Vacation Inspiration

Samuel Wilcox with Carlton Tower London Jumeirah Group

• Paula Prickett

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Join Sam and I as we explore the Carlton Tower Jumeirah in London!   And I might just tease him a bit along the way..  

Samuel Wilcox is the Senior Sales Manager with Jumeirah Hotel Group 

Carlton Tower Jumeirah

Situated in the heart of Knightsbridge, one of London’s most exclusive neighborhoods, and rising high over world- class shopping destination Sloane Street, The Carlton Tower Jumeirah is a beacon of sophistication where heritage meets contemporary luxury. The hotel has been reinvented for a generation of discerning guests with elegant, timeless interiors complemented by the most spectacular views

Ready to go?  Me too!   Find out more information below!

On the web:  https://www.jumeirah.com/en/stay/london/the-carlton-tower-jumeirah Insta:  https://www.instagram.com/thecarltontowerjumeirah/ 


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Paula:

Welcome to the Vacation Inspiration Podcast. I'm Paula, your host and owner of Black Dog Luxury Travel, where we design custom vacations for the discerning traveler. If your vacation plans are in need of some serious inspiration, you are in the right place and I am so glad you are here. For a lot of Americans, the first time that we choose to cross the pond, we pick London as our first city to experience over in Europe. And I mean, why not? We can read the language. There's tons of history. There's so much to do see and explore. So I am super excited to bring this discussion with you today. We're talking with Sam Wilcox of the Jumeirah hotel group, or we're going to talk about. The property Carlton tower. And I see that kind of hesitantly because it's not really a property. It in itself is an experience. And I know you're going to fall in love with it just as much as I do. So I'm super excited to introduce you to Sam and I hope you really enjoyed this episode. Hi, Sam. Thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it.

Sam Wilcox:

No worries at all. It's very nice to, uh, have the opportunity to speak to you and all your listeners as well. So, uh, yeah, I'm excited.

Paula:

Awesome. So, uh, where, where are you coming in from today?

Sam Wilcox:

I am coming all the way from London in the United Kingdom, uh, in the heart of Knightsbridge, which is, uh, Uh, you know, one of the, I guess the, the posh as we would say, the posh areas of the city. Um, so that, that's where I'm currently sat in the hotel at the moment, actually. So it's, uh, as always, it's very sunny outside, which is how it always is in London. So, uh, so yeah.

Paula:

Another beautiful, beautiful day in London. I love London. It's such a fantastic city. It's a great place for people to come and visit multiple times. It just, it never stops giving in experiences.

Sam Wilcox:

Not exactly. I mean, well, I, I've been here, I'm from Manchester actually, which is why my accent doesn't necessarily sound like I'm from the Crown or Bridgeton. Um, but I am from the north, so I, when I moved away from Manchester, I was like the only place that I am ever wanting to move away to. Is, uh, is London, um, because, you know, I think there's a famous quote, I think, is it George Orwell or something? If you're tired of London, then you're tired of life and I, I think that really rings true. Um, London has such a. Cool, crazy, eclectic city. You've got everything from history, food, art, culture, arch, you know, there's everything. Um, and that's, I think that's what I think, that's what I, what I love about it the most. And that's why I can't see myself ever going anywhere else now.

Paula:

I absolutely love it. I do find for a lot of my, um, kind of first time travelers that, that cross the pond, my, my first time American travelers that cross the pond, London has a lot of appeal, um, simply because of, of the language first off. Um, and then, you know, I always really have appreciated. You know, one of the things that London has done when they're crossing the streets and you actually have these directions painted on the, on the street to look the other direction from what the Americans are used to looking for oncoming cars. So thank you for doing that.

Sam Wilcox:

No, that's, we like to be thoughtful, you know? That's how, that's how we are scope.

Paula:

I've always loved that. It's, it's, it's a good city, like I said, just to visit multiple times and, and you guys have it, have it just down, so, so talk to me about, About the Carlton Tower. That's where you are right at this moment. I know it. Tell us all about it. Like obviously you said you're located in Knightsbridge. How are we gonna get there from the airport?

