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Hotels Mag Editor Braves The Wellington And Lives To Twitter About It
September 16, 2008 at 3:36 PM | 0 Comments
We give The Wellington Hotel a pretty hard time around here. We refer to it as the "Borat Hotel" sometimes because the movie star wreaked a bit of havoc when he stayed there a couple of years ago, and last summer we got confirmation that even without a hairy man in an uncomfortably revealing swimsuit, the place is in pretty gross shape.
So we give Adam Kirby, Associate Editor of Hotels Mag, some major props for braving The Wellington and Twittering about it so we don't have to go there ourselves.
It seems he scored a good rate on Priceline (though he told us not to tell anyone -- but hello, we're a gossipy bunch) and toughed it out for only around $200 a night.
The verdict? The room smells like vapor rub. Yikes. At least he lived to, er, Twitter the tale...
Borat
How Borat Duped the Wellington Hotel
November 20, 2006 at 11:06 AM | 0 Comments
Well, it looks like the folks at Wellington Hotel, where Borat crashed for a few nights during his controversial movie, wouldn't speak to us or other outlets but someone inside decided to speak with Page Six.
And surprise, surprise, Borat and his alter-ego Sasha Baron Cohen are no longer welcomed at the midtown hotel because of the way he duped the place:
He checked in as a travel writer from Kazakhstan and asked for a special rate, $100 a night, which we gave him - and then he tried to get it down to $30," a hotel insider said. But what really irked management was when, "in the middle of the night, his crew started carrying furniture out of the hotel. The night manager stopped them, and it turned out it was furniture that had been taken from a Sheraton in New Jersey. The police were called, and Borat ran out of the hotel as fast as he could."
Ok, this makes us laugh. Stealing furniture from a hotel in Jersey? They should have filmed that part. But the bargaining down to $30...not so cool. For the record, we don't do that. Then again, we don't have any fluffy mustaches to accent our good looks and charm. Perhaps if Borat's had been just a wee bit fluffier, he could have haggled successfully.
Related Stories:
· Wellington Hotel Talks Borat [HotelChatter]
· Guest from Hell [Page Six]
Borat
Wellington Hotel Talks Borat
November 7, 2006 at 11:38 AM | 2 Comments
Little brother Jaunted has been covering Borat's impact on travel for over a year now. Thus, we thought it was time we added our two cents to the worldwide phenomenon.
If you saw the Borat movie, and who hasn't at this point, you may have noticed a couple of hotels played a key role in the filming.
We focused in on Borat's stay in room 311 at Wellington Hotel in Times Square.
Yesterday, the Wellington Hotel, who was reportedly none to pleased to be included in the movie, spoke with HotelChatter.
A Wellington Hotel employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said:
I wasn't working the night he came in. He came in late. But, yeah, if I was here I would have known who he was, I personally am a fan of Ali G.
The next day there was plenty of talk, you know 'some weird guy came in with a cameraman acting strange'. The night team on duty just didn't have any idea who he was.
Hmm. Did anyone notice the Wellington Hotel night team featured in the movie was definitely a bit on the older side. Not really the Borat demographic, right? Does Borat prey on older folks for comic fodder?
Oh, and while Borat treats the large Wellington Hotel room as a castle with a throne, other guests aren't so sure.
While the rooms were clean, furnishings were limited (the only mirror was in the bathroom which you'd better be taller than 5'6" to see).
That shouldn't be a problem for the lanky Borat. Besides, from now on Wellington Hotel can put together "Borat 311" packages and easily sell them at a higher than normal room rate.
[Photo: Yahoo!]
Related Stories:
· Hotel Wellington reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Borat Coverage [Jaunted]
