The Capitalist: White Lotus chateau bans freebie-greedy journalists
Journos snubbed by White Lotus chateau, a love letter from PRs and new City signage; catch up on the latest gossip in The Capitalist
HACKS SNUBBED BY WHITE LOTUS CHATEAU
It might be three seasons deep now, but never underestimate the ‘White Lotus effect’. When the TV show, which satirises the world of luxury travel, filmed in Four Seasons hotels around the world, it shot up occupancy levels, with fans booking the hotels the show had filmed at to have their own White Lotus experience.
It isn’t just fans vying for a taste of the lifestyle: journalists scramble for freebie rooms at the hotels in order to write ‘I stayed at the ‘real’ White Lotus hotel’ pieces. But first-person accounts of the new White Lotus hotel, the Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez, France, are likely to be scarce. A blackout on media stays had been put in place throughout the spring, but now reps for the property have confirmed that the media ban has been extended through the whole of summer. Travel journalists famously love a freebie, so we’re sure the big dogs of the industry will be incensed.
YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME
Every year The Capitalist admires comms professionals’ creative attempts to shoehorn their clients into stories about Valentine’s Day. From the fund managers sharing their longest-held investments to marketing advice on how to stop getting “dumped” by customers, we thank you. But the best pitch of the season of love had to be the wealth planner who revealed that only one in four people know their partner’s funeral wishes. Who said romance was dead?
Honourable mentions also go to “co-founder counselling as the new couples therapy” and “Tinder leave” as the new wellbeing benefit being experimented with by employers – though, when chased on the latter as to any case studies illustrating even an inkling of this having happened, The Capitalist found themselves, as so many lovers these days do, promptly ghosted.
THE CASE OF THE LOST CRYPTO TREASURE
Did you finally succumb to Bitcoin FOMO in October last year? Did you snap one up for $126,000? And did you then watch in horror as the value sank to around $60,000? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Of course it’s no laughing matter; fortunes have been wiped out. Our thoughts are with James Howells, the poor chap who claims to have 8,000 Bitcoin stored on a hard drive somewhere in a Welsh dump. Last autumn this mythical hoard was worth around $1bn, but now its value has slumped to a mere $535m, which may or may not offer comfort to Howells. Some may be tempted to buy the dip but is there still a case to buy the skip? Unfortunately, Howells’ legal battle with Newport council appears to have run out of steam so the treasure remains buried.
OH MANDY
As the fallout from the Mandelson scandal swirled around the Prime Minister, a Downing Street source briefed the press that Keir Starmer was “very pissed and very sore”. Such a phrase wouldn’t pass the CityAM style guide, being shockingly American. Unless the source was suggesting that the PM was both drunk and hungover at the same time. We’ve all been there.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
Since noting the City’s increased concerns with deterring public defecation over Christmas, the Capitalist has certainly been more careful to check where they tread – and would urge readers to do the same. This week, we came across what must be a hotspot along Change Alley, a charming passageway made rather less charming by the implications of its newly prominent DO NOT URINATE HERE sign, and accompanying threat that officers are on patrol!