Tag: Firmdale Hotels
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London Keeps on Keeping On With All These New Hotels
Will this be the Hudson London?
If you thought London would be taking a break when it comes to hotel openings after a rather frenetic Olympic year, think again: the next few years look to be filled with all sorts of exciting stuff to keep us happy. We’re listing the hotels we have our eyes on for you below, and stay tuned as we will be taking you inside when we can.
- A rebirth rather than a brand new hotel, the former St. John Hotel became One Leicester Street on May 1, including a refurbished restaurant and outdoor terrace
- Over in King’s Cross, the Great Northern Hotel also got a new a lease on life as part of the revitalization of the entire station, with sleeper compartment-inspired rooms called Couchettes
- South Kensington got a new boutique hotel contender this month in the form of the 99-room Xenia Hotel on Cromwell Road, not far from the Ampersand we showed you last year
- Affordable-chic brand base2stay is re-branding itself as Nadler Hotels, and its flagship The Nadler Soho will open on June 1, a stone’s throw from the likes of Dean Street Townhouse and Firmdale’s the Soho Hotel
- This isn't really a new hotel but it is newsworthy--The Waldorf-Astoria Syon Park has now been downgraded to just the Hilton London Syon Park. A Hilton Worldwide spokesperson told Business Insider that, "Having operated the property since March 2011, we've mutually agreed with our owner that the new positioning will be the best fit for the local market."
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Inside London's Dorset Square, The Newest Firmdale Hotel
Last week, we promised you a closer look at Dorset Square, the newest of Firmdale Hotels. How would the return of Tim and Kit Kemp to this property after a decade of absence (they previously owned the hotel) stack up against the group's perennially popular Covent Garden and Soho Hotels?
Like we said, we're pretty confident that fans of Kit Kemp's style will feel at home here. If you prefer your hotel to be a stark vision of white-on-white and concrete floors, or need facilities like a spa or fitness centre, go elsewhere, but for a modern British townhouse with a twist, Dorset Square might be just the address.
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Firmdale Hotels Open Their Newest Hotel in London, Dorset Square
While its new flagship London property is still under construction and not expected until sometime next year, Firmdale Hotels threw open the doors of its Dorset Square Hotel for guests this month.
The seventh Firmdale hotel in the city, it joins the Covent Garden Hotel (a fashionista favorite) and the celebrity-friendly Soho Hotel, as well as Crosby Street Hotel in New York.
Set on the leafy square from which it takes its name, the hotel is close to Marylebone High Street, just north of Oxford Street and the famous West End. Being the site of Thomas Lord's first cricket ground, cricket is a theme you will see throughout the hotel, including the logo of two cricket bats and a ball.
With only 38 rooms spread over the floors of a Regency-era townhouse, Dorset Square is very much that: a townhouse hotel, which you'll experience from the airy ground floor drawing room to the twisting hallways and individual rooms upstairs.
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Firmdale's Dorset Square Hotel Will Open June 18
Well, lookie here. Another new hotel opening in London just in time for the Summer Olympics.
This time it's from the intimate collection of London (and one NYC) boutique hotels, Firmdale--Dorset Square Hotel in the city's Marylebone neighborhood.
The hotel itself has actually been around for a while but it recently got a renovation from fairy godmother (and Firmdale's owner) Kit Kemp. Kemp has integrated her signature accents of "bold colours and textures" as well as pretty-looking fabric patterns (she makes floral look not just acceptable but desirable) and original art.
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Listen To a Steamy Voicemail Greeting Jon Hamm Recorded At the Soho Hotel in London
Mad Men is indeed coming back on March 25 for a two-hour season premier (are you excited yet?), but if that's just a little too long to wait, here's a bit of Jon Hamm hotel gossip to fill the void.
Metro newspaper was sitting down for an intimate interview with the star on Valentine's Day at the Soho Hotel in London. And something about the hotel's snug vibe must have had everyone feeling pretty relaxed, because the next thing they knew, Hamm had been convinced to record a seductive voicemail greeting—in Hungarian. The editor (who is male, we should point out) explains:
"[Sundance Channel] arranged the interview. It took place in a room at London’s stunning Soho Hotel. Hamm sat on a plush couch, near the bottom of the bed, and answered my questions thoughtfully. It was every woman’s dream."
