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Tags: Hotel Video Tours / Intercontinental Hotels / San Francisco Hotels / Convention Center Hotels / → All Tags

Inside the Intercontinental San Francisco

Where: 888 Howard St. [map], San Francisco, CA, United States, 94103

Last week, we told you about the Michelin-starred grub at Luce, the restaurant at the Intercontinental San Francisco, but today, we’re going to take you on a video walkthrough of a standard guestroom there so you can get a feel for the entire hotel experience.

Our favorite features of the room? Enormous windows (though not such awesome views), a cozy work desk-sitting area, a huge flat-screen TV on which to watch Anderson Cooper spout off on CNN, an iPod docking station, huge marble bathrooms (though the sliding doors were kind of unwieldy and didn’t lock!), neutral-toned patterns and fabrics, and well stocked minibars.

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Tags: Anti-View / Convention Center Hotels / InterContinental Hotels / San Franciso Hotels / Business Traveler Hotels / → All Tags

Lovely View of the HVAC at InterContinental San Francisco

Where: 888 Howard St [map], San Francisco, CA, United States, 94103

You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.

This morning we let you know that the chef at the Intercontinental San Francisco would be leaving the property to fight it out on "The Next Iron Chef" and as we were browsing for photos of the hotel, we came across this anti-view. Eee.

Then again, this hotel is adjacent to the Moscone Convention Center, making it the best choice for folks who plan on spending most of their days in the convention hall. But as large as the hotel looks, there are only 550 rooms in the hotel--22 per floor and as you know, InterContinental is a chi-chi business traveler brand.

So hopefully, the amenities in-room--like flat-screen TVs, iPod docks, bathrobes and especially, the private in-room bars--make up for some not-so-chi-chi convention center views.

Tags: HotelChatter Reader Deals / Convention Center Hotels / Baltimore Hotels / → All Tags

The Brand New Hilton Baltimore for $99 a Night

Where: 401 West Pratt Street [map], Baltimore, MD, United States, 21201

Thanksgiving in Baltimore's Inner Harbor
$99 a night

We have a love-hate relationship with hotels near convention centers. They are usually boring and old. They also tend to jack up the room rates when a convention is in town. But on the flip side, when conventions aren't in town, the room rates drop drastically.

The Hilton Baltimore, which is connected via skybridge to the Baltimore Convention Center, has room rates of $99 on TravelZoo from Nov. 24-27 (Thanksgiving y'all!) and from Dec. 15-Jan. 5, including New Year's Eve.

While this is a big-box hotel chain property, the Hilton is only a few months old, having opened in August. This means it's new! And back in August rates were at $299 a night. A deal indeed.

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Have a hotel deal you think we should consider?  Or have a destination and date where you want us to check for hotel rooms and rates for you?  No guarantees on either, but you can try your luck by hitting us here: tips@hotelchatter.com. Please include "For Reader Deals" in the subject heading.

Tags: HotelChatter Reader Deals / Hotel Deals / Sheraton Hotels / Phoenix Hotels / Hotel Opening Rates / Convention Center Hotels / → All Tags

HotelChatter Reader Deals :: The New Sheraton Phoenix Will Have Cheaper Rates in a Month

Where: 340 North 3rd Street [map], Phoenix, AZ, United States, 85004

A New Hotel Gets Cheaper With Age
$171 a night

Regular readers of HotelChatter know how much we obsess over hotel openings and their introductory hotel opening rates. And today is no different.

The Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel will open on September 30th adjacent to the Phoenix Convention Center and it's going to be huge. Like a thousand rooms huge.

You would think with so many rooms they would probably be a little competitive on their pricing right? Not quite. Opening rates are set at $249 a night and that's the pre-paid internet rate.

However, if you can sit tight until the end of October that rate will drop to about $171 a night. We still think it's pricey for a Sheraton near a convention center but maybe we can find it for less on a blind booking site like Hotwire or Priceline. We'll let you know if we do.

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Have a hotel deal you think we should consider?  Or have a destination and date where you want us to check for hotel rooms and rates for you?  No guarantees on either, but you can try your luck by hitting us here: tips@hotelchatter.com. Please include "For Reader Deals" in the subject heading.

Tags: Bill Marriott / Marriott Hotels / Hotel Renovations / Convention Center Hotels / → All Tags

Mr. Marriott Checks Out His Renovated Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel

Where: 265 Peachtree Center Avenue [map], Atlanta, GA, United States, 30303

Today is unofficially Hotel Renovations day

Bill Marriott recently did his blogging thang again -- this time about the newly renovated Atlanta Marriott Marquis.

According to Mr. M's latest post he stopped by his property's latest roll-out -- welcomed by adoring staff and the hotel's general manager.

They took a see-through elevator ride to check out the overhaul, spearheaded by architect John Portman, whose other properties include the New York Marriott Marquis, the Westin Warsaw, and the Hyatt Regency Hangzhou.

Portman is a big fan of immense, dramatic atriums, and the Atlanta Marriott delivers -- according to Bill, it has a 47-story atrium, a gargantuan indoor sculpture reminiscent of an oriental letter, a unique semi-convex exterior, a lobby bar, Pulse, that sits beneath a giant blue sail that changes color throughout the day, and thousands of feet of meeting space.

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Tags: Seville Hotel Guide / Spain Hotels / Convention Center Hotels / → All Tags

Barceló Renaciminto Tells Us Things We Wish We Could Believe

Where: Isla De La Cartuja S N, Seville, Spain, 41092

Seville's Barceló Renacimiento bills itself as a hotel that's avant-garde and modern. (Can anything actually be those two things at once?) Pictures, however, tell a different story.

Room décor, with its cherry wood furnishings and striped wallpaper, is more traditional (read: boring) than modern. It appears the only thing one could possibly say is avant-garde about the property is its 25-room convention center. Barceló Renacimiento beats every other hotel here, given the small size and row house-like set ups of most Sevillian properties.

Another piece of misinformation is that the hotel is located on the Island of La Cartuja, a tidbit that initially drew us to check out the hotel. We had no idea Seville had an island, and as it turns out, it doesn't. (Although there must be some truth to it, given the address, but we're telling you--this hotel is not on an island.) Instead, Barceló Renacimiento is located off the Guadalquivir River, near the Great Adventure-like attraction of Isla Magica, about the only attraction in Seville this hotel is near to.

Now that's not to say Barceló Renacimiento isn't a nice hotel, and with room rates starting at about $150, it's reasonably priced. Even so, what the eff, Barceló Renacimiento? Didn't anyone ever tell you a half-truth is a whole lie?

[Photo: Jose Luiz Antunez]