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Westin's New Heavenly Bath Amenities Now Available

| July 2, 2009 at 3:18 PM | 0 Comments

Ohhh, new toiletries!

You know we're sorta obsessed with hotel toiletries — the good ones, that is (think separate shampoos and conditioners rather than some kind of hair-assaulting/insulting shamp-condi hybrid) — and we get kinda excited when we hear of a new line of 'em coming out.

Not surprisingly, news of Westin's new Heavenly Bath Line brings joy to our hearts — but not to our hair and skin just yet, since we haven't had the chance to try 'em out ourselves:

Specially designed to soothe the senses with a blend of botanicals and natural ingredients, the collection is available in balancing White Tea Aloe, uplifting Green Tea Grapefruit, and calming Chamomile Lavender. Each product, including a Heavenly shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body oil, is made with natural ingredients such as wheat proteins and mineral peptides; true essential oils; and vitamins A, C, and E.

The new amenities are inspired by Westin's White Tea fragrance, and they were rolled out across Westin guestrooms just recently — you will also encounter the new toiletry goodies if you get yourself a treatment at a Heavenly Spa.

The full-sized items are going to run for about $12-20 each if you want to buy 'em for your house, or you can get a travel-size kit for $14 (or, pssst, you can just steal the ones in the room and put them in a plastic baggie and call it a travel kit, too.)

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Is W Chicago City Center's New Look Too Ikea-ish?

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 172 West Adams Street [map], Chicago, IL, United States, 60603

| July 2, 2009 at 11:53 AM | 0 Comments

Ch-ch-check it out, Chi-town: W Chicago City Center just underwent a major, major reno (the first since its 2001 opening, obviously) that includes a redesign of the hotel's 235 guestrooms and suites, the W Living Room (goofy W lingo for "lobby," for those of you just tuning in), and a new brand new look for the meeting and event spaces throughout the hotel.

Warning: going over to TripAdvisor to check out reviews of this hotel may be a wee bit risky, as the reviews are about as all-over-the-place as they get. Here's one guest's take on the newly renovated rooms:

The renovated rooms look like a page out of an Ikea catalog. White, cheap furniture. I was reminded of the super-small rooms you get in European hotels where all the furniture is attached to the walls.

Whoops. Management responded to that comment, though, with this:

We ensure you that our furniture was created exclusively by the W Hotels Design team for the comfort of our guests. In implementing our recent 35 million dollar renovation our design team carefully thought of the guest experience – installing sound proof windows and creating more space by making it brighter and recessing furniture.

Probably a good thing that they're trying to make the rooms seem bigger and brighter, at least, since a couple other reviewers on TA complained of the small room size.

Rates here start around $199.

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What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas. Especially If You Get Arrested.

| July 1, 2009 at 6:19 PM | 0 Comments

Have we bragged about our baby sibling lately? Allow us to remind you: we recently birthed a younger brother or sister (or brother dressed like a sister! It's Sin City — anything goes!) who enjoys sequins, bright lights and late nights: VegasChatter, doing a kickass job of covering all things Vegas.

This week, the Sin City experts at VC are giving you their take on the new Vegas ads (yes, the "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" ones), except this year the ol' Visit Las Vegas folks have put a new spin on the ads by sarcastically applying the "What Happens Here, Stays Here" slogan to other places and events. Like, "What Happens in Billups County, Stays in Billups County" or "What Happens at the Caribou Lodge, Stays at The Caribou Lodge." Ha! Story here, video above.

Other sparkling Vegas gems for your gawking pleasure:

· The Ten Surest Ways to Get Arrested in Las Vegas
· A Happy Hour Guide. You're Welcome.
· Fontainebleau? More Like Fontaine-Bust. Or Fontaine-Bummer, even!
· A Peek at the Four Seasons Pool
· The VegasChatter Flickr Pool — All the Hot Shots

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Booking NYC Hotel Rooms Online Might Be Getting a Bit Pricier

| June 29, 2009 at 2:54 PM | 3 Comments

Uh-oh. We're pretty sure lots of online hotel booking sites are going to have something to say about this: according to WNYC, New York City's Mayor Bloomberg "will sign a bill into law today that should bring in a lot of additional tax revenue for the city" — that is, travel sites will now have to pay taxes on the full retail prices of the NYC hotel rooms they sell.

