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Cape Town Hotel Reviews / Travel Media / New York Times / Bonnie Tsui / → All Tags

Cape Town's Hotel for Regular Folks

Where: Cnr New Church and Bree Streets, Cape Town, South Africa, 08000

Ah, that's more like it. After impressing us last week with a great review of a quality property, this week the New York Times finds plenty wrong with the Extreme Hotel Cape Town.

Not that the hotel actually sounds that bad. But reviewer Bonnie Tsui is not impressed by the hotel's ever-present TV screens showing extreme sports and the kitschy decoration. (Skis hanging on the wall, anyone?) She doesn't even like the other guests, including some "decidedly nonadventurous Europeans."

But what about the rooms? They don't sound too bad to us:

Nothing extreme about them. There are two room categories: standard and executive. The price difference is so slight, about $20, that it's worth the upgrade to what the front desk staff assured me were the biggest rooms. Our executive room was definitely not large (about 300 square feet, bathroom and curtained closet space included), but it was functional, with a flat-screen television (15 channels, including the ever-present Extreme Sports Channel), a comfortable king-size bed and an in-your-face view of Table Mountain

Hey, for about $130, this place sounds OK, even if the other guests aren't all young, fashionable extreme-sports supermodels.

[Photo: NYT]

Related Stories:
· Check In, Check Out [NYT]

London Hotel Reviews / Bonnie Tsui / → All Tags

Bonnie Tsui Finds The Courthouse Has Cool Past But Boring Present

Where: 19 - 21 Great Marlborough Street,, London, United Kingdom, W1F 7HL

London hotels either ooze with history or are so new that the locals may not even know they exist. The New York Times checked into one with the history; a hotel that holds onto the intrigue of the English Court, not royal though. The London Courthouse Kempinksi Hotel was once the "it" court with a "defendant list [that] read like a who's who of bad-boy rockers." From Mick Jagger to Keith Richards the courthouse was a hot place.

Today the hotel is sleek and cool with an urban and international crowd. Touches of the building's older days reveal themselves as prison cells-turned lobby booths. But this is about as exciting as the place gets. Bonnie Tsui's write-up leaves a lot to the imagination. The hotel sounds comfortable enough with its "cushy" bed and top quality bedding, yet blasé could just as equally replace the her room description.

The hotel lists amenities that Tsui found to be less accessible than what should be. The fitness center requires reservations and WiFi will run around $30.00!

Despite its odd background the hotel gets a plain old, boring review. Yet Tsui concludes a redeeming round-up, reminding us that in the end its stretching the dollar that matters here:

A unique city hotel in a great location with an energetic bar and restaurant scene. And when other hotels are charging exorbitant rates during high season, you can still book online for Web specials (from £169 to £200) that include a Continental breakfast, served in the courthouse's original skylighted waiting room.

Related Stories:
· Check In Check Out [New York Times]
· Courthouse Kempinski Hotel Reviews [TripAdvisor]