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Sleeping Inside One Of NYC's Historic Hotels: Our Room at The Roosevelt
It's almost impossible to believe that, in the years that we've been around here at HotelChatter, we have not slept in the historical hotel that is The Roosevelt. But then, we do live here, and there have been other hyped new openings to focus on, thus putting The Roosevelt on our back burner. And there it stayed.
...Until recently, when The Roosevelt held a promotion on Twitter to offer stays at the low, low rate of $19.24 a night, for a maximum stay of three nights. The $19.24 honored the year that this grand dame first opened, as part of a trio of hotels next door to Grand Central Station. Of the three—the other two being The Biltmore and The Commodore—The Roosevelt is the only survivor, and she continues to give a neverending flow of tourists a place to lay their heads after a long day of exploring the Big Apple.
Tags: Hotel Amenities / Langham Hotels / Hotel Video Tours / London Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Beat This Attention to Detail: The Silent Drawers of the Langham London
We thought we’d seen most things in the way of top notch/frivolous amenities until we looked round the Langham London post refurb. In particular, the suites.
Obviously they have the frilly stuff, like a selection of books for your perusal and cut glass goblets in each of them. But here's the best bit: the Langham is so dedicated to you having a peaceful stay that they’ve recessed the doors (which cocoons you from outside sounds, apparently) and soundproofed the chests of drawers.
Yes, the drawers. Just in case your lady or gentleman friend is inconsiderate enough to hurl the drawer shut, they’ve installed little springs in the backs of them, so however enthusiastic you are in your, erm, slamming, it’ll make a genteel bounce back and close in (almost) total silence.
Anal? Of course, but it’s the kind of attention to detail that makes our heads spin. If they’ve given that much thought to the drawers, the rest of the room must be in solid working order. Now all we have to do is find the requisite Ł549 to get us in. And some sunglasses for the less-than-attractive carpet.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / Hotel Openings / W Hotels / Boston Hotels / → All Tags
Guess the Hotel Revealed: Hot W Boston Room Video
The ambitious ground up W Boston, full of 235 guest rooms and approximately that many future residences opened earlier this month, and of course, we have already checked in and checked out.
We requested the highest floor possible, which landed us in room 1206. For those of you still wondering, yes, this is the answer to last Friday's Guess the Hotel. We will get to our thoughts on the W Boston experience later this week, but for now we direct your attention to the video above, in which you will notice some sort of poem written on the bathroom mirror, a view of Boston's theatre district at night, and a couple of other small fixtures details that surprised us -- see if you can pick them out.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / St Lucia Hotels / Island Hotels / Sports Hotels / Exotic Hotels / → All Tags
Inside BodyHoliday LeSPORT In St. Lucia, Post-Amy Winehouse
We've spent a week teasing you with images of beaches and infinity pools on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, and so now let's round out the hotels with one that includes massages daily—BodyHoliday LeSPORT.
You may already know of this all-inclusive, adults-only resort from last winter's Amy Winehouse St. Lucia debacle, where she holed up on the island, crawled around on the floor, snatching guests' drinks, and generally wreaked havoc until Le SPORT gave her a talking to. We may have even been sleeping in the same bed as her, but shudder at the thought. LeSPORT is far too good for Le Winehouse.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / Napa Valley Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Green Hotels / → All Tags
Inside Napa's Bardessono Hotel
Last week, we had the good fortune to spend a glorious fall day amongst the sun-warmed vines and valleys of Napa. Between wine-tasting rendezvous, we managed to invoke the tiniest bit of professionalism and took a tour of MTM Luxury Lodging’s new Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, which aims to be the greenest hotel in America. By the looks of it, they’re well on their way, but judge for yourself based on our video tour of one of their rooms.
Besides conventional eco-resort initiatives like LEED certification, controls that turn off the electrical systems when guests leave a room, and an organic garden that provides produce for the restaurant, the resort has also forged ahead with several distinct environmental practices that set it apart from other hotels.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / Intercontinental Hotels / San Francisco Hotels / Convention Center Hotels / → All Tags
Inside the Intercontinental San Francisco
Last week, we told you about the Michelin-starred grub at Luce, the restaurant at the Intercontinental San Francisco, but today, we’re going to take you on a video walkthrough of a standard guestroom there so you can get a feel for the entire hotel experience.
Our favorite features of the room? Enormous windows (though not such awesome views), a cozy work desk-sitting area, a huge flat-screen TV on which to watch Anderson Cooper spout off on CNN, an iPod docking station, huge marble bathrooms (though the sliding doors were kind of unwieldy and didn’t lock!), neutral-toned patterns and fabrics, and well stocked minibars.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / St Lucia Hotels / Island Hotels / → All Tags
Inside Anse Chastanet In St. Lucia: Oh, To Be A Snowbird
Forget Disney World—when you wish upon a star, this is where you hope you are. Following our visit to the uber-luxe Jade Mountain resort on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia last week, we headed down the hill a bit to peek behind the doors at Anse Chastanet, owned by the same folks and with the same impressive views of the Pitons, but a tad older a property with thankfully less expensive nightly rates.
Just outside the town of Soufričre on the southwest coast of the island, Anse Chastanet is a tribute to the indigenous charm and pride of the island, since much of the staff and property itself is of St. Lucian origin, and it's been hopping since it opened its doors in the late 1960s—don't worry, it was freshly renovated in 2004. It's now known as the premier St. Lucian resort for scuba diving (with the first scuba center on the island), bird watching, and jungle mountain biking (they have their own 12 miles of trails).
