HotelChatter

Tags: Celebrity Scoop / YouTube / Adam Lambert / JDV Hotels / Room Trashers / → All Tags

Adam Lambert 'Trashes' The Hotel Angeleno

Where: 170 N Church Ln, [map], Los Angeles, CA, United States, 90049

But don't worry, it was just for a music video.

American Idol runner-up, Glambert, and friends hit up a room at the Hotel Angeleno to film a promotional spot for Vevo, a new music video website that launched last month.

The video intersperses shots of the hotel with Glambert and his friends "trashing" one of the rooms to one of his songs. Glambert takes a flat-screen TV off the wall and throws it out the window, then he begins jumping on the bed while his friends crawl around on the floor.

There's also a Stifler's mom type of lady walking around the room, clutching the remote control and crying about the loss of the TV until Glambert tells her "There's Vevo, you don't need this." And promptly throws the remote control out of the window.

As for the "trashing", it's pretty benign. But it really does look like they threw a TV out the window of the Angeleno which is kinda cool. Then again, it took a lot of effort to get the hotel world to convert to flat-screen TVs in the guestrooms and this is how Glambert repays them?

Tags: Hotel Deals / JDV Hotels / → All Tags

Spend Some 'Birthday Bucks' in Your Birthday Suit with JDV Hotels

A room at the Hotel Erwin in Venice, Calif.

Finally, a hotel is giving us some respect for being born! Usually when you mention to a hotel that you're celebrating a special occasion like your anniversary, your engagement or your birthday, they give you a room upgrade and a bottle of champagne and charge you for one or the other. Not so special indeed.

But with the California-based Joie de Vivre Hotels, if you stay two nights at one of their hotels within seven days of your birthday, you will get $100 off your hotel bill.

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Tags: Hotel Deals / Hotel Promos / California Hotels / JDV Hotels / → All Tags

JDV Hotels Say, 'C'mon, Give Us a Smile,' With Third Night Free Promo

Where: CA, United States

JDV's Hotel Erwin on Venice Beach

Hotels these days seem to be enthusiastic about "Third Night Free" promotions, and we're not complaining. In addition to last week's reportage on the Rosewood Mayakobá's customer-friendly offer, our latest helping of happiness comes from the news that the Joie de Vivre group's "Joy of Vivre" campaign includes a free third night with promotion code "JOIE" when you book in advance. The deal is good for JDV's 35 properties through June 15th of next year, and as a head's up, you'll have to make the reservation by May 31, 2010.

After what has been an inarguably difficult year for many, and with possible S.A.D. looming around the corner with the onset of grey weather (even in normally sunny California), the Vivre campaign is meant to inject a little more lightheartedness into the public's general attitude. They're well aware that the best way to extract said joy is to offer guests extras and the promise of prize winnings, which is how they're encouraging prospective customers to "explore living joyfully, happily, and exuberantly." This would border on being annoyingly twee if there weren't concrete bonuses to be had, which there are.

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Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Sacramento Hotels / JDV Hotels / → All Tags

'Duck' Into Citizen Hotel’s Grange Restaurant For Some 'Fowl Play'

Where: 926 J St. [map], Sacramento, CA, United States, 95814

When it opened last December, we told you all about the geeky glory of the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento. Now we want to tell you about a more macho offering inspired by California’s upcoming duck-hunting season. Don’t tell Dick Cheney, though, because we don't want anyone getting hurt.

For most people hunting may be a thing of the past, relegated to rusticated retreats in the middle of the country for the most part, but there are bound to be a few political sharpshooters who will want to take advantage of duck season this fall. That is why Executive Chef Michael Tuohy of Citizen’s Grange Restaurant will be offering area hunters the opportunity to bring in their feathered trophies this fall, and give the duck its full due as the centerpiece in a four-course meal.

