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The Leaning Hyatt of Abu Dhabi Tops Out, Does Not Fall Over
Well, there it stands; the building we've dubbed "The Leaning Hyatt of Abu Dhabi" has topped out without toppling over...yet.
The building itself is called "Capital Gate," being built by RMJM Architects and due to house Abu Dhabi's first Hyatt. It reached its half-way point back in early June, and less than six months is a pretty quick race to the top for them. But then, in order to create the unique structure and keep it safe from high winds and earthquakes, each pane of glass is different, and fitted onto the strong structure with all the modern engineering that the original Tower of Pisa lacked.
Let's not forget that contained within will be 200 hotel rooms and "a gigantic internal atrium, including a tea lounge and swimming pool suspended 263 feet above the ground." Yep—you heard them; there's gotta be that tea lounge. We don't yet have an opening date, but let's just say the first half of 2010 to be safe, since we bet everyone is champing at the bit to get all up in the "World's Most Leaning Tower."
[Images: Hyatt Hotels]
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London's Boundary Gets a Nod for 'Most Stylish Hotel' in Europe
Being from London, when we think about sexy hotels, we don’t immediately think London. We think a little lovenest on the Seine, private beaches on the Med, that kind of thing. But now we are thinking again, because Boundary in little East London just got named the most stylish hotel in Europe at the European Hotel Design Awards.
We’ve kept meaning to visit Boundary since it opened in January, but were put off by the fact that it’s a Terence Conran project and we think of him as a bit posh for our tastes (we once went to his Bluebird restaurant in Chelsea to find we’d missed Kate Middleton – AKA Ms Prince William – by a couple of minutes).
But turns out we were wrong.
Tags: Hotel Amenities / Design Hotels / Doubletree Hotels / Chicago Hotels / Movie Hotels / → All Tags
Inside The Plush Screening Room At theWit Chicago
What are the hot hotel amenities right now? Forget heated towel racks and pet concierges, the screening rooms are it. In New York, the newest private screening room can be found in the Crosby Street Hotel, but the 40-guest "Screen" venue in theWit Hotel in Chicago has it beat by a clear mile; it's no wonder the NYT loved their stay here so much.
Now we've been in the Sony screening rooms and other private movie niches in New York, and our peek at theWit's Screen had us craving popcorn and a good drama far more than any other. For one, the seats fully recline with footrests, cupholders and swing-out trays for your nachos. In the last few rows, the chair are replaced by full-fledged couches with throw pillows and sidetables. If we could come to Screen whenever we wanted, we'd never watch a movie in our living room again.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Green Hotels / Eco-Hotels / Hotel Deals / Hotel Opening Rates / Design Hotels / Country Hotels / England Hotels / → All Tags
Green Gets Sexy at Cornwall's Scarlet Hotel
Green Hotels don’t usually equal sexy hotels – and if they do, you can generally assume that the eco side is more for effect than hardcore environmental causes. But a big exception to the rule has just opened up in Britain: The Scarlet hotel in boho Cornwall.
It may look like just another chic clifftop Cornish hotel with its slinky furnishings (it’s even a member of Design Hotels), Michelin-starred chef, Atlantic views and “private outdoor space” for each of its 37 rooms, but under all the glitz is lurking a seriously green hotel.
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Design Hotels Releases Its Own Geek Hotels List
The good folks at Design Hotels have put out yet another of their special list, this time focusing on international high-tech hotel rooms. Three of these futuristic hotels are in Mexico and most of the rest are scattered throughout Europe. All told the list has 11 different cutting edge hotels from three continents, plus more elaborate descriptions behind each entry.
Some of the hotels don't seem so much technologically saturated as just sleek and painted white (hey, it works for Apple!). But other options involve all kinds of crazy high-tech amenities, from absurdly slick TVs to Xbox 360s. We don't think we're giving away any secrets when we assure you that iPods also figure heavily. We'll go over some of the list's highlights, then send you to Design Hotels for the full list.
Tags: Austria Hotel Guide / HotelChatter Reviews / Vienna Hotel / Art Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags
Wein and Design Hotel Has Fanciest Breakfast Spread in Vienna
HotelChatter's Eric Rosen recently spent some time in Austria and Germany. All this week, he'll be rounding up his hotel observations. Any tips, suggestions, questions? Let us know.
The key to “doing” Europe properly, is to start your day with a sensible breakfast at the hotel.
For a long time we resisted taking breakfast at the table d'hôte, rejoicing in the five euros we were saving by foregoing bad coffee, stale rolls and a few greasy cold cuts, while saving our ducats for a leisurely lunch instead. But as we’ve grown older, we’ve come to see the logic of shelling out a little extra cash for a hearty breakfast so that we don’t get cranky scouring the continent for a decent cup of coffee, or fainting from hypoglycemia and cutting out of a museum early for lunch.
No need for such a strategy while staying at Vienna’s Rathaus Wein and Design Hotel, though.
Tags: Hotel Packages / Helsinki Hotels / Design Hotels / Finland Hotels / → All Tags
A Fresh Idea for Your Urban Getaway: Helsinki's Klaus K
Helsinki: perhaps not the first city that comes to mind for an urban getaway, but you’d be missing out if you went with your instincts. Helsinki in the summer is magical, and it’s also exceedingly trendy (not for nothing is it called “the design capital of Europe”, don’t you know).
The Klaus K is one of the trendiest hotels in town — and, having stayed there last year, we can see why. It’s super — themed around the Finnish national epic poem with great decor and the best hotel breakfast we’ve ever been party to.