Per WNYC:

The city believes it's currently collecting less hotel tax than it should. That's because some travel websites pay hotel taxes based on the wholesale rate of the rooms they buy. Then, the websites charge their customers the same hotel tax on retail room rates, and pocket the difference.

A trade group representing travel web sites says the change is, quote, "exactly the wrong approach", and will result in more vacant hotel rooms.

Uh, hmmm. Yikes. We'll keep you updated as we learn more about how much this is going to affect the price you're going to be paying (if it does) — in the meantime, we suspect the travel sites are not really going to be so down with this.

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Here We Go Again: The Regent Bal Harbour Is No Longer a Regent Hotel

| June 24, 2009 at 1:36 PM | 3 Comments

The Regent Hotels has a problem picking and sticking with hotels. Today, tipsters sent us word that the hotel management company has effectively stopped managing the The Regent Bal Harbour in Florida. The hotel will now be known as The Bal Harbour Hotel.

The Regent brand dismissal is actually due to the bankruptcy of the hotel's owner, WCI Communities. Regent Hotels has put forth this statement:

Regent Hotels & Resorts is proud of its tenure managing The Regent Bal Harbour since its opening, having achieved strong positioning in the South Florida luxury hotel market. For example, the hotel was ranked by Travel + Leisure magazine among "15 hotels to watch" in the most recent "World's Best" issue. The brand is continuing to expand globally, including the opening of eight new hotels over the next three years in locations that span the world, from Puerto Rico to the Maldives.

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SoCal's Terranea Resort Opens in a Blaze of Glory

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 6610 Palos Verdes Drive South [map], Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, United States, 90275

| June 23, 2009 at 10:15 AM | 0 Comments

Last week, SoCal welcomed the brand new Terranea Resort, a 360-room ultra-luxe property managed by Destination Hotels and Resorts, and it debuted a pretty serious golf course, a spa and puh-lenty of green practices.

But! Someone on the property wasn't really obeying safety practices! Or, rather, someone made an oopsie: on opening weekend, the $480 million resort in Rancho Palos Verdes was evacuated "after a laundry room caught fire and smoke got into the air conditioning system," according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Yikes.

The fire happened Sunday morning around 11 and, luckily, it was contained to the laundry room and was put out in under an hour — but still, not a good way to get going. Or, like, you could call it a blaze of glory, we suppose.

We saw rates down as low as $145 for this place (June 28th), and we checked out a Sunday in July and found a $230 price tag on a resort view room. Hopefully all the bad-opening-things like laundry room fires will be outta the way by then.

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Marriott Will Kick Off Its Free Night Promotion on Monday

| June 19, 2009 at 4:46 PM | 0 Comments

Anything for "free" will always get our attention so when we heard that Marriott Hotels would be kicking off its Free Night Stay promotion on Monday, we had to see what this was all about. And guess what? That free night stay can be yours but you will have to work at it a little.

When staying at a Marriott hotel in a city, you get the third night free when you book a minimum of three consecutive weekend nights (Thursday-Sunday.) But don't book that trip to New York or Toronto just yet. The offer is not good at continental U.S. or Canadian properties. However, it does apply to international cities like Berlin, Moscow and Paris (which has the pink-tastic Renaissance Arc de Triomphe.) In London, the free night is available mid-week only with three consecutive nights stay.

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How to Get a Vegas Room Upgrade at Check-In

| June 19, 2009 at 3:07 PM | 0 Comments

Our pals at VegasChatter have been doing a totally kickass job of keeping their hot little fingers on the pulse of Sin City, and this week they've got a whole lotta sweetness for hotel geeks, Vegas junkies and strip novices alike.