Sam Wilcox:

Uh, from the airport. Uh, we are a 45 minute taxi away from Heathrow, which, uh, I is probably where the bulk of, uh, our US travelers come from. Obviously we have Gatwick as well, which is a tiny bit further away. Um, but yeah, I mean, obviously I'm, you know, uh, if, if. If there are any, uh, listeners who are wondering how to get to the hotel, I mean, with a lot of our, um, our packages, we actually include our own airport transfers as well. So we've got our own house cars, so very nice cars. I'm lucky enough to have, uh, been ferry around in them once or twice. Um, but yeah, so it's not, it's not a, it's not a long drive, um, at all really. So, yeah, it, it is pretty, it's pretty good.

Paula:

I know I appreciate that when I roll off the, an international flight like. That and, um, you know, maybe I didn't get the best sleep on the plane and just to, to get, get my bags, get through the airport, and then have that car and driver waiting for me is such a luxury. That is

Sam Wilcox:

It is. It is, and especially because the drivers are our staff as well. So you know, people always have got lots of questions about the hotel, about London, about the local area, about. The minute I walk into the hotel, what's the first thing I should do? You know, we've got our own little experts, it's like our own little concierge, uh, driving the car. So, uh, it just gets people off to the best possible start, you know, especially those people that are traveling to London for the first time. You know, I, I, as I travel a lot, but if I'm, if I am going somewhere for the first time, there's always that little bit of anxiety or you're a bit uneasy and excited at the same time. So to be able to leave the airport and then have. Someone from the actual hotel itself greet you? Uh, I think is is quite unique.

Paula:

it's huge. It's absolutely huge. So, so tell us about the Carleton Tower.

Sam Wilcox:

Well, you know what? There's, there's so many unique things about this hotel. We're probably lesser known. I mean, um, you know, London as a city for hotels has got every single brand you can think of. Um, and I think what we've done is over the last couple of years, because, um, the hotel's been here since 1961, but it closed. A year and a half ago for a 120 million pound refurbishment. Um, when the hotel was built in the sixties, it was actually built in, uh, it was built with 18 floors. And as soon as the hotel was built, the local Westminster council basically said, right, that's it. No more tall buildings in this area. So what that means is, uh, cuz I don't, you know what? I don't care what type of travel you are, what you've been where, where you've, what you've done, the way you've been. Everyone likes a nice view, everyone. And for us, on every single side of the hotel, it's just unobstructed because there's nothing around us. We are basically a towering hotel in the middle of Knightsbridge. Second to that, the next unique thing that I always rave about is that we have balconies now.

Paula:

Hmm.

Sam Wilcox:

For anyone that knows their London hotels. If you want a balcony in the city, you need to go and pay thousands and thousands for a penthouse somewhere. But rose, we've got balconies in our entry level rooms. So you can come to the Carson Tower, wake up in the morning, sit on the balcony, watch the London world go by with your coffee or, or if it's in the evening, you can have your cocktail there, you know? Um, so I think straight away physically, The hotel itself is a brand new B has amazing views and then has, has balconies. I think those are three massive boxes, uh, that we tick. Really?

Paula:

Those are huge. Those are huge. You can't find a balcony like you said it. It's, they're very few and far between in London, so that's a very special, very special feature.

Sam Wilcox:

It really is. It really is. Yeah.

Paula:

yeah, I love that. Has it always been a, a hotel?

Sam Wilcox:

It has always been a hotel. I'm sorry, I should add a small caveat to the balconies. That's across 70% of our rooms. Uh, not every single room, but uh, for anyone that's interested in the hotel, it's very straightforward to, uh, have a look on the website. It's very well pointed out which ones do and which ones don't, but it's the vast majority anyway. So, uh, just wanted to add that small caveat, caveat in that it's always worth doing.

Paula:

Absolutely. I love that. Absolutely. So how many, how many rooms do you have there?

