Tag: Hotel Heaven
View All TagsHotel Design / Lists / Hotel Heaven / Hotel Amenities / → All Tags
HotelChatter's 10 Favorite Things Found In Hotel Rooms
A few months back we talked about our pet peeves design-wise when staying in a hotel. But of course, there are a ton of things we love very much about hotel rooms. (There has to be, otherwise we wouldn't keep on coming back!)
So in this merry and joyous holiday season when everyone is buying Oprah's list of thinking up their "favorite things" we decided to compile a list of our 10 Favorite Things Found in Hotel Rooms.
Admittedly, this is a mix of amenities, furniture and technology but all of this plays into the overall design of the guestroom and more importantly, the overall hotel experience.
Hotel Spies / Thompson Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Noise / Hotel Heaven / → All Tags
Sleeping in Lower East Side Peace at Thompson LES
Today, we welcome our very own hotel Agent Zero, the first in what we hope to be a larger network of hotel spies. Her not-real name is Myra Ellen and she's our version of Alex Goran who travels once a week for business, usually along the Eastern seaboard. Every so often, she'll be dropping in with her latest hotel and travel observations. And awwaaaaay we go!
I stayed at the Thompson LES recently and experienced a Manhattan nighttime first: silence.
True silence from about 11pm until maybe 7:30am. No street noise, no doors slamming or hallway clatter, no ruckus of any kind. I'm still bewildered by that and wonder if perhaps I was actually in a coma. It's hard to explain how rare this phenomenon is for me.
Where, I wondered, were the trucks? The sirens? The garbage trucks? And since this is a Thompson hotel, where was the thud-thud-thud of the lounge music? The answer: if it was there, we didn't hear it.
Ed. Note: Maybe the hotel really took the neighbors' complaints to heart.
Hotel Staff / Hotel Heaven / Hyatt Hotels / Huntington Beach Hotels / → All Tags
A Holiday Hotel Story to Warm Your Heart
When our friend told us this story, we just knew we had to share, because it's stuff like this that takes the chill out of a cold, cold day.
One night, while on business in Huntington Beach, CA, our friend* proceeded to get absolutely wasted, lose her wallet and arrive at her hotel a sobbing, disoriented mess.
It was in this state that the front desk of the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa came to her rescue, calling every bar she had been to that night in search of her wallet, even calling the airline to see how she could board the plane for her flight home sans ID. (The wallet eventually showed up, fully intact, courtesy of that night's cab driver—more warm and fuzzy feelings!)
HotelChatter Reviews / Hotel Heaven / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / Hotel Services / Bath Butlers / → All Tags
We Dialed A Bath At The Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay
Staying at a luxury resort can sometimes feel like falling through a rabbit hole of helplessness. Even if you're accustomed to, say, setting an alarm clock or parking a car, why should you when someone is at the ready to do it for you? It's like being a baby who can drink.
We thought we'd seen the best of this before we encountered the Bath Butler at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay in California. A Gatsby-esque mansion blown up to Size XL along the foggy coast, the property, which opened in 2001, advertises such amenities as a cart for returning joggers offering towels and water (chilled or room temperature?) and a bagpiper who plays on the terrace at sunset.
Really, for this apartment dweller, the lounge-worthy alcove bathtub would have been delight enough, but having someone draw the bath for us sounded like a pretty great deal.
Korea Hotels / Seoul Hotel Reviews / Hotels Under $100 / Hotel Heaven / → All Tags
Behind the Anti-View: Metro Hotel Myungdong Redeems Itself
Have you heard about Seoul's hotness? South Korea's hipper-than-thou capital is gaining street cred due to a recent opening of a 10 Corso Como, a Fashion Week growing quickly in international regard, and not to mention the popularity of Korean TV dramas around the world.
The development of Seoul as a sort of new Tokyo (albeit slightly more affordable) is creating a distinctive thirst among tourists and locals alike: for luxury and high design.
This is why, in a city where women wear high heels everywhere, the Metro Hotel Myungdong looks and feels so good. So it doesn't have the best views, but then what is a great view in a city planned without much regard to green spaces and well...city planning?
