Tag: Hotel Pools
View All TagsHotel Reviews / Phoenix Hotels / Hotel Restaurants / Boutique Hotels / Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Where We're Bunking Next Time We're Phoenix Bound
We've been talking about Phoenix for a minute at HC, and with good reason. It seems like good things are happenin' around this town and we like nothing more to be around when places start hoppin'.
We planned our hotel stays carefully while in town in December. We enjoyed our night at Aloft Phoenix Airport, and loved the food and design quirks at the Hotel Palomar Phoenix.
But we realized we'd missed a potentially cool little property. So next time we're in town, you can bet your bottom dollar we'll be staying at the Clarendon Hotel and Suites.
Hotel Pools / Thailand Hotels / Bangkok Hotels / Death Defying Rooftop Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Swimming Over The Edge: The Pool At The Okura Prestige Bangkok
Swimmers with a strong stomach have more and more options these days when wanting to take a dip. From the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore (55 stories up in the air) to the Joule in Dallas, we previously looked at 10 Death Defying Rooftop Pools and received many more suggestions from you.
Today we’re adding another one to our list, this time in Thailand at the Okura Prestige Bangkok. If something looks off in the picture above, believe us when we tell you it’s no Photoshop: set on the 25th floor, the pool juts out of the curvature of the Park Ventures Ecoplex building, of which the hotel is part. The curved shape, widest at its middle and tapering at both ends (reflecting the Thai symbol of “wai” – thanks and welcome), literally gives you a sense of floating over the edge. Open from 6am to 9pm, an early or late swim as the city wakes up or evening falls will have to be added to our to do’s during a next trip to Bangkok.
HotelChatter Reviews / Miami Hotel Mambo / Hotel Pools / Affordable Hotels / Hotel Design / Photo Gallery / → All Tags
We Behaved Like Good Little Soldiers At the Cadet
On a recent quickie trip through Miami, we checked into the Cadet Hotel in Miami Beach. Though our eyes got big as we walked by iconic buildings like the Delano, The Raleigh and SLS South Beach, we stuck to our original plan of doing Miami on a budget, and tried not to be tempted by anything fancy.
But as soon as we walked into our room, we knew we had made the right choice. The hotel was quiet, clean, and elegant. What's more, its location was unbeatable. Plenty of Miami first-timers will be drawn to all the landmark hotels listed above—not to mention the beach—but that's all super easy to get to from the Cadet, since the Collins Ave hub sits just one block away.
First impression: Walking into the hotel, we were greeted by a small lobby with obvious Art Deco accents like a giant circular mirror, baby grand piano, and an inlaid floor with a compass rose mosaic. A small liquor bar with espresso machine sat at one end of the room, and the Front Desk was at the other.
The staff was friendly, and even let us check into our room early—a huge help since we were running ahead of schedule and needed a place to drop our bags.
Read on to see the rest of the review!
Hotel News / Hotel Woes / JW Marriott Hotels / Chicago Hotels / Hotel Pools / Hotel Safety / Hotel Tips / → All Tags
Legionnaires’ Disease Claims Three at JW Marriott Chicago
New this May, JW Marriott Chicago's chlorine-less pool touted a UV-light filtration process
Here’s what we know so far: an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease has been connected to 10 guests who visited or stayed at the JW Marriot Chicago between mid-July and mid-August. As of this past Friday, three of those guests died from the disease. The same strain of legionella bacteria found in the ill guests was also found in JW Marriott Chicago's pool, whirlpool, and decorative fountain in the main lobby, all of which have since been drained. The bacteria was also found in the men's and women's lockers rooms.
The Chicago Department of Public Health reported last week that the JW Marriott was fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation and had taken the recommended measures to reduce the risk of exposure. They now believe there is no ongoing health threat at the hotel.
It's heavy hotel news, but sadly, legionnaires' happens in the hotel (hot-tubing, cruise-shipping and hospital-going) world. Last year alone, it sickened two guests and claimed the life of another at Luxor, and sickened six at Aria, both in Vegas.
