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Orient-Express Checks Out of NYC Library Hotel Deal

Where: W. 53rd Street [map], New York, NY, United States

| March 3, 2009 at 9:12 AM | 1 Comment

Back in '07, we gleefully announced Orient-Express Hotels' plan to snap up a little piece of The New York Public Library (specifically, the Donnell Branch) to convert it into a hotel. What is currently a five-story libe building on West 53rd Street was going to become an 11-story hotel, but the first floor and underground would have still been owned and occupied by the library. The rest of the floors would have been deciated hotel space, and five of those floors were going to have direct access to the storied 21 Club on 52nd street (also owned by Orient-Express).

Kinda awesome, right? And the NYPL had agreed to the plans because the branch was in dire need of renovations that the system couldn't really afford — so everyone was supposed to get something out of this.

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The Ceiling Falls In On Major Hoteliers

| September 30, 2008 at 2:56 PM | 1 Comment


You know it's never good when we bring out the "I has a sad" kitty.

Remember those Starwood stocks you bought a few months ago? Yeah. You might want to get rid of those -- or buy them up, depending on how you like to play the market.

The AP reports that shares of hotel companies dropped on Monday morning and even more so following the House's rejection of the $700 billion bailout plan later that afternoon. Analysts all over -- wait, who are we kidding? There's only a few financial firms left -- are lowering their expectations for travel in 2009, with one Goldman Sachs analyst predicting that revenue per available room in the U.S. will remain negative well into 2009, the AP says.

Hoteliers that saw the biggest hit to their stock prices? The aforementioned Starwood, Morgans Hotel Group and Orient-Express.

So get out there, folks, go book some hotel rooms and save the travel industry!

[Photo: icanhascheezburger]

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Miami Hotel Mambo :: Orient-Express Hotels Wants to Cut In

| July 9, 2008 at 2:15 PM | 2 Comments

Adding to the ever-growing list of new developments cropping up in the Miami area, Orient Express Hotels has announced plans for a luxury hotel/condo complex in South Beach:

The Sun Sentinel reports:

The $150 million South Beach project will have 100 hotel rooms and 28 condos priced from $2 million and is expected to open in three years.

The condos are starting at 2 million? Yikes. Then again, after getting wind of a Plaza condo selling for $24.6 million, that doesn't seem too bad.

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Hotel Cipriani :: That "Anniversary Facelift" Can't Come Soon Enough

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: Giudecca 10, Venice, Italy, 30133

| June 25, 2008 at 2:06 PM | 0 Comments

Introducing our first submission for a Paula Abdul Hotel.

Earlier this month we wrote about how the Hotel Cipriani in Venice was undergoing an 50th "anniversary facelift", but too bad the Wall Street Journal's Finicky Traveler got there before the new look was completed.

Our fave hotel critic Laura Landro spent a few nights there and the opening of her review says it all:

Our suite at Venice's legendary Hotel Cipriani has stained mauve carpet, ratty faux-bamboo furniture and a platform bed looking into a whirlpool tub-for-two that seems not to have been scrubbed out since the 1970s. We feel positively transported -- to a honeymoon motel in the Poconos.

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The Cape Town Hotel Scene: Dine in Style at the Mount Nelson Hotel

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 76 Orange Street, Cape Town, South Africa, 8000

| May 29, 2008 at 9:14 AM | 0 Comments

Our roving correspondent Monica Guy has recently blessed the rains down in Africa--South Africa--and is giving us the scoop this week on the Cape Town hotel scene. Have a question or a suggestion? Let us know and we'll do our best to answer it. Enjoy.

How the other half live. Or rather, not half, but the small minority of wealthy (almost all white) travellers who stay in the Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town's Grande Dame.

The drive up to the hotel entrance (a guard salutes you on the way in) is via a tree-lined road through their vast, landscaped grounds - smoother than most of Cape Town's main roads. A huge, white columned building, and inside, a marble-floored entrance hall complete with antique décor, oil paintings, stuffed animal heads and suited butlers.

We didn't stay overnight so we can't tell you more about the rooms. But we did try out the restaurant, however, which is allegedly the best in Cape Town for Cape Malay-style fine dining.

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San Miguel de Allende Hotel Guide: Casa de Sierra Nevada

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: Hospicio No. 42, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

| April 21, 2008 at 10:16 AM | 3 Comments

Once again, HotelChatter contributing editor Tim Leffel is moving around Mexico, checking out the hotel scene in the colonial heartland. If you have a question about where to stay in Guanajuato or San Miguel de Allende, hit us on the tipline, or just comment below, and we will do our best to get you some sort of answer. Enjoy.

