HotelChatter

Tags: Hotel Packages / Washington DC Hotels / Literary Hotels / → All Tags

Relive Robert Langdon's Quest at DC's Dupont Hotel (And Empty Your Wallets Too)

Where: 1500 New Hampshire Ave Nw [map], Washington, DC, United States, 20036

Oh lordy, it’s begun. We speak, of course, of the inevitable descent of Dan Brown fanatics looking to unlock the secrets of the Masonry in DC as described in his new bestseller novel, “The Lost Symbol.” And just as inevitable: DC hotels looking to cash in on the influx of tourists. The new boutique Dupont Hotel leads the way with its “Ultimate Lost Symbol Package.”

With a $5,999 price tag, you might need to sweet talk Dan Brown into footing your bill, but that’s besides the point. True devotees know no cost, we suppose.

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Tags: HotelChatter Reviews / Hotel Video Tours / Key West Hotels / Spring Break Hotels / Literary Hotels / → All Tags

Chilling Out at the Crowne Plaza Key West La Concha

Jaunted editor Victor Ozols is just back from a trip down to Key West where he celebrated Spring Break. Wanna know where he shacked up during his stay? Watch his in-depth guided video tour here. Or if you're at work and your boss is hovering, read the entire review below and pretend it's work-related.

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Tags: Cubicle Dreamin' / Kentucky Hotels / Historic Hotels / Literary Hotels / → All Tags

A Bourbon-Soaked Stay in Kentucky

Where: 500 S 4th St [map], Louisville, KY, United States, 40202

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.

In this episode, Hotel Maven Katie K visits Kentucky...in her mind. Enjoy.

Lately I’ve been in a Great-Gatsby-decadence-craving sort of mood (as recessionary escape?). So dress me in my nattiest frock and hand me a bourbon tumbler, because I’m headed to the 1905-built Seelbach Hilton in Louisville, Kentucky, blueblood haunt and one-time writing muse to F. Scott Fitzgerald (penned into immortality as his backdrop for Tom and Daisy Buchanan's nuptials).

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Tags: Literary Hotels / Hotel News / Nora Roberts / Hotel Fires / → All Tags

A Happy Ending for the Nora Roberts Literary Hotel

Where: 1 N. Main Street [map], Boonsboro, MD, United States

Yay! It looks like it may be a happy ending for author Nora Roberts' hotel (yes, that would be the same Nora Roberts whose books you spent all summer reading on the beach).

Last year, the author had planned to open up an inn out in her hometown Boonsboro, Maryland, converting a 200-year-old building into a cool literary-themed hotel. Sadly, during the renovations — almost a year ago this week, actually — the hotel caught fire, and the blaze spread to the buildings next to it causing an estimated $1.5 million in damages.

We weren't sure whether or not she and her husband were going to move forward with the opening, but it seems she pushed through: the 2.5-story Inn Boonsboro will open up this Tuesday, featuring (according to the Annapolis Capital) "rooms named for literary couples including Eve and Roarke from a series of novels Roberts wrote under the name J.D. Robb." Rates start around $220; reservation info can be found here.

Tags: Hotel Renovations / London Hotels / Literary Hotels / Radisson Hotels / → All Tags

The Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street is For Intellectuals

Where: 9-13 Bloomsbury Street , London, United Kingdom, WC1B 3QD

Bloomsbury — the area in central London well-known for its literary connections and famous "turn-of-the-20th century intellectuals" like Virginia Woolf, E.M Forster, John Maynard Keynes and artist Roger Fry — finally has a hotel that pays adequate tribute to its rich culture and history. After the Radisson Edwardian Marlborough underwent an almost $37-million makeover, it has been reborn as the Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel with a new contemporary design and updated, modern amenities.

It's kind of marketed toward people like those English department graduate student teaching assistants you remember from college: in the reception area, a whole wall is covered entirely with pages from Woolfe's Mrs. Dalloway. Upstairs, "some of the smartest and largest bedrooms and bathrooms in London." And down the street, easy access to the British Museum, Covent Garden and Theatre Land.

And for the intellectual discussions over fine food, chef Redmond Hayward is opening up the Bloomsbury Street Restaurant so guests can nosh on fancypants food and talk about literary theory and metaphors and throw around big words and obscure references. Or just eat. Whatever.

Post-renovation introductory rates start at £139 a night (around $204) until April 30. Pack your argyle sweater vest.

Tags: Hotel Fires / Hotel News / Literary Hotels / Nora Roberts / → All Tags

Nora Roberts Planned Literary Hotel Destroyed By Fire

We might have some weird type of ESP. In our story the other day about Starwood devaluing their points system, we mentioned the Sheraton Four Points in Hagerstown, Maryland which we picked to demonstrate how many SPG points you will need in a random city in a random state like Maryland.

Then a Hotel Maven mentioned Hagerstown was his hometown. Interesting.

And now, Hagerstown is in the news because novelist Nora Roberts (women's fiction best for airplane reading) was planning on turning an old hotel into a literary-themed, except the place caught fire!

[A fire marshal] said the fire started around 7:30 a.m. in the Boone Hotel, owned by Roberts and her husband, Bruce Wilder. It spread to the two other buildings caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage, Zurolo said.

[Roberts and Wilder] were renovating the hotel and planned to open it this summer as an inn with each room reflecting a different romantic literary theme. The 2 1/2-story hotel dates to the late 1700s.

That's an extremely sad ending for such a historic hotel. But we secretly hope Roberts will stil go forth with her romantic literary-themed hotel. We'll even locate Hagerstown on a map and go there.

[Photo: Steve Meyers/Hagerstown Herald Mail]