http://www.hotelchatter.com/ Hotel Reviews, Hotel Ratings, Hotel Openings en-us Copyright 2008 - SFO Media 2012-02-14T10:30:53Z HotelChatter HotelChatter http://www.hotelchatter.com/images/hcwhite.jpg http://www.hotelchatter.com/ http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/3/31/165232/199 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/nacionalcuba.jpg" class="imgborder"><p><i>The Hotel Nacional de Cuba is one of the hotels that will allow its countrymen to stay there now.</i><p>Some big news on the <a href="http://www.jaunted.com/tag/cuba%20travel"><b>Cuban tourism</b></a> front today: Cubans can now stay in hotels that were typically reserved for foreign tourists.<blockquote><p>Cubans will be allowed to stay in the hotels beginning at midnight Monday, said employees at several Havana hotels. Word of the change came from Tourism Ministry officials, the employees said.</blockquote></p><p>Sadly, this initiative is largely symbolic as many Cubans can't afford the hotel room prices which range from $60 to more than $200 a night. The average income in the country is $20 a month. <p>For years under Fidel Castro's rules, Cubans could not stay in their own juliana 2008-03-31T17:03:33-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2006/9/7/104924/6923 <![CDATA[<p> <i>We are suckers for a room with a killer view. &nbsp;We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the <a href="http://flickr.com/groups/hotelchatter/">HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool</a>, or by <a href="mailto:tips@hotelchatter.com">sending the photo along to us</a>. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.</i><p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/killerview_havana.jpg"><p>We deem this a Killer View from the <a href="http://www.hotelhabanalibre.com/"><b>Hotel Havana Libre</b></a> mainly because we, Americans, will never get to go there. (Not that juliana 2006-09-07T10:49:24-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2005/6/22/121448/460 <![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3/riviera.jpg"><p> Amy, of <a href="http://www.newyorkology.com">NewYorkology</a> fame, sent us the above snapshot of the legendary <a href="http://www.cuba.tc/GranCaribe/CuHavRiviera.html"><b>Riviera Hotel</b></a> in Cuba. Turns out she visited the joint at the turn of the century, back when the Yankees were still winning World Series titles, and Cuba was Cuba.<p> She says of her February 2000 visit:<br> <blockquote><p> Indeed it looked like it was entirely unchanged from the '50s. It did smell a little musty, but not too bad. And I think the power would go out n some floors for a few hours at a time. But the view was stunning and that pool was just over the top. </blockquote><p> This is definitely a hotel with tons of "potential," and could become a markj 2005-06-22T12:16:10-05:00 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/