The Four Points by Sheraton chain has been in our good books ever since they appointed a Chief Beer Officer, but they're teetering on heading over to the dark side after we discovered some of the odd (and probably useless) stuff they're trying to sell at their online store.
We get it about the sheets and towels and stuff, and even the fact that they sell a bunch of different pies (we'll take Mississippi Mud, thanks) is something we can live with.
But in a very limited section of their shop called "Uncomplicated" they are selling a rather odd-looking apple peeler. For a start, we don't believe it's uncomplicated (is this thing slicing and peeling at the same time? What if we just want it peeled? How the heck do we attach the apple?), and second, we don't believe anybody really needs it. And definitely not from a hotel shop.
If it's Doubletree Hotels that really takes your fancy over other chains, then you have to be ready to deck your home out with Doubletree lamps. Because that's about the only Doubletree swag that looks slightly original, although we're not quite sure where their lamp obsession comes from.
The Doubletree at Home online shop has some of the usual suspects: sheets and blankets, and a bunch of not so exciting bathroom accessories. It only comes into its own when you start with the lamps.
The choice is tough: a wooden lamp, the teardrop lamp, even the banker's lamp. They're priced between $150 and $320--the teardrop lamp falls in at the top of the market--and they all look a bit like they just come out of a hotel room. Lamp fetishists only need go shopping here.
We are kinda used to online hotel shops that offer beds, bathroom accessories and bath robes, and even alarm clocks or bedlights don't seem too far of a stretch. But then we hit the Sofitel online shop, named "SoBoutique", and we found a few, well, odd items available for purchase there.
Yes, SoBoutique has the usual list of bedroom and bathroom accessories, and we can live with that. But checking the "design" tab of their online shop for Europe (there's a separate site for North America) brings you to a page of glass balls, Gatsby lamps and last of all: Francine the hen. That's her in the picture.
How rare, we thought, arriving at the Claska Hotel website and seeing a button for "English." An independent Japanese hotel that has an English version of their site. Alas, it seems that the button labeled English is the only thing in that language, apart from a few other headings that also lead to tantalizingly interesting pages that we can't read, and you can't actually click through on "English"--we hope it's a "coming soon".
Apart from that problem, the Claska looks gorgeous. It's just been listed as one of the top five design hotels in Japan. It's small, just nine rooms, but also features an art gallery, bookshop, organic restaurant and apparently even a poodle parlor. There's even an online shop which sells lovely-looking Japanese stuff: tea sets, a fan, even a broom, all without ugly hotel logos.
A night at the Claska ain't cheap, with double starting at over 62,000 Yen (US$600). The website suggests the possibility of weekly residence rates too, but they probably don't get much cheaper. They might throw in a free broom, though.
There's a silver lining in the Eliot Spitzer-HookerGate after all.
The hotel which was the scene of the tryst with call girl Ashley Dupree, The Mayflower Hotel, is doing amazing business with its gift shop wares. The Daily News reports:
Everything from teddy bears ($18.99) to terry-cloth bathrobes ($69.99) marked with the Mayflower's logo has been flying off the shelves of the luxury hotel's tiny gift shop, [hotel spokesman Mark] Andre said.
And people are a little zealous about getting some other mementos from the hotel. Someone even pried off the original Room 871 tag from the wall, forcing the hotel to put up a replacement tag. Yeah, that's a little crazy.
Another service at the hotel that will probably do big business? The weekend romantic getaway which the hotel spokesperson also plugged. It's not just for couples of the traditional sort. Call girls and johns welcome too!
Hotel swag just gets better and better. This week the most attractive merchandise to catch our eye is courtesy of the Kimpton Hotel chain, where we already knew they're into animal print luggage.
The exciting news--well, somehow we're feeling excited about it today--is that the whole animal print thing goes a step further, and you can also buy animal print bath robes from Kimpton's online shop. Kimpton thinks that wearing these bath robes will "let your wild side run free", and what's more they'll "add character and style to your daily routine".
And here we were thinking our daily routine was already stylish enough. The big question is which animal print to choose: leopard, zebra or giraffe. For us it's a no-brainer: giraffe. Leopards and zebras are try-hards, but giraffes are so stylish they don't even know it. We are checking our credit card still has $120 left on it and we're ordering.
We think Westin Hotels seemed to really kick-start the whole hotel brand merchandising thing when they started selling their started selling their "Heavenly Beds", and now it seems there's nearly nothing you can't buy with a hotel logo slapped on it.
Shower hardware, for example. Not something we're often in the market for, but if you particularly like Westin's shiny showerheads then you can pick up their dual-head shower piece for just $130.00. They'll even sell you their chrome shower curtain hooks at $15.00 for a packet of twelve.
But just as we were gobsmacked by the price of the Sheraton's dog bed, we're once again quite amazed by what products Westin has for your dog.
There's a suede dog bed for, curiously, the same $225 as Sheraton charges for their version, with the Westin logo stamped inside a picture of a bone. When your dog wakes up from his heavenly sleep, you can take him walking using the Heavenly dog collar and Heavenly dog leash supplied by the Westin for a total of $60 (for a large dog).
Westin are, of course, also trying the cute dog trick to sell us some stuff, but we're afraid we think the Sheraton dog is cuter. No sale.
Hilton Hotels don't want you to forget about them once you've returned back home--so their online shop is called Hilton to Home. You can recreate a Hilton room in your own home, if you especially loved their mattresses, pillow cases, sheets and towels.
But the Hilton swag goes beyond the bedroom to all kinds of odds and ends that you didn't know you needed. Shiny, silvery tissue box covers, soap dishes and even wastebaskets are among the options, all in a special stainless material.
There's also a Hilton Family "Exclusive" Clock Radio, and the reason we're a little bit keen on this is that it claims to have "the world's easiest set alarm feature." Having missed more than a couple of trains and been late for a few planes after messing up the alarm setting on our travels, this might be what we need, if indeed it's true. Unfortunately, they do say it only works in the US, so perhaps it won't help with worldwide travels.
It's the same alarm clock used in many Hilton rooms, so you can try before you buy. At $60 (for an object less than six inches square), it could be seen as pricey, but even more so if you add the CD player which almost doubles the cost to $110.
There's a silver lining in the Eliot Spitzer-HookerGate after all.
We think 
