Tag: Design Hotels
View All TagsSneak Peak / Hotel Openings / London Hotels / Design Hotels / Hotel Snapshots / → All Tags
Sip in Style: A Glimpse Of London's New South Place Hotel
Check out that fancy glassware drawer! Having a nightcap just got a lot more stylish at the brand-spanking new South Place Hotel London, which opened this past Monday.
We had a chance to look around a few days ago, and here are a few things that you can expect at the hotel: bedrooms with champagne-colored silk walls. Flatscreen TVs by B&O. Lots of art, including some that will be created on-site this month. A residents’ lounge, complete with pool table. An all-day dining room and lounge on the ground floor, as well as a soon-to-open seafood brasserie on the top floor, with roof terrace. Unique toiletries by British perfumer James Heeley in grey-marble bathrooms. And of course, that fancy glassware.
We’ll have a lot more info for you next week, complete with photo gallery, but if you’ll excuse us, we have a sudden urge for a glass of wine to start the weekend.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
Photo Gallery / HotelChatter Reviews / Hamburg Hotels / Germany Hotels / 25Hours Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags
All Around the Nautical Nooks of the 25Hours Hamburg HafenCity Hotel
Sling leather chairs. Old shipping containers turned conference rooms. Complimentary bike and BMW Mini rental. Atari. We're dangerously close to declaring the 25Hours Hamburg HafenCity our own personal vision of hotel heaven.
We've already discussed our room, the semi-secret video game booth and even the nautical wallpaper, but the best comes last with this reveal of all the 25Hours HafenCity's public spaces, from funky restaurant to chill vinyl lounge.
A final thought on the design, which sees "elements and materials from the shipbuilding industry interpreted with a little wink, and spun together with some seaman's yarns." It's almost like the hotel has combined all the best bits of the various Ace Hotels, infused it with a clever continentality and then, somehow, managed to also make it a joy (instead of a scene-y thing) to sleep over.
Hotel Openings / London Hotels / Free WiFi / Design Hotels / → All Tags
London's South Place Hotel Will See You in September
You'd think that with all the hotel activity we've been covering in London, things would be slowing down a little at some point. But no, just last Friday, we closed with "Another Week, Another New Hotel Opening in London", having covered the arrival of citizenM Bankside, and today we have another one to add for early September: The South Place Hotel.
The 80-room hotel first had a "summer" opening on our 2012 Master List openings, which we thought meant "in time for the Olympics", but it looks like that won't be the case. The pictures we took this past weekend make September seem more likely, with the exterior looking close to finished.
Located in the City, not far from Liverpool Street, South Place is the first hotel venture of D&D London, the restaurant group behind such places such as Floridita in Soho, Skylon at Royal Festival Hall, Alcazar in Paris, and Guastavino's in New York. So what can we expect when September 3rd comes around?
Hotel Openings / QT Hotels / Australia Hotels / Sydney Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags
Sydney Gets Cuter With QT
A new hotel will be gracing the streets of Sydney and we're happy to see one with a sense of style. The city welcomes an edgy and cheeky design hotel smack dab in the middle of the central business district. While the city is host to plenty of international hotel chains, this Australian brand is a welcome addition for guests wanting to break out of the norm.
QT Hotel will start welcoming guests to their newest Aussie property by September of this year. Housed in the 80 year old, former State Theatre, the downtown location will surely impress with it's 200 rooms, hip lounge, trendy restaurant and street side barista.
Hotel Art / Hotel Wallpaper / 25hours Hotels / Hamburg Hotels / Germany Hotels / Design Hotels / Hotel Design / → All Tags
For the Sake of Hotel Art: 25hours Hamburg's Nautical Walls
Is the WiFi free? Does the gym have good machines? All these things get noticed when checking into a hotel, but what about the atmosphere of the place—specifically the art on the walls or on the floor? We're highlighting properties around the world that do their artwork right, and the specific pieces you should stare long and hard at when next you drop by.
Today: The 25hours Hamburg Hafencity's's in-room wallpaper.
The 25hours didn't win Travel + Leisure's 2012 hotel design awards for nothing. The place is an homage to the seafaring history (and the current hip culture that adores it) of Hamburg, Germany. Every little detail is considered, and twisted to conform to the hotel's theme, that of a international maritime trading post. At breakfast, your chair may actually be a pile of rugs. Need a meeting room? It's inside a repurposed Hapag-Lloyd shipping container.
Design Hotels / Museum Hotels / Australia Hotels / Tasmania Hotels / → All Tags
If the (Tasmanian) Devil’s In the Details, then Tasmania's MONA Pavilions Have Got It Right
Okay. We’re just going to say it. These accommodation Pavilions on the grounds of Australia’s largest private museum are sexy. As in sizzlin’.
First, there’s the museum itself. MONA (as in Museum of Old and New Art) is an edgy, subterranean gallery owned by multi-millionaire David Walsh, who is said to have gained his vast wealth through gambling. Four underground levels built into an old sandstone quarry contain a $110+-million USD collection including pieces by Damien Hirst and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
HotelChatter Reviews / HotelChatter Video Tours / Photo Gallery / Hotel Pools / Hotel Lobbies / Singapore Hotels / Unlisted Collection / Design Hotels / Geek Hotels / Art Hotels / Hotel Art / → All Tags
Floating Beds and Outdoor Bathtubs: Inside Singapore's New Majestic Hotel
What did TripAdvisor rate "Trendiest Hotel of 2011?" This one: the Hotel New Republic in Singapore's Chinatown. Don't let that color your judgment however, since our recent stay proved that "trendy" here doesn't mean it's overcrowded, packed with scensters or cheap furniture to look "cool." Instead, the New Republic is a quiet 30-room design-focused hotel that has expertly renovated a historic Chinatown shophouse into a place we sincerely wish we had booked for more than one night.
