Beyond the Suite Life. Total Hotel Buyouts Are Growing in Popularity.

Group travel has taken on new meaning for some wealthy consumers, who increasingly are taking over entire hotels.

In an experience-obsessed era, those who can are going beyond just a stay at a five-star hotel to having it all to themselves alongside family and friends. Luxury travel advisors report an uptick among their deep-pocketed clients who book accommodations in their entirety for both large and small groups.

Andrew Steinberg, an advisor with the Ovation Network in New York City, says that his buyout business is up 50% this year compared with 2023.

“From a dozen, I have more than double now. The prices for these weekend stays can start at US$500,000 and easily top US$1 million,” he says. “People love them because they can manage every aspect of the experience and extend their event.”

As an example, Steinberg planned a lavish 50th birthday last year in Versailles, France, for a client who took over Airelles Château de Versailles, Le Grande Controle, located on the grounds of Versailles, for a weekend. The extravaganza cost well into the seven figures, he says, and included elements such as a scavenger hunt on the palace grounds and a five-course dinner party prepared by the renowned chef Alain Ducasse, where guests donned 17th-century costumes provided by the host.

Entertainment included fire breathers and Cirque du Soleil-style dancers. Steinberg notes that guests also received a different gift each day such as silk scarves and pricey wines. “By having the property to ourselves, we were able to manage every touchpoint,” Steinberg says. “We had napkins for every meal with the host’s initial and amenities such as a personalised cookie station.”

Andrew Steinberg, an advisor with the Ovation Network in New York City, says that his buyout business is up 50% this year compared with 2023.
Andrew Steinberg

Stacy Fischer-Rosenthal, the president of the New York-based Fischer Travel, which charges a US$150,000 membership fee, is also planning more buyouts than ever before for occasions such as weddings, birthdays, and “just because” get-togethers.

“Takeovers offer complete privacy, safety, and flexibility. The client does not have to adhere to a set schedule and can make theirs up as they go along,” Fischer-Rosenthal says. “There is a dedicated team catering to all of their wants and needs.”

The membership-based travel company Andrew Harper is another brand that has seen a jump in buyouts. Colin Housley, vice president of member experience, says the increase in demand led the company to launch an initiative called Exclusive Experiences, which focus on immersive and private trips such as luxury hotel buyouts and private island stays.

“Our members who plan these trips receive access to unique activities and excursions that we have negotiated with our partners,” Housley says. “We also leverage our relationships to make buyouts happen for properties that normally wouldn’t offer it.”

Andrew Harper has seen a “flood of requests” for private stays since Exclusive Experiences launched, he says.

Steinberg planned a lavish 50th birthday last year in Versailles, France, for a client. The extravaganza cost well into the seven figures, he says,
Andrew Steinberg

Meanwhile, another New York-based travel company Black Tomato had a client who bought out Aman Venice to throw a US$1 million party for his wife’s 50th birthday.

“We arranged performances by opera singers, an orchestra, and a rock band, and the celebration ended with a treasure hunt on the rooftop of the Gritti Palace in the penthouse suite,” says Black Tomato travel expert Sunil Metcalfe , who also notes the uptick in such buyouts.

In addition to travel companies, representatives from several upscale hotels, including the Ranch at Rock Creek in Philipsburg, Mont., and Cal-a-Vie Health Spa in Vista, Calif., say that takeovers of their properties are on the rise. Many, particularly smaller hotels, offer buyout-specific packages.

Cali Mykonos, located on the namesake island’s Kalafati Beach, has created a package for a cost of between US$57,000 and US$75,000 that allows guests to book its 40 villas, each with a pool and large terrace, and enjoy amenities such as the large main pool, yoga classes, boat fleet, beach and restaurants exclusively with others in their group.

Sir Richard Branson ’s Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands has a buyout package starting at US$118,500 a night for 24 rooms that’s consistently booked throughout the year, according to a property representative. The rate includes meals and most activities, such as water skiing, snorkelling, and pickleball.

