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Hotel Openings / London Hotel Openings / Mint Hotels / City Inn Hotels / Hotels with iMacs / → All Tags

A Fresh New Hotel Is Opening in London, The Mint Hotel

Where: 20 Pepys Street, London, United Kingdom, EC3N 4AF

Budget business travel brand City Inn have now re-branded themselves as Mint Hotels in preparation for their newest London hotel. Mint Hotels...sounds fresh?

The first Mint Hotel will be located at the Tower of London and is set to open on December 20. Yay! Just in time for Christmas. The hotel will have 583 rooms, a complimentary video library, free WiFi and yes, the iMacs in the rooms will remain. But it’s the suites we're liking the sound of.

The Thames suites have views over the River Thames and the Tower of London, a living room, dining area, separate bedroom and bathroom. But there is only two of these in the entire hotel, so you’ll need to book well in advance to bag one.

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New Year's Eve 2009 / London Hotels / City Inn Hotels / → All Tags

There's Still Room at the (City) Inn For New Year's In London

Where: 30 John Islip Street, London, United Kingdom, SW1P 4QP

Looking to say goodbye to the craptastic year that was 2009 and still in need of a hotel room somewhere? We've already told you where to book in Miami, New York and the important timezones but we'll be hitting up more cities today and tomorrow for New Year's Eve. Did we miss a city? Want a better deal? Let us know and we'll help you out.

London was all set to be on a bit of a downer for New Year’s Eve this year. In the interests of economizing, Mayor Boris has cut the firework display from 10 minutes to 7.5 minutes and scrapped the traditional free rail travel into town.

That doesn’t seem to have put anyone off though – pretty much all the central hotels have sold out. When we called up the Royal Horseguards this morning – which looks directly at the firework display on the Thames – the guy laughed and told us they get booked up a year ahead.

Anyway, we have found one place that still has availability – and if you get a room on a high enough floor, you should be able to glimpse the fireworks from your boudoir, too. City Inn Westminster still has rooms available on New Year’s for £259. Not its usual bargain prices, but the free wiFi and in-room iMac should make the price a little more palatable.

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Hotel Technology / City Inn Hotels / Business Traveler Hotels / London Hotels / → All Tags

Feeling Perky at a City Inn? There's a Special Something in the Air Con

Where: 30 John Islip Street, London, United Kingdom, SW1P 4DD

We already knew that City Inn – the budget UK hotel chain that hates to be called a budget hotel chain – was the perfect choice for geeks with its in-room iMacs. But we didn’t realize quite how committed it is to creating your working environment.

According to the brand, they use an enhanced fresh air conditioning system, which pumps a high amount of oxygen into the room and freshening up your little grey cells. Yup, just like they do in the casinos in Vegas. Apparently, they say, this “keeps people more alert during meetings” and “ensures they wake up feeling refreshed”.

Could there be any basis in this? When we looked round the Westminster branch earlier this year, we felt pretty perky – but we assumed that was the excitement at trying out the iMac. Here’s hoping that if such a thing as magic air con really exists, the rest of London will be adopting it soon…

Budget Hotels / City Inn Hotels / NH Hotels / Mercure Hotels / Travelodge Hotels / EasyHotels / → All Tags

The Five Best Budget Brands in Europe

In need of a cheapo vacation? Thinking that the $100 and $150 deals we were talking about here are out of your price range this time round? It’s time to rediscover the joys of the budget hotel.

And while Europe doesn’t have quite as many as America (in other words, there isn't a choice of about five chain motels at every motorway exit), it’s still possible to know roughly what’s in store when you book into a budgie room. Here are our Five Best Budget Brands in Europe. Tune in tomorrow for our picks for the worst.

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Hotel Contests / City Inn Hotels / Business Hotels / → All Tags

City Inn Celebrates Its Birthday By Giving You Presents

Where: United Kingdom

Reason number one to love the City Inn chain of hotels in the UK: they have iMacs in every room. Reason number two: they’re celebrating their 10th birthday this year by offering us some pretty fine presents.

Starting today, and going on for 10 days, they’ve got a prize draw for 10 events taking place in the UK this year. Some we’ll probably pass on — U2 at the Millennium Stadium, we’re talking about you — some we’d probably send our male folk on (three whole cricket matches), but some we would definitely go for — like the Wimbledon ladies semifinals.

Here’s the catch: you can only enter the drawing for one prize, and if we were playing the numbers game, we’d put our money on Kraftwerk at the Manchester Velodrome as being the easiest to win. But don’t forget, each present includes a VIP package of dinner, bed and breakfast, and a sprinkling of champagne. So we could even enter the U2 draw and just use it as a free night’s stay.

What we like best of all, though, is the generosity of spirit on display here. You don’t have to stay in one of their hotels to qualify, you just have to register on their website at cityinn.com/tenth-anniversary. Happy birthday.

Budget Hotels / City Inn hotels / Travelodge Hotels / Hotel Amenities / → All Tags

The City Inn London is The Best of The Budget Chains

Where: 30 John Islip Street, London, United Kingdom, SW1P 4DD

So you want a cheap hotel in London? Not as hard as we used to think (as long as you understand that “cheap” in London is always going to mean “relatively cheap”). For a start, it’s just been named cheaper than New York for the first time since 2002, thanks to the dropping pound.

And for another thing, thanks to the whole credit crunch, the top hotels are cranking out some pretty sound offers to entice people in.

So, if you’ve planned it properly, you shouldn’t really have to think about staying in a budget chain. But say you haven’t, there’s no handy £1 sale at the Hoxton, and you don’t fancy the horrid Cromwell Crown. You might need to venture into chainland.

Which to choose? Lucky for us, the Observer’s Tom Robbins stayed in a different one each night for a week, to save us the hassle.

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Hotel Technology / Hotel Computers / City Inn Hotels / Hotels with iMacs / → All Tags

UK's City Inn Hotels Offering iMacs in Every Room

This should appeal to hotel geeks and geeks alike. The City Inn hotel brand in the UK is going to start offering iMacs in all of its guestrooms.

Guests will find a shiny iMac in each room, with full access to the internet, iLife and Office apps. Plus, the hotel will let you use the iMac as a TV, internet radio and media player (DVDs and CDs).

Hmm...is AppleTV included?

Also if you are worried about hackers or later guests accessing any of your information (or those late-night pub crawl pics), the hotel chains says the iMacs will undergo a "Faronics Deep Freeze" every 24 hours, which restores the computer to the factory settings.

City Inns can be found in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Westminster. Planned locations for Amsterdam, Leeds and London are expected to open in 2009 and 2010.