Sam Wilcox:

We have 186 rooms and suites. Um, half of those are suites. We have 66 different rooms and suites which can connect to each other. So you have anyone thinking, sorry, let me clarify as well. That's not a 66 room, suite that connects, that's 66 different options,

Paula:

Yes, during combination.

Sam Wilcox:

Exactly, but you know, we, uh, we have lots of, um, young families. We have multi-generational families that want to come to the, want to come to London to experience it together. And, uh, we've got lots of really nice different options, um, different rooms to different suites. To fit everyone's particular style, really. And what, and what, what they prefer. Basically what, basically, it depends on how far away they want the kids to be. You know? That's what we're find. So, um, but we've got, we've got different options, which really helps as well. Yeah.

Paula:

I love that. I suspect if we have some honeymooners or anniversary people that wanna just be a little more secluded and and have, have a very special space, you have that for them as well.

Sam Wilcox:

Yeah, absolutely. I can't reveal too much actually, but we are working on a very nice romance package, which, uh, that's, that's a bit of an exclusive for today's, uh, for today's conversation, uh, multicom. But, um, no, I think based on our location, just to give the yourself and the listener, I, I guess I, I. A bit of knowledge on what's around us, so. To make it quite easy for people that either have or haven't been to London. If you come out of the hotel, you take a right, you've got Herods a two minute walk away, literally two minutes. If you come out of the hotel and take a left, you've got Buckingham Palace about a five or seven minute walk away,

Paula:

Perfect.

Sam Wilcox:

uh, depending if you're wearing heels, I dunno. Uh, but then, but we're also right on Sloan Street, so we're kind of right in between Belgravia Knights Bridge and Chelsea. So what that means is, If you want the, if you want London's nature, we've got Green Park and Hyde Park right on our doorstep. If you're here for the high end fashion of Slow Street and Howard's. You can go and max out your credit card to your heart's content, literally right on our doorstep. Um, we've got some amazing, um, restaurants in the local area as well. There's lots to do for families. We've got Harry Potter World, which isn't too far away. Um, and I mean, well my favorite thing about the area, I guess as an English person is we have fantastic pubs as well, where you can really meet the locals, find out what they like, get the recommendations of the places to go. Cause that's what traveling's all about, right? You wanna, you wanna find those little hidden gems that your friend, that went to the same place as you didn't manage to find, because they didn't mix with the right people. You know? So that thing we, we've got a really nice, uh, locality around us.

Paula:

I love that. I absolutely love that. That's why location is so important when you're traveling and, and where you're staying and just the environment you're immersing yourself with. It, it, and you guys, you guys are just in a fantastic spot. I

Sam Wilcox:

Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, um, I think anyone, you, you want to come out of your hotel and everything's right there. Um, I think in general, London's a great, uh, in fact amazing Walking City. You can walk. Everywhere. And it's so safe, you're going to find things that you wouldn't find if you were driving past or taking the tube or whatever. Um, but yeah, if you come out of the hotel, you could walk for an hour in any direction and you would find something really nice.

Paula:

I love that. Absolutely love that. Yeah. I haven't been to herds in a while. I think. I think they probably missed me think it's probably time for me to go back.

Sam Wilcox:

No, it's, uh, no. I mean, it's amazing that we've got that on our doorstep, you know? Um, it's such a, an, an iconic, um, department store, so, and, uh, as you can imagine, it's very popular. So, uh, so yeah, we're, well, I think we're actually, we're one of two hotels actually, which are extremely close. So, yeah.

Paula:

I love that. Absolutely love it. Do you have any activities physically at your property or things that you offer there?

Sam Wilcox:

We have actually got the largest swimming pool in London with natural daylight,

Paula:

Nice.

