Hotel rooms written in the stars
‘WHaT’S your star sign?’ This isn’t a question you are normally asked at a hotel check-in, but then again, The Ultimo in Sydney is no normal hotel.
It is the world’s first astrology-themed hotel and promises to personalise your stay according to your star sign.
Sounds gimmicky — but I don’t want to be a stubborn Taurus, so I dutifully tell the receptionist my sign. She checks me in and hands over the key to a white, simple haven complete with exposed brick and constellations on the walls.
It features a quote I can identify with, from fellow Taurean adele: ‘I like eating fine foods, and drinking fine wines.’
The idea behind this boutique four-star hotel in Sydney’s Chinatown, just a short walk from the city centre, is to create a ‘ personalised travel experience’ for guests. The brainchild of an astrology company and manager Scott Hartley, it promises ‘features to help you feel more aligned with your astrological sign’, and the £ 115 Natal Chart Interpretation Package, as it is snappily called, includes an in- depth consultation with resident astrologer Pia Lehmann.
Her reading of my birth chart — based on where the planets were at the time of my birth — is eerily accurate.
I fully identify with the ‘dogged independence’ and ‘positive attitude to life’ she tells me about — though I wouldn’t have put it all down to the Jupiter in my chart. I leave the session feeling ready to continue ‘breaking free of tradition’.
My personalised itinerary for Sydney also rings true, with its emphasis on ‘very good bedsheets’ and ‘all things good quality’, and I approve of suggestions to ‘ soak up the Harbour views’ and eat a hearty meal at the nearby Duck Inn. By the end, I can’t say the quirky astrology touches, from zodiacthemed books in reception to the ‘enter the bullpen at your own risk’ personalised Do Not Disturb sign I’m given, have left me ‘aligned with my sign’. But I loved my stay in the simple, stylish hotel with bedsheets that any Taurean would approve of — and Pia’s intuitive interpretation of my horoscope stays with me long after I check out.