Click below to hear the greeting!
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Firmdale's New iPhone App Keeps it Clean and Simple
If tech-savvy types are correct in their assessment that "[t]he future of mobile is the future of everything"—and what a bold statement to make—then Firmdale Hotels' business future is looking up. Jumping on the very full and happy mobile technology bandwagon, the hotel chain has just released its own iPhone Application, downloadable by clicking here.
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Firmdale Hotels' New London Flagship is Still Underway
Firmdale Hotels, the pretty London hotel collection with a penchant for charging for WiFi, is still hard at work on a new flagship hotel property.
We last strolled by the construction site in December and today, things don't look that much different. Our trusty London spy sent us these recent snapshots of the hotel, which is about a block away from Piccadilly Circus and which will have 90 rooms, a restaurant, bar, bowling alley and cinema.
The hotel doesn't seem to have risen out of the ground yet but the reassuring news is that there is more machinery and equipment on site. Perhaps Firmdale was just waiting out the winter?
We still don't know when this hotel will open or what it will be called but we think a Summer 2012 opening, in time for the Olympics, might not be so, um, firm.
Got any other scoop on when this hotel will open? Let us know!
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There's No Need to Stay at the Haymarket Hotel in London
London hotels have made some great improvements on the WiFi scene in recent years with more and more hotels offering it for free (see that list here.) Which is why there's really no need to stay at The Haymarket Hotel.
London Hotel News pointed out to us that the hotel charges at least £350 a night and doesn't even disclose on their website that they will charge for WiFi which TripAdvisor reviewers say starts at 30p a minute!
As much as we hate W Hotels for charging for WiFi, at least all of their hotels tell you exactly how much you will be paying for internet on their websites.
Sorry, Haymarket--you're pretty to look at but looks aren't everything. Free WiFi is. Maybe you should take a hint from your good-looking cousin in the states, The Crosby Street Hotel?
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The Crosby Street Hotel's Chicken Tries to Hide at Kelly Ripa's House
Kelly Ripa had a bizarre day yesterday. Not only did she find out that her beloved soap All My Children, where she met her hubby and got her start, was canceled, but that a rogue chicken from Crosby Street Hotel escaped and hid out near her home.
The hotel keeps a fancy Tudor-style coop on its rooftop, where the runaway chicken, Brooklyn, resides. The New York Post reported that a window washer accidentally disturbed Brooklyn, causing the fowl to fly out of there and onto the terrace near Ripa's digs.
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Anti-Royal Wedding Hotels: Number Sixteen
Everyone's gone crazy over the impending royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton and London Hotels are doing their best to rile up crazed royal watchers. But Heidi Atwal is here this week telling you to JUST SAY NO to hotel packages built around the royal wedding and consider these alternatives instead.
With a Champagne Tea menu, exorbitant room rates (ranging from £130 for a Single Room to £290 for a Deluxe Room), private garden, mid-Victorian decor and posh South Kensington post code, you might assume that Number Sixteen was royally stuffy. Despite its luxurious trappings, there is something distinctly quirky about its accommodations, which bear something of a traditional British air but flauts tradition at the same time.
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Writers Take Over The Crosby Street Hotel Screening Room
One of our favorite parts of The Crosby Street Hotel is the screening room and little bar downstairs, especially when the events held there are open to the public. We also love books, so we're psyched about the new program launching at the hotel soon: Under The Influence: Writers On Film.
Kicking off on Monday, January 24 with Paul Auster, the series invites some of the country's best writers to introduce a film that has influenced his or her work. After the screening, they'll discuss their work and the movie with screenwriter Michael Maren, who put the series together--and, yes, there will be cocktails. (These are literary types, after all.)
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The Firmdale Sign is Up But No Date For The New London Hotel…Yet
We came across the new Firmdale hotel site in Soho which left us wondering whatever happened to it. The Firmdale sign is still up but it doesn’t look like work has started. So we had a scout around online to see what we could find.
News of the hotel first broke in September 2009 and work was scheduled to start in 2010. But with only a couple of days left it doesn’t look like they’ve got very far. The last news story about the planned hotel was back in June when the London-based hotel group revealed more about the new hotel in Caterer