Essentially a severe pneumonia, legionnaires’ is caused by high concentrations of legionella bacteria that show up in water. It can survive for many months in that wet environment, especially in warm water. Transmission isn’t totally understood, but the gist of it is that it’s not spread by person-to-person contact but by inhaling or ingesting the legionella microbes (read: drinking the water, breathing in the vapor above and around the water). Once contracted, legionnaires’ can take anywhere from two to eight days to show up.
Deep in the hotel trenches, we also know that the new-in-May pool at JW Marriott was very unique in its UV filtration process—an important fact absent from the majority of news on the outbreak. Dubbed a high-tech pool by the hotel, the 11.2 meter chlorine-less pool was instead filtered by UV-light. According to the hotel’s original press release on the pool, “the water flows through UV-light chambers to eliminate 99% of all toxins and bacteria resulting in less chlorine in the pool than in average drinking water.” The release continues, “The absence of chlorine eliminates allergies and irritations and offers the feeling of swimming in a fresh water lake.”
Hotel Pools / Brooklyn Hotels / King and Grove Hotels / Hotel Amenities / Hotel News / → All Tags
Tickets To King & Grove Williamsburg's Semi-Public Pool Are On Sale Now
We said way, way back in 2011 we predicted that King & Grove Williamsburg's pool would likely be the most talked-about part of the hotel. For two reasons: 1) hanging out "by the cabanas" is kind of a rare thing to do in Brooklyn, and 2) the hotel's opening coincided with the big re-opening of a public pool across the street that likely wasn't going to be big enough to fit the entire neighborhood.
Needless to say, both pools have become pretty in-demand.
But now, K&G Williamsburg has installed a new online reservation system that sells pool tickets to non-hotel guests. But the tickets don't come cheap. And like most things in New York, the scene can get very crowded very fast.
Hotel Openings / Hotel News / Hotel Hype / Toronto Hotels / Shangri-La Hotels / Sweet Suites / Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Toronto’s Shangri-La Hotel Still Set to Open in Late August
Shangri-La Toronto Lobby
Oooohhhh. The word is that the Shangri-La Toronto is still scheduled to open later this month. They're playing it coy, however, as we see that bookings can’t yet be made on their site.
We've managed to get a hold of some renderings of the hotel and it looks like it’s going to be a beauty: very light, spacious and open.
The Smooth Operator / W Hotels / Hollywood Hotels / Hotel Pools / Party Hotels / → All Tags
The Party Scene at The W Hollywood Wrinkles The Smooth Operator's Stay
Welcome to another hotel dispatch from our newest special contributor, The Smooth Operator. We can't divulge his identity but we can tell you he's spends about 70 percent of his time on the road, staying in all the hot hotels and checking out their restaurants and bars to see if the social scene is up to snuff. If you're deciding whether or not to take a chance on that hip boutique hotel in the city, read The Smooth Operator for his opinion first. (Or send us an email and we'll have him answer it for you!)
The W Hollywood Hotel and Residences is the one Starwood Hotel that came with a "warning" three days prior to my visit. If you’re looking for "adult entertainment" and want to "live large, you’ve come to the right place." (see the notice I received before my stay in the gallery of photos below.)
At check-in, I was upgraded to a premium Spectacular room with a city view – which was exactly the same room I had last time and upon entering the room it was pretty obvious there was no city view – just a view of the fair going on in the parking lot across the street.
Miami Hotels / Standard Hotels / Hotel Pools / Olympics Hotels / Miami Hotel Mambo / → All Tags
Tonight, The Standard Miami Wants To See You In Their Pool
Calling all synchronized swimmers! Or anyone that wants to don some waterproof make-up and try your luck at the elaborate aquatic moves. The Standardin Miami is getting into the Olympic spirit with a few events to mark the opening of the London Summer Games.
Tonight is the night to test your skills at staying afloat with the hotel hosting an evening by the infinity-pool with The Dolphinettes. The appropriately name group is a Miami based synchronized swimming team that will be featured in a demonstration, then teaching brave guests the ins-and-outs of the intricate aquatic sport.
