Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby

Rob Rinder and Monica Galetti visit the Hassler Hotel, arguably Rome's most classic and celebrated hotel, which is undergoing a change in management. Family-run for generations, Rob and Monica learn about the hotel's celebrity guests and plans for the future as they pitch in with everything from cooking traditional carbonara to sweeping the busy streets in front of the hotel and driving guests around in a vintage Rolls Royce, all in the heart of the Eternal City. 

Rob Rinder and Monica Galetti travel to the Datai Langkawi in Malaysia. Beneath rainforest canopies, this hotel is so tucked-away that monkeys will break into the room if the door is not shut. During their stay, Rob and Monica get involved in everything from maintaining the lily pond to driving golf buggies around hair-raising bends, all the while learning about the key environmental issues and efforts required to run a hotel right in the heart of nature.

Rob Rinder and Monica Galetti work 3000 meters above sea-level at Gangtey Lodge, Bhutan, in a remote region that only obtained electricity 11 years ago. This luxury hotel has oxygen cans on hand, and the chef prepares meals to help guests adjust to the altitude. During their stay, Monica learns the local pastime of archery and how locals make butter and cheese for the hotel's kitchen, while Rob masters a song in Bhutanese. They also pay a visit to the neighbouring Buddhist monastery.

Rob Rinder and Monica Galetti work at Stanglwirt Hotel in the Austrian Alps, owned by one family for 300 years and grown slowly over the years to offer world-class boxing and tennis facilities and a stable of elegant Lipizzan horses, all woven around a working Alpine farm with some of the purest water in the world.