Weekapaug Inn, located in Westerly, R.I., introduced a buyout experience to commemorate its 125th anniversary this year. Called the Milestone Getaway, it encompasses the use of the hotel’s 33 rooms for two nights, meals and activities; the price is US$125,000.

Tom Parisi, an investment banker, and Adriana Destefanis, an asset manager, who live in Darien, Conn., bought out Weekapaug Inn for their wedding last October.

In addition to the wedding events, the couple’s more than 150 guests stayed busy by participating in diversions such as bike riding, birdwatching, stargazing, and s’mores by the fire pit.

“Having a private element is very unique in our view,” Parisi says. “We felt like we were in our own massive house and able to spend quality time with our family and friends. And we could be loud without worrying about other guests. We didn’t want to just have a wedding. We wanted an experience, and the buyout gave us that.”

They call themselves TikTok refugees—and the app they are fleeing to is a lot more Chinese than the video-sharing app whose U.S. fate now hangs in the balance.

After Supreme Court justices Friday seemed inclined to let stand a law that would shut down TikTok in the U.S., the Chinese social-media platform Xiaohongshu , translated in English as Little Red Book, has received a flood of American TikTok users. They are looking for a sanctuary or a way to protest the potentially imminent TikTok ban—never mind that they don’t speak Chinese.

Charlotte Silverstein, a 32-year-old publicist in Los Angeles, downloaded Xiaohongshu on Sunday night after seeing videos on TikTok about migrating to the app, which Americans dubbed “RedNote.” She described the move as a “last act of defiance” in her frustration about the potential TikTok ban.

“Everyone has been super welcoming and sweet,” said Silverstein, who has made three posts so far. “I love the sense of community that I’m seeing already.”

By Monday, TikTok refugees had pushed Xiaohongshu to the top of the free-app chart on Apple ’s App Store.

“I’m really nervous to be on this app, but I also find it to be really exciting and thrilling that we’re all doing this,” one new Xiaohongshu user said in a video clip on Sunday. “I’m sad that TikTok might actually go, but if this is where we’re gonna be hanging out, welcome to my page!” Within a day, the video had more than 3,000 comments and 6,000 likes. And the user had amassed 24,000 followers.

Neither Xiaohongshu nor TikTok responded to requests for comment.

The flow of refugees, while serving as a symbolic dissent against TikTok’s possible shutdown, doesn’t mean Xiaohongshu can easily serve as a replacement for Americans. TikTok says it has 170 million users in the U.S., and it has drawn many creators who take advantage of the app’s features to advertise and sell their products.

Most of the content on Xiaohongshu is in Chinese and the app doesn’t have a simple way to auto-translate the posts into English.

At a time of a strained U.S.-China relationship, some new Chinese-American friendships are budding on an app that until now has had few international users.

“I like that two countries are coming together,” said Sarah Grathwohl, a 32-year-old marketing manager in Seattle, who made a Xiaohongshu account on Sunday night. “We’re bonding over this experience.”

Granthwohl doesn’t speak Chinese, so she has been using Google Translate for help. She said she isn’t concerned about data privacy and would rather try a new Chinese app than shift her screentime to Instagram Reels.

Another opportunity for bonding was a photo of English practice questions from a Chinese textbook, with the caption, “American please.” American Xiaohongshu users helped answer the questions in the comments, receiving a “thank u Honey,” from the person who posted the questions.

By Monday evening, there have been more than 72,000 posts with the hashtag #tiktokrefugee on Xiaohongshu, racking up some 34 million views.

In an English-language post titled “Welcome TikTok refugees,” posted by a Shanghai-based Xiaohongshu user, an American user responded in Chinese with a cat photo and the words, “Thank you for your warm welcome. Everyone is so cute. My cat says thanks, too.” The user added, “I hope this is the correct translation.”

