Where are the world’s most expensive hotel suites? On this luxury travel blog I’m usually discussing the scene in Latin America, but since that whole region is a great value, the prices there don’t make the cut.

The Wall Street Journal recently did a big feature story on the Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons New York City. If you want to book this lavish suite with panoramic Manhattan views, you’d better be loaded. It’ll cost you $35,000 a night. Don’t even think about asking for a discount and forget any party plans: because of all the expensive furnishings, no more than 10 people are allowed in at one time. Read the whole article to see all the expensive features that go into this price. But for a start, there’s a $120,000 chandelier, Thai silk with gold threads on the canopy bed, and an energy-hogging 850 light bulbs.

This is the most expensive suite in the Americas outside Las Vegas. Some there go for an even higher rate, but are frequently given away free to high-rolling whales with an account of half a million or more. Here are some of the other expensive suites from around the world listed in the article:

Hugh Hefner Sky Villa/Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas – Price per night: $40,000

Bridge Suite/Atlantis, Paradise Island in the Bahamas – Price per night: $25,000

Royal Auite/Burj Al Arab in Dubai – Price per night: $19,000

The Ritz-Carlton Suite/Ritz-Carlton, Moscow – Price per night: $13,900

How does Latin America compare? Well the only suite I can find in our reviews that tops $10,000 per  night is really a house: the four-bedroom Villa Cortez at the One&Only Palmilla in Los Cabos, Mexico. It has a top rack rate of $12,000, but that includes a private staff of 12 (with two chefs), the huge private infinity pool pictured below, a big cinema room, a full office, and a prime spot on the beach.

The best suite at the Four Seasons Costa Rica goes for close to $10,000 in high season, but is also a villa with multiple bedrooms.

The top suite is under 5 grand at Capella Pedregal in Los Cabos, Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, Ritz-Carlton Santiago, and the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge.

For more information on luxury travel and hotels outside of Latin America, see JustLuxe.com

Ask a group of luxury leisure travelers or entrepreneurs what there biggest pet peeve is with luxury hotels and a majority will spit out one thing without having to think about it: getting charged for wireless Internet access. Yet like airlines that know they’re pissing off their customers with fuel surcharges and baggage fees, the big luxury chains keep at it anyway because they’re addicted to the additional revenue. Corporate travelers pay it without blinking because it’s not their money—the company is covering it. So in hotels with lots of business travelers, the hotel chains figure the aggravation to some is less painful than giving up the revenue from others.

HotelChatter just put out its annual hotel Wi-fi report and it’s still uglier than one would expect at the high end chains. Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, and Ritz-Carlton are still charging a fee universally. In some of the markets we cover, that would seem to put them at a clear disadvantage. While Four Seasons Mexico City and the Starwood chain St. Regis hit up every customer for Internet access, Las Alcobas , Habita, and Condesa df do not. The Ritz-Carlton Santiago makes you pay extra to check your e-mail. The Aubrey does not.

And if lovely Casitas del Colca in Peru can include Internet access in the rates, even though they rely on a satellite signal, surely those hooked into city cables can manage. It’s included in the rates at some of the best hotels in Latin America, like Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Mexico, Turtle Inn Belize, Faena Hotel + Universe in Argentina, and Cliffs Preserve in Chile. Even Royal Palm Hotel on the Galapagos Islands includes it in the rates.

As these examples show, the hotels in Latin America are way ahead of the pack in treating Internet access the way it should be treated—like hot water. It’s an essential part of our life now, for better or worse, so treating Wi-fi as some kind of special amenity is just ridiculous. Installing and maintaining a system is a cost of doing business, the same as supplying air conditioning or new flat-screen TVs. If Red Roof Inn and La Quinta can manage to make it work cost-wise, surely the Four Seasons can.

It’s time for them to free the signal and stop acting like it’s 1999. If you agree, look beyond the international chains and try an independent or domestic chain hotel. As the examples above show, they’re more likely to be run by service-oriented managers rather than hamstrung drones answering to bean counters a continent away.

