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Tags: Hotel Renovations / Sheraton Hotels / Business Travel Hotels / Albuquerque Hotels / → All Tags

The Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown Gets a Tech-Savvy Upgrade

In keeping up with our ongoing series about Hotel Renovations, we've got word on the recent changes to the The Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown Hotel. The $20 million renovations were spent on redesigning the 295 guestrooms and suites and public spaces. The rooms were taken out of the mid-1990s and refreshed with a new millenium look with white sheets on the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper beds (no patchwork comforters here), 37-inch LCD TVs, and roomy work spaces with ergonomical desk chairs.

In fact, while we're on the topic of business travel hotels this place is the ideal hotel for a biz traveler in Albuquerque.

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Tags: Business Travel Hotels / J Jennings Moss / Buenos Aires Hotel / Hotel Hell / → All Tags

Not Much Cool at the Five Cool Rooms

Where: Honduras 4742, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Allow us to introduce our newest contributor. J. Jennings Moss has started a new business travel blog over at Portfolio.com which focuses on business travel. Recently, he scoped out the hotel scene in Buenos Aires. Got any questions about biz travel? Send 'em to us and we'll have him answer them for you.

Don't be fooled by the name. There isn't much that's "cool" about the Five Cool Rooms Hotel in Buenos Aires.

A disclosure to begin with: Five Cool Rooms was not our first choice for a boutique hotel. That honor, based on reviews in HotelChatter and word-of-mouth from friends, was Home Hotel. But Home was booked during our trip in early April, and we were swayed by the generally positive write-ups we’d seen of Five Cool Rooms, as well as by its advertising and jazzy website.

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Tags: Tokyo Hotels / Hotel News / Intercontinental Hotels / Hotel Lounges / Business Travel Hotels / → All Tags

Chillax With the Biz Class at ANA Intercontinental Tokyo's New Lounge

Where: 1-12-33 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 107-0052

Most leisure travelers will never get to experience it, let along know it exists, but for the busy business traveler, a hote's executive club lounge is a home away from home. Recognizing that Tokyo is a city with a huge executive traffic, the ANA Intercontinental Hotel has emerged as the frontrunner in the race to have the best lounge simply by building the biggest with the best views.

In fact, the new executive club lounge at the ANA is the entire country's largest as such, and the 2,000-square-foot space boasts more than just impressive couches, but six distinct areas: a welcome reception, library, relaxation space, dining room, bar and meeting facility. Instead of aiming for generic luxury with the design, the Intercontinental wants to know that you are kicking butt and taking names in business in Tokyo, so expect cultural touches like transparent divider screens, lacquer ware and bamboo use.

Although the lounge is large, it is far from packed and noisy as only 198 of the hotel's 843 guest rooms have access to it, and its startlingly awesome views of Tokyo's city centre, the Imperial Palace, the National Diet building and Roppongi Hills. Executive rooms begin at $350, which is quite good for Tokyo and the included use of the club facilities; free executive club martinis all around.

[Photo: IHG AHA Hotels Group Japan]

Tags: London Hotels / NYT Reviews / Hilton Hotels / Business Travel Hotels / → All Tags

Hilton London Tower Bridge Perfect for Tourists and Business Travelers

Where: 5 More London Place, Tooley Street, London, United Kingdom, SE1 2BY

The Hilton London Tower Bridge is a bit of a baby on the London hotel scene, but it's already climbed to 15th spot on the TripAdvisor ratings out of more than a thousand hotels, so you'd guess it can't be too bad. And apparently the New York Times agrees.

Their recent review gave the thumbs up to a good location, larger than average rooms with a practical place for luggage and a decent lobby. In fact, the only negative that the NY Times could pick up was poor placement of the towel racks in the bathroom. We think the £15 ($23) a day WiFi is worth a complaint too, but we're especially sensitive about those kind of things.

