There's been a steady slew of hotel booking sites that have launched in the past few years but our tried and true fave is still Quikbook.com which has long been offering cool, boutique hotels that you would actually at for great rates. And now Quikbook's gotten even better, thanks to a site redesign.

Don't worry, nothing has drastically changed. Quikbook is still offering its secret sales, invitation-only rates and its standard policy of not charging any booking fees or requiring pre-payment or even cancellation/change penalty fees. But the site is easier to navigate--the buttons are bigger, the photos are more plentiful and there's even video tours of select hotels.]]> juliana 2012-02-09T16:05:01-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2012/2/7/122914/1305 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/trumpnewsite_chicago.jpg" class="top"><p> Now that <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/trump hotels"><b>Trump Hotels</b></a> has seven hotels in their collection, they must have figured it was about time to upgrade their website--<a href="http://www.trumphotelcollection.com"><b>TrumpHotelCollection.com</b></a>. <p>While the old site was very traditional and anchored down by exterior shots of the Trump Hotels, the new site shows off what life is like <i>inside</i> a Trump Hotel using nearly full page photos of hotel "guests". And this being Trump, the Trump experience involves gorgeous wealthy couples doing fabulous things like dining, drinking, shopping, dancing, getting fitted for new clothes, tanning by the pool, watching the chef cook in the kitchen and feeding each other mystery sushi. As for room photos, those seem to have been imported over from the juliana 2012-02-07T12:51:29-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2012/1/16/133851/070 <![CDATA[<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D3LhMzsctkU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>We've actually long admired the websites of <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/four seasons hotels"><b>Four Seasons Hotels</b></a> because they've always allowed potential guests to see giant, full-screen photos of their guest rooms, public spaces and recreational spots (provided these aren't <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2011/8/26/124657/543/hotels/The_Four_Seasons_Seattle_Has_Apparently_Been_Transplanted_to_Baltimore">pre-opening stock photos.</a>) But now with the new Four Seasons website redesign (at a cost of $18 million), the full-sized photos of the hotels, as well as videos, are front and center.<p>You can watch the YouTube video above for a mini-tutorial while we highlight our fave parts below. <p>Most notable is the Four Seasons emphasis on TripAdvisor reviews which is interesting since recently, a couple of hotel brands (<a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2011/10/21/11851/612/hotels/Starwood_Hotels_to_Put_Reviews_Right_on_Their_Websites">Starwood</a> and <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2011/11/8/113341/385/hotels/Marriott_is_Also_Putting_Guest_Reviews_on_Their_Website">Marriott</a>) began showing off their own juliana 2012-01-16T14:17:12-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2012/1/12/95947/5348

Hotels have long had a love-hate relationship with third-party booking sites--they need the wide reach of the booking sites, but they hate losing out on revenue. Yet now a few hotels must have decided, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Or rather, join together and take the third-partying booking sites on ourselves.

The WSJ reports that Choice Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Marriott Hotels and Wyndham Hotels have bonded together to form their own booking site---RoomKey.com.

We gave the site a brief try this morning and didn't mind at all what we found. ]]> juliana 2012-01-12T10:02:49-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2012/1/4/121110/3491 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/jthospitalitywebsite.jpg" class="top"><p><i><b>UPDATE, 1.5.12:</b> We just heard that the JT Hospitality name is still a "provisional" name. Yippee! The official name is going to be revealed sometime in Q1. We'll let you know as soon as we hear!</i><p> We were utterly surprised by the out-of-left-field merger back in October between sleek boutique brand, <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/thompson hotels"><b>Thompson Hotels</b></a> and the fun, Golden State-loving hotels of <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/joie de vivre hotels"><b>Joie de Vivre</b></a>. <p>It seemed like such an odd-pairing but when you broke down the dynamics (Thompson has the style; JDV has the money), it made sense. <p>Yet while we were hoping for a sophisticated name change, we stumbled across the website for JTHospitality.com, leading us to believe that the JT Hospitality juliana 2012-01-04T15:35:01-05:00 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/