Sam Wilcox:

so for anyone that is listening to and doesn't believe me, please feel free to go and check out the hotels website. It is, it's amazing. No, I mean, um, no, seriously, from, from our perspective, first of all, we've got right in front of the hotel is Cardigan Square, so that's a private garden. So our concierge can take you out. They take you with the key, they'll let you in. Um, and it's a pretty decent sized parkway. You can take the kids, you can, if you're trouble'em with your dog, you can take the dog as well. There's tennis courts there. You know, we have a lot of people, um, who think tennis courts in the center of London, and I'm like, yeah, exactly. Like tennis on Sloan Street is like tennis on Fifth Avenue in New York, or Rodeo Drive or something like that. And we have a lot of people that wanna come to London for Wimbledon. We have a lot of people that go to Wimbledon and think they're amazing at tennis. And then we've got the tennis courts to prove that they're not, you know, which is, which is great, but. No, we've got our facilities in terms of wellness and exercise are honestly absolutely second to none. The swimming pool itself, first of all, it's uh, like I said, it's the largest with natural daylight and it's not just a couple of windows. It's got this huge glass ceiling, which comes right over the top. Um, so you can literally lie there in the evening. And watch the sun go down, basically. Um, and for anyone that's wondering, yes, we do have dedicated hours for children. So if you are thinking, well, I'm on mo weekend romantic getaway, I don't wanna be surrounded by screaming kids in the pool. No, no, no. We've got, they've got their hours and, uh, and, and that's. Um, and that works really well, obviously. Yeah. And then we've got, so of those 18 floors of the hotel on the ninth floor, we have the gym. And the gym encompasses the entire floor. So it's basically panoramic views. We've got a yoga studio, a. It's not a gym. In a hotel that's been kind of put in the basement and forgotten about. It is state of the art. We've got all our own personal trainers, so if you are the type of traveler that thinks I wanna do a class or I wanna do a personal trainer session, when when I'm traveling, you know, I wanna wake up early. Then we've got a lounge area. With it overlooking the city where you can have your pre-workout, your shakes, your healthy breakfast, whatever, go sh up one little flight of stairs into the gym. You can sit on the bike or the treadmill or do your weights or whatever it is. Watch the world go by. It's honestly absolutely amazing.

Paula:

I love that I'm a person who, who does, um, utilize the gym. I'm one of those when, even when I travel and when I don't travel, um, and I, I've had hotels. Bless. I, I'm, I live in Texas, so bless their hearts. Um, but they, they have actually opened the gyms for me like in hours that they had hours of their gyms and they have opened them for me. And I will say, when you find a really great gym, it is such a treat. It's

Sam Wilcox:

It is. No, it is. Well, do you know what, actually, it's interesting though cause on the, on the, on the flip side, I am not the sort of person that's going to the gym when I go traveling. I just don't, but, but part of that, part of that reason is that hotel gyms never look enticing to me. I never, I always look at the gym. I take my gym stuff everywhere I go. By the end of my, whatever trip I'm on, it's the only clean clothes that I have left cuz I've not used them. Mm-hmm. But I, I just think that's because I always kind of consider the gym and look at it and think, oh, there's always something more interesting to do or see than go to the gym. But honestly, people see the gym at this hotel and they think, you know what, I could sit on on a bike and stare at the London skyline for an hour or so. You know what I mean? I think that's, it's pretty special.

Paula:

Yeah. I love that you don't, and I said, it's exactly what you said. You don't find that everywhere, and it one of that quality is very rare to find. It

Sam Wilcox:

Exactly, and, and that's, and I guess that goes back to the, the very root of what we're trying to do here at the Carsons Tower, which is, um, we know how dense a market is in London. We know how much choice people have, and it's really about what can we offer that. Basically other hotels can't. Um, and those are just a few things that I've mentioned there that you know, that where we've really excelled, I guess.

Paula:

Yeah, and I think, you know, as we know, a lot of the things about traveling, it's not just. The privilege of place. We all love a good property and we all love a great location. Um, but I suspect that a lot of your staff, um, are very special as well and will create some special experiences and special memories for people that come to visit.

Sam Wilcox:

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin on the team that we have here first. Okay. I'll tell you what a good place to start is. A quintessentially British thing. Afternoon tea.

Paula:

Oh, yeah.

