HotelChatter

Rosewood Resorts / New World Hospitality / Hotel Hype / Hotel News / → All Tags

Rosewood Hotels and Resorts Have a New Daddy

The Rosewood Mayakoba

While fathers around the country were faking surprise over their new ties yesterday, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts were absorbing the news that they suddenly had a new daddy.

Hong Kong hotel group, New World Hospitality, has agreed to buy Rosewood for $229 million dollars. The deal is set to close July 29 and it will make Rosewood New World's premiere luxury brand.

Rosewood has 19 hotels and resorts worldwide, including Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Mexico (home to the infamous Director of Romance), the Rosewood Mayakoba with its sexy rooms and the hotel that we would like to die in, The Carlyle in New York.

But now that Rosewood is part of an Asian company, expect lots of expansion in Asia, one of the hottest hotel markets around. From Bloomberg News:

more ›

Easter Hotels / Hotel Chefs / Northern California Hotels / Rosewood Resorts / → All Tags

Angry Birds Protect the Golden Egg at the Sand Hill Hotel

Where: 2825 Sand Hill Road [map], Menlo Park, CA, United States, 94025

Angry Birds FTW! This might be one of our favorite hotel pastry concoctions ever.

The pastry chef at the Rosewood Sand Hill in Menlo Park, Calif. created a special Easter display in honor of Angry Birds, the addictive iPad and iPhone time-waster app and video game. Considering that this hotel is in the shadow of Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, the Angry Birds were very apropro.

The birds were put out for the hotel restaurant's, Madera, Easter brunch where ducks, chickens, dwarf goats, turkeys, sheeps rabbits and yes, pot-bellied pigs frolicked on the lawn out front. Although the display is made of edible ingredients, guests were not allowed to get the Golden Egg, er, we mean, eat it.

Hotel Jobs / Hotel Pets / Santa Barbara Hotels / Rosewood Resorts / Pet-Friendly Hotels / → All Tags

More Cool Hotel Jobs: Director of Privileged Pets at San Ysidro Ranch

Where: 900 San Ysidro Lane [map], Montecito, CA, United States, 93108

HotelChatter contributor Eric Rosen will be telling us about some of the coolest hotel jobs out there. He reached out across the globe to talk to the dynamic folks who do everything from wrangling elephants (and guests!) to designing the latest high-tech gadgetry for your next guest room. So check back every day to see who he’s talking to next.

Last week we told you about the Loan-A-Lab program at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch and this week, we thought we’d also just mention another innovative dog program at another luxury resort, just as a way of looking at the other end of the leash.

more ›

Hotel Openings / Rosewood Resorts / Mexico Hotels / → All Tags

Head South for the Winter at Mexico's Soon-to-Open Rosewood San Miguel de Allende

Where: Nemesio Diez 11, Colonia Centro, San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico, 37700

It's time to start thinking cold-weather trips. Why not head South for the winter? We're thinking way South, like Mexico. One place to hit up San Miguel, which is 177 miles northwest of Mexico City. Not only is the town a UNESCO World Heritage Site with some amazing Spanish colonial architecture, but it's the location of the brand-spankin'-new Rosewood San Miguel de Allende.

The hotel, which will open in early 2011, is now accepting reservations for stays beginning February 1. It's offering a special grand-opening rate starting at $295 a night.

more ›

Hotel Uniforms / Rosewood Resorts / Mexico Hotels / → All Tags

Las Ventanas Creates a Whole Mythology Behind Its New Uniforms

Where: KM 19.5 Carreterra Transpeninsula, San Jose del Cabo, Mexico

While some hotel uniforms help set a sexy mood and others seem to have no purpose at all, the new threads worn by staff at Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos have elaborate stories behind them.

