HotelChatter - Tag: Matt Gross

Miami: Wheel of Craigslist: Good or Bad Source of Vacation Rentals?

jennm — 2008-04-07T13:11:11-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/orginal_condotel.jpg" class="imgborder">The original condo-tel in SoBe?When hotel hunting for our next vaca, we often forget to troll <a href="http://www.craigslist.org">Craigslist</a>--for vacation rentals that is, not missed connections. Perhaps the reason we don't often think of it is because it's such a crapshoot. For instance, we have friends who scored an awesome place in Chelsea for a weekend in New York off the site, but our own attempts to find a vacation rental in Spain netted nothing but scams. Similarly, The New York Times' <a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/travel/06frugal.html?ref=travel">Budget Traveler Matt Gross</a>, tasked with finding cheap lodging in Miami for a weekend, took to Craigslist, netting similar mixed results. The listing, which touted "HoT SOBE condo for rent inside a NICE hotel!!" showed

Bansko : Ski Bulgaria: At Least It's Pretty Cheap at Villa Roka

amandak — 2007-12-03T09:27:17-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3873/VillaRokaBulgaria.jpg" class="imgborder"> NYT columnist Matt Gross's latest expedition has been a skiing holiday in, of all places, Bulgaria. In particular, he set out to figure out whether the ski resort area of Bansko, the biggest in the country, was about to make skiing in Bulgaria famous.The answer: possibly not. Amidst tales of queue jumpers in the lines for the ski lifts, and resort staff who groom away all the good powdered snow, Gross did manage to get in some good snowboarding, but it didn't sound all that great. What did look cute was the hotel he stayed in, the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Villa+Roka/local/1006">Villa Roka</a>, all modern and trendy-looking and with a spa center including solarium, sauna and steam bath.The best part

Budapest: New York in Budapest: It Ain't All Bad

amandak — 2007-07-16T11:21:24-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3873/New_York_Palace_Budapest.jpg" class="imgborder"> The newest luxury hotel in Budapest has a strange history. The building which now houses the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/New+York+Palace+-+a+Boscolo+Luxury+Hotel/ian/238232">New York Palace Budapest</a> started life in 1894 as an arts center with "the most beautiful cafe in the world", became an insurance company, lost much of its beauty during the communist era and now, finally, is enjoying a new life as a small luxury hotel.This week's <a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/travel/15check.html?ref=travel">NY Times</a> write-up from Matt Gross gives a pretty balanced view on the New York Palace, which is trying to compete with other Budapest luxury spot Gresham Palace. The building itself--especially inside the lobby--is jaw-droppingly impressive, but appearance isn't everything. Matt found a few small flaws during his stay:<blockquote>But the Wi-Fi was

Punta del Este: Cubicle Dreamin': Punta del Este

pbb — 2007-03-08T10:59:41-05:00

<![CDATA[ Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? <a href="tips@hotelchatter.com">Send the story our way</a>. In this episode, Hotel Maven <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/user/pbb/stories">PBB</a> heads for Uruguay. Enjoy.<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/posta_del_cangrejo.jpg" class="imgborder"/> Depending on <a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/travel/15punta.html">who</a> <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9C01E1D61F31F9345A35752C0A9619C8B63">you</a> <a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/the-party-picks-up-march-2006">ask</a>, Punta del Este is either totally hot or

New York: Tribeca Grand Talks Back To HotelChatter

markj — 2006-10-16T12:46:52-05:00

There is nothing better than a good old fashioned hotel rep mixing it up with us. And while we would much rather be hearing from a hotels General Manager, or at least someone in-house, hearing from some sort of hotel mouthpiece makes us smile, and is easily post-worthy.

After the jump, Maria Vu from Syndicate responds to our One Night At Tribeca Grand stay. In our humble opinion, PR folks can learn a lot from how Maria enters the conversation. As always, we welcome guests, hotel employees, and tipsters to enter the hotel conversation any way they wish--just remember to tell us who you are, cause we will find out anyway.