One of the things I love about staying in good hotels is that many of them choose to offer some really thoughtful and quite unique touches for their guests.

Hotel travellers have become quite demanding these days and many innovative hoteliers really do go that extra mile to make sure that they stand out from the other hotels in their category.

I have stayed in many hotels around the world, from Lake District Hotels to San Francisco hotels, and I have seen some extra touches that remind me forever of the stay there. Many of the beach resorts I have been too spread rose petals on the bed – although one inventive chambermaid made a snazzy swan each day out of the bath towels to my surprise and admiration.

Fresh flowers in the room are always welcome as is fresh fruit and cakes, especially if they are a famous speciality of the country, such as shortbread from Scotland or chocolate from Belgium or Switzerland. Real coffee, too, while not unusual, always sets the hotel a cut above the rest in my mind, together with a range of tea of different varieties.

However, my favourite has to be the take-home rubber Matryoshka doll which was placed in each guest room in place of a rubber duck in a well known hotel in Moscow.