Sam Wilcox:

so afternoon tea in when the hotel was going through its refurbishment, uh, we were coming towards the, kind of the end of it, towards the end of 2019 for afternoon tea. We actually recruited 20 nineteens world's best pastry chef to partner with us on our afternoon tea. So she is, um, an amazing talent, as I'm sure you can imagine. Uh, she's from Paris. She's called Jessica, pre Al Patto. Um, anyone that wants to go and check out on Instagram, you can see some of the amazing stuff that she's done. But she designed our afternoon tea. Um, it's inspired by nature. It's not your classic afternoon tea last week. Or maybe the week before in the last two weeks, it won an award for the best contemporary afternoon tea in London. Um, it honestly, it's amazing. It's all natural ingredients, no sugar. Like there are chocolate items on this afternoon tea that I'm eating, and I just cannot understand how there's no actual sugar involved. It, it's insane. Um, so from a food and beverage perspective, we've really tried to excel ourselves. Going back to the other, um, members in the, of the team, in the hotel. Our head concierge, uh, has just been named the number one head concierge at any hotel in the uk,

Paula:

Oh, cool.

Sam Wilcox:

which is amazing. And you know, people often ask like, well, what does that mean? Like, how, what, why is he, how's he so good? What does it mean? And first of all, that's been voted for by his peers. So other concierge in the UK have voted for him, which I think to get voted by your peers, anything is always quite special, you know? Um, but secondly, Of course, you know, we have a lot of people that kind of come to London. Maybe they're too busy to plan things intricately. I certainly just enjoy to show up places and see what happens. But you know, when someone hears about a really cool restaurant that someone's told'em about and how do I get in and oh my God, it's full, our concierge and pick up the phone. And there's always a way. It's quite incredible. Um, you know, even when, um, Sometimes from the trouble advisors that we work with, we'll get a request that says This couple, this family have never been to London. They don't know what to do. I don't even think twice. I just sent, send it straight to them. I get the, you know, we get a bit of a profile, their ages of the children, things like that, what their main interests are. They send an itinerary back of all the cool things in the area, and it's just a knockout every time. Um, and I think that's really special. But, you know, even our guest relations team, um, we like to do some really special amenities. We really like to, to blow people away, I guess. Um, and anticipate what, what they need before they even know that they need it, if that makes sense. So, for instance, um, I've got some really nice examples. Even from the last few weeks we had, um, we had a couple who we found out that they were obsessed with board games. So for their welcome amenity, we had a Scrabble board spelling out a welcome message with Edible Scrabble letters, which I thought was really nice and innovative. I mentioned Harry Potter World recently, actually, uh, earlier in the, earlier in our competition. And we had a family that our guest relations team just happened to overhear in the lobby that that's where they were going. I think they were asking for a taxi to go there. So when they went out, the guest relations team went in and decorated the kids' room. Basically like Hogwarts. Um, yeah. But you know, for the, we, we take our kids amenities very seriously, right? Like, you know, I think that, you know, if you keep your, keep the kids happy, the parents are always gonna be on the winner as well. Um, no. So we've actually partnered with a world renowned, um, children's cookbook and amenities, uh, program writer called Anabel Carmel. Uh, she's very well known, very famous lady, and she's written our children's venues for our. Um, for our restaurants. So she's come up with some really nice things like for instance, afternoon tea. When we have that, we have the um, obviously adults tend to go with a glass of champagne for the kids. We've got a sparkling the tea, which looks exactly like champagne, but it's so nice for them cause they feel like involved and they feel like they're traveling. They're in London, they feel like growing up. Yeah, it's amazing. It's so good. Um, but yeah, so we really like to, you know, we're conscious that some people who haven't been to London before, we like to. You know, write them big welcome messages and we have like, like a light box for the kids with their names on. We put the initials on the slippers for the parent. You know, all of those things, all those personal touches, we go, we go above and beyond. And I think that, you know, because I've, I've touched on so much about how physically the hotel's amazing. Well, of course it is. It's had 120 million pounds spent on it. Right. But it's so much more than that. It's really how you, um, How you really go above and beyond and, and, and try and, you know, connect with the client emotionally. And I think, uh, we do an amazing job at that here.

