Introduction

Before I started this website, the only Second Life hotel I’d really heard of was the Essencia, which did a good job of simulating a four-five star city hotel in RL.

With the hotel having been around now for four years, owner Sérgio Franchinni has revamped and relaunched it.  It’s been moved to a new region, and all the public areas and rooms have been given a complete makeover.

Aria and myself were able to stay in the new Essencia for two days before it officially opened to the public, where we thoroughly explored all the different areas, and Aria took pictures before the first guests arrived.

In summary we love the end result. For us this is probably the best recreation of an actual RL Hotel we’ve seen.  It feels real in terms of layout, facilities, the rooms and in the incredible level of details, and we recommend it highly.

The pictures in this review are Aria’s, the words mine, but the article reflects both of our opinions.  

SLURL - Note that while the website is being updated, go to the hotel. We were told that the rental kiosk in reception works, or you can speak to a member of staff. The site should be updated soon.

Website for information

Overall look and feel

Like the original Hotel, the Essencia looks like a high end metropolitan hotel, but it’s received a significant upgrade.

It feels like the sort of urban hotel where you’d find a mix of business travellers as well as people on city breaks.

Apparently owner Sergio Franchinni has, like me, an RL job that involves a lot of travel and hotel stays, and you can see that in the way the Essencia has been laid out.  When walking around The Essencia, it triggered RL memories of similar places for myself.  

Like the older Essencia, there’s an entrance with taxis and cars parked outside (along with a few mesh figures), but this has been made bigger and less cramped.

The reception is likewise roomier compared to the original Essencia, and better designed, while the bar has been moved to a separate mezzanine level.  

The bar (‘the Royal Bar’) is a particular highlight and has been beautifully done.

The public areas also include a restaurant, where the idea is to offer RP dining.  Like the original Hotel, there is a spa, a gym, tennis courts, a small beach area and an outdoor pool.

The gym, beach and main pool are much the same as in the older Hotel, the beach is in many ways the weakest area - but there are lots of tropical / beach resorts in SL, and for us it’s not a reason to come here.

The spa has been upgraded significantly, with a new reception, better design and separate private treatment rooms.

There’s also a second pool, which is being called a pool club, and a series of attractive cabanas at the back of the pool, facing the sea.

Overall, the hotel is recognisably the Essencia with the same black / gold colour scheme and branding, but at the same time, the amount of changes and improvements mean it’s really a totally new place.

In terms of rooms, there are 23 in total, making this one of the larger hotels in Second Life.  Again, the rooms have all been upgraded.

What really impressed us was all the details that have been put into the hotel.

For example, the TV controls by the bed mirror actual channels you’d see in an RL Hotel.  The beds themselves have these small ‘save the environment’ cards you often see when staying somewhere.

The suite we stayed in had perfume and cologne bottles in the bathroom you can attach to yourself. 

The aircon vents work, click on them and cold air blows out. Same with the mini bar, click on it and you can get snacks.

There’s a smoke detector and fire alarm on the ceiling of the rooms. Meanwhile there is a little key card slot beside the door, much as you would see in a real hotel.

Really, the level of detail is incredible, and we constantly spotted little touches, which we loved. The end result is that it does feel very real.

Overall - 4.5 / 5

The rooms

There are 23 rooms, split between standard, deluxe and premium.  We were given a chance to tour all of them.  

Prices have increased a little compared to the original Essencia, which to us seems fair, it’s in line with and often lower than what you will pay in other resorts.

The standard (twin and king bed versions) rooms cost 250L and look like a normal Hotel bedroom with bed, sitting area and bathroom (shower, no bath).

The Deluxe Rooms (500L) are actually suites, as they include a large living room, bedroom and bathroom.  We mentioned to Sergio and manager Kira that calling them ‘rooms’ really undersells what they are.

Then the hotel includes two premium suites (1500L), we stayed in one of them.  This is a penthouse with two bedrooms at opposite ends of the suite - two couples could easily stay here, with enough privacy for both.

It also includes a small kitchen, a really big living / dining room, a walk-in wardrobe and dressing area and possibly the biggest SL Hotel bathroom that we’ve seen.

Highlights in the premium suite include a large wrap-around balcony where you can sit, an outdoor hot tub on a terrace, a large TV with entertainment options, and a generally excellent level of detail and design.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the privacy in the rooms has been improved.  They are all in skyboxes as before, but you can no longer cam in to see other guests, and you can’t hear them on voice.

