Yesterday we mentioned that the Regent Palms Hotel in Turks & Caicos offered complimentary WiFi to its guests throughout the property.
Now we hear that the Regent has stepped up its hotel technology even further by adding Noxon internet radios in each guest room that pick up 10,000 international stations.
As you can imagine, guests can tune in to get their local radio station no matter where they are from so there's absolutely no excuse to miss your country's Top 40 Countdown which is probably hosted by Ryan Seacrest. Also, the Noxon comes with an iPod docking station.
The Regent Palms is the only hotel in North America to have one of these radios but they are also found in the rooms at the Peninsula Hotel Tokyo.
April 22nd is Earth Day so all this week we will be bringing you the latest news on Green Hotels. Got some eco-friendly news you wanna share? Let us know.
If you're a regular at Carlson Hotels which has the Regent Hotels, Radissons, Park Plazas, Park Inn and Country Inn and Suites under its name, then you might want to consider going Carbon Neutral on your next trip.
The hotel chain just announced that it will match the contribution of every goldpoints plus member (that's their loyalty program) donating points to Carbon Neutral, starting April 30th.
Carbon Neutral is a UK-based carbon offsetting company that aims to offset CO2 emissions associated with travel. Last year, Carlson revamped its frequent guest program to include, on a global basis for the first time, the opportunity for its members to donate points to community-based carbon reduction projects that neutralize the CO2 pollution that results from global travel.
Members can redeem points starting at 2,000 points by logging on goldpointsplus.com or by contacting the member service centers which vary depending on your location. More information on the promotion can be found here.
The long-awaited Regent Bal Harbour (which was supposed to open on New Year's Day then in February) has finally opened this week.
And guess what? Those of you who are watching your disposable income, in these worrisome days of a possible recession, will probably rule this hotel out of your vacation plans.
For instance, we looked at dates for today March 11 through March 13 figuring that weekday rates might be a little lower. Nope. The hotel is offering opening rates for a Premier Deluxe Room at $775 a night. However, you do get a panoramic view of both the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay along with several high-tech room amenities.
A lower categories of rooms--the Superior rooms--were found to be about $200 cheaper but not available on the dates we selected. Go to the opening exclusive page to fiddle with the dates and rates.
By all accounts, 2007 was a banner year for Philippine tourism, with the number of foreign arrivals topping the three million mark (the previous record for yearly visitors was 1.9 million). According to Department of Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, 2008 promises to deliver even better numbers, with his department focusing on the "opening of new hotel projects and properties."
One of the most ambitious of these new projects will be the Regent Manila Bay by hotelier Carlson, bringing 5-star opulence to the Philippines.
The Regent Manila Bay will be part of a unique hotel-within-a-hotel development, offering luxury accommodations within the Radisson Hotel Manila Bay. The hotels will share a common structure but will have many separate amenities, such as driveways, entrances, lobbies, guest facilities and staff. It will also include a signature restaurant, lounge, fitness center and swimming pool -- all exclusively for the use of Regent guests.
The 80-rooms, including 10 "basic" suites, 69 executive suites and one presidential suite, all overlooking scenic Manila Bay, are expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2009.
A Regent hotel inside a Radisson? That's almost as crazy as the three-hotels-in-one that is set to open in Times Square. Almost. But we don't think anything is crazier than that.
Sources have assured us that Miami's The Regent Bal Harbour, first scheduled to open January 2, then February 1, is really, truly, opening March 1. Indeed, we were able to make an online booking for the hotel's opening weekend (not so when we last checked in January). There even are a few opening rates available for bay-view Superior Rooms, panoramic Premier Deluxe Rooms and ocean-view Deluxe Spa Rooms--in some cases as much as $100 off regular room rates.
Why all the fuss? Well, The Regent Bal Harbour is said to be the first major property to open in Miami's famed Bal Harbour Village in nearly half a century. Plus, the hotel also was supposed to be the first to feature a Guerlain Spa here in North America, until New York's Waldorf Astoria beat them to it by opening theirs this past December, way ahead of its spring 2008 schedule. See what happens when you dilly-dally?
Never, ever plan your vacation around a hotel that promises it's going to open right at the start of said vacation. Our experience here tells us more and more that very few hotels hit their opening day. We've been excited about the Regent Bal Harbour having a New Year debut for a few months now--anticipating just how relaxing that Guerlain Spa was going to feel--and dumbly believing that their promised January 2 open date would take place.
Alas, January 2 has now come and gone, and you can no longer make online reservations for January. These days the website says (in small print, after you try to make a booking) that the Regent Bal Harbour is now accepting reservations for arrivals from February 1, 2008. Let's hope they didn't make a small typo and mean 2009. Because we don't want to have to rely on these hotel photos with weird airbrushed clouds in the windows for much longer.
As we reported on Monday, Regent Hotels has dropped out as manager of the now-formerly-named Regent South Beach Hotel, despite having just opened the place eight months ago. Instead, Vinnci Hotels is taking over the place although they have yet to update their website to include this hotel.
A HotelChatter reader brought to our attention that the Regent Hotels has been dropping properties as of late--namely the Beverly Wilshire and a Singapore property--both of which were turned over to the Four Seasons.
Turnover, of course, happens in the hotel world but with the Regent opening in Bal Harbour and supposedly Boston in 2008, along with Costa Rica, Dubrovnik and Bangkok in 2009, you gotta wonder--are they going to ditch these hotels within a year too?
For now you may want to refrain from buying any condos at a Regent property. You don't want to get stuck with a Vincci Hotel or some other big-box hotel name, do you?
Some good news for hotel spa lovers. The highly-anticipated Guerlain Spa at the Regent Bal Harbour is set to open to both hotel guests and outside visitors on the same day as the new hotel's debut. The website is now taking reservations starting January 2, with nightly rates starting at $475. And yes, these are their "exclusive" opening rates.
But you will get a lot for your money. The guestrooms will have an "Asian flair", both ocean and bay views and are accessed by semi-private or private elevators. to ensure the utmost privacy.
The amenities include 52-inch plasma screen televisions, Anichini® linens, free-standing bathtubs set before 10-foot floor-to-ceiling windows plus a new contraption we hadn't heard of before, a "toe-tap" groove in the shower for testing water temperature before entering.
Yesterday we mentioned that the Regent Palms Hotel in Turks & Caicos offered complimentary WiFi to its guests throughout the property. 
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by juliana
If you're a regular at 
By all accounts, 2007 was a banner year for Philippine tourism, with the number of foreign arrivals topping the three million mark (the previous record for yearly visitors was 1.9 million). According to Department of Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, 2008 promises to deliver even better numbers, with his department focusing on the "opening of new hotel projects and properties."
As we reported on Monday, Regent Hotels has dropped out as manager of the now-formerly-named 
