HotelChatter - Tag: Recession Hotels

London: London's Trocadero to Get Japanese-Style Pod Hotel

Jennifer Kester — 2010-01-11T09:44:18-05:00

Looks like London is copying Japan's longtime capsule hotel craze and putting the tiny pod-like rooms in bustling Piccadilly Square.

Except instead of Japanese businessmen checking in, the hotel will likely see Olympic groupies, since the budget hotel is scheduled to be completed by the London 2012 Games. The 495-room hotel will be housed in the second to seventh floors of the Trocadero, an entertainment complex with tenants like Funland—no word yet on the fate of the gamer haven. Though the lower floors are supposed to offer retail and entertainment outlets.

Japan's Job-Seekers Find Home in Capsule Hotels, Just Don't Invite the Mistress

Heidi Atwal — 2010-01-04T15:59:55-05:00

Hearing about businessmen who turn their hotel room into a home-away-from-home is no new phenomenon. There may even be a wife-away-from-home involved, but that's a different story altogether.

Also nothing new are those teeny, tiny capsule hotel "rooms"—if they can even be called that—common to Japan. They're cute and quirky to us Americans, sure, but these days they're serving a different purpose. With the economy having taken a turn for the worst in 2009, some of the country's unemployed have turned to dwelling at places like the Hotel Shinjuku as they search for new jobs, reports the New York Times.

Beverly Hills: Down Drinks and Land a Job at The Crescent's 'Pink Slip Party'

JetSetCD — 2009-03-18T11:09:40-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/6193/PinkSlip_Party.jpg" class="top"> Leave it to Beverly Hills' <a href="">Crescent Hotel</a> to try and drum up business and new jobs for partygoers by hosting a "Pink Slip Party" on the first Tuesday of each month. Apparently sipping $5 pink martinis and shopping your resume is the hip version of unemployment, spinning depression into succession as only the west coast can. Since the parties on the hotel's patio began in early February, recruiters have been brought together with motivated jobseekers over cocktails and half-priced appetizers, leading to some success stories already and many more in the works. It's an affront to the formality of a typical application and interview process, and rightly so as times like these mean more

Beijing: Beijing Hotels Suffer in Olympic-Sized Rut

JetSetCD — 2009-02-23T14:41:10-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/6193/BeijingOlympics.jpg" class="top"> If you're intrigued by all of the crazy vacation and airfare deals to <a href="http://www.jaunted.com/city/beijing">Beijing</a> of late, then rest assured that they won't be going away anytime soon as the city struggles with a dearth of tourism despite last summer's Olympics. Combine the low visitor numbers with Beijing's glut of newly-opened luxury hotels with high nightly rates, and it seems that they've got a case of the Dubai disease--whereby the recession hits new development hard enough to stabilize room rates at a more affordable level. Although since it's only been a few months of low occupancy, don't expect to roll up into Beijing's Park Hyatt for $150 a night quite yet; they still have their pride. This

Hotels.com's 'Luxury For Less' Sale is Recession-Friendly

JetSetCD — 2009-02-16T14:07:55-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/6193/CommonwealthRm.jpg" class="top"> The recession is bad for business, or is it? What we mean is, travel discounts have successfully got us booking nights more than usual, but where the individual traveler gains, the actual hotels continue to suffer. An example of one such recession-driven sale on hotels comes straight from Hotels.com, whose "<a href="http://www.hotels.com/promotion.jsp?id=34613&tab=deals&al=pr">Luxury for Less</a>" campaign is touting plush hotel rooms for nightly prices ranging from $89 to $180. Comfortable hotel rooms in big cities are very welcome when under $300, but we're just not sure if Hotels.com's offerings could be considered "luxury." A few of their featured properties--<a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Belden+Stratford+Hotel/ian/194506">The Belden-Stratford</a> in Chicago, <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Caesars+Palace/local/107">Caesars Palace</a> in Las Vegas and <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Hilton+San+Francisco+Union+Square/ian/112932">Hilton Union Square</a> in San Francisco--are all