Goldfish, bottomless tequila decanters, feathered slippers and pillows that pledge to diminish stress while you dream have far more in common than you may think: They’re just a few of the staggering array of perks hotels are dangling in front of today’s business and luxury travelers. In an industry that’s now recognizing 6- and 7-star properties — including the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, where toiletries are full-sized Hermès lotions and creams, and Milan’s Town House 8, where rooms are equipped with sleek Nespresso coffee machines and internationally themed “tea corners” — the ante is upped to a degree that leaves imagination as the only limit.

It’s the Little Things

Perhaps it’s simply a reaction to today’s competitive market, but hoteliers seem determined to provide considerably more than sympathy with that pot of exotic tea. There’s an overwhelming trend to create the illusion that guests have crossed the threshold of their hotel room into a home away from home. Kimpton is a master of the special touch, offering giraffe-print robes for tall guests or goldfish on request to help solo travelers feel less alone and stressed.

At the Westin La Cantera Resort in San Antonio, Tex., General Manager Tony Cherone’s staff includes a director of guest experiences who helps analyze data from guest feedback, correct problems and suggest changes to refine services and amenities. The recent $12 million renovation includes tooled leather headboards, 42-inch flat-panel HDTVs, new carpeting and furnishings, a virtual concierge and trademark Heavenly Beds and Heavenly Bath products in all 508 guestrooms.

“The desires and needs of today’s traveler are paramount in our operating practices,” says Cherone. “The idea of home away from home is very important.”

Creativity, though, can take some unexpected twists and turns. At the beginning of the year, Holiday Inn caused a stir by providing guests with personal bed warmers — the human kind — at their properties in London and Manchester. Based on the premise that sleep comes faster to those in a warm bed, the hotel offered to send employees decked out in full-body sleeper suits to guestrooms, where they would climb beneath the covers for a few minutes to warm the bed.

“There are hoteliers who use gimmicks in order to attract new clients,” says David Morgan-Hewitt, general manager of The Goring in London. “We believe what people want is to feel at home, and whatever makes that work, we will look at.”

While the rooms at The Goring were designed by a collection of Britain’s top designers and showcase fabrics by Gainsborough Silks and Nina Campbell, iPod players and state-of-the-art lighting controls and televisions supplement the traditional British ambience. Morgan-Hewitt says the main perk, however, is the 150-member staff, trained to deliver exceptional service. True luxury, maintains Morgan-Hewitt, is the anticipation of guests’ needs.

Experienced travelers tend to agree. After a day on safari in South Africa, Jennifer Olvera, Zagat’s Chicago nightlife editor, returned to her room at Kirkman’s Kamp, Sabi Sands, to find a candlelit trail to the bathroom, where a blazing-hot bubble bath awaited. For Drew Patterson, CEO of Jetsetter.com, Molton Brown bath products and the ski boot warmers at Four Seasons Jackson Hole number among his favorite amenities. World traveler Jeffrey Lehmann, producer of the award-winning Weekend Explorer travel series, says small touches like a handwritten welcome note or a helpful activity suggestion sincerely made by a staff member can help set the tone for an entire trip.

David Swenson, San Diego-based freelance writer and contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler, remembers being especially impressed by the staff at London’s Draycott Hotel while on a recent trip with his 9-year-old nephew.

“The staff made it a point to interact with my nephew, treating him as an individual who deserved as much respect as I did,” recalls Swenson. “He felt special, and I could tell that it meant something to him to be engaged with as a young adult, rather than as a child.”

Taking Care of Business

By now, hotels catering to high-end business clientele should understand that guests need reliable technology and often have erratic meeting schedules. Even so, the list of pet peeves from sophisticated business travelers includes fitness facilities that don’t stay open 24 hours a day, extra chargesfor WiFi and Internet services, poor lighting and outdated electronics.

“Complimentary WiFi is a modern necessity for true hospitality,” says Christopher Vachon, general manager of the newly opened Hotel Le Germain in Calgary, Canada. “Groupe Germain rejects the notion of making guests hunt for WiFi or jump hoops to access essential online tools. We respond to feedback. One of the comments we received from guests staying in other properties was the lack of light for makeup or shaving. As a response, we introduced showers with natural light coming in.”

Guestrooms come equipped with Nespresso machines, laptop safes and massive rainfall showerheads. The hotel also keeps business guests in mind by providing efficient workspaces with discrete, fold-away desktop power sources and connectivity panels for MP3 devices; ceiling-mounted Artemide lamps over workstations; ergonomic chairs; and connections to the television for viewing laptop content, whether guests are watching a great movie or poring over a spreadsheet. Guests also have access to Kindles preloaded with city guides, tips and images highlighting the area’s arts and cultural offerings.

Sweeter Dreams

While the primary function of a guestroom is arguably to provide a safe and comfortable place to sleep, uncomfortable mattresses have long been a complaint among business travelers — a problem Starwood addressed by setting an industry standard in beds. Other hotels have responded, and the Radisson Hotel Sacramento is currently installing Select Comfort’s Sleep Number Beds with adjustable-firmness in its rooms.

But adjustable beds are only one part of the equation. Pillow menus that go far beyond firm or soft are finding their way into numerous luxury chains and boutique properties. At some hotels, you can choose from pillows filled with buckwheat hulls or water, or request pillows made of Isotonic temperature-sensitive foam or allergy-free hypodown. Also available: Tri-Core cervical support pillows, adjustable pillows with air pumps, gel neck support pillows, pillows filled with Hungarian white goose down, 5-foot-long body cushions, magnetic therapy pillows, pregnancy pillows and lullaby pillows with mini-speakers that plug into an MP3 or CD player.