Prior to 2006, Casa de Sierra Nevada was already the top hotel in town. But then the Orient-Express company took over, making it their second hotel in Mexico after Maroma in the Riviera Maya. They got straight to work, sprucing up the place and renovating the main restaurant (in what was once the home of the local archbishop). While they were at it, they bought a cooking school just down the street.

Two years later they're still adding on to their collection of rooms in different buildings. A new spa will be finished next month and some additional guest rooms will up the total from the current 31. The newest section of the hotel (for now) is Casa Limon, where six suites surround a courtyard, a library, and a swimming pool set in a grassy lawn.

The video tour here is a trip through one of the Colonial Room Suites in that Casa Limon section. With this one--number 444--you get your private plunge pool/whirlpool on a terrace, two big flat-screen TVS, an iPod dock, and a spacious double-vanity bath with separate tub and shower--both lit by a skylight.

Naturally, the room comes stocked with all the pampering goodies: thick towels, robes, Molton Brown toiletries, and soft cotton sheets with a high thread count.

Published rates are roughly $300 to $600, with the suite featured here at the top of that range.

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Russian Hotels for Ballers: The Grand Hotel Europe

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: Nevsky Prospekt, Mikhailovskaya Ulitsa 1/7, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

| April 15, 2008 at 3:42 PM | 0 Comments

Our Super Secret Hotel Maven network extends far and wide and thanks to another SSHM, we have a mini-guide to Russia's luxe hotels--perfect for ballers, high-rollers and Russian mobsters. It's a mini-guide because it's really only a few hotels in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Up next: The Grand Hotel Europe. Enjoy.

Now on to my favorite hotel in St. Petersburg, Grand Hotel Europe. I actually didn't want to like this place, because well, it's an Orient Express property. And frankly, when I think of Orient Express, I think of Ben-Gay stank old ladies. The hotel is thankfully in a bustling part of St. Petersburg.

Before I made my way over to this area, known as Nevsky Prospekt, I thought that all of St. Petersburg was sitting at home, scared to come out... but no! People shop here! They go on walks! They go out to eat! Before I even saw the building itself, just seeing the neighborhood of this hotel had me at hello, but those hellos just kept coming.

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The Observatory Hotel Is The #1 Hotel in Australia

Where: Sydney, Australia

| December 27, 2007 at 2:43 PM | 0 Comments

Yesterday we wondered if Travel+Leisure had made a mistake when they deemed the Four Seasons Sydney the #1 hotel in Australia when clearly The Observatory Hotel had achieved a higher score of 87.41 to the Four Season's 86.93.

Today we have our answer from T+L:

You're right - the Observatory Hotel in Sydney is, in fact, the number one hotel in Australia in the T+L 500 2008. We've updated the list on www.travelandleisure.com/tl500 so the correct information is available online.

To be honest, both hotels are deserving of the #1 spot. After all, the ranking scores are very close. But in the end, it depends on what you prefer. The Four Seasons rises up in the Sydney skyline to give you killer views of the opera house and the Harbour. It's also located just near Circular Quay, the central business district and the Rocks, a shopping and bar area on George Street.

The Observatory is a smaller hotel on a quiet street and has an older feel but it also has the best service we have ever encountered in a hotel. Aside from the famous high tea, not to be missed at the Observatory is the Day Spa and the large indoor pool with a domed ceiling painted to resemble a Southern Hemisphere sky "filled with twinkling stars."

[Photo: Charlie Brewer]

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Use Your Indoor Voice: A New Library Hotel for NYC

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: W. 53rd Street [map], New York, ny, United States

| November 12, 2007 at 10:15 AM | 0 Comments

The New York Public Library has recently agreed to sell its building and property for the West 53rd Street branch, The Donnell, to Orient-Express Hotels for $59 million.

Normally, that would just be another hotel transaction in the news but what's different about this sale is that the library will still maintain a presence on the hotel's first and underground floors. The rest of the floors will be for the hotel, with five of those having direct access to the storied 21 Club on 52nd street.

The sale may strike some as an odd mix of culture and commerce, but the library said it had little choice because the branch, built in 1955, was in dire need of renovations that the system could ill afford.

But have no fear. Guests won't have to check in amongst the stacks and deal with stares from mustachioed librarians. The hotel and the library will both have separate entrances and will be divided by a wall. The hotel will have 150 rooms but unlike a free public library, rooms will start at $750 a night.

And since it's connected to the 21 Club, the hotel name will have 21 somewhere in the name. A 2011 opening is expected. If you can't wait until then to sleep amongst the Dewey Decimal system, check into the Library Hotel on 41st and Madison.

