GA Travel Guide
Tags: Hotels Doing Good / Atlanta Hotels / Hotel Toiletries / Hotel Soap / → All Tags
Atlanta Hotels Want You To Leave Your Used Soap Behind
We just wrote about Hotels Doing Good yesterday, but you know the saying: When it rains, it pours goodwill! Today brings us word of another good cause, one that begins in your hotel bathroom. Specifically, with your soap. Perhaps you pay that bar of soap no mind, or maybe you (cough, cough) try to use just one bar and pilfer the other for your own bathroom. Regardless, if you leave a used bar of soap behind, it gets thrown out by housekeeping once you check out.
Not any more. Enter the Global Soap Project, an initiative started by Derreck Kayongo, a former refugee from Uganda, who first came to the U.S. 15 years ago.
Tags: Reality TV Hotels / W Hotels / Atlanta Hotels / → All Tags
'Real Housewives of Atlanta' Kick It in the ATL's W Hotels
The domestic divas on The Real Housewives of Atlanta hang out so much at the ATL's W Hotels they practically have become spokeswomen for the hotel brand. NeNe, Kim and the rest of the hair-pulling gang use the W Buckhead, W Midtown and W Perimeter as their personal playgrounds.
We can't wait to see if Sheree can pull of a real fashion show—with actual clothes this time—at the W Perimeter in an upcoming episode. According to Metromix Atlanta, Sheree arrived at the hotel in a horse-drawn carriage and when she opened the door, doves flew out. All of the housewives were there, as were celebs like singer Angie Stone, crooner Bobby Valentino and Project Runway favorite alum Mychael Knight. We won't be tardy for that party when it airs.
Tags: Hotel Deals / Atlanta Hotels / Kimpton Hotels / → All Tags
Stay at the Hotel Palomar Atlanta Midtown for $139
Who needs a vacation? Yeah, us too. Kimpton feels for all our wanderlust woes and is doing their bit to help out, at least if you’re willing to set your sights on Atlanta.
Hotel Palomar Atlanta Midtown, which opened this past April, is still offering introductory rates to help ease the burden of travel costs. Though rates have gone up $10 since they first opened, well, $139 is still pretty good considering you can also get free parking (a $30 value).
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / HotelChatter Reviews / W Hotels / Atlanta Hotels / Hotwire Hotels / → All Tags
Inside The W Atlanta Buckhead's Close Quarters
We spin you right round, baby, right round. Sorry, for the shakiness at the beginning of the video. The room was a little cramped.
So we told you yesterday we got a stonking deal on Hotwire, bagging a $259 room at the W Atlanta Buckhead for just $95. Here’s how our stay measured up.
Room Reaction
We got a room on floor 10 - just two levels under the Whiskey Blue rooftop bar – and overlooking the Financial Center. It wasn’t the finest view we’ve ever had, to be fair, but we won’t blame the hotel for that.
W have done quite well with the layout – it wasn’t the biggest room you’ll get, but lots of white and an open plan bathroom meant that it didn’t feel cramped. Note: we were staying on our lonesome so the open plan bathroom wasn’t a problem – had we been in a pair, it might have been an issue. But the nice guy at check in had given us the option of a room with a separate bathroom, so don’t lose too much sleep over that.
Tags: Hotwire / W Hotels / Atlanta Hotels / Road Trip Hotels / → All Tags
How Hotwire Got Us a $259 Room at the W Atlanta for Just $95
Have we mentioned before how much we like Hotwire? Well today we’re saying again because we got a smoking deal with them the night before last.
We were passing through Georgia and instead of staying in another B&B with too-thin walls or a motel where strange men phoned our room in the middle of the night, we thought we’d get some sleep in a proper hotel in Atlanta. And seeing as W has no less than four hotels in town, we thought we’d try one out.
Tags: Hotel Packages / Hotel News / Atlanta Hotels / Kimpton Hotels / → All Tags
Palomar Atlanta 'Play-cating' Guests This Summer
It just opened in April, so the Hotel Palomar Atlanta Midtown is looking to drum up some summer business with a few of those act-like-kids "playcation" deals.
Some of the more playground-themed discounts and activities are:
· Game for upgrades: Try your luck at receiving a free upgrade at check-in (based on availability) by hula hooping for 20 seconds or playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.
· Sangria Happy Hour: Hotel Palomar’s wine hour is spiced up with sangria. Sip, sing and snack with complimentary sangria and bites, while listening to summer-themed tunes.
· Play dirty or play nice: Pick your fun with “Play Dirty” and “Play Nice” themed cocktails, available for purchase at adjacent Kimpton restaurants.
· Game on: Get competitive with summertime games at Wine Hour, such as a virtual Wii golf, baseball or tennis games.
· Tag, you’re it!: Grab a Playground-themed luggage tag in the hotel lobby.
Though Atlanta might seem like more of a business destination, the Hotel Palomar is close to some of the city’s more fun tourist destinations like the Georgia Aquarium, the High Museum of Art, the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, bustling Peachtree Street, Centennial Olympic Park, Turner Field, and our favorite, the World of Coca-Cola.