VC had a pow-wow with a top-secret Vegas hotel insider — that is, a seasoned front desker at one of Sin City's best and most prominent hotels — and "Mr. B." dished some super helpful tips on how to go about scoring a room upgrade at your Vegas hotel. His tips, combined with the experience of VegasChatter's LV-savvy crew of editors, were all pooled together to bring you this definitive guide to landing a room upgrade while you're checking in. Check it out.

And no, slipping the front desker a $20 doesn't always work. (But sometimes it does!)

And more tips to help you compile your very own Vegas survival guide:

· How to Get the Real 'Hangover' Room: Yeah, so that room from The Hangover? Here's how you can snag it. Er, the real one.
· How to Utilize a 'Leisure Concierge': What the F is a leisure concierge and how do you use one?
· Getting in to Vegas Clubs: How to navigate the Vegas club scene (and what to do with those "free passes" given to you by club promoters).

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Westin's Heavenly Bed Gets the Greatest Birthday Cake Ever

| June 19, 2009 at 11:39 AM | 1 Comment

Westin Hotels' famed Heavenly Bed is celebrating its 10th birthday this year. Natch, when one celebrates a birthday, one gets a cake — and, apparently, when you're a bed that has slept with as many people as the Heavenly, the cake you get is the Greatest Cake of All Time, Ever.

And who do we know who creates the Greatest Cakes of All Time, Ever? The dude from Ace of Cakes, of course. Er, Food Network star Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes, that is.

Westin commissioned him to make this three-foot-long Heavenly Bed, which reportedly suffered some high drama/trauma (great for TV!) in the form of a large crack in the cake due to NYC's incessant pouring rain.

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Hyatt Hotels' Mega-Sale Starts Friday

| June 18, 2009 at 10:26 AM | 0 Comments

Northeasterners, here's something to brighten up this rainy, grossly-dreary Thursday (and West Coasters, don't even speak to us if you've got sunshine): This Friday, Hyatt is launching a global mega-sale that promises up to 29% off of the Hyatt Daily Rate. This'll be good on Park Hyatt, Andaz, Grand Hyatt, and Hyatt Regency properties, though the official booking window for the sale depends on which location you're going for:

In the United States, Canada and the Caribbean:
· Book June 19 through July 9 or August 14 through September 3
· Stay June 26 through October 4

In Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and at Park Hyatt and Andaz hotels worldwide:
· Book between June 19 and September 3
· 7 or 14 day advance purchase required, varies by property
· Stay beginning July 3 through mid-September (end dates vary)

Get your bookin' on starting tomorrow, June 19, by punching in offer code LTO109 on the Special Offers page of the Hyatt website. Or, you know, you can do it up old school by calling 1-800-233-1234.

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Zimzala Restaurant Opens at the Shorebreak Hotel

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 500 Pacific Coast Highway [map], Huntington Beach, CA, United States, 92648

| June 17, 2009 at 9:39 AM | 0 Comments

Though it had a “soft” (that is, an unannounced) opening on May 12, Zimzala Restaurant at the Shorebreak Hotel in Huntington Beach is now open for business...and for press.

Part of the Joie de Vivre family of hotels that we seem to be writing about more and more these days, the Shorebreak is meant to be a surfer-chic haven of beachside relaxation in one of California’s premier surf destinations. Rooms have paintings of surfers, seascapes, and, of course, killer views of the beach and pier, not to mention a few surfboards lying around.

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Eloise Makes Her Grand Return to the Plaza

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 768 Fifth Avenue [map], New York, NY, United States, 10019

| June 16, 2009 at 12:59 PM | 0 Comments

Our recent stay at The Plaza made us believers in a place we were having a hard time believing in for a while. Earlier this year, we were asking whether we thought Eloise, Kay Thompson's fictional, most-notorious little Plaza-dweller, would even want to stay at the Plaza anymore — but it's looking like the iconic hotel is bringin' her back (whether she likes it or not) with special Eloise-y packages.

The 'Live Like Eloise' and 'Live Like Eloise Slumber Party' packages have arrived — along with the hot goss that The Plaza will also be introducing an Eloise "interactive store and themed suite."

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