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Tags: Joe Sharkey / Hidden Fees / Scott Booker / Starwood Hotels / Business Travel Hotels / → All Tags

The St. Regis Aspen Has No Qualms About Charging Joe Sharkey Cancellation Fees

Where: 315 E. Dean Street [map], Aspen, CO, United States, 81611

Joltin' Joe Sharkey, the NY Times Business Travel columnist, is not excused from hotel cancellation fees. In his recent column, he gripes about having to cancel a business trip to Aspen where he was going to attend an aviation conference.

He had booked two nights at the St. Regis Aspen which had negotiated good rates for the conference of $414.29 for two nights.

Yet when Sharkey had to cancel the day before, the hotel told him that they would have to charge him the "whole enchilada" because he had missed the cancellation deadline which was two weeks prior.

Had I known that the St. Regis in Aspen confiscated the full two-day rate, I would simply have made a reservation elsewhere.

Not even speaking with a Starwood rep got his money back. Sharkey then went on to interview our old friend Scott Booker of Hotels.com who shed light on some of the fees that hotels are charging these days.

Still, none of this helped good ole Joe who was out $714.29 from a business trip (that's including his airfare) that he didn't take.

Tags: Hotel Openings / NYLO Hotels / Business Travel Hotels / Warwick Hotels / → All Tags

NYLO Warwick Is Now Taking Reservations

Where: Pontiac Mills [map], Warwick, RI, United States

A rendering of NYLO Warwick's restaurant.

NYLO's second property in Warwick, Rhode Island is finally taking reservations. The hotel is set to open sometime in early August although an exact date is not yet known.

Guests looking to hit up NYLO are encouraged to make reservations for September and beyond by calling NYLO Hotels at 1.866.391.NYLO (No website booking avail yet.)

Here's the official description of the newest NYLO on the block:

It houses 163 guestrooms, called guest lofts, and more than 1,450 square feet of meeting and event space.

Each guest loft has 300 square feet of bright, airy living space, with 10-foot-plus ceilings, exposed brick walls and floor-to-ceiling windows. The property offers a Pure Floor with allergy-friendly guest lofts.

Its signature ultra-social living area, The Loft, features a hip atmosphere, eclectic menu and local musicians.  A 3,000-square-foot terrace also provides outdoor dining and entertainment.

As for the location, it's not exactly in a major metropolis but it is close to the TF Green International Airport, historic Pontiac Mills and local "business parks", making it a hip pick for the modern traveling salesman. Room rates will start around $115 a night.

Tags: Business Hotels / Business Travel Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags

Fortune Ranks the Best New Business Hotels Around the World, Now With A Cool Factor

Fortune magazine just put out a nice rundown on "The Best New Business Hotels." We would normally be skeptical, but they teamed up with Wallpaper to get some true hipness cred in the mix. The result is a lot of hotels that have good desk lighting, talented concierges, and "better than average room service," but a bit of style as well.

Bad news is, you have to pick up the print copy to get a rundown of their list and short descriptions. Good news is, we've got plenty of chatter about a lot of them right here. For more than a few, HotelChatter has been providing a blow-by-blow account of opening delays and pushed-back promises for a year or more. Following are a few of the hotels that made the list, both in the U.S. and internationally.

· Tides Miami South Beach
· Stoneleigh Hotel Dallas
· Liberty Hotel in Boston
· The Keating San Diego (pictured here).
· Opus Montreal
· The Chedi in Milan
· Peninsula Tokyo

Note that this list is aimed at readers with fat expense accounts who are willing to shell out for wireless Internet access. After all, the InterContinental Boston touted in their article made our Worst Wifi Hotels of 2007 list. Plus Fortune is not going to tell you about the Anti-view from the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro.

Bucking the usual bad magazine practice of listing hotels on a "best of" list before the construction is even finished, all these seem to actually be open though.

Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Business Travel Hotels / Summerfield Suites / Hyatt Hotels / Hotel Services / → All Tags

Hyatt's Summerfield Suites Wants You To Keep On Grillin' While You're Away

Where: United States

The offerings of food and wine packages in the hospitality industry often follows a strict caste system.

