OK, you can start hyperventilating! Park Hyatt Hotels has just announced that its two newest properties opening in China this year, The Park Hyatt Beijing and The Park Hyatt Shanghai, will each claim a record for "Highest" something-or-other.
Scheduled to debut yet this month, Beijing's Park Hyatt has rocketed up inside the city's highest building, playing host to a bevy of other record-breakers: "the city's highest spa, Pian Spa (59-60th floors), and the city's highest restaurant, China Grill (63-66th floors)." This means the moneyed Olympics-goers will have a perch to enjoy a 360-degree view of the city, above the smog.
Lonely Planet describes Melbourne as an "avant-garde haven" where residents are "equally passionate about football and ballet, fashion and restaurants." It sounds like a perfect location for the uppity and expensive Park Hyatt brand.
The hotel is located on the banks of the city's Yarra River. It has 240 rooms, all of which look enormous although we're a little disappointed with the decor which really just looks like high-end manufactured Hyatt room furniture. There are no personal touches here but we bet you will like the deep-sunken tubs in each bathroom complete with TVs.
On a day when every hotel you're looking at booking starts to sound the same, a bit of out-there technology can help you make your mind up. Travel + Leisure Australia recently put together a list of their favorite hotel gadgets and gizmos, and there are a few hotels on their list that we would book just to check out their new technology.
They've got the Peninsula Tokyo on their list, not just for the nail dryer and ultra-portable phone but also for the three mood lighting settings; speaking of lighting, the Tarraleah Lodge in Tasmania has "chromatherapy" lighting in the bathtub so the water will glow the color of your mood.
There's more than just cool lighting to be had, though: the T+L story mentions Tokyo's Four Seasons at Marunouchi because of its hi-tech warm toilet seats with multiple spraying functions to take the place of toilet paper, for example. There's also the Park Hyatt Seoul in South Korea which has gadgety non-fog mirrors inside their rain showers. Yes, we admit it: we're hotel geeks who would choose a hotel just for the non-fog mirror. Sorry.
The LA Time political blog, Top of the Ticket was kinda horrified to see that Hillary Clinton celebrated her Pennsylvania primary win at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia.
Why's that? Because the hotel used to be the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel:
[T]he hostelry was the notorious scene of a mysterious illness in 1976 during an American Legion convention, later dubbed Legionnaires' disease. Thirty-four deaths were eventually traced to the Legionella pneumophila bacteria.
Yikes, couldn't Hillary have picked a happier place than that? One suggestion: The Loews Philadelphia which just completed a $9 million renovation.
Fortunately, in the future Philly is going to be getting all sorts of cool hotels so the next presidential candidate will have plenty of options.
Are you a big fan of Argentinean cooking or of good food and wine in general? Then you should mark February 12 to 17 in your diary and head on down to either the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires or the Park Hyatt Mendoza (pictured) in Argentina. These two Hyatt hotels are holding the Masters of Food & Wine South America event over that week and there will be plenty of input and inspiration for your taste buds and stomach.
The food and wine five-day fest will see the kitchens and vineyards of these two hotels setting out a series of special gourmet lunches and dinners, including tastings of local wines and cooking demonstrations by both Argentinean and international chefs. Some special outings include grape picking at Zuccardi Winery and a visit to the Salentein Winery--these outings are, in keeping with the spirit of the week, followed by a four-course lunch.
It sounds like the kind of vacation you'll need a solid month at the gym to work off afterwards, but foodies who feel like a short stint in Argentina should go for it. After all, you'll be amongst the Masters of Food and Wine and that sounds like something your stomach shouldn't miss.
Coming soon to the beautiful island of Koh Samui, Thailand: the luxury Park Hyatt Koh Samui, a joint venture between First Oriental and the wealthy Liptapanlop family.
With a plan to open sometime in 2009, the Park Hyatt Koh Samui will include 90 hotel villas, plus 24 residential villas available for purchase. The hotel villas will be mostly suites with just one bedroom, although a few with two or three bedrooms will be available. The villas for sale are all two or three bedroom deals.
As well as a private pool, sun deck and terrace for every villa, the result will include several restaurants and cafes plus a spa and wellness center.
The exact location of the Park Hyatt will be along Thong Krut Bay, on the south side of Koh Samui. There's another island nearby--co-owned by the resort owners--where guests will be able to access a private beach, and tie up their yacht if that's their preferred mode of travel. Nice.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We heard it again and again in grade school, but it's only now becoming the cool thing to do.
In our story yesterday on all the hotel renovations craze, we mentioned a Spanish hotel that is jumping on the marketing-meets-charity bandwagon by announcing its plans to donate old beds and other furniture to earthquake victims in Peru.
The Hotel Villa Magna, run by the Park Hyatt chain, is closed for renovations until October 2008. The Spanish architect and designer Thomas Urquijo is in charge of the interior decoration. The room configuration will be modified from 182 to 151, and the landscaping will be updated.
Instead of tossing the old beds, chairs, sheets, towels, and bathrobes, everything will be boxed up and shipped to South America and other regions. These countries, ravaged by natural disaster, now have enough tiny shampoo bottles to washing their laundry in contaminated water indefinitely.
This week we will be looking at some Chicago hotels, largely because we realized that we have New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Fran well-covered but really nothing on the Windy City. If you have a question about the city's hotel scene, send it our way and we'll investigate. Even better, if you have hotel recommendation, we wanna hear it.
We stayed at a Park Hyatt for the first time in February and we're pretty sold on this luxury arm of the Hyatt hotel brand. So when we noticed there's a Park Hyatt Chicago, we had to check out how this hotel was doing.
Thankfully, the hotel is doing much better than the city's two W Hotels. The reviews are solid, the rooms are luxurious with killer views (see above) of the water tower and Lake Michigan, there's a fitness center and pool, a hip bar NoMi and the location is killer--right on Michigan Avenue near plenty of restaurants and shopping.
Even more importantly, the staff is extremely service-oriented, so says one guest:
It appeared that each definitely bought in to the customer service concept and their attitude reflected it. From the doorman, to the bellman, to the front desk, to the waiters, to the housekeeping staff and to the maintenance staff, I was always addressed by name and each seemed that fulfilling my needs was the most important duty they had at the moment.
Now, being a Park Hyatt the rooms are a tad expensive with the Grand Deluxe rooms starting at $585 a night. But there's some good news, the hotel takes AAA discounts and Hyatt.com offers a special web rate. And one reviewer said he was able to book a terrace room (on the third floor with private patio) for $400 a night. Also, you can try our How To tips on snagging a luxury hotel room.
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by JetSetCD
