It owns one of China's travel industry's best-known brands and generates 3% of China's hotel room reservations nightly.

FORBES: Home, Sweet Home

The Plaza puts the power in guest hands with in-room iPads that can handle dinner reservations, spa appointments, transportation arrangements and housekeeping requests.

BBC: New iPad fans flames of techie travel

Use the iPad on the nightstand to order room service, book a massage or make dinner reservations.

FORBES: Five Hotels With Top-Notch Technology

Particularly revealing are the insights into reservations policies: to be told on arrival that a room has been suddenly flooded, or that the previous guest has been taken ill, means that the hotel has overbooked.

ECONOMIST: Luxury hotels

Rachel expresses reservations -- it does not escape her eye that there is no non-Caucasian in the room -- but life is short and she is willing to give it a shot.

CNN: The Jackie Robinson biopic and me