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Sandtastic Sandcastles at a Hotel Near You

| December 18, 2008 at 10:15 AM | 0 Comments

Remember when the Sagamore Hotel created a massive artistic sand sculpture on the beach in front of their hotel for Art Basel this year? Well, it turns out the team that actually did the sand-building (artist Olef Bruening just conceptualized the project) has gone to hotels around the world crafting sand creations.

Mark Mason of Team Sandtastic gave us some more pics from their hotel trips including a stint near the Burj Al-Arab in Dubai and the Starwood Logo creation in front of the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Fla. (Pictured above.) But this service isn't just for beachfront hotels.

If a hotel wants a sand sculpture but doesn't have sand, Sandtastic will bring the sand. The company of about 9-12 independent contractors once dropped in two truckloads of sand in the parking lot at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando for a corporate team-building event. And yes, they will even create indoor sand sculptures. (Don't worry, they are very careful not to leave sand all over the lobby floor.)

Next up for Sandtastic is a food and wine festival at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman. So, we have to ask is Sand the next big hotel trend? Are the ice sculptures and floral arrangements now passe?

Seen a sand sculpture at a hotel? Tell us where and of what in comments below.

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Inn On The Alameda Turns 23 wth a $23 Room Rate

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 303 EAST ALAMEDA [map], Santa Fe, NM, United States, 87501

| November 19, 2008 at 9:24 AM | 1 Comment

To celebrate the oft-forgotten, but nonetheless significant 23rd birthday, the Inn On The Alameda is giving away the third consecutive night for only $23. (Birthday rates are a trend. We're calling it.)

We found a room with two queens and a patio for only $140 in January which comes out to a nice $303 (plus taxes and fees, probs) for a long getaway weekend in the dead of winter. Not bad. Especially considering these amenities:

Lavish continental breakfast
Afternoon wine and cheese reception
Free wi-fi access
Parking at no charge
Lobby Library with books and games

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Are Bookshelves the Latest Hotel Craze?

| November 12, 2008 at 10:49 AM | 4 Comments

As we've been poking around new hotels that have opened recently, we are noticing a trend--Bookshelves. Hotels are trying to not only appeal to your nightowl tastes with their fancy celeb chef restaurants and their dark mysterious lounges but also to your inner bookworm.

Some examples of bookshelves in new hotels?
· Cooper Square: We've been eagerly anticipating this NYC hotel and while the 70s-inspired decor got panned, no one seemed to mind the bookshelves. That's a good thing because there are some bookshelves in the guestrooms as well.
· SLS Hotel: In a city more likely to tote around screenplays rather than books, the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles has peppered its public spaces with books on everything from music to fashion to flying.
· The Nines: In Abigail's recent review of the Nines, we were sort of wowed by the Library on the 8th floor which is stocked with books on loan from Portland's famous Powell's Books (pictured)

Of course, stacked bookshelves in hotels is nothing new. The Mercer Hotel was doing this a long time ago in their lobby and hello, how could we forget the ultimate bookworm hotel--The Library Hotel where 6,000 volumes of books are organized throughout the hotel by the Dewey Decimal System.

Seen a hotel with random bookshelves in the public spaces that we should know about? Let us know.

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Dear Hotels, We Wanna Know...What's In Your Box?

Where: Mexico

| September 24, 2008 at 3:58 PM | 3 Comments

That's the Magic Box at Las Brisas Acapulco.

Finally, a new hotel service trend that doesn't involve personal shoppers, bath butlers, dog walkers or preferential treatment for celebrities. There's isn't even any VIP access involved.

No, this new service trend taking root in Mexico is quite simply a Room Service Box. At Acapulco's very plush (and recently revamped) Las Brisas the room service box is called a "Magic Box" because a continental breakfast magically appears there every morning of the stay. Also, the box is pink. We love it already.

Likewise, Marquis Los Cabos does the same using what they've dubbed "private niches." (Is it just us or are these boxes kinda naughty-sounding?)

We've also been told that General Manager Ella Messerli is a former Las Brisas Acapulco staffer who obviously knows a good idea when she sees one. In fact, the room service box is getting so hot that, dare we say it, even all-inclusive companies like Secrets Resorts are catching on and building suites with "Secrets Boxes." (Ok, that does sound dirty.)

