Have you checked out the Hilton Honors Rewards store lately? Because we just popped in for the first time and no joke: if we had enough HHonors Points racked up, we could do all of our holiday shopping here. Um, we definitely don't have enough points to do so (and that HDTV for pops would set us back over a million points), but let's forget about that for a moment and allow us to take you on a guided tour through the presents we would buy for everyone. ]]> Jenna 2008-11-21T13:09:11-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/11/21/72817/944 <![CDATA[<img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/17697/Hilton_SD_Bayfront_Lobby.JPG" class="top"><p> <p>Despite a <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/5/20/11051/6720/hotels/Explosion_at_the_Hilton_San_Diego_Injures_14_Construction_Workers">serious blast</a> in May that disrupted construction, the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Hilton+San+Diego+Bayfront/ian/264619"><strong>Hilton San Diego Bayfront</strong></a> appears to have bounced back and will have a soft opening <b>Dec. 3</b>, just as scheduled. That&#146;s soon, people! And lucky for all of us, a friendly insider has sent us some photos of the lobby and exterior.</p> <p>First, the exterior: Designed by Portman & Associates, the shiny new glass high-rise punctuates the San Diego skyline with the look of, well, pretty much every other Hilton we&#146;ve ever seen, honestly.</p> <p>But! The lobby is where it gets interesting. In addition to having a bunch of guest check-in counters for speedy service, hanging from the wall is a huge chandelier-like artwork made KatieK 2008-11-21T09:05:17-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/10/31/102231/96 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/wacphilly.jpg" class="top"><p>Much like Kempinski, the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Waldorf-Astoria%20Collection"><b>Waldorf-Astoria Collection</b></a> from <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Hilton%20Hotels">Hilton Hotels</a> is not slowing down their expansion plans. In addition to new hotels in Montreal, Jerusalem, New Orleans, Park City and Sarasota, this morning the collection just announced its plans for Philadelphia at the northeast corner of 15th and Chestnut Streets. From the <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/One-First-Grand-Hotels-Meets/story.aspx?guid={D32A6338-9C76-4470-A3F5-E9F7F52F2C63}">press release</a>: <blockquote><p>Standing at 670 feet tall, the 58-story Waldorf=Astoria Hotel and Residences Philadelphia will be the city's sixth-tallest building as well as its tallest mixed-use hotel and residential project. The classically contemporary granite and glass tower is to be designed by Cope Linder Architects of Philadelphia. As a newly constructed property, the hotel will have a variety of opportunities to support a sustainable juliana 2008-10-31T10:22:31-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/10/30/15521/518 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3873/Millennium_HIlton_Bangkok.jpg" class="top"><p><i>HotelChatter's <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/user/amandak">AmandaK</a> is already looking forward to Christmas.</i><p>Thailand&#146;s not exactly what we&#146;d consider a Christmas destination--all those Buddhists aren&#146;t really into the Santa Claus thing--but apparently that doesn&#146;t stop the <a href=&#148;http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Millennium+Hilton+Bangkok/ian/235086&#148;><b>Millennium Hilton Bangkok</b></a> putting together a bunch of Christmas offerings.<p>It&#146;s going to start the second you walk into the hotel. The Millennium Hilton says it will be<blockquote><p>adorning its lobby with an elegant centre piece of a gigantic gold Christmas tree hanging inverted from its ceiling.</blockquote><p>An upside-down Christmas tree? It seems to match with the upside-down-ness of spending Christmas in Thailand. One smart point about this idea is that Bangkok is a great place to shop so bringing home gifts should be easy.<p>In the hotel restaurant they&#146;ll juliana 2008-10-30T16:30:04-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/10/30/114612/52 <![CDATA[<p><i>We are suckers for a room with a killer view. &nbsp;We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the <a href="http://flickr.com/groups/hotelchatter/">HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool</a>, or by <a href="mailto:tips@hotelchatter.com">sending the photo along to us</a>. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.</i><p <p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/6929/hiltonuniversalcityview.jpg" class="top"> <p>While some of us here at HC live in the LA area full-time and may be totally over sweeping views of the Jenna 2008-10-30T11:49:41-05:00 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/