if they want.

It also sells at a handful of high-end stores world-wide, such as Colette, an upscale boutique in Paris; the Paul Smith store in New York; and the hotel gift shops at The Setai in Miami and The Argyle in Los Angeles.

Some of the other books’ distribution methods are exclusive as well. “Louis Vuitton City Guides,” published by French luxury goods giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, sell only at the company’s stores.

The “Mr & Mrs Smith” guides, whose hotel critics include fashion designer Stella McCartney, come with a black plastic membership card that gives readers perks such as hotel upgrades, discounts or a bottle of champagne on arrival. They also get a monthly newsletter with travel tips.

The books, which were initially supposed to be called “Dirty Weekend” (a British term for a romantic getaway), will be published next Valentine’s Day by Rizzoli New York, a company known for its art books.