HotelChatter

What are some other hotels along the beach in Santa Monica you'd recommend for visitors (you know, the ones who aren't looking to squander their life savings?)
Casa Del Mar is beautiful, and comparable to Shutters, I think. Viceroy is the "coolest" hotel in the area, in terms of having a sort of hip decor and a great bar and pool downstairs. I also recently stayed at The Oceana, which has become my go-to place to recommend to friends and family who are visiting from out of town. Great little hotel.

As for yourself, what do you look for in a hotel room whether it's for work or pleasure?
I look for a place where I can be comfortable if I have to spend long hours there during the day. If I'm on a trip for work, I often have to be in my room for an extended amount of time, writing or working on the phone or the computer, so it's important that the room be somewhere that I'll enjoy hanging out. I was in NYC last week and the rooms at The Crosby Street Hotel are a perfect example of that.

What was a memorable hotel stay for your recently?
Again I'll mention The Oceana in Santa Monica here. The rooms are sunny and cute (and BIG), incredible ocean views, and the staff is courteous and really helpful -- it's a much smaller hotel than some of the other nice ones, so you feel like you're getting really personal attention. Also, they give out iPads at the pool, which I thought was pretty awesome. Oh, and snow cones with booze in them. Hard to not love that.

Lastly, what do you prefer in your hotel room--iPad or Kindle?
I do love a Kindle, but I think I gotta go with iPad on that one. Kindle is awesome for reading, but with the iPad I can read and also surf the web, play games, whatever. I don't want this to turn into an Apple commercial.

I'll just say that The Human Bobby is available on BOTH devices, so I think that every hotel in the country should probably download it to whatever device it is that they offer to their guests. It's a super-fast read that hotel guests can polish off no matter how short their stay is. Just throwing it out there. You listening, hotels? Totally unbiased idea. Trying to help the hotels. I'm really considerate like that.

Thanks Gabe! We'll make sure hotels receive your request to download The Human Bobby on their iPads right away! In the meantime HotelChatter Readers, know of any other new books that take place in hotels? Let us know!