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What Commencement Guests Got for Their 'Study' at Yale Stay

Where: 1157 Chapel St. [map], New Haven, CT, United States, 06511

Yale students donned their caps and gowns this past weekend for graduation. To celebrate the Ivy Leaguers, the Study at Yale gave away a graduation present. Unfortunately, it wasn't a new car. But it was still pretty cool: The hotel handed out Moleskine notebooks embossed with the Study logo and with the Yale commencement 2011 insignia.

Moleskine, of course, is the mother of all travel notebooks/journals/etc. It's a favorite for its simple design, durability and infinite uses. All guests who stayed at the New Haven, Connecticut, hotel this past weekend got a big black Moleskine—a big upgrade from the usual hotel pad that falls apart when you use it.

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Anti-View / Hilton Hotels / Hilton Garden Inns / → All Tags

The Trade-off of Staying at a Hilton Garden Inn for Its Free WiFi

Where: 85 Glastonbury Boulevard [map], Glastonbury, CT, United States, 06033

You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.

While the internet charges at Hilton Hotels vary in price, you can usually count on their budget brand, Hilton Garden Inn, to offer up free WiFi. But the tradeoff? This anti-view from your room. Yeah, and the snow piles aren't doing much to help.

HotelChatter Flickr member Bnilsen dropped this in our Flickr pool last month and while we don't expect much from a suburban budget brand hotel, this view still put us in funk.

And the scene looking in wasn't that much better either.

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Hotel Fun / Hotel Bowling Lanes / Kim Kardashian / Indian Casinos / Hotel Ice Rinks / → All Tags

Foxwood Sexes Up Its Fun Options with a High Rollers Bowling Alley

Where: 39 Norwich Westerly Rd [map], Ledyard Center, CT, United States, 06339

It turns out you don't have to go to Vegas, Dubai or Macau to experience some high roller fun--you can just go to Connecticut!

That's because the Foxwoods Resort and Casino has completed a brand new High Rollers Luxury Lanes and Lounge with 20 bowling lanes (six of 'em for VIPs), billiards tables, a two-level lounge with a piano and 50-seat marble bar, two full-service bars and more than 60 HDTVs. Already this place, which actually opened back in October, is fulfilling our New Year's Resolutions list for 2011 (see #4.)

In an article from Hospitality Design, we learn that the inspiration for the bowling lanes was actually "evoking the glamour of Las Vegas in the '20s and '30s." Interestingly enough, Vegas casinos weren't actually around in the 20s and the 30s.

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Interviews / Paul McGowan / Hotel Amenities / Study Hotels / College Hotels / New Haven Hotels / → All Tags

Could We Be Doing More Studying in the Future?

Where: 1157 Chapel St [map], New Haven, CT, United States, 06511

The Study at Yale is settling in for the 2010-2011 academic year in New Haven, Conn., but could the 124-room Ivy League hotel be gearing up for new locations as well? That's what it sounded like when we chatted with Paul McGowan, the Study at Yale's creator and owner.

The Study at Yale has already impressed us with their spacious rooms, complete with reading chairs and ottomans as well as with their seersucker bathrobes, gingersnap cookies at the front desk and reading glasses on loan. But there are even more little touches at the hotel that we learned about from McGowan.

For instance, during reunion weekends, the hotel's bellstaff will wear hats commemorating the years of the graduating classes being honored that year. The bellstaff also gets in on the college gear year-round by wearing jeans and rugby shirts.

Yet an amenity that definitely scores top marks is the hotel's Daily Events Bulletin Board which is updated every day with the events happening in, on and around campus from athletic games, to talks and seminars and art and music exhibits.

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Hotel Amenities / Hotel Services / College Hotels / Study Hotels / New Haven Hotels / → All Tags

The Study at Yale Lets You Be More Studious-Looking with Eyeglass Rental

Where: 1157 Chapel Street [map], New Haven, CT, United States, 06511

When the Study at Yale opened near the Ivy League campus two years ago, we got all excited about the fun perks at the hotel like complimentary WiFi,leather reading chairs and the bathrobe which featured a seersucker design stitched with the hotel’s logo--a pair of reading glasses.

Speaking of reading glasses, the hotel has another fun perk, well, actually it's more of a necessity. If you've forgotten your reading glasses on your trip, you can borrow a stylish pair from the hotel who has partnered up with designer Amy Sacks.

And if you like them, you can end up purchasing them from the front desk or ordering a new pair from the Amy Sacks catalogue (Frames range from $60 to $90.) Which means no more desperate purchases of granny glasses from CVS. Now that's service!

Room rates at The Study at Yale start at around $239 a night but popular weekends on campus tend to sell out quick.

Odd Hotels / Design Hotels / Themed Hotel Rooms / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags

If Salvador Dalí Designed a Hotel, It Would Be The Winvian

Where: 155 Alain White Rd. [map], Morris, CT, United States, 06763

Relais & Chateaux has a long and storied past of finding the most sophisticated hotels and restaurants, especially in France, where the organization was founded in the 1950’s. Lately, however, the venerable collective has been expanding its portfolio to new continents and more whimsical properties, including Winvian in the forested hill country outside Litchfield, Connecticut.

