The boho-chic Camper, one of Spain’s best-known brands of footwear, knows how to make great shoes. It turns out they’re also good at hotels.
The Mallorcan shoe company eschewed the normal route of diversifying into, say, handbags or watches because, as co-founder Miguel Fluxá puts it, "Food and shelter, like shoes, are a basic need."
We’re a fan of Camper’s cheeky, comfy shoes, so we were shivery-excited to check in to Casa Camper to see how their signature style – wonderfully silly, a touch subversive – would extend to a hotel. It’s one thing to excel at chunky heels and zany stitching. But to apply that to a living space? Hmm…]]>
The Mexiterranée restaurant
The other day it was Mexican-Japanese fusion, today it's "Mexiterranean" cuisine being cooked up by a hotel. Barcelona's Casanova Hotel, home to the Mexiterranee restaurant, is offering private gourmet food and wine tours that claim to bring together the best of Mexican, Catalan and Mediterranean ingredients. ]]>
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Le Méridien Barcelona is one of the Spanish city's more popular hotels, mostly because of its location off the hotspot entertainment boulevard of La Rambla. (Well, perhaps at least until the W Barcelona debuts later this year.)
But the hotel has not been without its problems. When Starwood, which bought the Le Méridien brand in 2005, began assimilating its Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program to the hotel chain, members complained that their status didn't seem to hold much weight in garnering upgrades at the hotel, noting that staff frequently said suites were not available, despite such rooms capable of being booked online.
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