Paula:

That's something that really only comes from the heart. It's, it's not something that you can fake. That means that you have a team that really cares. And, and about, about the, the clients, um, about the person's trip and. And them as, as a human being, they're not just another number coming through your door. It means that they, they really, truly care. You can't fake that kind of

Sam Wilcox:

No, exactly. No, no, no. Exactly. It's, um, it is a passion. It's a passion and, um, obviously, you know, I'm so, I'm so fortunate to work with, with, with these people because they make my life so much easier, you know? Um, I don't have to kind of. Go to the ends of the earth to make things happen. They, they just, they pick it up naturally and they just do it and get on with it. And I think for them, you know, they just, they just like making people happy and surprising people, uh, and, you know, providing the unexpected, I guess. Uh, and I think, you know, that's a nice, it's a nice kind of few ingredients to throw together.

Paula:

I absolutely love it. I feel like, you know, kind of all of this together, really, you know, it's like you said, with London, it has a lot of options with different places to stay, but I feel all of this together really sets you apart from, from other, I I don't even wanna call you just a hotel anymore. I, I, I feel like you guys are just your destination in itself. Um, and I feel like that all together really, you know, really does it for you.

Sam Wilcox:

It does snow and it all feeds into the same mission, which is, um, You know, we, there's, there's probably listeners who have never been to London before that are considering it, that could probably name more hotels in London without ever having been here than they could about any other city in the world. Right. Um, and, you know, if we're gonna, if we're gonna as a, as a still a relatively new hotel, I mean, whilst it's been here since 1961, it's basically had a closure and a reopening, um, o over the last couple of years. So, you know, as, as a new hotel. To establish ourselves amongst those hotels that some of them have been around for like a century, you know, uh, to establish ourselves amongst those, we've got no choice but to go above and beyond. At the end of the day, we have to go the extra mile. We have to really put in that maximum amount of effort in order to, um, in order to make an impact. And I, I think we're, we're doing that tremendously well. We're probably ahead of. Where we thought we would be, uh, if you asked me a year and a half ago. Uh, but that, again, that's just testament to everyone's hard work and the, the products and the service that we have.

Paula:

I love that. And so I mentioned, I know you mentioned some of the food and the, the. Afternoon tea that you have. Do you have a restaurant on site?

Sam Wilcox:

We do, we've got an amazing, uh, Italian restaurant, which for any Italian speakers on the, uh, who are listening, excuse my accent, um, but it's called Almari, which means by the sea. So, um, our head chef, again, a really talented guy. His kind of personal story is that he grew up on a farm next to the sea and his. Dad was a fisherman and his mom was the farmer and his whole kind of culinary upbringing in Italy, which as we know Italians take that very seriously, um, was all around how the food from the sea can be combined with the food of the land. So it's absolutely amazing. It's all kind of family style and sharing. Um, it is, it's really, it's really phenomenal. And we've got some really nice private dining rooms as well. So if you want a bit more of an intimate experience with your family and you want more like a chef's table sort of thing, then we can do that. It's got a really nice open theater kitchen so you can kind of see them and hear them making fresh pasta, which, uh, you know, I, I always think adds a bit of authenticity to it as well. Um, yeah, so, so it's, so it's really nice. And then I mentioned earlier, um, for anyone that. Isn't necessarily, um, into that sort of cuisine. We've also got the peak, which is, is that lounge area that I mentioned on the ninth floor. So it's not like an executive lounge, it's for every guest of the hotel. Um, but it's, it's, it's all about relaxation and wellness. So it's a really nice, healthy buffet with lots of vegan options, vegetarian options, like protein shakes, and it's a very nice clean, uh, buffet. But I think that's great cause what it. What it offers is every single type of guest, um, that we can have. From a culinary perspec perspective, we tick a lot of boxes, which I think is really important. And for anyone whose boxes we don't tick, like I said earlier, go to the concierge desk, tell them what you want. They'll pick up the phone and they will, uh, really make something, something really cool for you. So, yeah.

