HotelChatter

St Giles Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Lost and Found / Hotel Hell / → All Tags

The St. Giles Hotel is Not What It Used To Be (And That's a W)

Where: 130 E 39 Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10016

Back in April, W Hotels dropped two of its NYC hotels--The Court and The Tuscany--from its collection and in their place went a new brand, St. Giles.

From a design standpoint, the move was practically turn-key--St. Giles essentially set up in W's old digs without making any changes. Add 10 points. From a price point, we were also happy to see that things hadn't changed very much, averaging about $300 a night at each hotel. Add 5 more points.

But as far as service goes, it looks like St. Giles has some catching up to do. A HotelChatter member recently wrote in this dismal review. Subtract however many points you think an iPhone is worth.

more ›

OpenThread / Lost and Found / Hotel Housekeeping / → All Tags

Hotel Lost and Found: Is It More Lost Than Found?

Recently, we had the pleasure of leisurely checking out of our hotel room at the InterContinental Chicago. This does not happen often. Usually we're in a frantic rush, racing to finish some work on our laptop, grabbing all of our belonging and stuffing them into the suitcase and praying hard that security doesn't knock on our door and try to remove us because we're 30 minutes past the check-out time.

But this being a Saturday, we had no work to finish up and we had no plane to catch. So we took our time gathering our stuff together before checking out. And of course, this is probably why we left our iPhone charger behind.

Now, we're not the best of packers and we're definitely the worst at unpacking--things get strewn everywhere in a matter of seconds. But we do remember unpacking our iPhone charger and plugging it into the plug panel at the desk. We even took a picture of it. Somehow we forgot to unplug it and pack it in our bags and we didn't realize it until we were at our new hotel just up the street.

more ›

Hotel Rooms / Hotel Guests / Lost and Found / Hotel Urban Legends / → All Tags

What Sort of 'Treasure' Have You Discovered Left Behind in a Hotel Room?

LifeHacker Australia recently rounded up the Three Bs of hotel room treasures--places where you can typically find the things that guests have left behind, even after they've checked out and the rooms have been cleaned. So, where can you find all sorts of hotel room "treasure"? Bathroom Ledges, Bibles and Between Mattresses.

Apparently, bathroom ledges is where many folks leave their wedding rings, particularly slimy silly business travelers who want to conceal their marital status while on trips. Folks supposedly leave money in the bible as either a way to reward acts of faith or discourage thieves from stealing money out of a bible.

Lastly, folks leave stuff in-between mattresses, particularly pornography and Lifehacker mentions its usually airline pilots who have a sort of "library" of this naughty reading material at their crashpad hotels. Ewww.

more ›

Reader Reviews / Affinia Hotels / DC Hotels / Hotel Housekeeping / Lost and Found / → All Tags

Reader Review :: Our Mother Stays at the Liaison Capitol Hill in DC

Where: 415 New Jersey Avenue [map], Washington, DC, United States, 20001

Every so often we feature a hotel review from one of our readers that we feel should be shared with the rest of you dear hotel guests. These reviews are highlighted because they are timely, about cool hotels in cool places and are relatively level-headed. Think you can submit one just like this? Send it in. This review actually comes from our mother who has finally started to understand what our day job is. Enjoy.

The hotel experience was about average. It was the Liaison in D. C.

The room was small with too much furniture. The desk was opposite the bed and had a desk chair in between the two. So I stubbed my bunion on the chair while walking through to the other side of the room. The rest of the hotel is cramped with low-ceilings and it looks kinda dingy.

more ›

Miscellaneous / Lost and Found / → All Tags

Most Unusual Left-Behind Items in UK Hotels

It's totally understandable to leave behind your artificial leg in a hotel, right?

Er...maybe not.

The BBC reports on the Top 10 Forgotten Items in 290 of the UK's Travelodge hotel chains for 2005.

While mobile phones and chargers--along with the usual suspects of clothing, jewelry and toiletry items--were the expected items, there were reports of artificial legs and the keys to a £250,000 Ferrari car.

Also rounding out the unusual list were  "Bridget Jones-style knickers", a last will and testament and 30 dolls of TV's Power Ranger characters.

The complete list:

TOP 10 FORGOTTEN ITEMS
Mobile phone and chargers
Clothing items
Toiletries
False teeth
Laptops
Electrical gadgets
Cash/credit card
Jewellery/watches
Hen/stag night accessories
Keys
Source: Travelodge

Related Stories:
·  Mobiles top hotel lost items list[BBC]