And of course, it's quite the honeymoon and destination wedding hotspot, having been voted one of the "Top 25 Resorts: Americas & The Caribbean" for 2009 in CN Traveler, and #1 of the Top Five Places To See In Your Lifetime by good old Oprah.
Tags: Guess the Hotel / St Lucia Hotels / Hotel Video Tours / Hotel Pools / → All Tags
Guess the Hotel Revealed: Jade Mountain In St. Lucia
Yesterday we tempted you with a stack of infinity pools so delicious yet so mysterious, since it starred as a "Guess the Hotel." Well, the tropical paradise resort is none other than Travel + Leisure's Best Caribbean Resort 2009, Jade Mountain on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. We stopped by for a tour of the famous property, where The Girls Next Door's Kendra Wilkinson spent her honeymoon and where many rich and famous hide away when they need an exotic break.
Run by the same couple who own the beloved Anse Chastanet Resort further down the hill, Jade Mountain is one of those rare properties where it is damn near impossible to take a bad picture; the rooms all claim unparalleled views of St. Lucia's Piton mountains, they all have infinity pools, and the entire compound is focused on the indigenous, organic and natural charm of the island.
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Sleeping By The (Red) Sea in Bir Suwair's Bamboo Shacks
We learned several things from our visit to Egypt last week. First, five star there does not necessarily mean the five star that you would be accustomed to. We stayed in three five star properties in the Sinai peninsula – the Four Seasons and the Concorde in Sharm El Sheikh, and the Intercontinental in Taba Heights, and, unless you count all inclusive buffets and slightly tired decor as desirable five star attributes, only the Four Seasons was up to scratch.
Second, do not trust the buffets. They will make most likely you ill.
Third, you may tire of the resorts after a week of the buffets and the activities and the enforced gaiety and being surrounded by what seems like half the inhabitants of Britain and Russia, comparing sun burn and complaining that the guy at breakfast overfilled the coffee cup.
This is when you need to escape. And this is where you should escape to: Bir Suwair, in northern Sinai, between Nuweiba and Taba. It’s a settlement on a lovely sandy beach (this is important because not all the beaches in Sinai are lovely and sandy; most are rocky and have to import sand that’s a bit chunky and scratchy, although they have awesome coral reefs to make up for this). And by “settlement”, we mean a group of about 30 campsites made up of bamboo and wooden shacks. Robinson Crusoe eat your heart out.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / Chicago Hotels / Retro Hotels / → All Tags
In The Shadow Of The John Hancock Building At The Raffaello Chicago
Sometimes you stay in hotels because you're on a vacation, and other times you stay in hotels because of a business trip or special occasion, but you never plan for emergencies when you need to stay in a hotel, such as in the case of electrical problems at home. During our recent visit to Chicago, this is exactly what happened to friends of ours, and so we ended up next door in the Raffaello Hotel, a small but four-star property a block off of Michigan Avenue and cuddled right up to the rear of the John Hancock Center.
The hotel, for all its vintage charm and excellent location, is about as under-the-radar as you can get; there were no tour groups checking in, or really any tourists or groups for that matter. The clientele skews older and more sophisticated, like these are the people who have been coming here for years and years, desire a comfortable room and proximity to the lake, prime shopping and downtown, and yet aren't willing to pay Four Seasons prices for it—our king room was $139. You won't find a bar scene—although they do have a small bar off the lobby—and you will not miss the traffic noise of Michigan Ave, since the Raffaello is tucked just far enough back to miss out on that hubbub.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / Chicago Hotels / Sweet Suites / → All Tags
Inside a Paramount Suite At theWit Hotel Chicago
Please allow us to remind you that Chicago is not New York, and nowhere is this more apparent than at theWit Hotel in Chicago, where the Paramount Suite (pictured above and in the gallery below) begins at only $450 a night. What will $450 get you in NYC, you ask? Well, not even one night in the most standard room at the new Crosby Street Hotel, for example, or maybe only a few hours of sitting in the lobby of The Pierre. In the Windy City however, you'll get a full-size kitchen with Wolfgang Puck coffeemaker, two bathrooms, and a wall of windows with all imaginable views of downtown.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / Guadalajara Hotels / Mexico Hotels / Intercontinental Hotels / → All Tags
The Intercontinental Guadalajara: A Tale of Two Hotel Rooms
So remember that hotel keycard we showed you the other day with the um, interesting ad on it? Yeah. Well, that belonged to the Presidente Intercontinental Guadalajara where we stayed for four days during the Society of American Travel Writers conference.
Before we go any further, we must tell you the most crucial bit of information: Request a room above the 16th floor. Do not settle for a room on the 14th, 15th or 16th floors.
The reason being is that the hotel has recently completed a massive renovation of its lobby and floors 17-23. However, the renovation has not yet extended to the other floors. These rooms are very old and in terrible condition. We heard reports from fellow conference-goers of broken phones, missing mini-bar keys, broken lights and the like.
But upstairs in the "gated community," as some other folks referred to these new rooms, it's a different story. The rooms are light and happy, spacious and modern. Our only issue with our room was that sometimes the toilet wouldn't flush. But other than that, everything worked perfectly.
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