BUY THE HOTEL

FORGET ABOUT STEALING A BATHROBE. NOW YOU CAN HAVE THE BATHTUB

Once, you got the T-shirt. Now you get the telescope, the bed, the apple-martini cocktail rimmer, the Jacuzzi, and the woodchip pillow. From Telluride to Tokyo you can buy the contents of your hotel.

This is the latest manifestation of the hotel as lifestyle statement. In the 21 st century, the hotel you stay in says more about you than cash ever can. It is a crazy, wonderful spin-off from 90s hotel gurus Ian Schrager, Andre Balazs, and Adrian Zecha, who broke the mold by making hotels hip. The alliance of Schrager and his favorite designer, Philippe Starck, created a scene in which to be seen, as did Balazs. In Asia, Zecha and architect Ed Tuttle began the Amanresorts—building first in Thailand, later in locales such as Bali, Java, India, and now Bhutan, a travel destination on the cutting edge of dinner-party conversation—which spawned a new Ober-race of traveler, the Amanjunkie.

Now, if you buy a Starck tap, it's a little bit of Delano/Downtown L.A. Standard cool, and you're buying a bit of the action. It is a fact that the least a hotel owes you is a good night's sleep, and every Four Seasons sells its beds. A bandbox-new, king-size Sealy bed, the type slept in at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills by Oscar winners from Cuba Gooding Jr. to Dame Judi Dench, will arrive at your door at a cost of $2,200 plus delivery. It's a steal. Next up, the Sofitel hotels, which have just gotten in on the act with MyBed: box spring, extra-thick mattress, feather bed, ultra-light duvet, and oversize cotton pillows that you can buy online at soboutique.com for "an overwhelmingly comfortable cocoon-like experience." This is weepingly funny but fabulously indicative of the fact that we live in a million-thread-count world, fretting about Frette. But, trust me, if you want the most sublime feather bed in hotel world—it feels like a cloud—get it from Montage Resort & Spa, Alan Fuerstman's re-invention of the glamorous hotel in Laguna Beach; just go to montageshops.com, click on "Sleep," and sleep on it for $225 to $325.

And from the hip W Hotels, you can buy not only the bed, but also the bedding. At whotelsthestore.com, there's an entire sheet world where you can find everything from classic sheets with black edging ($65—$315) and tuxedo-stripe sheeting ($35—$88) to duvets, throws, and pillows. It's funky, and unlike buying in Bloomie's, you may have tried the product first.

Where will it all end? At Nine Zero, a design-demented hotel in Boston, you can buy the showerhead for $75, telescopes for $375, furry dog beds for $ 150, and cocktail rimmers (apple martini, Bloody Mary, Cosmopolitan, margarita, and mojito) at $9.50 each. Not to mention your Jacuzzi for $3,700. There's a new Web site under way called hoteluxury.com, and at Sweni, a safari lodge in Kruger National Park, South Africa, you can even buy the exquisite wirework chargers for some $76 each, the wine from the Singita Lebombo cellar-one of the finest in South Africawhich will be shipped home to you, and also silver candelabra from Singita Boulders in the Sabi Sand Reserve, designed by Patrick Mavros with elephants weaving their way round the base. We travel, therefore we shop. Hotels are now a design experience, and we want a bit of them. It is no longer enough to nick the bathrobe.

VICTORIA MATHER