HotelChatter - au

Get $99 Rooms Down Under as Summer Approaches

amandak — 2009-10-26T09:14:13-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3873/Urban_Hotel_Australia.jpg" class="top"> While northern hemisphere hotels are busy promoting their winter sales, Down Under hotels are advertising summer specials, and there's a particularly good one on offer from the Urban group of hotels, represented in the three major east coast cities.The three places - <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Urban+St+Leonards+Accor+Hotel/ian/179651">Urban St Leonard's</a> in Sydney, <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Urban+St+Kilda+Accor+Hotel/ian/267230">Urban St Kilda</a> in Melbourne and the Urban Brisbane - have got together to organize a half-price summer sale. The deal is that if you make your booking this week (before Saturday, October 31), you can get your room for A$99 ($91) a night instead of the usual average of A$199 ($180). The sad thing is that the Aussie dollar is pretty strong right now, so if you're

Guests Behaving Badly Teams Up With Booking Site Down Under

amandak — 2009-09-29T14:29:38-05:00

You might remember a couple of years back when we let you know about the Australian Guests Behaving Badly database. It's a website where member hotels can report anti-social and destructive hotel guests and share their names with other hotels so they can avoid having the kind of guests that no hotel really wants.

Guests Behaving Badly has now gone one step further and has announced a partnership with the Ubid4rooms website, an Australian hotel bidding site a bit similar to Priceline.

Sydney's Shangri-La Upgrades Its Cafe Mix Restaurant

amandak — 2009-09-25T09:08:48-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/viewfromshangrilabar.jpg" class="top"> Sydney's <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Shangri-La+Hotel,+Sydney/ian/131394">Shangri-La Hotel</a> already serves up drinks in a bar we approve of - its <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/1/16/3205/84802/hotels/Shangri_La_s_Blu_Horizon_Bar_Rocks_The_Rocks">Blu Horizon Bar</a> which has amazing views over Sydney Harbour and the Opera House. Downstairs, the all-day dining spot <a href="http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/sydney/shangrila/dining/restaurant/cafemix">Café Mix</a> has just had a revamp and earlier this month relaunched with a new look and a new menu.The new look includes extra seating and Café Mix now seats over two hundred guests. You can get nearly anything you want here: there's Indian, Japanese, Chinese and Australian cuisine, plus (something we really like) a dessert buffet which includes a chocolate fountain.To celebrate the new look there's a special on every Friday night until October 16. It's a seafood buffet

A Building's Exterior and Random Statues Do Not Make For a Pretty View

juliana — 2009-09-03T12:37:14-05:00

<![CDATA[You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-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>. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/westinmelbourneav.jpg" class="top"> Wow. Talk about disappointing. A HotelChatter Flickr member dropped in this shot

Hotel Workers in Australia Dish On 'Ethical Hotels'

amandak — 2009-08-07T10:39:30-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3873/First_Star_Website.jpg" class="top"> It's old news that some hotel guests want to choose their hotel by looking at <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Green%20Hotels">how green they are</a>, but in Australia a consumer website has just started up so we can also know how ethical a hotel is and the people behind the <a href="http://thefirststar.com.au/">First Star: Ethical Luxury</a> website are not too shy to name and shame.The website was launched last week by the trade union which represents hotel workers in Australia, and, in their words:<blockquote> The aim is for the site to be used as a tool for travellers and workers to push for social change.</blockquote>So far they're light on the "this hotel isn't green" message and heavy on the "this hotel exploits