Tag: HotelChatter 2010 Awards
View All TagsHotelChatter 2010 Awards / Epilogue / → All Tags
HotelChatter 2010 Awards Epilogue
Thanks for joining us on the last day of 2010 for our 2010 HotelChatter Year-End Awards. A big, big shout-out to all the Hotel Mavens out there who have contributed to our site with their reviews, photos and comments this year. We couldn't have done it all without you. Keep it up in 2011!
As always, there are at least four ways to contribute:
·Become a HotelChatter member and submit stories, releasing your inner travel writer.
·Become a HotelChatter member, comment on stories, and review hotels.
·Send us snapshots of your favorite and least favorite hotels.
·Shoot us an email tip.
Now for your viewing enjoyment, here is our complete list of winners. We will be back in full effect on Monday to kick-off the new year of stories.
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / London Hotel Openings / → All Tags
Best Hotel Scene: London is Looking Very Loverly
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
You can blame it on an obsession with WAGs and the Daily Mail but there's no doubt we've had a huge crush on London this year.
From spending a night inside a "broom cupboard" at the Dean Street Townhouse to trying out the new Tune Hotel Westminster to doing tea with Katy Perry and checking out the DVF rooms at Claridge's, learning about the Living Wall at the Athenaeum, attending the reopening of The Savoy and waiting on the opening of the W London, we've gotten closer to London than ever before. Oh, and how can we forget hotels' excitement for the royal engagement of Wills and Kate?
Fortunately for us anglophiles, all this hotel hotness won't end in 2011.
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Hotel Openings / Thompson Hotels / Toronto Hotels / → All Tags
People's Choice Award: The Thompson Toronto
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
The hotel geeks have spoken and this year's People's Choice Award* goes to Thompson Toronto!
Perhaps it was the arrival of a NYC boutique hotel chain in Toronto with Dean & DeLuca minibar goodies and C.O. Bigelow toiletries that had you all excited. Or maybe you were excited to dine at Scarpetta from Chef Scott Conant but most likely, we think you just couldn't get enough of the views from the rooftop pool.
We stayed here right around when the hotel first opened in June and here is our initial take on the place:
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Hot Hotelier News / Nick Jones / Soho House Hotels / Andre Balazs / Ian Schrager / Jason Pomeranc / Sean MacPherson / Jeff Klein / → All Tags
Hotelier of the Year: Nick Jones of Soho House Hotels
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
In looking at our hot hotelier coverage from the past year, just three names consistently come up--Andre Balazs, Ian Schrager and Steve Wynn, who is really a casino mogul than a hotelier.
Where have all the hoteliers gone? Have bigger hotel brands finally pushed out the hip, cool, trendsetting, modelizing, jetsetting hotelier? That's what it seems like.
Just looking at six new hotels that are opening/have opened in NYC recently, four of them are from larger hotel brands (namely Starwood.) And in the coming years, both Hyatt Hotels and Hotel Indigo plan on saturating Manhattan with their brand.
With our usual staple of hoteliers just kicking back and relaxing (see below), we were hard pressed to find someone actively expanding his or her hotel collection. Then we remembered:
The Soho House Hotels, the members-only clubs with hotel rooms attached for both members and non-members alike.
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Hotel Video Tours / Missoni Hotels / → All Tags
Best Hotel Video Tour: Hotel Missoni in Edinburgh
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
We kicked off the year of hotel video tours in a fashionable way with a stay at the first-ever Hotel Missoni in Edinburgh.
Our own JetSetCD made a special detour to Edinburgh on her UK travels at the start of 2010 specifically to spend the night at this hotel. Here's what she thought:
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Hotel Services / Andaz Hotels / → All Tags
Best New Hotel Service: Andaz 5th Avenue's Departure Amenities
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
We had to restrain ourselves from seriously giving this award to the Emirates Palace in Dubai for their over-the-top Gold Bar ATM machine but fortunately, reason has prevailed and we're awarding this year's best new hotel service to the Andaz 5th Avenue in New York for their Departure Amenities.
Over and over again we've said the things we love about the Andaz brand are the complimentary touches from the free WiFi to the minibar snacks and drinks and the wine-tasting hour. And now when you check-out of Andaz 5th Avenue, you're given the option of choosing one of the following to take home with you:
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Hotel Bibles / OpenThread / → All Tags
Most Provocative OpenThread: Should Hotels Ditch Bibles Once and For All?
