HotelChatter - Tag: Unusual Hotels

Underwater Hotel at the Great Barrier Reef: Is It Really Eco-Friendly?

amandak — 2008-05-19T09:00:01-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3873/Great_Barrier_Reef_Fish.jpg" class="imgborder"> We are big fans of Queensland's incredible Great Barrier Reef and since we keep reading that it's kinda threatened by human activity and global warming, we're not really sure that we like the idea of the floating hotel called Reefworld that the UK Times reported about on the weekend.They're saying that Reefworld will be the world's first "fully eco-friendly floating hotel" and includes eight underwater guestrooms. The bathrooms will have glass walls so all the fish will be able to see what you're up to in there! The plan is to combine it with a research facility, and also power the whole thing using solar panels and its own turbines and "underwater trickle-charge generators".It sounds a bit

Big Sur: Treebones: The Big Sur Hotel That Nearly Wasn't

amandak — 2008-05-07T09:20:02-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3873/Yurts_at_Treebones.jpg" class="imgborder"> We passed on <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/1/20/224815/236/hotels/Peter_Greenberg_s_Tips_Yurts_in_California">Peter Greenberg's tips</a> about the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/The+Treebones+Resort/local/1074">Treebones Resort</a> in Big Sur a short while ago, and now this collection of yurts has made it onto a list from <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Budget%20Travel%20magazine">Budget Travel</a> magazine too: a list of accommodations in Big Sur for under $200 a night.The odd thing about Treebones is that the owners never intended to build a hotel or resort of any kind. They bought the land there to retire on, and then discovered that new planning laws prevented them from simply building a house. And gradually the idea of the yurts developed--because they didn't want a "normal hotel"--and Treebones as we now know it, 16 simple wooden yurts and a lodge--came

New York: TrendWatching: Will Prison Hotels Be Replaced By Insane Asylum Hotels?

mytwocents — 2008-04-04T09:20:01-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/bellevue_hotel.jpg" class="imgborder">Word on First Avenue is that Manhattan officials are trying to convince a developer to turn New York City's famous Bellevue psychiatric ward into <a href="http://www.observer.com/2008/city-seeks-hotel-former-psych-hospital/">swanky new hotel digs.</a> Sounds crazy, no? Not so says the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Health and Hospital Corporation, who report the building would make an ideal hotel and conference center to house the medical and life-science industry folk who travel to the area. Built by architect Charles B. Myers, the 1931 Italian Renaissance-style asylum is still a beautiful, albeit rundown building with magnificent architectural details, many different wings, and long corridors totaling an insane (ahem) 400,000 square feet of virtual hotel space.And while the rooms are a smallish for

Baku: The Death Star Hotel Not Being Built By Emperor Palpatine

juliana — 2008-03-06T16:09:49-05:00

<![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/deathstarhotel.jpg" class="imgborder">Maybe this planned hotel will make our <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/2/24/144612/104/hotels/Best_Geek_Hotels_in_the_World_2_0">Best Geek Hotels</a> in the World list for the year 2020.Architects are presenting renderings for this unusual-shaped hotel which some are already calling the Death Star Hotel. <blockquote>Heerim architects are looking to build the Star Wars staple in, of all places, Baku, Azerbaijan. They're hoping to bring this design, called the Hotel Full Moon, and another, the Hotel Crescent, to one of the fastest growing economies and will rightly call the area Full Moon Bay. </blockquote>According to <a href="http://www.skyscrapernews.com/news.php?ref=1357">SkyScraper News</a>, the Death Star hotel will be a 35-story luxury hotel with 382 rooms. The pod-shaped structure on the bottom will be residential apartments called Palace of Wind 1 and 2.Both

Paris: Staying Atop the Palais de Tokyo in the 'Hotel' Everland

femmefatale — 2008-02-19T09:05:01-05:00

When is a hotel a hotel? And when is it a piece of art, and then when is it an alien space-ship?

There's a bit of all three posing on top of Paris's Palais de Tokyo museum of modern art, although to anyone jogging past (as our Paris correspondent was) it looks simply like the latter.

The Hotel Everland is the latest in a series of arty hotels popping up and closing down in Paris - only this one's doing it deliberately. Because despite the name, it's not a hotel but rathera work of art in the shape of a bright green and white fibreglass pod with a bed and bathroom inside.