The Grand Hotel Mackinac Island / Michigan Hotels / Historical Hotels / Island Hotels / Photo Gallery / Hotel Pools / Hotel Amenities / → All Tags
Up at Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel: The Esther Williams Swimming Pool Endures
How many US hotels do you know that've reached 125 years of business? Well, The Grand Hotel of Michigan's Mackinac Island is one of 'em, as well as being one of the last surviving wooden construction hotels. Its history is long and tumultuous, but its summers are sunny. This week, we'll take a look around the Victorian property and the features and amenities that have made it a top seasonal destination for the last century-and-a-quarter.
Today: The grounds of The Grand Hotel
There's an excellent story that The Grand's historian, Bob Tagatz, tells. Hearing him deliver it is, naturally, leaps and bounds better than reading it here from us, but we're going to share it anyway.
The Grand Hotel has always been known for offering activities to fill those summer days spent lounging on the 600-foot-long porch (largest porch in the world, they claim). Today, those activities include croquet and bocce on the lawn, vintage baseball games, weekends dedicated to jazz or ballroom dancing and, always, live music. Rewind to 100 years ago—or 125. Seasonal resorts competed to draw the summer crowds by varying their entertainment, and The Grand had to keep up.
Hotel Rooftops / Hotel Pools / Gansevoort Hotels / Hotel Hell / → All Tags
Gansevoort Park's Pool Party Scene is Too Much for the Neighbors
When the Gansevoort Park Avenue hotel first opened back in 2010, we were pumped about their rooftop pool scene, Plunge, which is spread out over three levels and includes a 40-ft heated indoor-outdoor glass-enclosed, swimming pool.
Yet some neighbors who live near the Gansevoort are less than thrilled about the hotel's Sunday pool parties which only run from 3:30 to 8:30pm, but thanks to loud music and drunk partygoers, effectively kill any plans for a quiet, relaxing, Sunday at home. One neighbor told the NY Post:
"I try to not be home on Sundays. The last thing you want are a bunch of crazy people with loud techno music until 8 or 9 p.m.,” said frustrated local Greg Housset, 24, looking down from his apartment Sunday at the mob of hard-partying revelers packed like sardines on the hotel’s pool deck as turntable star DJ Chuckie spun booming dance tunes.
“Even when the windows are closed, you feel like there’s a sub-woofer in your apartment."
Eeee. We can't even imagine what that noise must be like if you're trying to rest up in your hotel room at the Gansevoort.
Photo Gallery / Hotel Lobbies / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / Dubai Hotels / Hotel Pools / Hotel Snapshots / → All Tags
5 Steps Around The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai
Situated along the beach on Jumeirah Beach Road (square in between Le Meridien and Hilton Dubai),Ritz-Carlton, Dubai is easily one of the nicest waterfront properties in Dubai. And though it's still in the midst of a major renovation (which will double the guest room count to a whopping 301), the public spaces are looking as nice as ever.
Take a look at our photo gallery below for a quick look around!
Hotel Amenities / Trump Hotels / Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Read Up on Trump SoHo's Free Poolside Kindle Program
There’s nothing better than sitting by a pool catching up on your reading, and the Trump SoHo’s new Summer Reading Program encourages guests to do just that by letting them borrow their latest amenity—the Kindle Touch.
The glare-proof screen readers are pre-loaded with magazines like Shape, Forbes, and Inc., as well as books such as I Knew You’d Be Lovely, and What Alice Forgot, culled from Oprah’s 2011 Summer Reading List. Pool attendants will distribute the Kindles to those sunbathing at the expansive Bar D'Eau's pool deck, which we recently mentioned as one classy place to let the sunshine in.
Only thing is, you’ll either need to read fast or plan to stay at the hotel (with starting rates of $395 a night this summer) awhile if you get hooked into a nail biter novel like James Patterson's 11th Hour as the Kindles can't leave the pool area.
[Photo:Trump SoHo]
