We know it's childish but every time housekeeping knocks on our hotel room door, we can't help but think of that scene is Tommy Boy where Chris Farley keeps incessantly knocking on the door pretending to be housekeeping while David Spade is trying to sleep.
Granted most housekeepers don't have such dirty suggestions as Chris Farley did but the knock of housekeeping is always inherently annoying. It always happens either when you're still sleeping, or when you're walking around with no pants on (tip: keep the robe handy!) or worse, when you're in the bathroom.
Then there's the whole exchange of what time housekeeping can come back later and clean and if you want new towels in the meantime or not.
We've just accepted this annoyance as part of our life, work and travels. However, thanks to budget squeezes housekeeping woes could get worse.
Cotswolds88 might sound more like a username than a hotel, but it is actually a new hotel that takes the 88 of its name from numerology. Also per its name, it's located in that increasingly snobby part of the English countryside known as the Cotswolds.
A recent UK Times reviewer was more than a little critical of its small rooms, relatively high price (mid-week rates start at £170 (US$335) and go much higher) and crazy website (we have to agree on that--what's with the elephant and the flying strawberries?). He was also unimpressed with the small motel-style TV bolted to the wall of his room.
Apparently owner Marchella De Angelis has a very modern attitude towards customer service; she told the UK Times reviewer that:
Traditional hotels apply the rule that the customer is always right, but we're in an evolutionary, futuristic stage and I don't believe that this can be possible, in as much that you can have facilities to keep every customer happy.
To sum up, the word around the traps is, if you ain't hip enough, don't book into the Cotswolds88. We warned you.
Ever wondered where those goofy uniforms you see on hotel staff came from? Turns out not all of them were made in China: there's a uniform designer and manufacturer that does all the work in New York, called Top Hat Image Wear.
Not that we're personally in the market for any uniforms ourselves, but it is interesting to see what's out there and how bad or how good the staff at our favorite hotels could really look.
Much like the Hard Rock Hotel has a Vibe Manager, the Hotel Sax in Chicago has Studio Hosts to man their sixth floor Studio (see video) which is powered by XBox and features hit games from Guitar Hero to Rockband to Madden 08' and Dance, Dance Revolution. All of the above is why the hotel topped our Best Geek Hotels 2.0 list back in February.
So what's it like in the life of a Studio Host here. From the Chicago Tribune:
And the hotel has trained staff attendants, now called studio hosts, to help guests with all the cool toys.
Mostly, people just need help swapping out the games, says studio host Bill Gill, 26.
"I show them how to play the guitar … make sure people don't stay an hour on a machine when people are waiting," Gill says.
Um...hello, we totally need to apply for this job because it's like the easiest job ever. Then again, we're not so sure we'd be good at comforting the older business traveler who attempts the Rockband drum kit and totally blows. The drummer is the beat of the band, man!
The Viceroy Santa Monica has been bringing out the cool gimmicks for ages. They once had a video game coach back in 2005 although we're sad to report that job no longer exists. Yet now with summer coming, the hotel is bringing out a few more tricks to keep us interested.
This time it's a pool concierge who's going to provide "special poolside amenities" from the Memorial Day weekend all the way through to Labor Day. These include waterproof games to play when you're resting poolside and the pool concierge will also help you coordinate trips to the beach by providing sunscreen, towels and a beach picnic. But if it's a Thursday, Friday or Saturday, get back from the beach by 2.00pm, because there's a surprise snack or drink, like a glass of champagne or a homemade popsicle.
If you feel like you've been out in the sun too long, you'll also be able to climb into a couple of the poolside cabanas which will be converted into mini movie-theaters. While you watch they'll bring you popcorn and kids will get drink choices like chocolate milk and fresh lemonade from a special menu. We hope that adults will be allowed a glass of chocolate milk, too.
Art on the walls at Mary Jane's Coffee Shop at the Hard Rock SD.
The LA Times' Valli Herman recently reviewed the Hard Rock San Diego and for the most part, she liked the hotel. We think this is mostly because she was expecting a room and board version of the played-out Hard Rock Cafes, yet she found the hotel to be rather "well-run."
However, she did find the classic rock piping through the hotel to be a bit "goofy". She writes:
With a pantheon of classic, and often dead, rockers on heavy rotation, the hotel also isn't pushing any boundaries musically. After a few too many rounds of the Beatles, the Monkees and the Doors, I was tempted to call it the Classic Rock Hotel.
As we all know, the man responsible for the music at the hotel is Vibe Manager John W. Resnick. Now he might have to actually spend some time working at this job.
Still, Valli Herman had plenty of other nice things to say about the Hard Rock including this reassuring bit: "Snap-to-it service without attitude."
Meet John W. Resnick, a 25-year-old New Yorker and Cornell Hotel School grad, who's responsible for keeping the rock n' roll vibe at the new hotel. Why should we sum up his job when he can do it himself:
My job is to create experiences for our guests both musical and cultural that really keep them begging for more, so they know they're at a Hard Rock [and] not a Holiday Inn.
I'm in charge of all the music at the hotel. Literally all the playlists that we make, the thousands of songs in our music library, the energy level in the hotel, and a whole sense of music, from the lobby to the spa to Mary Jane's [café] to the gym.
Wow. A vibe manager who basically just creates playlists all day long. That's kinda cool we guess. But Nemo Librizzi's and his hash-smoking hammock still trumps all.
It's not just us and Garfield that hate Mondays. Hotels do too. Here's a look at how Monday is biting hotels in the ass today:
· Gas leak at the National Hotel in South Beach on 17th and Collins, leave guests seeking treatment for carbon dioxide poisoning. [CBS4] · Fire breaks out at the site of the Mandarin Oriental Boston construction. [Boston Globe] · Hotels won't be making as much money in 2008 [BTN Mag] · Australia's luxury hotel workers have the nation's worst "injury rates for women, spiralling workloads, bullying and more low-paying jobs." [The Australian] · Guess what? Monica and Bill totally hugged at the Mayflower Hotel, now known as Spitzer's call girl meeting place. [NY Daily News]
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by juliana
