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Tags: Hilton Hotels / Room Service / Hotel Minibars / Hotel Pillows / → All Tags

Hilton's Expands Its"Requests Upon Arrival" To All

We're not sure what it means when we hear that Hilton Hotels have expanded their Requests Upon Arrival program from special HHonors members to any ordinary folk who book a room; either it was a raging success or not enough loyalty club people were using it.

Either way the point of the program is to anticipate any needs we might have and give us the option to request stuff before we arrive. Hilton divides it all up into Complimentary, Food & Beverage and Miscellaneous sections.

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Tags: Reader Reviews / Westin Hotels / OC Hotels / Hotel Fitness / Room Service / → All Tags

Westin South Coast Plaza Has a Confusing In-Room Dining Menu

Where: 686 Anton Boulevard [map], Costa Mesa, CA, United States, 92626

We get lots of hotel reviews from hotel guests. Some are legitimate, some are not. And some are unintentionally funny. This is one of them. Traveler101 got really worked up about the in-room dining menu at the Westin Hotel in Orange County. We aren't knocking his complaint. It's just that this might be the first time that an in-room menu has prompted a guest to write into us.

Just last night I stayed at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Orange County and was shocked at what has happened to Westin recently. I have always loved the brand, its people and its service. However, now I do not know what to think.

The room service menu was the worst I have ever seen. I consider myself a well traveled and an educated person, who enjoys the opportunity to relax without all the fan fare you get at a Fairmont, Ritz or Four Seasons; one reason I have been loyal to Westin for many years.

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Tags: Tipping / Room Service / OpenThread / → All Tags

HotelChatter OpenThread :: Should We Tip Extra for Room Service?

Tipping. Yikes. While most of us know to regularly tip our bellmen and some of us routinely tip our housekeepers (and all of us should!), things start to get a bit dicey when it comes to room service.

See, in most hotels, gratuity is included on a room service order. But then when you open up your folio to sign off on your charges, you breeze past the line detailing the auto-gratuity that's been added...and you encounter it: the additional gratuity line before the total.

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Tags: Marriott Hotels / Room Service / Hotel Packages / National Ice Cream Month / → All Tags

Did You Know It's National Ice Cream Month? The Habor Beach Marriott in Florida Did

Where: 3030 Holiday Dr [map], Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States, 33316

We've been under some rock and failed to realize that July is National Ice Cream Month--how distressing since we're half way through the month already. They were in the know at the Harbor Beach Marriott Resort & Spa in Fort Lauderdale, though, and have an ice cream special happening until the end of July, so there's still time to indulge your ice cream passion.

The Harbor Beach Marriott special is all about ice cream sundae toppings and you get free, unlimited toppings during July when you use their in-room ice cream sundae service (it's called the "Living Room Ice Creamery program"!).

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Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Room Service / → All Tags

Where You Can Get a Hot Designer Dish In Your Hotel Bed

Celebrity chef restaurants and hip eateries in hotels are all the rage these days...blah, blah, blah blah.

We do a good job of covering which hotels have what restaurants but sometimes when we actually stay at a hotel, we are just too darn tired to schlep it down to the restaurant. Not to mention that we don't always have a travel buddy with us or a friend in town that we can meet up with.

Sometimes, we just like to eat in bed. But hamburgers, turkey clubs, bland pasta dishes and other room service staples just won't do. No, we want the good stuff.

Here is a list of hotels that serve their hip cuisine in their guestrooms.

· City Club: The menu from top chef Daniel Boulud's DB Bistro is served in-rooms during lunch and dinner times. If you want a foie gras burger at 3am, you are outta luck.
· Angler's Boutique Resort Hotel: This new SoBe property doesn't have a room service menu at all but the new Maison d'Azur brasserie will deliver your steak frites right to your room. (We actually did that.)
· The Muse Hotel: The District restaurant inside this Times Square hotel allows guest to create their own ice cream flavors (with 48 hours notice) that are brought up to their rooms.
· The Metropolitan, London: Nobu is on the room service menu. 'Nuff said.
· Trump International Hotel: Jean-Georges Vongerichten has some offerings from this highly acclaimed restaurant on the room service menu.
· Hotel Gansevoort: Serves the full menu from its Ono restaurant.
· Four Seasons George V: Philippe Legendre, chef of Le Cinq, oversees the room service menu here.

Have any more gluttonous room service suggestions? Don't hog it to yourself, give us a bite.

[Photo: U07CH]

Related Stories:
· World's most outrageous room service dishes [MSNBC]

Tags: Room Service / Jock Jam Hotels / Joe Torre / → All Tags

No Room Service For The Yankees

Where: 202 E. Pratt St. [map], Baltimore, MD, United States, 21202

Did Joe Torre walk out on the Yankees because he had to pay for his own room service at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel? Doubtful, but how frustrating must it be to make $7.5 million a year and then get a note from accounting about a $39.98 in-room dinner. The rest of the Yankees didn't do much better during the 2005 season, routinely getting expenses docked from paychecks any time they racked up charges at hotels.

While Joe didn't want to be on the same floor as other players and frequently requested a "corner suite" with "feather pillows," he wasn't as particular about dinner: grilled chicken, two Amstel Lights and a pay-per-view movie. Still, the Yankees wanted their 40 bucks back for that meal, even after the team dropped a total of $67,916 on the team's four-night stay.

The team did better to focus on Gary Sheffield who racked up a room service bill of $637 and charged a $1,042 room upgrade after staying in Cleveland. He also had four Kahlua cocktails. Wait, Kahlua? No wonder Joe didn't want to be on the same floor the players.

[Photo: VickyKen]

Related Stories:
· Yankees Charge Joe Torre, Players for Expenses [NYDN]
· Baseball Park Hotels coverage [HotelChatter]