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
It's no secret that we at HotelChatter have very strong opinions about what we see in hotels but we like to think our minds can be changed (but not when it comes to free WiFi.) That's why we like to open up the conversation to our awesome readers, some of whom are traveling even more than us, not to mention working in hotels day-in and day-out.
Our OpenThread topics typically range from booking rooms to hotel services to room preferences but the one that seemed to provoke the most was the one about Hotel Bibles. Are they totally out of fashion or still necessary to keep in the nightstands? Here are some of the comments we received:
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Celebrity Scoop / Charlie Sheen / → All Tags
Best Celebrity Performance: Charlie Sheen
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
We truly, honestly, never expected anyone to top David Hasselhoff's brilliant performance last year at the St Martins Lane Hotel last year where, in a drunken fit, he wet the hotel bed, punched a doctor and had to be locked up in the basement until an ambulance arrived.
But then along came Charlie Sheen.
Charlie treated his ex-wife, Denise Richards, and their two adorable little girls to a few nights at The Plaza back in October with the gals staying in the precious Eloise Suite while Charlie stayed next door. It should have been a sweet/suite hotel stay for all but it turned into a horrifying incident which will surely send the little girls into therapy (if they aren't already there.)
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Hotel Renovations / Fairmont Hotels / → All Tags
Best Hotel Renovation: The Savoy London
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
We always love a good hotel renovation but there's always one every year that stands out and this year, it's The Savoy London.
The iconic hotel closed way back in December 2007 for what was to be a 16-month renovation process. But things got delayed along the way, forcing the hotel to reopen much later than expected. Yet when they did, they did it with a bang--opening on 10.10.10 at 10:10am.
Our London correspondent was initially impressed and the rooms do look fantastic. But anytime you mess with an original, there's bound to be a bunch of folks who miss the old ways and that's what The Savoy is also experiencing. Think of it as London's very own Plaza Hotel, also run by Fairmont Hotels.
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Anti-View / Viva Vegas / → All Tags
Worst Anti-View: The Depressing End of the Las Vegas Strip
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
You either win big or lose big in Vegas and year after year, we find the same saying rings true for room views. Sometimes, you get a fabulous view of the Bellagio fountains and other times, you get to stare out at what is essentially Vegas dreams gone bust.
This was anti-view we got at the Encore Las Vegas. Granted we were high up on the 51st floor, but since we asked to be placed in a room away from the music blasting out of the Surrender nightclub, we were given a room with a view of the forlorn North end of the Strip. Here you can see what Vegas used to be and what Vegas hoped to be all in one shot.
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Killer View / Bahamas Hotels / → All Tags
Best Killer View: Kamalame Cay in The Bahamas
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
There's simply nothing better than getting a room with a Killer View during your hotel stay and down at the Kamalame Cay Private Island Resort in the Bahamas, there is no shortage of killer views.
Our own MsRebecca spent a few days down in paradise this spring marveling at the views from all angles. Above here is a room view from the patio of the Wild Dilly beach cottage but if that doesn't satiate you, check out the views from the resort's spa below.
As MsRebecca herself said, "Killer Views are common in the Caribbean but on this long, thin strip of land--Kamalame Cay is just three miles long--they are inescapable. Why fly to Bora Bora when this is the Bahamas?" Rates at Kamalame Cay start at $395 a night. Cottage Suites start at $760 a night.
HotelChatter 2010 Awards / Hotel Hell / → All Tags
Worst Hotel Hell: Whatever That Was Behind The Bed at The Jane
It's what you've been waiting all year for--The 2010 HotelChatter Awards! We'll be bringing you the best and worst of the year all day today and part of tomorrow. Agree or disagree with our picks? Air your thoughts in comments below.
This year's worst Hotel Hell came courtesy of our own JuliaB who spent a night at Jane Hotel in NYC, the budgety place in all the city that's just notches above a hostel.
It's a place HotelChatter has stayed before without much incident but when JuliaB spent the night, things were um...exciting...to say the least. Particularly behind the bed. Here's her own description of what was found:
There was a 2-3in gap between the bed (which was fixed) and the wall. Our phone promptly fell down said gap and as the bed was four feet high, we couldn’t retrieve it. We enlisted a member of staff who tried to get it with a clothes-hanger, failed, and finally managed to get hold of it by sprawling all over our clean sheets and shoving a broom handle down the side.