To encourage you to come this summer, they have an Urban Getaway Package which includes a double room, glass of champagne on arrival, dinner for two, movie tickets (nice thought, even if you won’t use those), drinks vouchers at the inhouse Ahko Club, and a shopping discount card.
Needless to say, the package also includes breakfast. They call it The Best of Finland and believe us, they’re not joking. We’re still dreaming about the smoked reindeer meat.
The Urban Getaway starts at €250 (around $350) and is valid Friday to Sunday until August 2nd. Book three days ahead. Standard rooms start at €125 (about $175).
[Photo: about.com]
Tags: Anti-View / Design Hotels / → All Tags
Iced Out Of a Killer View in Iceland
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.
Now, there is a certain type of anti-view that sucks spectacularly because the view you wanted is, like, half-obstructed by a wall. And now here is a very different, more modern and design-y version of an anti-view that is annoying because we don't really understand what it is that we're looking at here. A piece of a set from The Fifth Element? The side of a spaceship? Part of the 101 Hotel, or part of the building next to it (which, we believe, is the Iceland Opera House)?
Regardless, this is a shot of the view from 101 Hotel — one of those sweet Design Hotels — in Reykjavik, which has 38 rooms, free WiFi and is run by a gallery owner who uses "grays, black and white, clean lines and well-placed local art works to convey pure Nordic coolness." (Sidenote: how would W's wordsmith describe this place? We can only imagine.)
Rezzies here go for 45,900 ISK (just over $360) and, if you can deal with this potentially-poopy view, you can book here.
[Photo: Miamabanta]
Tags: Sweet Suites / Paris Hotels / Hotel Deals / Design Hotels / Fixed Dollar Rates / → All Tags
Suite Guarantees from the Bel-Ami Hotel Paris
With the worldwide economy staying on its current roller coaster ride for the foreseeable future, it seems like there are fewer and fewer guarantees in life…especially when it comes to international travel. However, the 112-room Hotel Bel-Ami (a member of Design Hotels) in Paris’s St. Germain neighborhood is offering guaranteed room rates in U.S. dollars through 2009, including for the three new suites it has just unveiled.
The two larger suites are called the “Creation” suites and were designed by French couture hat designer Marina Besse on the first floor (that means second floor for us Americans). The third suite is the “Romance” suite on the fourth (or fifth!) floor, and is done up in “rich, warm, jewel-toned colors accented by soft green and raised ceilings” for a touch of bohemian Paris ambiance. Of course, the in-room La Durée macarons and Les Contes de Thé teas in the lounge don’t hurt either.
Tags: Design Hotels / Naples Hotels / Art Hotels / → All Tags
Romeo Hotel Gets Extra Arty With Clemente Exhibition
The Romeo Hotel has already gotten a mention from us for getting boutique hotels into Napoli, but it's more than just a boutique – it's really an impressive art hotel as well. They feature modern artists but not with the standard exhibition; instead, the Romeo has been commissioning artists to create a piece of art inspired by the city of Napoli.
At the moment, Francesco Clemente is the artist-of-the-moment, and as well as catching his specially-commissioned piece in the hotel, you can also see his larger solo exhibition at the MADre Museum. And to celebrate all that, the Romeo Hotel has created a Clemente Package which includes museum tickets and the exhibition catalogue, Sea View room accommodation with breakfast, a couple of discount vouchers for restaurants and spa treatment and a limited edition postcard collection of Clemente's artworks. This deal starts at €299 ($420) but to coincide with the MADre exhibition, it's only valid until October this year.
The great thing about this hotel is that if you're lost, you can wander the streets saying "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo Hotel?" Or maybe not, but it's the kind of Friday pun we couldn't resist. Fortunately the hotel – and especially its art - sounds a lot better than our jokes.
Tags: Design Hotels / France Hotels / Hotel Renovations / Boscolo Hotels / → All Tags
The Boscolo Exedra Nice Dared Remodel Their Riviera Beauty
When it comes to French Riviera hotels, you generally don't mess with a winner, especially when it's a historical building in the Belle Epoque style. Nonetheless, all hotels need updating once in a while, and so the Boscolo Exedra in Nice chose only the best to renovate their right half.
Choosing Massino Iosa Ghini to re-conceptualize the common areas like the conference room and breakfast room, the Exedra Nice wanted to evoke Italian style in a warmer way and "create a contemporary version of the Belle Epoque lines of the lavish historic envelope."
The result is now open in Nice, and we recommend swinging by the sculptural white bar, with its freaky tree features and light-up ceiling. We suppose this is to re-orient the folk who have spent all day in the sun on the beach? In any case, we're happy they didn't touch the elaborate facade of the classic hotel, but instead updated the interior enough to keep the first-class guests interested.
{Photo: Design Milk]
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Abu Dhabi Nears the Finish Line With Their Racetrack-Side Hotel
Remember when we hinted at Abu Dhabi's plan to compete with Dubai's entertainment by building themselves a Ferrari Theme Park, F1 racetrack and track-side hotel? Well, they've actually gone and started the thing; at least the hotel. The structure of it is complete, and currently the construction workers are hemming the glass cloak that will give the building a modular look (one that that reminds us of the Olympiapark in Munich).
The Yas, which will be the world's first five-star Formula One trackside hotel, is a monster with 500 rooms and a marina for docking your megayacht. All of this capped by the pivoting, diamond-shaped glass panels of the roof, which will produce "optical effects and spectral reflections that play against the surrounding sky, sea and desert landscape."
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