The eighteen guest cottages and cabins that dot the 113-acre property were designed by fifteen different artists, and all come together to form a sort of dreamscape in the Connecticut back country. Each cottage has its own unique character, and a name to go along with it. We’ve picked out a few of our fantastical favorites to share with you.

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Labor Day Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Hotel Deals / → All Tags

Talk About 'Paying for the Experience': Labor Day at the Winvian

Where: 155 Alain White Road [map], Morris, CT, United States, 06763

Still looking for a Labor Day getaway? If you’re one of those hotel guests who pay for the experience and are into the whole super-luxe, rural New England scene, you’re in luck: Winvian, the Relais & Châteaux property made of 18 “cottages” in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills is offering a Labor Day deal, and as of today there is still availability for the weekend.

Starting at just $750 a night (bear with us—this is a deal for the preppy-posh Winvian where rooms started at $999 a night two years ago), you too can play house in a themed cottage designed by a fancy architect (15 of them got to play make-believe when designing their respective chalets.)

It’s a fun, whimsical concept—there’s a Treehouse, a Log Cabin, and a Library cottage—although kind of a pricey way to rekindle childhood memories.

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Refereeing Hotel Reviews / TripAdvisor / New Haven Hotels / → All Tags

The Study at Yale Passes With Flying Colors, So Says Recent Reviewers

Where: 1157 Chapel St [map], New Haven, CT, United States, 06511

Our inner geeks have been pretty excited about New Haven’s new-ish hotel, the Study at Yale, ever since the place opened last year. But until we pay the hotel a visit ourselves, we’ll have to rely on our steamy fantasy involving a rendezvous with a hunky Visiting Scholar. Er, also, the TripAdvisor reviews, which are impressively positive—13 “excellent” ratings and one “very good.” Apparently even the doormen are “dapper!”

A few highlights:

* “The only other choices near the university are a Courtyard by Marriott that in our experience could use a good cleaning, and the Omni, which is good but overpriced for what it is -- so The Study is a wonderful, welcome addition for visitors who are looking to stay near Yale,” writes TA user Oliver001.

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Hotel Restaurants / Hotel Burger Shops / Hotel News / → All Tags

Will Bobby Flay Have a No Lentils Policy at Mohegan Sun?

Where: 1 MOHEGAN SUN BOULEVARD [map], Uncasville, CT, United States, 06382

Bobby Flay, the man who created what we like to call "The Stoner" (a delicious hamburger with chips already inside the bun) for its supreme munchie factor, is bringing his comfort food to Mohegan Sun.

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Hotel Hell / Hotel News / Hotel Crime / Hotel Sex / → All Tags

Swingers' Party at Hotel Swings Out of Control

Can you imagine checking into a hotel, moseying downstairs for a drink and finding that the bar has been turned into a full-blown (no pun intended, heh) swingers club with people actually engaging in swinger-ly activities inside the bar? Awkward!

Apparently you would have been at risk of finding yourself in such a situation if you'd headed to Club 91 at the Beverly Hills Suites near Hartford, Connecticut last month. In a sting operation recently, two undercover cops "experienced first-hand" a swingers' club that was being run out of the hotel bar/club — a routine event organized by something called Hot Couples Parties — which would have been all fine and good...but people were actually doing the swinging in the bar. Ew.

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College Hotels / New Haven Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel Hype / → All Tags

Serena and Blair Could Have Spent the Night at The Study at Yale

Where: 1157 Chapel Street [map], New Haven, CT, United States, 06511

The New York Times recently wrote about a new hotel opening in New Haven, Conn., that's actually within the storied Yale campus.

Too bad this hotel just opened, otherwise it could have made a cameo feature in this week's Gossip Girl episode when the kids go to Yale for the weekend.

Nevertheless, the hotel is now open and despite the crap economy, The Study at Yale might actually fare well. The hotel is located on Chapel Street, across from the Yale School of Art and near the School of Architecture, the university art gallery and the Center for British Art.

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Hotel Opening Rates / MGM Grand Hotels / → All Tags

Hotel Opening Rates :: MGM Grand at Foxwoods for $295 a Night

Where: Foxwoods, CT, United States

Connecticut's newest hotel-casino, MGM Grand at Foxwoods won't open until May 18, 2008 but starting today, guests can go online to make reservations.

Interestingly, when we tried to log-in at 2pm EST, the site wasn't loading. We tried 20 minutes later and it was loading but sloooow. So either there's a heck of a lot of people trying to make rezzies or there's just some website kinks to work out.

Anyhow, rooms are starting at $295 a night but for the opening week, the rates are a ridiculous $590 a night.

The latest MGM Grand family member will have 825 rooms, not quite Vegas-sized but close. Inside will be gaming, a 4,000-seat theater, a spa, a nightclub and several dining options such as Michael Schlow's Alta Strada, Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak and an outpost of the New York eatery, Junior's.

We're actually a little more excited about the retail opportunities which will include an authorized Apple reseller. So now instead of blowing our winnings on silly things like bottle service and blow-outs, we can buy stuff we'll actually use once we get home.