Vietnam Hotel Reviews / Romantic Hotels / Hotel Heaven / Nha Trang Hotels / Honeymoon Resorts / → All Tags
Vietnam's Evason Hideaway is Romantically Cromulent
Beach Villa or Hill Top Villa? That is your choice at Evason Hideaway Ana Mandara. Whatever your French villa preference this cromulent resort in Dalat has you covered.
You still have a chance to hit this place in April before the mercury jumps to possibly unbearable levels in Vietnam. Thing is, as the temperature rises the prices go down, so you may be able to score a deal if you can stand the heat.
Top notch service, plenty of snorkeling, a bit of windsurfing, a beach, which is cleaned daily, and a brand spankin' new spa-- pretty much all the upscale resort prerequisites.
Oh, and there are wild monkeys on the premises who are known to playfully shake the trees behind some of the villas, who knows maybe they even shake the villas themselves--just in case you and your significant other can't get the job done--this place has romance written all over it.
Insider Tip: If you are a hotel view-o-phile stay in on of the Hill Top Suites for a killer view.
[Photo: Notorious S.I.G.]
Related Stories:
· Evason Hideaway Comments [TripAdvisor]
Hotel Heaven / Copenhagen Hotels / → All Tags
Hype and Heaps of Advice at Copenhagen's Fox Hotel
Most people rave about a great hotel after they've stayed there, but some get all excited just knowing it exists. At Susan Connor's Spiralbound blog, she's practically started hyperventilating after discovering Copenhagen's Hotel Fox. Susan says:
When I was skimming through some back-issues of Artichoke magazine, I just couldn't help but drool all over the article about Hotel Fox ... I can definitely see staying here and never even going out to any museums. This place looks like heaven. There should be more visionary, profit-making projects like this in the world. Fun for all.
Of course we'd prefer Susan checked in first before publicly claiming the Fox is the place, but there's something else new this month that we like about it. They've started their very own Ask Me page with experts for every aspect of Copenhagen life--so if you want to know where to see new exhibits, what sport you can catch while you're there or (most importantly, we think) where to eat and drink, there are a bunch of cool, knowledgeable Danes to ask.
[Photo: Christellefv]
Related Stories:
· Hotel Fox Copenhagen reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Farfegnugen at the Hotel Fox [HotelChatter]
Luxury Lodges / Hotel Heaven / New Zealand Hotels / → All Tags
New Zealand B&Bs are Different: Just Look at the Riverrun Lodge
If you're aspiring to a luxury holiday with a difference in New Zealand, you'll either hate our pun or be pleased to stay near Mt Aspiring National Park. An hour from Queenstown in New Zealand's Southern Alps, Riverrun Lodge is a small, personal-touch guesthouse with a 5-star feel.
Previous guests rave about it, enjoying factors as diverse as the "woodsy smell of fresh timbers" and the "porch overlooking the hillside" to the relaxing atmosphere. A big kudos to what's outside the lodge, too:
When you are tired of just looking at the beautiful countryside, you can take off walking from the hotel. You'll cross a turquoise stream, walk through bushes that are solid flowers, then climb a small, flower-covered mountain that will give you a breathtaking view of snow-capped mountains beyond, and a turquoise blue river below. Thought I was in Heaven, but alas, it was just the Riverrun Lodge.
So if you want to get a feel for the natural beauty of the South Island of New Zealand, a couple of nights near the mountains is probably a good way to do it. Oh, and before you ask why it's called "Riverrun", the mighty Clutha River (NZ's largest) runs along its border. Why they didn't bother with a space between River and Run, however, is something we can't answer.
[Photo: Girl loves to go]
Related Stories:
· Riverrun Lodge reviews [TripAdvisor]
Venice Hotel Reviews / Italy Hotel Reviews / Hotel Heaven / Reader Reviews / → All Tags
Venice Hotel Find Pans Out For Reader
For as long as we have chronicled hotel reviews, it has been duly noted that finding excellent, decently priced, accommodations in Italy can be, how do you say, spotty.
In light of this plight, when we find Italian hotels that appear to hold up, we always try to let you in on the secret.
Back in 2005 we found Pensione Accademia in Venice. A hotel even Philly Phan could love.
A HotelChatter reader recently put our post to the test in Venice. His thought are this way.