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Tags: Hotel Video Tours / JDV Hotels / Huntington Beach Hotels / → All Tags

Inside the Shorebreak Hotel in Huntington Beach

Where: 500 Pacific Coast Highway [map], Huntington Beach, CA, United States, 92648

We’ve been telling you about Joie De Vivre’s Shorebreak Hotel in Huntington Beach for a while, but now we’ve actually had a chance to step inside one of the Waterfront King rooms (which start at $210 per night) and take you on a video walkthrough.

We’ll only give you a few spoilers right now and detail the rest for you next week but this hotel has killer views, enormous bathrooms and delicious mini-bar treats.

If only the internet were free, we could have gotten this video to you first thing this morning....

Tags: Geek Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel Opening Rates / JDV Hotels / → All Tags

The Avatar Hotel: A New Geek Hotel in Silicon Valley for $99 a Night

Where: 4200 Great America Parkway [map], Santa Clara, CA, United States, 95054

You don’t have to be a “Second Life” fanboy to take advantage of the Avatar Hotel’s $99 opening rate. Joie De Vivre’s sixth Silicon Valley property is opening in a former Holiday Inn this month with 168 rooms, and claims to be the only boutique hotel in Santa Clara. For you non-geeks, Santa Clara is home to Yahoo!, Cisco, Intel, Sun Microsystems, and McAfee.

The hotel is targeted toward “tech road warriors,” with a network of techie amenities “designed to appeal to start-up entrepreneurs as well as established technology gurus.” Rooms come with complimentary wired and wireless internet access, laptop tables for working in bed, iPod docking stations and 37-inch flat screens.

There’s also a new fitness center, a heated outdoor pool and Jacuzzi (only open April-October), and what just might be the most awesome free hotel food event we’ve come across lately: Wednesday night “Beer & Brats” barbecues with free microbrews and hot dogs for guests from 7:00-9:00pm.

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Tags: Hotel Restaurants / JDV Hotels / California Hotels / Beach Hotels / → All Tags

Tapas and Tagines Dinner at Shorebreak Hotel’s Zimzala

Where: 500 Pacific Coast Highway [map], Huntington Beach, CA, United States, 92648

We started the day talking about lunch and now we'll wrap it up talking about dinner. Yeah, we're hungry over here!

Have a hankering for tapas in Huntington Beach? Next Thursday, September 17, Joie De Vivre’s Shorebreak Hotel is hosting a special dinner at its restaurant, the Spanish-Moroccan Zimzala. The dinner is a three-course multi-cultural nod to the cuisine of Mediterranean cookbook author and James Beard Award winner, Chef Joyce Goldstein, who consults with Zimzala’s Executive Chef, Vincent Muraco, and will feature a veritable cornucopia of Spanish and Moroccan specialties.

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Tags: Hotel Restaurants / JDV Hotels / Venice Hotels / → All Tags

What They’re Slinging Over At Hotel Erwin’s Hash

Where: 1697 Pacific Ave. [map], Venice, CA, United States, 90291

Last month, we told you about the opening of Hash at JDV’s Hotel Erwin in Venice Beach. Now that we’ve had a chance to go in for a meal there, we wanted to let you in on all the delish menu items you can expect to help stave off the munchies.

True to its name, the restaurant serves up four different kinds of hash for breakfast (including one daily special like the one with apples and house-smoked turkey bacon) from Monday-Friday 7:00am-11:00am, and Saturday-Sunday 8:00am-1:00pm. You can also get your standard egg and pancake dishes along with some house specialties like the artery-clogging "Chicken Fried Steak ’n Eggs ’n Biscuits" ($13.95), or the colorful “Green Eggs & Ham" smothered in tomatillo salsa ($10.95).

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Tags: Labor Day Hotels / JDV Hotels / San Francisco Hotels / Hotel Promotions / Room Rate Gimmicks / → All Tags

The Newest Hotel Rate Gimmick: Hotel Adagio's Special $9.99 Rate

Where: 550 Geary Street [map], San Francisco, CA, United States, 94102

There isn't a very good track record for hotels that do promotions with shockingly low rates. Remember the Leading Hotels of the World's $19.28 fiasco or the recent Copley Square Hotel $18 birthday rate failure? So excuse us for being a little skeptical about the $9.99 promotion from the Hotel Adagio in San Francisco.

