No 10. Westin Excelsior Hotel Rome, Italy

It should come as no surprise that the world's richest man, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has been to two of the world's most expensive hotels--Frégate Island Private in the Seychelles and Fiji's The Wakaya Club. It helps to be a billionaire (or at least a millionaire) to be able to afford a stay there. Most expensive hotels in the world with lavish opulence and an oasis of calm with space and silence providing the utmost in luxury.

Villa La Cupola
$14,950 per night
Rome's "Villa La Cupola" suite within the Westin Excelsior has all things Roman and excessive - a cupola, a Pompeii-style Jacuzzi pool, frescoes and stained glass windows. Located on the fifth and sixth floor underneath the cupola of the hotel (which was made famous by Fellini's movies), the suite covers 6,099 square feet and has an additional 1,808 square feet of balconies and terraces. While it only has two bedrooms, five more can be joined to it.
The stained glass windows in the living room detail allegories of a mythological figure paired with a modern one, such as Atlas and Television, Hypnosis and Neurosis, Hermes and Marketing, and Hermaphrodite and Fashion. The downstairs also has a private kitchen, and the dining room features an antique Murano glass chandelier, a private wine cabinet and an antique mosaic-tile-covered dining room.
What really makes this suite over the top is a private cinema with Dolby surround sound. Such luxury makes even the private elevator that leads up to the fitness area and Jacuzzi - complete with mosaic floors, vaulted ceilings and frescoes - seem ordinary. The painted horizons on the frescoes were designed to match perfectly with the real Roman one.
No 9. The Plaza Hotel New York City, USA
Presidential Suite
$15,000 per night

The 7,802-square-foot suite covers nearly the entire 18th floor of the Plaza, with views overlooking Central Park. The walls are covered in silk, the reception area has a 10-foot-wide stained glass window and the hand-painted piano depicts scenes from the French countryside.
The suite has five bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, two living rooms, a dining room, powder room and sauna. There are also three marble fireplaces, a terrace and a 2,000-bottle wine cellar (guests are charged extra for indulging). The Presidential Suite also comes with the use of a secretary/butler and the Plaza's chefs are at your disposal.
No 8.Park Hyatt-Vendôme Hotel Paris, France
The Imperial Suite
$15,500 a night

Situated on the second floor of the Park Hyatt-Vendôme’s Haussmanian building is the hotel’s 750 square-foot Imperial Suite. Thise pricey suite has high ceilings, a dining room, kitchenette and bar. When visitors tire of toiling, they relax with an “In Suite Spa” that comes outfitted with a steam room, Whirlpool and built-in massage table.
No 7. Four Seasons George V Paris, France
Royal Suite
$16,000 a night
The George V in Paris boasts a pair of “sumptuous” Royal Suites that each come with private terraces and rooms filled with antique furniture. Each suite has a marble entrance, a full kitchen, a sauna and a separate bathroom for guests. The expensive 2,600 square-foot suites are split into separate spaces for sleeping and entertaining, both of which also have a private office.
No 6. Le Richemond Geneva, Switzerland
Royal Armleder Suite
$17,500 a night
Le Richemond’s Royal Armleder Suite reopened in 2007 after an extensive restoration of the hotel’s seventh floor, which the luxury suite occupies the entirety of. The suite is bedecked in gold, mosaics and parquet floors and has a 300 square-foot terrace with stunning views of Geneva and the nearby Alps.
No 5. Burj Al Arab Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Royal Suite
$18,000 per night
A two-story suite that centers around an epic staircase, Burj Al Arab’s Royal Suite has Carrara marble floors, mahogany furniture and a master bedroom with a rotating four-post canopy bed. Guests enjoy Hermes bathroom products, Faubourg fragrances, their own private elevator and cinema and for a bit extra– a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce or helicopter.
No 3. The Ritz-Carlton Moscow, Russia
Ritz-Carlton Suite
$18,200 per night
Floor-to-ceiling windows outline the Ritz-Carlton Suite at the hotel chain’s Moscow location. Imperial furniture fills the 2,500 square-foot suite, which comes with a heated floor, a grand piano and a library. The suite has views of the Kremlin, Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral and visitors get to enjoy five meals a day and their very own KGB-approved autonomous energy supply system and secure telecommunications array.
No 3. The Martinez Hotel Cannes,France
Presidential Suite
$18,500 per night
The Martinez Hotel in Cannes likes superlatives and bills itself as having the biggest, most expensive and only terraced penthouse suite on the Cote d'Azur. Perhaps some of this is Gallic swagger, but the price of the suites certainly makes them one of the most expensive in Europe. Both penthouse suites are 8,000 square feet and are decorated in the hotel's signature Art Deco style, with streamlined furniture, silk curtains and teak parquet floors.While many of the hotel's rooms are painted in bright colors (peach, lime green), the penthouse suites are decorated in muted, understated tones (brown, cream and tan).
Each suite has two bedrooms, a Turkish bath, kitchen, personal sauna and views of the Lerins Islands as well as the entire Bay of Cannes. The wraparound terrace is 2,000 square feet and can comfortably hold 100 people. It also has a Jacuzzi. Technophiles will appreciate the Bose plasma screen televisions and telephones and the DVD library. A private butler is on call 24 hours a day, and other amenities include use of a limousine, open bar and the option to join both suites into one grand apartment.
No 2. President Wilson Hotel Geneva, Switzerland
The Imperial Suite
$23,300 per night
At the sleek, modern President Wilson Hotel in Geneva, security takes as much precedence as luxury.
Faster than you can say "Frette linens," the hotel's staff reassures guests that the security in the Imperial Suite is among the best in the world, ideal for celebrities or traveling heads of states who visit the United Nations headquarters next door at the Palais Wilson.The Imperial Suite, which takes up the entire top floor of the hotel, is reached via a private elevator and has four bedrooms, all of which overlook Lake Geneva.
The suite is decorated in a contemporary style, with marble and hardwood floors, and the bay windows overlook Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc. Off of the master bedroom is a dressing room as well as a study, and the suite has five bathrooms, all with mosaic marble floor, and a Jacuzzi and steam bath in the main bath.
The living room has a billiards table, a library and a cocktail lounge with a view of the water fountain, and can accommodate 40 people. The dining room seats 26 people around an oval mahogany table. For the security-conscious or
merely the paranoid, the Imperial Suite is also equipped with bulletproof windows and doors.
No 1. The Atlantis Paradise Island, Bahamas
Atlantis Bridge Suite
$25,000 per night

