HotelChatter

Upstairs, local design firm RTKL is giving the guest rooms a more modern look, using hand-designed headboards and plenty of lime greens, pale blues, and yellows. It also looks like Loews is benefiting from some of the technological advances its neighbors have been employing: bathrooms in the suites will have flat screen TVs embedded in the mirrors (like at The Betsy), and doorbells outside the rooms will indicate if guests would like housekeeping service or do not want to be disturbed (similar to what they have at the Epic).

We also like the sound of the motion detector sensors that will alert housekeeping if someone is in the room or not (no more awkward calls of “Just a minute!” when you hear that door open), and the “business center” panel that will let us use the TV screen to play DVDs and MP3s, or use it as a computer screen. That is, of course, if you can get us away from the pool.

The renos are meant to be completed by the end of 2009. For once this is a time-frame we're going to trust. God bless the Super Bowl and its associated media caravan coming to town in February!