To be completely honest, of all the hotels we've experienced in Singapore, the New Majestic is the first one we'd return to on our next trip. It is ideal for travelers who seek out unique spaces that reflect the spirit of the destination (ah hem, not a big chain hotel) and for those who desire to be outside of the business district, in the heart of culture. And maybe those who want a funky pool too.
Rooms at the New Majestic begin around $200 per night, which we paid. There really aren't any bad rooms, but we'd try for the second floor where each room has either a balcony or a patio, some of those patios with outdoor soaking bathtubs. It's details like this—and there are many of them—that give you a sense that the New Majestic is having fun...fun with design, fun with being in Chinatown and fun with having you there, doing things like taking an al fresco midnight bath by the light of a lantern.
HotelChatter Reviews / Photo Gallery / Hotel Pools / Hotel Lobbies / Singapore Hotels / Unlisted Collection / Design Hotels / Geek Hotels / → All Tags
A Rainbow Whirlpool and Shopping Cart Chairs
Thus far into our exploration of Singapore's funky Wanderlust Hotel, we've taken you inside the Space Suite, the Typewriter Suite and of course into a regular room, as bright purple as it was. Now's the time to have a look around the lobby that gets it in so many design publications, and a few other surprises.
There's something about Singapore hotels you should know. Once you go above tourist class into luxury level, almost every hotel has a pretty lovely swimming pool for beating the high temperatures. Below, in the "affordable" category of hotels where the Wanderlust rules, it's extremely rare to find a pool. The Wanderlust has compromised—there's a small outdoor deck with some designer patio furniture, a postage-stamp of a lawn and a sunken, rainbow whirlpool. While too small for a swim, it's plenty large for a late evening soak with a beer.
HotelChatter Reviews / Photo Gallery / Singapore Hotels / Unlisted Collection / Design Hotels / Geek Hotels / → All Tags
Inside a Pantone Color Room at Singapore's Wanderlust Hotel
You know when you walk into a hotel room, and it's just so different, and you're not really sure if it's going to be "different" in a good or bad way, but you stick it out anyway? Yeah, that's exactly how it was for us recently at The Wanderlust Hotel in Singapore.
Having seen the art-filled Wanderlust in design publications for a few years now, we just had to stay. Booking for one night via Tablet Hotels cost us $233.05 Singapore dollars total, which is $183.70 USD for the lowest category room, on the Pantone color-themed second floor. Checking in amidst all the funky furniture of the lobby made us feel cool just for being there (more on the public areas tomorrow), which should always be the goal of a well-designed space, and the friendly reception assigned us Room 205. The color? PURPLE.
What is This / Hotel Bathtubs / Beijing Hotels / Boutique Hotels / Swire Hotels / Design Hotels / → All Tags
What is This at The Opposite House in Beijing?
We like to keep it fun but informative here at HotelChatter so our newest series, What is This? is devoted to odd-looking items in hotel rooms that upon first glance look as if they serve only a decorative purpose. But everything happens for a reason, right? And we're here to tell you what these things really do.
If you're looking for a luxury boutique stay in Beijing, look no further than the Opposite House in the city's Chaoyang District and which is also attached to the upscale shopping mall, Sanlitun Village. (Remember when the Apple store in Beijing got bombarded before the new iPhone release? Yeah, that's right near the Opposite House.)
But once you get inside one of the cool and modern guestrooms designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, you might find yourself asking what is this white boxy thing in the bathroom?
Sweet Suites / Geek Hotels / Singapore Hotels / Design Hotels / Unlisted Collection / Hotel Art / Photo Gallery / Videos / → All Tags
A Look at the Typewriter Suite Inside Singapore's Wanderlust Hotel
Okay, so we've already showed you all around the Space Suite inside Singapore's Wanderlust Hotel, but now we're going inside another of the boutique hotel's themed rooms and this time, it's not so out of this world. It's the Typewriter Suite.
On the top floor of this 29-room hotel in the Little India neighborhood sits a range of themed suites, each conceptualized by local design company fFurious. And once we walked into the place and saw those huge typewriter keys above our heads, and the custom bench plus that mid-century modern couch, it was decided: should we return to Singapore and to the Wanderlust, this is the suite we'd want. It's kooky enough to have novelty appeal, but not so crazy that it's uncomfortable.
Insane Hotel Packages / Design Hotels / Hotel Design / Scottsdale Hotels / JDV Hotels / → All Tags
A Room at The Saguaro Hotel Comes with a Private Design Consultation
As you can see from this room shot above, what makes The Saguaro Scottsdale stand out from most other hotels is the abundance of eye-popping colors. And these happy hues aren't found just in the guest rooms but rather throughout the hotel's public spaces and even down by the pool area.
The duo responsible for the colorful look is the design team of Peter Stamberg and Paul Aferiat of Stamberg Aferiat Architecture who used "12 vibrant tones found in native desert wildflowers" as the foundation for the color scheme. The colors also follow the light spectrum which then creates different perspectives of the hotel depending on the time of day. It's crazy scientific yo!
While we recommended that other hotels start using more happy colors as part of our New Year's resolutions for hotels, it turns out you can learn how to use color in your own home, thanks to The Saguaro's new The Colors of Modern package which includes a private home consultation with Peter Stamberg and Paul Aferiat!