Paula:

I Absolutely it. So what is your personal favorite thing or activity? What's your favorite like thing to do while you're there, when you're not working clearly, but what's

Sam Wilcox:

When I'm not working, I'm not in the pub. My favorite thing is, um, Um, well, it depends. I mean, I think from, uh, from the perspective of someone that's not been to London before, I think the best thing that you can do is honestly just come out of the hotel, take a left, and don't stop. Because what you're gonna do is you're gonna go through Belgravia, you're gonna see some of the most insane properties that you can find in London. But the really nice thing is that Belgravia is a nice area where it's very residential. So you actually come across the locals. You see the locals, they're in their coffee shops, they're in the restaurants. Um, there's not that many kind of tourists around, so you really get a feel for what the community's like. So you keep going, you get to Buckingham Palace, pass through Green Park, you hit Westminster. So then you can see Big Pen, the London Eye Parliament. Then you can actually take a boat. From there to Keigan Pier, which that name might sound familiar cuz we've got Keigan Gardens in front of us. So you can take a boat, see a bit more of London from the water, which is always really nice as well. Um, and then come back to the hotel and you can do all that in a couple of hours. And I think that's a really nice kind of starting point. But I mean, it's difficult to pick just one thing because London's got so much because we've got, we've got knightsbridge. Belgravia, Chelsea, then you've got Hyde Park behind us. Mayfair is next door. And then if you want something that's a little bit, um, well, what, what's the word? You know, we've got Soho and Shore Ditch, which are a little bit more like kind of edgy and contemporary areas, but there's just so much cool stuff to see and do and, um, And yeah, that's, well, when my, when my family comes to visit, we just walk around and see what we find, to see what trouble we get into, you know, and I think that's a be, that's a really good way to, to approach London.

Paula:

I feel like you and your family may be slightly trouble making. I just kidding. I, I, I'm

Sam Wilcox:

No, not at all. Not, I mean, maybe I've got two sisters. They might be a vial making, but No, for the most part we're, we're, we're well behaved.

Paula:

for the most part, there's the caveat. I appreciate that. All right. Uh, thank you so much for joining me today, Sam. Is there anything else that you would like us to know about the Carleton Palace?

Sam Wilcox:

Um, no, I think it, I think we, I think we've covered everything. Just, uh, just gen generally that, you know, um, we really, we really take care of our, of our guests. Uh, like you said earlier, it's really not a case of, uh, Someone's checked in the checking out tomorrow and that's it. Um, we'd like to get to know our guests very well before they arrive so we can tailor whatever we're planning for them to exactly what's gonna really, um, put a smile on their face. Um, and we want our own Carlton Tower ambassadors. We want people to come and stay here, go back to wherever they've traveled from and whenever they see their friends, family say, oh my God, I have stayed in the best hotel ever. And uh, and that's what we want. And I think we're, like I said earlier, we're doing a great job at that. Uh, but we've still got a long way to go. Cause, you know, we want more people to be singing and dancing about the Cton Tower, so, yeah.

Paula:

I love it. I love it. Send me video when they do.

Sam Wilcox:

Yeah, I will do. I will do actually.

Paula:

Okay. Cool. Thank you so much for joining me today, Sam. I do

Sam Wilcox:

No worries. Thank you so much.

Paula:

Okay, who else is ready to pack their bags and head off to London to go stay at Carlton tower. Yep. That's what I thought You are I, am we all are. We know it's going to be a mazing. I'm going to put the link to Carlton tower in the show notes. You're always welcome to reach out to me at any time. I'm more than happy to help you out, but yeah, let's go. Let's go visit Carlton tower. Let's go have an amazing time. Let's go live life. That'd be great. Thank you so much for joining me this week on the podcast. If you're looking for some help with your next vacation, why don't you go ahead and book a free consultation from the link in the show notes or off my website, black dog luxury travel.com. I look forward to seeing you again very, very soon.