Overall - 4.5 / 5

The facilities

In the old Essencia, the bar used to be next to the reception, it’s now been moved to the mezzanine floor, sectioned off and renamed the Royal Bar.

It looks beautiful, and makes for an excellent date or hang out spot, whether you are staying in the Hotel or not.  We also recommended to the Hotel that they use it as a venue for live singers.

The restaurant is still called the Blachere Restaurant, though it’s been redesigned.  The spa, as mentioned earlier, is much bigger and with private treatment rooms.

We understand from the manager Kira, that the idea is to hire RP staff to work in both the restaurant and spa.

The main pool looks much the same as it did in the old Essencia, but a new pool club with a second pool has been added.  This is a really nice location and we enjoyed hanging out here.

There are also now cabanas at the back of the pool club.  That’s a good idea, and we wondered if even more could be done with these, for example to add drink and food order options (much as you get when renting an actual RL Hotel pool cabana).

The grounds include a tennis court, and tables with chess sets (which work).

Finally, there is a gym, and the beach, which looks much as it did in the old Hotel.  As we’ve mentioned, there are lots of reasons to come to the Essencia, so we can’t imagine why people would come for the beach anyway.

Note, some of the facilities are restricted to guests only, though the restaurant, bar and lobby are open.

Overall - 4 / 5

The animations

The rooms have three beds in one.  There’s a Rawage bed, which you find just by clicking on and sitting in the bed.  But two other bed engines have been hidden inside - Ruckus and Cumming Soon.

You access these other two beds by clicking and sitting on a button on a wall.  This is a much better way of doing it than in other hotels which often hide Ruckus engines inside another bed, and you then have to access the highlight transparent option to see where it is.

The Project Bravo Cumming Soon bed / animation engine was a new one for us, and we were impressed, our experience seems to be matched by the glowing reviews you can see on MP.

The anims appear much more natural and realistic, and even the facial expressions look better than what you see with for example, Ruckus, apparently they are customised for EvoX heads.

All three beds are MF (with some threesome options for Ruckus).  We suggested to the owner (Sergio) and manager (Kira) that one of the three should have FF and MM animations, and we were told that they will be looking into this.

Overall the furniture and animations are of a very high standard, the sofas in our suite were from Chez Moi and the hot tub, an Xplicit Mona Hot tub.

We also noticed that a lot of the furniture, aside from the beds, had been modified so that a different set of animations was inside, rather than the original one.

For example, the armchair in the second suite bedroom appears to be from Chez Moi, but the animations are from a Lalou Naples lap dance chair. Modifying the furniture like this must have taken a lot of work.

Almost all the furniture in the suite was adult.

Overall - 4 / 5

Other considerations

• Prices - Range from 250 to 1500L a night.  Pay the rental box at the room, there is a terminal at reception for the SLURL

• Privacy - Every room is in a skybox, we were told this is much improved compared to the previous Hotel. You can no longer cam into other rooms to see what people are doing.

• Adult - Most of the furniture in the rooms is adult, but the public areas are moderate.  Again, this mirrors what you find in an actual hotel, where you keep adult activities behind closed doors

• Lag - Because we had the hotel to ourselves to take pictures, we didn’t experience any, but it remains to be seen if that changes as more guests arrive

Overall

If you are after a beach resort, or after an all singing all dancing entertainment and RP option like Vegas SL, this probably isn’t for you.

But if you are after RL City-hotel realism, we believe that the Essencia has set the bar for what’s possible.

As we mentioned in the introduction, this is the closest replica of a modern City-Resort Hotel that we’ve seen, it’s really well done. The Essencia is somewhere to go with your significant other, if you want to feel as if you’ve really gone somewhere in RL.

Even if you don’t come and stay, it’s worth going to the Royal Bar on the Mezzanine level, this is also a great photo spot.

The attention to detail and overall design is great, and we’re aware that a few additions and changes are still being made that should enhance the overall experience even more. Highly recommended.

SLURL - Note that while the website is being updated, go to the hotel. We were told that the rental kiosk in reception works, or you can speak to a member of staff. The site should be updated soon.

Website for information

Though we were given the chance to stay here for two days before the official opening, we paid for our suite in line with our editorial policy.  By always paying for our stays, we ensure that we remain completely independent.