Conrad Hotels has taken the quest for the perfect pillow to new heights, with themed choices to coincide with geographic location. “Cold and Flu Pillows” at Conrad Chicago are scented with tea tree, eucalyptus, bergamot and sandalwood while “Shogun Pillows” at Conrad’s Bangkok hotel absorb heat and humidity. You can also give yourself a foot massage by walking on the Shogun’s tatami fiber filling. Whether you decide to place it back on your bed afterwards is entirely up to you.

Precognitive Perks

At a certain level of luxury, it’s likely that if you desire something, someone will arrange it for you, whether it’s impossible-to-get tickets or spa services or an organic buffalo marrow bone for your canine companion.

Attempting to guess what you want — and arranging for it — before you’re even aware you want it is increasingly becoming a hallmark of luxury services. At the Hotel Ritz Madrid in Spain, guests find a personally monogrammed robe in their room when they arrive. At India’s Taj Palace, guests can be met on arrival by elephants or camels. Soon after arriving at Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico, guests find a custom-made mending kit, complete with needles threaded in colors suited to their travel wardrobes, set among the usual bathroom amenities.

Butler service is provided in a growing number of hotels, including Six Senses Resorts, The Stafford Hotel in London and InterContinental Hong Kong. Some Ritz-Carlton hotels have technology butlers that cater to the needs of business guests.

“Hotels are paying attention to the online guest feedback from Trip Advisor and similar sites even more than what they’re finding on guest comment cards,” says Mary Tabacchi, professor of hospitality management at Cornell University. “Hoteliers have to know their market segment and access reliable information that tracks the wants and needs of luxury and business travelers. Other factors, including lifestyle, will also influence guest choices and needs. If I’m used to a Mandarin Oriental, that’s where I’ll stay because I know what they offer. And location might be a big deal for a solo woman traveler who wants a safe, central location that doesn’t require taxi rides.”

Chutima Ruangritrawee, general manager of the newest Six Senses property in Soneva Kiri, Thailand, explains that information and guest feedback gathered from the company’s other properties was used to customize the offerings in the new hotel.

“Soneva Kiri, being the latest and third Soneva, includes all the innovative services that we’ve imagined over the course of the last few years,” says Ruangritrawee. These services include a private airport, private eight-seater plane and a custom boat to transport guests to the beachside resort. Once there, guests are assigned a personal butler to go along with their individual villa. Called Mr. (and Mrs.) Fridays, their duties include driving guests around the resort grounds on electronic buggies and assisting with duties including packing and unpacking, making appointments or arranging for off-property tours or entertainment.

Pay Attention, Please

While pillow choices and private planes are all very nice, many things still leave guests feeling disregarded. At the top of the list are mandatory resort fees, Internet charges, windows that are sealed shut and lousy coffeemakers. Also ranking high are hotels that tout their environmental policies and then fail to follow through.

“What that says to me,” says freelance writer Swenson, “is that you’re posting the sign with your environmental policy to appear green, not because your heart is in it. So many environmental policies are about cultivating an image, rather than making a difference. It really bothers me when I leave my towels on the rack and the staff still replaces them, or throws out the bars of soap I’ve just opened that morning.”

Producer Lehmann agrees. “Walk your talk, as they say. And don’t offer me services or amenities that aren’t actually available. There’s nothing worse than showing up and expecting to relax in a hot tub after a hard day of adventure, only to find the tub covered and looking like it hasn’t worked for a decade. This goes for gyms, spas, pools and anything else not in working order.”

Monica Campbell-Hoppé, who travels frequently around the world in her position with the Canadian Tourism Commission, appreciates small touches that should be within the reach of any high-end hotel. Her list includes a warm throw on the end of the bed or sofa that she can slip over her shoulders while working in her room, along with complimentary water and a decent coffeemaker.

“The Fairmont hotels in Canada always have cream in the minibar, instead of the fake dairy you find in most hotel rooms,” she says. “The Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver takes things up another notch, providing coffee presses with great Italian coffee, along with kettles for tea.”

That’s a touch sure to be appreciated by tea drinkers weary of having their preferred beverage spoiled by having to run water through a coffeemaker to heat it. Campbell-Hoppé points out that a growing number of luxury hotels don’t bother to provide coffeemakers of any type, forcing guests to search for a café off-property or order over-priced coffee from room service.

On the Horizon

“One of the driving factors in tomorrow’s amenities and services is technology and its ever-moving dial,” says Westin’s Cherone. He sees this as including perks that make the lives of guests easier, such as in-room video phones and complimentary WiFi property-wide.

High-tech gadgetry already being implemented in hotel rooms includes the new TV-in-the-mirror technology from Séura, available at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass., and the finger-touch room key option at the Murano Urban Resort in Paris, which guarantees you never have to worry about misplacing your room key.

When it comes to dream amenities, Patterson of Jetsetter .com predicts iPad docking stations and loaner iPods with custom playlists. Until then, he’d settle for being treated with respect by hotel staff. Campbell-Hoppé would like coffee delivered to her room for free whenever she wants it, just as French hotels once did, leaving a tray with creamy café au lait and a flaky croissant outside a guest’s door.

Those wishes may soon be granted. According to Cornell’s Tabacchi, as luxury hotels become more competitive with service offerings, guests who want someone to sing them a bedtime lullaby are quite likely to find a soloist waiting for them the moment they slip into their Hungarian goose-down pillow-strewn bed.