OT: Favourite hotel in the world?
Karan Thapar: The Beau-Rivage Palace (www.brp.ch) in Lausanne Switzerland.

OT: Last visited and for how long?
Karan Thapar: It’s been two or three years, and I usually stay in hotels like these for three or four days.

OT: The experience?
Karan Thapar: It was extremely chic and classy. It’s beautifully located, on the shores of Lac Léman. The service is prompt and polite. And let’s face it, when you stay in a really, really expensive hotel — and this is a really, really expensive hotel — you sort of fool yourself into believing that the hotel must be really, really good!

But I’ve stayed in several other hotels of this class, The Pierre in New York (before it was taken over by an Indian hotel company) and the Carlisle in the same city, the Phoenicia in Beirut (before it was bombed) — which had a spectacular bar under the pool, which can be quite disconcerting once you’ve had a few drinks! I’ve stayed at the famous Watergate Hotel in Washington and the Hay Adams… At the historic Hotel de Crillon in Paris and at the George V as well as the Ritz. I’ve stayed at The Dorchester in London and the Grosvenor House. In Southeast Asia, I’ve stayed at The Oriental in Bangkok, The Peninsula and The Regent in Hong Kong. In Singapore, the Four Seasons, the Valley Wing at The Shangri-La, the Ritz Carlton, the Raffles and the Fullerton. Also I’ve stayed in two great hotels in Dubai — the Burj al Arab and Emirate Towers.

These are all top-class hotels; even so, I think the Beau-Rivage beats them, just for its spectacular, scenic location.

OT: The food? 
Karan Thapar: It was generally pretty good — no, that sounds lukewarm — it was extremely good. The most memorable meal I had therewas served in the drawing room of the suite of rooms in which I was staying. I don’t remember what I ate but I do remember the magnificent style in which it was served. Thank God I was a guest and someone else was paying!