Some Chinese users are also using the livestreaming function to invite TikTok migrants to chat. One chat room hosted by a Chinese English tutor had more than 179,900 visits with several Americans exchanging cultural views with Chinese users.

ByteDance-owned TikTok isn’t available in China but has a Chinese sister app, Douyin. American users can’t download Douyin, though; unlike Xiaohongshu, it is only accessible from Chinese app stores.

On Xiaohongshu, Chinese users have been sharing tutorials and tips in English for American users on how to use the app. Meanwhile, on TikTok, video clips have also multiplied over the past two days teaching users the correct pronunciation of Xiaohongshu—shau-hong-SHOO—and its culture.

Xiaohongshu may be new to most Americans, but in China, it is one of the most-used social-media apps. Backed by investors like Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group , Xiaohongshu is perhaps best described as a Chinese mix of Instagram and Reddit and its users increasingly treat it as a search engine for practical information.

Despite its Little Red Book name, Xiaohongshu has little in common with the compilation of Mao Zedong ’s political writings and speeches. In fact, the app aspires to be a guidebook about anything but politics.

Conceived as a shopping guide for affluent urbanites in 2013, Xiaohongshu has morphed into a one-stop shop for lifestyle and shopping recommendations. Every day, its more than 300 million users, who skew toward educated young women, create, share and search for posts about anything from makeup tutorials to career-development lessons, game strategies or camping skills.

Over the years, Xiaohongshu users have developed a punchy writing style, with posts accompanied by images and videos for an Instagram feel.

Chinese social-media platforms are required to watch political content closely. Xiaohongshu’s focus on lifestyle content, eschewing anything that might seem political, makes it less of a regulatory target than a site like Weibo , which in 2021 was fined at least $2.2 million by China’s cyberspace watchdog for disseminating “illegal information.”

“I don’t expect to read news or discussion of serious issues on Xiaohongshu,” said Lin Ying, a 26-year-old game designer in Beijing.

The American frenzy over a Chinese app is the reverse of a migration in recent years by Chinese social-media users seeking refuge from censorship on Western platforms , such as X, formerly known as Twitter, or, more recently, BlueSky.

Just like TikTok users who turn to the app for fun, Xiaohongshu users also seek entertainment through livestreams and short video clips as well as photos and text-posts on the platform.

Xiaohongshu had roughly 1.3 million U.S. mobile users in December, according to market-intelligence firm Sensor Tower, which estimates that U.S. downloads of the app in the week ending Sunday almost tripled compared with the week before.

Sensor Tower data indicates that Xiaohongshu became the top-ranked social-networking and overall free app on Apple’s App Store and the 8th top-ranked social app on the Google Play Store on Monday, “a feat it has never achieved before,” said Abe Yousef, senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower.

Run by Shanghai-based Xingin Information Technology, Xiaohongshu makes money primarily from advertising, according to a Xiaohongshu spokeswoman. The company was valued at $17 billion after its latest round of private-equity investment in the summer, according to research firm PitchBook Data.

Not everyone is singing kumbaya. Some Chinese Xiaohongshu users are worried about the language barrier. And some American TikTok users are concerned about data safety on the Chinese app.

But many are hoping to build bridges between the two countries.

“Y’all might think Americans are hateful because of how our politicians are, but I promise you not all of us are like that,” one American woman said on a Sunday video she posted on Xiaohongshu with Chinese subtitles.

She went on to show how to make cheese quesadillas using a waffle maker.

The video collected more than 11,000 likes and 3,000 comments within 24 hours. “It’s so kind of you to use Chinese subtitles,” read one popular comment posted by a user from Sichuan province.

Another Guangdong-based user commented with a bilingual “friendly reminder”: “On Chinese social-media platforms please do not mention sensitive topics such as politics, religion and drugs!!!”

Beyond the Suite Life. Total Hotel Buyouts Are Growing in Popularity.

Chinese users of Xiaohongshu, or Little Red Book, welcome Americans fleeing a feared TikTok ban