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Are Hotel Holographs the Way of the Future?

| July 11, 2008 at 11:32 AM | 0 Comments

New hotel technology has gotta start somewhere and down in Australia, the University of Queensland's School of Tourism has been trying to get students to have some brainwaves for the future.

When we first heard about this idea we figured that a bunch of students who've only ever stayed in youth hostels might not have many brilliant ideas for the future of hotels, but the results were better than we'd expected.

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Westin Gets Hip With Its Floral Arrangements

| June 27, 2008 at 10:29 AM | 0 Comments

Ever paid much attention to the floral arrangements at a hotel? Admittedly, we haven't, but perhaps that'll all change now that we know Westin Hotels have got a partnership going with the woman some people say is the world's best florist.

We didn't have any idea there was a world's best florist, but apparently Jane Packer fits the bill pretty well. She writes books about floral arrangements and counts Calvin Klein and Donna Karan on her client list. And now she's done a deal with Westin to provide designs for flower arrangements they'll use in their hotels across the world.

This means Packer's created a style guide for use in all Westins. The floral designs are meant to be strong and innovative "in single-color ways" to help Westin show their sense of style. It's an interesting idea, so keep an eye out for the vases at the next Westin you visit.

Fun fact: The Westin Taipei has its very own Westin Flower Shop.

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Is This The New, New Guestroom of the Future?

| June 17, 2008 at 2:02 PM | 8 Comments

Every so often, a hotel sets up a tricked out guestroom with the latest technology and calls it the "Guestroom of the Future." Right now, we'd say that title belongs to Room X at the Courtyard by Marriott in Delaware.

However, there's a new "New Guestroom of the Future" on the block...if only for a few short days.

At the HITEC annual conference, companies devoted to all things high-tech in the hospitality world unveiled their latest visions for hotel guestrooms as part of Guestroom 2010.

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Two Hotels, One Building: The Trend Moves to Las Colinas, Texas

| May 23, 2008 at 10:00 AM | 0 Comments

Save the Las Colinas Mustangs!...From the hotel invasion!

Much like what developer Sam Chang is doing in New York--putting two or three hotel brands in one building--the Intercontinental Hotels brand is hoping to do the same thing in the master-planned community of Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, a sort of suburb close to Dallas.

Las Colinas has been a breeding ground as of late for these new types of boutique-y chain brands aimed at business travelers since the community is home to 2,000 companies and serves as the global HQs for a few Fortune 500 companies. Already, Las Colinas will be getting an Aloft and a NYLO.

Now Intercontinental plans to house a Crowne Plaza and a Hotel Indigo under one roof. The Dallas Business Journal writes:

The Hotel Indigo Las Colinas will feature design elements such as guestrooms with hardwood flooring and spa-inspired showers and amenities such as a fitness studio, hotel bar, a 24-hour business center and meeting space for business functions or special events. Complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access will be available throughout the hotel.

The Crowne Plaza Las Colinas will offer more than 8,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space and include a restaurant, lounge, business center and gift shop.

Both hotels will have separate entrances yet will share a fitness center and swimming pool. We're guessing there should be some rate differences as well but no word on what those will be. The hotels (hotel?) will open in 2010.

[Photo: Armstrks]

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Step Aside Fiji Water and Voss: Tasmanian Rain is Taking Over

| February 18, 2008 at 1:11 PM | 4 Comments

We promise this picture is relevant to the story. Just keep reading.

The hotel amenity business is a cutthroat business these days. Hotels are constantly trying to outdo one another with the best products and services (like Fresh toiletries in the bathroom, Frette linens on the bed and Proposal Butlers.) We imagine hotel rivalries must go something like this:

"Oh you have white green tea scent in your lobbies? Well, we personalize the scents in our lobbies to coordinate with the hotel's interior design scheme and its feng shui. So top that!"

Additionally, what goes into the mini-bar is just as important. Long ago, it used to be M&Ms, Pringles and Coke. Today its Dean & Deluca candies and sex kits.