Egypt Hotel Reviews / Hotel Heaven / → All Tags
Clean Sunglasses and Perfect Service in Sharm El Sheikh
Where is Jennifer? Okay, perhaps the right question is who is Jennifer, but blogger whereisjennifer is in Egypt right now, raving about how wonderful the Grand Rotana Resort at Sharm El Sheikh is. Not only is the price good (as she mentions, thanks to the terrible intermittent terrorist attacks that make this Egyptian destination just a little less popular), she scored an upgrade to a "super-deluxe ocean view room". But the largest chunks of praised are reserved for the swimming pool and the employees who lurk there:
Friendly pool employees jumped to adjust our pool chairs, put up our umbrella, bring us refreshments, clean our sunglasses, and practice their commendable command of the English language. We were in heaven. Everywhere we went, employees were standing by to treat us like national treasures.
Whether or not you want someone else actually cleaning your sunglasses is another question (we can live without it ourselves) but plenty of reviews from other happy customers seem to support Jennifer's rave.
And if being waited on hand and foot at the pool all holiday isn't your thing, from the Grand Rotana Sharm El Sheikh you can also get into diving, snorkelling, windsurfing, horseriding and even camel riding and desert safaris. They just probably don't clean your sunglasses for you out in the desert.
Related Stories:
Grand Rotana Resort and Spa reviews [TripAdvisor]
Egypt Hotel Reviews / Hotel Heaven / → All Tags
Hotel Heaven in Egypt...If You Can Get There
With review titles like "Heaven," Brilliant," and "Wonderful Staff, Wonderful Hotel," it's safe to say the Le Meridien in Luxor is worth a stay. With 228 rooms, some overlook the Nile and others the courtyard, amenities run rampant, and hotel staff is touted as excellent again and again.
Guests can swim in the pool while peering over the ledge at the sailors on the Nile. Jet up into the sky on a hot air balloon or dine in a "sailing felucca." So there is plenty to do and the property is great but we are always interested to read up on the staff:
What a fantastic holiday we had. We can not fault the hotel and all of the staff. All of the staff were helpful and so friendly. it they appeared more like a family of staff. Rooms were cleaned daily. We requested extra pillows at reception one day and ten minutes after returning to our rooms there was a knock on the door- pillows had arrived.
Voila! A little hotel heaven in Eygpt. Le Meridien and Luxor have done their part in providing a top hotel with superb service. Now if only the political climate would clear up maybe we'd have the guts to jaunt to Egypt without considering a Vegas substitute instead.
Related Stories:
· Le Meridien Luxor Reviews [TripAdvisor]
Argentina Hotels / Hotel Heaven / Tips / → All Tags
Old Money vs. New Money in Buenos Aires
[Ed. Note: Hotel Maven Tim Leffel's last report on Argentina gives us an inside look at two polar opposites serving wealthy visitors to Buenos Aires: Alvear Palace and Faena Hotel & Universe. Enjoy.]
At La Cabaña, the best steakhouse in Buenos Aires (which is really saying something), general manager Mirco Zampieri says he can spot a reservation from Alvear Palace Hotel or Faena Hotel & Universe as soon as the visitors walk in the door. "The ones from Alvear are wearing the best tailored clothes, the most expensive jewelry, and look very refined and sophisticated."
Visitors from Faena, however, tend to be less subtle. "They look like they walked straight out of a fashion magazine. Very stylish and brash, usually young and beautiful," Zampieri says, calling the difference the embodiment of old money and new money. Captains of industry and finance on one hand, the new leaders in fashion, design, and entertainment on the other.
Alvear Palace Hotel is all about grandeur the way it was in the roaring 1920s: acres of marble, crystal chandeliers, gilded mirrors, fine china, and impeccable service from people in formal attire. Classical music and jazz fill the public areas. The full-page celebrity guest list would be the envy of nearly any hotel in the world. Who else has hosted the King of Spain, the Emporer of Japan, Walt Disney, George Soros, Francis Ford Coppola, and Pamela Anderson? This is no fading relic, however. Rooms are luxurious and spacious and are tricked out with plenty of gadgetry, as in phones that control the lighting and music, and flat TVs over the tub in premium rooms.
More on New Money vs. Old Money after the jump.
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