Looks like that $9 million renovation last year paid off at the Loews Philadelphia. The hotel was just awarded Hotel of the Year by Loews CEO Jonathan Tisch at the company's annual national meeting in Orlando in Orlando earlier this week. Hotel-Online reports:
Loews Philadelphia Hotel received the company's top honor, "Hotel of the Year." The hotel was recognized for its overall commitment to guest and employee satisfaction, compliance with brand initiatives and standards, year-over-year profits in both average room rate and food and beverage outlets, and implementation of the "Good Neighbor Policy," to list a few criteria for the award.
The hotel's director of sales and marketing, Anthony Del Gaudio, also won "Marketer of the Year" for all the partnerships he has forged between the hotel and the community.
Now if only they would make that WiFi free.
See what we had to say when we stayed at the Loews Philadelphia back in February 08.
The ambitiously named World Travel Awards are a set of gongs handed out by travel agents from across the globe who vote in numerous categories. And this year the fourteenth edition of these awards has given three different prizes to the Grand Hotel Stockholm: Best Swedish Hotel, Best Swedish Conference Hotel and Best Swedish Suite.
The hot suite at the Grand Hotel Stockholm is the Princess Lilian Suite (pictured), which is one of the largest suites in any European hotel. As far as suites go it's perhaps excessively well-equipped, with a 12-person cinema, a fully-equipped kitchen, office facilities, a living room with piano, two balconies overlooking the Royal Castle and finally a relaxation zone include a mosaic bath, more than one shower, and even your very own waterfall.
If you're after the Princess Lilian's 330-square meters of space, you'll need to be prepared to pay 55,000 Swedish crowns per night--at around US$8,700, that's not bad considering it includes breakfast as well. And don't forget, it's the best suite in Sweden.
A recent round-up in the UK Times about ten of the top hotels from the 2008 British Good Hotel Guide featured The Capital as the guide's London Hotel of the Year. However, the Times reviewer begs to differ.
The Capital is a pricey place, probably because it is walking distance from Harrod's. The hotel is famed for its restaurant, known simply as The Capital Restaurant, because it's the proud bearer of two Michelin stars. And the Times reviewer assures us that the food does live up to that.
The problem, then, lies in the hotel. For the kind of prices you have to pay--the lowest class of double room starts at almost $600 per night, not including breakfast which gets added at $38 per person--it just doesn't quite make it. Rooms are small and somewhat old-fashioned as evidenced by the picture above. Gag. Overall, the place is just not worth $600 a night (or much more), even for London.
We're not exactly prejudiced against airport hotels but we do kind of have low expectations of them: they don't usually have to compete against too many other hotels and they're the kind of place you stay just for a night, more out of convenience than actually wanting a great place to stay. But apparently in Melbourne, Australia, you can have your cake and eat it too.
At the recent Australian Hotels Association annual awards, the winner of the Overall Accommodation Hotel of the Year was the Hilton Melbourne International Airport. Exactly what criteria are used to judge this aren't revealed, but this award does make it basically the best hotel in Australia.
And it does seem like a lovely hotel: it has a beautiful swimming pool, high speed internet and fluffy bathrobes, it's only 20 minutes from Melbourne and just seconds to the airport via the connecting covered walkway. But that's the point, isn't it: it's absolutely directly next to the airport. You can see the runway from your room: this photo was taken from a hotel room. So isn't it a bit noisy? Perhaps the AHA judges wore earplugs.
Conde Nast has the "Hot List" so Travel + Leisure has the "It List" full of the 25 Best New Hotels this year.
Selected by the magazine's editors after anonymously road-testing numerous contenders, the IT LIST is Travel + Leisure's guide to the best new hotels, featuring six hotels in Europe; six in the U.S.; five in South America; and five in Asia. The remaining three hotels are in Panama, Mexico and South Africa. With hundreds of openings each year, Travel + Leisure's IT LIST pinpoints the hotels that are redefining service, design--even where travelers will be going next.
The Bowery Hotel in NYC (above) makes the list as a "Trailblazer". The Ritz Carlton Beijing is a "New Urbanist" while the Gramercy Park Hotel gets a nod for being a "Comeback Kid."
And funny enough, the Four Seasons Westlake Village makes the list under the "Healers" category. Could it be that's because (as one of our spies told us) that thanks to the next-door California Wellness Institute, it's where all the LA ladies go to recuperate from plastic surgery? Most likely.
The It List will appear in T+L's June issue, on newstands May 29.
Travel + Leisure has listed their top 500 hotels in the world and breaking it down by region we see that the Phoenix/Scottsdale area has the top four hotels in the U.S. according to T+L.
Lavish Sonoran Desert resort with adobe casitas, set among a millennia-old rock outcrop.
The hotel earned this distinction last year and is set to undergo a renovation this year which will ensure its top hotel status at least until the decade is out.
The Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell, London was recently recognized by the Visit London awards as the Best Small Hotel in 2006 for its style, comfort and eccentricity.
"The Zetter is innovative, creative and different," says Visit London's Chief Executive, James Bidwell, "Close community engagement, great design and architecture, and an ethos which revolves around its customers, mark this hotel out from the crowd.
The Zetter opened in 2004 and was given big-ups for its in-room technlogy including an movies on demand, and a library of 4000 free digital music tracks.
What's even better about this place is that you get Ian Schrager-chic for half the price.