The JDV Hotel is advertising a rate of $9.09 for guests who check-in the Sunday or Monday of Labor Day Weekend (September 6th or 7th) and want to extend their stay over September 9th, or 09/09/09. Just to be clear, the rate of $9.99 is for the night of September 9th. Guests must use code 090909 to book.

Sure enough, we went to the website and plugged in this code for dates September 6 through September 10 and could not get the promo code to work.

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Tags: Hotel Video Tours / Guess The Hotel / JDV Hotels / Long Beach Hotels / → All Tags

Inside The Hotel Maya, The Hotel With the Bright Yellow Chairs

Where: 700 Queensway Drive [map], Long Beach, CA, United States, 90802

Well yesterday's Guess The Hotel wasn't too hard for you people as indeed the hotel with the bright yellow chairs is the Hotel Maya in Long Beach, Calif.

We hit up the hotel on Sunday during the first day of brunch service by the hotel's indoor/outdoor resetaurant, Fuego, which serves coastal Mexican cuisine. The views, especially on clear sunny day, are awesome.

You can see the docked Queen Mary cruise ship off to the right as well as any other cruise ships docking in Long Beach for the night. You can see downtown Long Beach across the bay, including the city's aquarium and right in front of you are sailboats galore. Even the city's Aquabus makes a stop here. If you're really lucky, you might spot a seal or two.

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Tags: Hotel Restaurants / JDV Hotels / Joie de Vivre Hotels / → All Tags

Wake and…Partake at Hotel Erwin’s Hash

Where: 1697 Pacific Ave. [map], Venice, CA, United States, 90291

Hash, the aptly named restaurant at JDV’s new boardwalk-adjacent Hotel Erwin in Venice Beach, is finally open. Well, for breakfast, at least.

Monday through Friday 7:30am to 11:30am, and Saturday-Sunday 8:00am to 1:00pm, you can crash the 44-seat restaurant for dishes like the “Snooze-You-Lose” omelets, buckwheat pancakes, and Angus corned beef hash.

We’ve also just learned that dinner service will be starting next Friday, July 17th, and the hours for that will be Tuesday-Saturday, 6:00-9:30pm, with the hotel’s bar open from 5:00pm-late night (weather permitting). Some dinner dishes we’re preparing for: red beet ravioli and spiced Korobuta pork chop. Everything will be made from scratch and will be market-fresh, with nightly dinner specials taking center table.

That should take care of your munchies.

Tags: Hotel Openings / Hotel Renovations / Los Angeles Hotels / JDV Hotels / → All Tags

JDV's Hotel Maya Opens Today in Long Beach

Where: 700 Queensway Dr. [map], Long Beach, CA, United States, 90802

Fresh off a $20 million renovation, today marks the opening of Joie de Vivre's Hotel Maya in Long Beach, California. We've been talking a whole lot about JDV Hotels lately — mostly, we have the hots for the Cali-based boutique hotel company because they've got decent rates, clean and quirky designs and usually-free WiFi — and this 197-room property is the latest addition to the group to keep an eye on.

Hotel Maya's got a seafood bistro called Fuego, a fitness center, and a business and events center right on the waterfront — plus a heated lap pool and Jacuzzi, and a water canal with floating cabanas.

The "Mayan Journey" package is still bookable (and recommended), a $149 per-person rate that includes a room, breakfast, a three-course dinner, parking, and water taxi to downtown Long Beach (but schedule that excursion around the free daily sangria tastings at 5:00pm).

It looks like rooms are still available tonight, starting at $159.00, though this weekend seems to have limited availability (it looks like the night of the 4th is totally sold out, but give 'em a call just to be sure).