While there will be a restaurant on the top floor, a hotel nightclub in the lobby is out of the question. And that's exactly the sentiment of Orient Express' CEO Paul White who said, "We don't want to be like everybody else," he added. "Why not share a building with a major institution like the New York Public Library? I'd rather have them in my basement than a nightclub."

[Photo: Michael Nagle for NYT]

Related Stories:
· New York Public Library's Donnell Branch to Share Space With Hotel [NY Times]
· The Donnell Branch [New York Public Library]

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In Riviera Maya, Maroma Resort and Spa Wins Praise

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: Carretera 307, Riviera Maya, Mexico

| August 6, 2007 at 9:28 AM | 0 Comments

The NY Times headed to Riviera Maya in Mexico to "check in and check out" the Maroma Resort and Spa, a 65-room hotel and a four-bedroom villa.

Reviewer Geraldine Fabrikant informs us that five years ago, Maroma was just a boutique hotel with about 32 rooms. Then Orient-Express Hotels bought the place, added new rooms, two swimming pools and the Kinan Spa. When Hurricane Wilma walloped Mexico in 2005, Orient Express forked over $16 million to make repairs and finish the upgrades.

In short, no expense has been spared here which is always nice to know when traveling to Mexico, if you know what we mean.

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The Honeymooners Down Under: The Observatory Hotel

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 89-113 Kent Street, Sydney , Australia, 2000

| February 27, 2007 at 5:13 PM | 0 Comments

HotelChatter's Senior Editor Juliana borrowed a page from vintage Britney Spears' 2004 playbook and got hitched after a brief engagement. However, there were some differences. One, Juliana dated this guy for four years as opposed to three months. Also, Juliana's now-husband is neither a background dancer, nor baby daddy, nor a failed white rapper. Lastly, Juliana and spouse went a little further than Brit and K-Fed's honeymoon in Fiji by spending their first few weeks of newlywed bliss in Sydney, Australia with a sidetrip to the Whitsunday Islands. For the rest of the week, she'll be telling you where she stayed and whether or not it was honeymoon appropriate. So, if you have any questions about honeymoon or Australia travel, send 'em our way.

Unfortunately, we checked out of our first hotel in Sydney, the Park Hyatt, all too soon, as we missed Sylvester Stallone and his goumbas allegedly throwing growth hormones things out of their hotel window. So you must be wondering if our next hotel had such excitement? Hmm...not quite.

Click through to read the full Observatory Hotel review

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Hotels Down Under: The Observatory Hotel

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 89-113 Kent Street, Sydney, Australia, 2000

| September 18, 2006 at 9:27 AM | 0 Comments

This week we are mourning the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin in our own way by checking out some of the hotels in Sydney, Australia. If you have any suggestions for us on what to hit up or to stay far far far away from, let us know.

We have to admit. We got suckered into checking out this hotel because of its name. But The Observatory Hotel is actually a pretty sweet place to stay. Located near Sydney's historic Rocks and Central Business District, the hotel has 78 deluxe, 9 Junior Suites, 12 Executive Suites and the premiere Observatory Suite, for you to choose.

Some of the in-room amenities include heated towel rails and separate showers, touch-control air conditioning, windows that open and the usual collection of amenities found in upscale hotels (TV, DVD player, fax/modem, phones.)(If you don't smoke, the hotel's second floor is non-smoking and they give you duvet covers. Go figure.)

Also within the hotel is a swimming pool, spa, tennis courts and fitness courts, along with the popular Globe Bar and Gaileleo restaurant, keeping in with the hotel name of course.

Sadly, there's no actual observatory just a starry-painted ceiling in the pool.

The Observatory is much smaller hotel compared to the many tower block varieties and located in a quiet area in the Rocks a 5 -10 minute walk from Circular Quay. It has a more traditional feel with lovely furnishings and decor. We booked a suite and it was worth every penny....There were plenty of little touches too that made you fell like you were getting value for money. The turn down service included mineral water and a prepared filled kettle and cups to make hot chocolate and herbal tea before retiring!

The highlight was probably the pool and spa. Located in the basement the pool has a starlit ceiling (the Southern Hemiphere constellation) a huge jacuzzi, steam rooms, saunas etc. The gym looked comprehensive.

Two more things of note about the hotel: they offer complimentary limousine drop-off from 7:00 am and 10:00 am, Monday to Friday to anywhere within the central business district. Also, Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai will be preparing a "lavish degustation" menu this November, in case you're interested.

Image via AugustusGloop/Flickr

Related Stories:
· The Observatory Hotel reviews [TripAdvisor]