The Atlantis Bridge Suite has the distinction of being the most expensive hotel suite in the world - a whopping $25,000 a night. Found on Paradise Island, Bahamas. The Bridge Suite is located on top of a bridge that connects the two Royal Towers buildings, so it overlooks the entire resort and marina.The ten-room suite is decorated in red, black and gold (lots of gold) and comes with its own butler, bar lounge and entertainment center as well as 12-foot ceilings. The master bedroom has a sitting area, his-and-hers closets, and hand-painted linens.
The bathrooms have chaise lounges, marble baths, and dolphin fixtures. For those who are picky about their personal space, there are two separate master bathrooms. The kitchen also has its own entrance so the butler or cook never bothers you.So, do you feel like spending $25,000 for one night?

Most expensive hotels in the U.S.

By: Nana

updated 1:35 p.m. ET Aug. 9, 2006

Book a room in one of the costliest hotels in the country, and you'll get the most desirable, most exclusive, most luxurious amenities along with it. Usually.
The Point, a Relais & Chateaux property in the Adirondacks that was once a Rockefeller Great Camp, has just 11 rooms, each with lake views and a chiseled-stone fireplace. Included in the room rate, which starts at $1,250 a night and puts it on our list of the priciest hotels, are activities such as fishing, horseback riding and golfing. All meals and alcoholic beverages are covered; guests fill out a dining survey weeks in advance of their stay to ensure that their desires are catered to.
Another high-priced all-inclusive hotel is Blackberry Farm in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains. Blackberry Farm is renowned for its "foothills cuisine," which incorporates Southern staples like grits into modern presentations, as well as for its "Epicurean Experience" weekends, which attract chefs and vintners from as far away as Germany. At Blackberry Farm, all meals are included, but alcoholic beverages and activities like fly fishing are not. Still, with room rates starting at $795 per night, guests get some excellent meals for their money.

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The Mansion at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the most expensive hotel in the U.S. for the past several years, runs $5,000 a night for a one-bedroom villa. What's included in that four-figure room rate? Access to the hotel's fitness center, board room and screening room, the chance to stare at the Picassos on the walls, and the cachet that comes with being able to afford the country's priciest hotel.

But if the Mansion is expensive, at least it's consistent. That property has remained solid at $5,000 a night for the past three years. Meanwhile, the prices of the hotels at the bottom of our list have crept slowly but surely upward
In 2004, the tenth-ranked hotel on our list was the $600-a-night Inn at Palmetto Bluff. This year, it's Casa Palmero, a 24-room property on the Pacific coast, which starts at $745 per night, an increase of 24% at the bottom of the list.
The list is getting more expensive not just at the bottom, but overall, as individual properties increase their room rates. Casa Palmero's rates went up $60 between 2004 and 2006, while Amangani, a sleek Jackson Hole, Wyo., ski resort and the only outpost of the prestigious Amanresorts brand in the United States, rang in at $700 a night in 2004. This year, it's $900.
Hospitality industry experts we talked to didn't find these increases surprising. "In the first five months of this year, the rate increase for luxury hotels, 8.7%, was basically double inflation," says Jan Freitag, vice president at Smith Travel Research, based in Hendersonville, Tenn. "It's a straightforward supply-and-demand story. Now that hotels are full, they increase rates, because they know the demand is there."
And because the demand exists, luxury hotels have less incentive to offer all-inclusive deals or special amenities to high-end travelers.
The newest hotel on our list, Casa Casuarina in South Beach, Miami, is the former home of designer Gianni Versace, and a private club that counts Oliver Stone and Jon Bon Jovi as members. The Moroccan-themed property opened as a hotel just four months ago, featuring Versace's own Italian suite; the bed alone, two California kings sewn together, cost $100,000. Rates at Casa Casuarina start at $2,500 a night during high season; those rates include nothing more than the chance to eat your continental breakfast next to a rock star. To some, that may be reason enough to go.
To compile this year's list of the most expensive hotels in the U.S., we looked at high-season room rates for properties all over the country. Unlike in past years, we didn't include any spas or hotels with minimum-stay requirements. And unlike with our list of the Most Expensive Hotel Rooms in the U.S., which took you inside the most decadent and costly suites, we based our rankings on the rates for a standard double room, i.e., the hotel's cheapest, not priciest, available digs.
While one might think these hotels would be concentrated in a few parts of the U.S., they are, in fact, spread throughout the country, from Las Vegas to New York to Vermont. Just one less excuse not to visit.