The Summer Playground amenities are available until September 7, and package rates start at $199 per night. All you have to do is go to the Kimpton web site and enter the rate code SUMMER to book your stay.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Kimpton Hotels / Atlanta Hotels / → All Tags
Finally, a Hotel That Opens on Time: The Palomar Atlanta
Here’s news for you: a hotel is actually opening on its scheduled date. The Hotel Palomar Atlanta will throw open the doors to its 304 rooms.
The newest installation of the San Francisco-based chain boutique hotel has a few special features like a “floating” aquarium in the lobby, the outdoor AltoRex lounge, and pet-friendly accommodations.
Now might not seem like the best time to open a huge new 21-story hotel, especially with huge dips in occupancy and room price rates, especially in a hotel-saturated city like Atlanta. The average room rate of about $200 should help, though.
Tags: Hotel Pets / Hotel Restaurants / → All Tags
Bring Your Dog to Cocktail Hour at Hotel Indigo Atlanta
If we haven’t made ourselves clear in the past, we love pets. You may have also noted our affinity for, uh, a little sociable sharing of spirits (i.e. drinking). So clearly we love when hotels combine the two, such as the Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown.
The hotel celebrates the "dog days of summer" (yeah yeah, groan) with a weekly "Canine Cocktail" happy hour on their patio — held 6 to 9 p.m. — for pet owners and their panting companions, with this year’s season beginning Tuesday, May 26. There’s a water bar as well as the “Ruff Age Bar” — a free “special vegan doggie treat bar” — for dogs in attendance. Or extra-special pups can get pampered from the doggie menu (sirloin steak, $6; grilled chicken, $5; Voss water, $6.50). “Those of the human persuasion” can order pup-inspired cocktails such as the Greyhound, Salty Dog, and Yellow Lab.
Of course, a couple of rules of dog etiquette apply: leashes are required; dogs must stay out of the bar area and their paws off the tables and chairs. Also worth noting is that one dollar from every Indigo martini sold goes in support of the local Piedmont Park Dog Park.
[Photo: TheAtlantaTraveler.com]
Tags: Hotel Renovations / Red Roof Inns / Hotel News / → All Tags
Even Red Roof Inns Are Upgrading to Keep Up With the Times
It's official. No hotel anywhere, ever, has any excuse for big, boxy TV's, early-90's coffeemakers and exceptionally nasty bedspreads: Red Roof Inns have, at last, started to upgrade and redesign their new-build properties. The budget chain has just opened the first of their "NextGen" hotels in Locust Grove, Georgia, with another one debuting in Beaumont, Texas in June.
And they ain't lookin' so bad, if we do say so ourselves. We're not so sure we're buying the "exquisitely luxurious" descriptor used in the press release (yeah, they said that, really), but the newer Red Roof NextGen properties feature:
New and luxurious bathrooms with granite countertops, vessel sinks and spa-inspired rain-flow showers [...] wireless internet and flat-screen TVs that will be outfitted with auto sensing remote jack packs (RJPs) as well as spacious workspaces with ergonomic seating; Love-you-Linens plush bedding and Smart-by-Design amenities.
Tags: Hotel Parking / Hotel Hell / Intercontinental Hotels / → All Tags
Another Reason to Avoid Hotel Parking
We've already griped about the insane parking fees at hotels and now we have another reason why we should just avoid hotel parking altogether. Or at least, self-park our own cars.
The owner of a $284,000 Lamborghini left his whip in the care of the valet at the Intercontinental Buckhead but when he went to check-out the car was missing. It wouldn't turn up for another month. From WSBTV News:
Eric Vargosko said he learned that his car was missing from a valet lot at the Intercontinental Hotel when it came time to check out.
“They looked for the car for about an hour, and the manager told me the car was missing -- they did not have the car,” Vargosko said.
Tags: NYT Reviews / Atlanta Hotels / Boutique Hotels / Hotel WiFi / → All Tags
The Ellis in Atlanta is Generic But Still Better Than Chain Hotels
The Ellis in Atlanta opened waaay back in October 2007, and we’ll admit we haven’t followed up on it much since. So this weekend we were happy to see the New York Times earn its keep with a review of the boutique hotel.
Built in 1913, the landmark building housing the Ellis is known famously as the site of a hotel fire that killed 119 people in 1946. Scary stuff, but at least the tragedy led to nationwide fire safety reforms. These days, though, the 127-room Ellis is known better for its smoking hot modern-meets-Southern-comfort vibe.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Kimpton Hotels / Atlanta Hotels / Art Hotels / → All Tags
Hotel Palomar Atlanta to Open in April
According to Kimpton Hotels, the Hotel Palomar Atlanta Midtown “will bring a new meaning to Southern hospitality.” Does that mean their iced tea will be spiked with something good? We don’t know the answer to that yet, but we’ll find out April 29, when the sixth installment of the Palomar series is scheduled to open.
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