And bottled water is no exception. While luxury hotels tend to offer either Voss bottles or Fiji Water, the newest brand on the block seems to be Tasmanian Rain.

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Rent Love at Hotel Amour for the Afternoon

| February 6, 2008 at 4:48 PM | 0 Comments

We mentioned the Hotel Amour in our Paris Hotel Guide for Lovers a while back with Monica Guy describing it like so:

Most staff look like they snorted too much coke last night and there's more self-amour than anything else amongst the predominantly young, fashionista, sexually disorientated bo-ho clientele, but, I'm told, the place is worth it for the novelty. Like a novelty condom, I guess, only a bit more grown-up.

Now in the spirit of Valentine's Day, IHT's GlobeSpotters blog has suggested booking a room there for an afternoon delight. However, to keep within the law they can only rent one afternoon room out a day. We suggest the room that has "soft-core pornography, and erotic reading material"--you know, to get more bang for your buck.

In other news:
· RIP:Rapper Pimp C. died of a cough syrup overdose at the Mondrian Hotel.[Houston Chronicle]
· Crowd Control: MGM Mirage got rave reviews for handling the 5,000 guests displaced by the big fire at the Monte Carlo the other week.[Hotel Online]
· Political Hotels: Kofi Annan walks away from peace talks in Kenya because his suite at the Serena Hotel was bugged. [Fox News]
· Hotel Trends: Jails are the hottest new hotels! [Gridskipper]
· Hotel Sex: Hookers may need to relocate out of DC's Washington Plaza Hotel [DCist]

[Photo: Jochen]

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Mommy Hotels: Because BabyMoons and ConceptionMoons Weren't Enough

| January 14, 2008 at 5:52 PM | 1 Comment

If you're one of those people who took a ConceptionMoon with the hopes of creating a baby and then a BabyMoon with the hopes of one last quality vacation before a child arrives, then you'll probably dig the newest Mommy Hotel trend.

The NYT reports that the Parrot Mill Inn in Chatham, N.J. is part of a growing trend of hotels and inns catering to new and exhausted parents. Their second-floor suite features a changing-table, baby-soothing music, and a lactation consultant on call. All for $500 a night. We get the lactation consultant but if you've spent money on all the gadgets, gizmos and other nursery amenities that a baby "needs", isn't this just a little extravagant?

Anyhow, in other non-lactating news:

· Hyatt Hotels have begun "Web-In" and "Web-Out," an  online check-in and check-out system for all guests at the 100 North American Hyatt properties. Visit Hyatt.com for the HowTo.
· Philadelphia's hotel boom is still going on, despite market woes. The city of Brotherly Love will get a Le Meridien, a Hotel Palomar and a Four Points by Sheraton, to name a few.
· The temporary Stoli Hotel returns again. This time to Miami Beach.
· More Palazzo Las Vegas photos here on Flickr.

[Photo: NY Times]

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Book a Hotel With An Art Gallery Included

| December 26, 2007 at 11:15 AM | 0 Comments

It all sounds very convenient, and it does seem to be happening more and more: hotels are making a big deal about displaying impressive collections of art work, to the point where they're starting to sound like art galleries.

While we've never actually chosen a hotel based on the artwork, there must be someone who does, or there wouldn't be so many hotels going to the effort of hanging expensive stuff on their walls.

The NYT's The Moment blog just did a bit of cubicle dreaming about some appropriate hotel and artist match-ups that they'd like to see ... for example, they figure that the ultra-expensive Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi would make a great home to a few pieces from Damien Hirst, the English guy who covered a platinum skull with diamonds and called it "For the Love of God"--it sold again at auction in August for $100 million.

Whether or not his dead animals series (he went through a phase of cutting up creatures like sharks and cows and preserving them artistically in formaldehyde) would fit into the Emirates Palace is a whole other question.

The whole discussion of art in hotels arose from the news that the Eden Rock Hotel in St Barths is starting a series of art exhibitions, beginning with Richard Prince from Thursday. Will that entice extra guests to book in? They obviously think so.

[Photo: SecretlyIronic]

Related Stories:
· Now Hanging: Art in St Bart's [The Moment NYT Blog]
· NYLO Returns, Wants Local Artwork [HotelChatter]