Luxury hotels offer their high-paying guests a chef's table dining option or culinary lessons from the hotel's executive chef. Boutique hotels offer wine tastings or sommelier classes. Chain hotels typically offer packages with dining credits at the hotel's mid-level restaurants thrown in as a bonus. And those budget and extended stay/select service hotels offer you an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet of cereal, bagels, fruit and coffee.

But Hyatt's Summerfield Suites is doing something different. The extended-stay brand has just announced its 2nd annual Summer Grilling Social program.

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Tags: Business Travel Hotels / Anti-View / Chile Hotels / Monica Guy / → All Tags

Chilean Hotel Scene: How Do You Say Anti-View in Spanish?

Where: Av. Vitacura 2610, Las Condes , Santiago, Chile, 6760197

This week our roaming correspondent, Monica Guy, is giving us the low-down on the Chilean Hotel Scene. Here she encounters una vista mal. Enjoy.

Lucky Lorie and Paul Bennett, who found a killer view staring at them out of the window of the businessy Park Plaza Hotel in Santiago, Chile.

We on the other hand spent the night in the Radisson Plaza Santiago Hotel, a similar 160-room 5-star mega-hotel in Santiago's business district.

In their information about the local area, they forgot to mention they're backed right onto a mega-building site which actually seems to create 100 times more dust and noise and pollution than buildings.

If you're lucky, you'll be on the other side of the building, which faces a blank tower block.

How miserable. You're in one of the hottest capitals in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, you have to work (presumably you're here on business, or you wouldn't be staying at the Radisson) and to top it all off, the view out of your hotel window is enough to make you want to top yourself off.

The hotel is fine - standard business-hotel affair, with a piano player tinkling away in the small bar, a small swimming pool and a well-equipped gym on the top floor (at least you can see over the top of the building site) and all the usual knobs and whistles of a Radisson.

Service is sloooooow, and we couldn't get WiFi to work, but apart from that you'll get pretty much what you expect.

Rates are standard business hotel rates, with a bit taken off for Latin America. If you can't pass the bill on to your boss without looking at it, don't bother staying here.

Tags: Hotel Opening Rates / Fort Lauderdale Hotels / Hilton Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / Business Travel Hotels / → All Tags

Hotel Re-Opening Rate :: $199 at the Fort Lauderdale Grande

Where: 1881 SE 17th St [map], Ft. Lauderdale, FL, United States, 33316

Barring any last-minute delays (of which there have been a few of lately), the Fort Lauderdale Grande Hotel and Yacht Club should unveil its new makeover on Monday.

While the hotel is close to the Florida Convention Center and thus gets a lot of spillover business, it's also parked on the intracoastal, giving guests great water views. And the hotel has a 33-slip marina meaning you can just boat your way down to Ft. Lauderdale instead of driving on 95 or chancing it on JetBlue. (Although we doubt your boat is as big as the ones in the pic above.)

The hotel offers five categories of rooms, two types of suites and the presidential suite. The starting room, called The Fort Lauderdale Room, is about 312-sg.ft. with floor-to-ceiling windows and a full balcony. All rooms have mosaic-tiled baths, flat screen TVs and spacious work desks. That last bit alerts us to the fact that a lot of biz travelers probably will stay here.

But the hotel is not all business. When you kick it by the pool, the hotel has a Poolside Ambassador on hand to "provide you with an invigorating Eucalyptus towel or fresh Evian spray." There's also a poolside lounge and restaurant and the hotel will try to set up any leisure activities like water sports or golf.

Introductory rates start at $199 and our source says that will continue until the China Grill Restaurant opens. Yes, that China Grill brand. Also, the Fort Lauderdale Grande is part of Hilton Hotels so you might be able to use your HHonors points here.

If you stay at the Fort Lauderdale Grande, let us know how the renovations look.