Aint nothing like a cup of coffee in the morning before you put your face on, which is why we were delighted to find a coffee maker in our room at Harrah’s Ak-Chin in Phoenix this week. Just one problem – it’s placed in the bathroom, and that’s every bit as gross as using the phone on the can, no?

Hygiene matters and torturously slow (albeit free) WiFi aside, we’re extremely pleasantly surprised by our room here. Having slept our way through most of the Harrah’s properties in Vegas, Tunica and New Orleans, we assume most standard casino rooms will be pretty grim, but this is actually pretty damn nice. Take a look.]]> juliab 2011-03-16T17:29:21-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/11/17/105832/05 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/illyviceroy.jpg" class="top"><p> We are continuing to geek out over <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/In-Room%20Coffee%20Makers">in-room coffee makers</a>. Yesterday, we showed you how the folks <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/11/16/152252/38/hotels/The_Richardson_Hotel_s_Nespresso_Machine_Helps_The_Down_Under_Jet_Lag_">Down Under</a> do it and today we're including an in-room coffee maker that we forgot to include in our <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-photos/full/25/The+Best+of+In-Room+Coffee+Makers">original round-up</a>--The Illy Espresso machine at <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Viceroy+Miami/local/1403"><b>Viceroy Miami</b></a>.<p>The Francis Francis X8 espresso machines from Illy are found in all rooms at the hotel and there is no grinding of beans or scooping of ground espresso to deal with here. Just plop in a pod into "Frank" (we can call it that, right?) and steaming hot espresso is yours in a matter of seconds. There is milk and as you can see, oranges to accompany your drink as juliana 2009-11-17T12:04:42-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/11/16/152252/38

Before heading to Western Australia last week, we heard that Aussies take their coffee very seriously. There’s a "cappuccino strip" (or several) of cafes in every major city, and each one of my hotel rooms would have a decent coffeemaker in it. One of them even had a deluxe espresso machine that would make a Starbucks barrista drool. Guess that's why Australians always seem so chipper.

However, the coffeemaker during a recent stay that really won out on the quality-of-coffee versus ease-of-use nexus was the one at The Richardson Hotel and Spa in Perth.
]]> EricRosen 2009-11-16T16:29:28-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/11/4/101439/692 <![CDATA[<p> <img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/coffeemakerstory.jpg" class="top"><p> Not all that long ago, your choices for getting coffee came down to two options--one, order it up from room service at an insane price like $12 for small pot or get your hands dirty trying to figure out the mini-Mr. Coffee machine in your room. <p>The latter was always cause for frustration since we hardly know how to work our own coffee machine at 6am, let alone someone else's. Also, paper filters may very well be the devil's child and have you ever tried to get coffee percolating in a cramped bathroom? Heinous. Oh the things we will do for an early morning java jolt. <p>But then came the invention of <b>single cup coffee</b> which juliana 2009-11-04T16:34:03-05:00 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/