The St. Regis in Mexico City officially opened late last year, but it took us a while to act on that because we were caught by surprise. After all, the Ritz-Carlton there that was announced in 2007 never materialized (we hear it’s going to be an office building now) and Las Alcobas took a year after the lobby furniture arrived to start welcoming guests.

The St. Regis is for real though, as witnessed by the newest correspondent to grace our pages, Jim Johnston. He’s the author of Mexico City: an Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler. He’s also an artist, which made him a good choice to check out this sleek and suave hotel. The photos may remind you a bit of the interiors at Las Alcobas and no wonder—the two newest luxe hotels in the D.F. share the same design firm, Yabu Pushelberg.

“The interiors…are an eclectic mix of styles that recall everything from lacy Arabic scrollwork, to 1950’s Miami beach retro, to intricate Florentine tapestry designs. Floor to ceiling glass walls take full advantage of the urban landscape outside. It’s elegant but casual, serious but fun.”

The amenities are certainly serious though, giving the Four Seasons Mexico some serious competition. There are high-tech ones, like a TV in the bathroom mirror, and high-touch ones, like a butler on each floor.

It’s safe to say that road warriors who want to stay here to rack up some Starwood frequent guest points certainly won’t be making any sacrifices as a result. This big chain business hotel rivals the top competitors in town mentioned above and is a clear cut above the next tier of chain hotels led by the J.W. Marriott.

See our full review of St. Regis Mexico City.

I’ve been noting in our monthly newsletter for a while that this past year has been a terrific time to travel. Especially in terms of hotels, there have been some unprecedented bargains out there. The luxury hotels that have tried hard not to lower prices have been throwing in all kinds of freebies, from an extra night or resort credit to a complimentary spa treatment or golf game.

This can’t go on forever, of course, without the hotels getting into financial trouble. In the U.S. at least, the s&%t is already hitting the fan in a lot of places. Only in rare cases is the hotel shuttered, but guests are noticing other cutbacks: lower staff levels, inexperienced concierges, thinner towels, or fewer complimentary items at check-in or turndown. That’s the slant of this excellent article that ran Friday in USA Today: Hard times send hotel industry into survival mode. “In January, U.S. hotels had a record-low 45.1% occupancy rate”—the lowest since the tracking firm quoted started keeping records in 1987.

Things are especially bad in former bubble zones and in those resorts that depended on deep-pocketed corporate meeting clients. In California, 330 hotels have defaulted on mortgage payments and 76 are in foreclosure. The W San Diego was turned over to lenders in September after a loan default. The Ritz-Carlton at Lake Las Vegas will close on May 2.

Fortunately, Latin America is booming. Apart from Mexico and Honduras—which have seen drops based on something besides the recession—most of the region was either flat or up in 2009. Outside of economic boom areas like Chile, Brazil, and Peru, however, you may have better luck getting the staff levels and amenities you expect at luxury leisure hotels rather than business hotels: tourism has not declined as much as international business travel.

Have you noticed any deflation of expected amenities or staff levels at luxury hotels in your travels?

Anyone who has been to Cancun and Playa del Carmen in the past couple years has witnessed first-hand the effects of overbuilding, reef degradation, and multiple hurricane hits. Some of this is just natural beach erosion, some of it has been hastened by dumb building and environmental practices.

After lots of promises, the local governments have put beach restoration in high gear though. They already dumped multiple tons of sand on Cancun’s beaches and you can see the effects here in this quickie video from the Cancun Tourism board.

The trucks will soon go to work in Playa del Carmen as well, with beach widening going on for a 2.7-mile stretch. I’m assuming that includes the Playacar resort area as the beaches north of Playa del Carmen are not in such bad shape. Some small craft docks are going up in the center as well, giving boats a place to tie up so they don’t have to be dragged on and off the beach every time. There’s nothing much that can be done now about the wall of concrete too close to the shore, but I guess they can do this all over again in a few years if another hurricane comes.

UPDATE – Here’s a nice before and after shot in front of the Ritz-Carlton Cancun

See detailed reviews of the best luxury hotels in Cancun and Playa del Carmen