Mexican designers Maria Rosario Mendoza and Alejandro Julian drew on their country's history and culture to create different get-ups for every department. Each uniform has its own embroidered design or color combo that symbolizes a particular job at the resort. But the hotel stretches the symbolism a bit too far, though.

more ›

Hotel Books / Hotel Bookshelves / Hotel Amenities / Rosewood Resorts / Mexico Hotels / → All Tags

Las Ventanas Has a New Batch of 'Hot Type' Books for Anti-Kindle Guests

Where: KM 19.5 Carreterra Transpeninsula, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Sick of toting heavy hardcover books in your shrinking carry-on allowance? Not quite keen on the Kindle? If you’re heading to Los Cabos for spring break, you can leave all the books and e-readers at home—as long as you’re willing to drop some major cash on a room at Las Ventanas.

The resort’s Hot Type program not only makes books available for guests to read poolside, they bring you the freshest titles possible—books six weeks to six months away from hitting Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

more ›

OpenThread / Hotel Room Keys / Hotel Security / Rosewood Resorts / → All Tags

Have You Ever Stayed at a Hotel Without a Room Key?

Where: Antigua and Barbuda

Reading this Wall Street Journal review of the newly renovated Jumby Bay Resort, it was easy to get swept up in all the luxury. Then we came to the part where write Laura Landro says, “I was a little surprised to learn there was no room key.” Ditto, Laura!

Like this writer, we tend to be security freaks when traveling, especially alone. So the idea of not being able to barricade ourselves in our rooms—or our valuables when we’re out—is a little unnerving. Have you ever stayed at a hotel without a room key? Did it freak you out?

more ›

Hotel Bookshelves / Hotel Amenities / Rosewood Resorts / Mexico Hotels - / → All Tags

Read Next Year's Hot Books Today at Las Ventanas in Mexico

Where: KM 19.5 Carretera Transpeninsl, CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico

We’ve been following the Hotel Bookshelves craze for awhile now, and for good reason. We’re fans of anything that lightens our carry-on load, so books in our room or lobby are welcome. We like to leaf through those big, sexy art books that hotels like the Cooper Square and the Greenwich Hotel in New York stock bedside, and occasionally we might reacquaint ourselves with a classic while we wait for room service.

But the best thing about the books available for guests at Las Ventanas al Paraíso in Los Cabos, Mexico is the fact that you can read them before anyone back home. As we mentioned when the resort first introduced its Hot Type Menu, an arrangement with top publishing houses means that the Las Ventanas library features books six weeks to six months before their official publication date.

more ›

Rosewood Resorts / Antigua Hotels / Hotel Reopenings / Hotel Renovations / → All Tags

Jumby Bay Gets Jumbo-Sized Renovations

Where: Jumby Bay Island, St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda

Win a big award, then close down for a year: probably not the strategy that Rosewood Resorts' Jumby Bay in Antigua had in mind, but perhaps that just shows they were modest enough not to expect to win last year's T+L Best Caribbean Resort award. Shortly after that burst of publicity, Jumby Bay closed up most of their resort to get to work on $28 million worth of renovations, and now these are finally almost done.

As you'd expect, $28 million buys a fair amount of new and improved stuff, and the revamp includes complete overhauls of 12 existing guest suites as well as the addition of 28 brand new suites. The new design style is meant to be a combo of "tropical hideaway" and "romantic British Colonial".

more ›

Hotel Restaurants / Rosewood Resorts / San Ysidro Hotels / → All Tags

A 'Friendly' Dining Deal at the San Ysidro Ranch

Where: 900 San Ysidro Lane [map], Santa Barbara, CA, United States, 93108

If you’ve never been to the rambling San Ysidro Ranch in the mountains south of Santa Barbara, you might think it’s a stuck-up place since it takes pride in a fabled history that includes hosting Sir Laurence Olivier’s wedding to Vivien Leigh, being the site of JFK and Jackie’s honeymoon, and having Oprah as a neighbor. (It's also a fave for one of our VIP Hotel Reviewers)

It’s also true that the huge suites and cottages all cost a small fortune for an overnight stay. When it comes to dining at the resort, though, you’d be hard pressed to find a better bargain gourmet meal.

more ›

Celebrity Scoop / Beach Hotels / Rosewood Resorts / → All Tags

Netscape Founder Weds Supermodel at Rosewood Little Dix Bay

Where: Vrgin Gorda, Virgin Islands, British, 1150

Where do you go when you're 65, have founded a (we assume) very profitable internet company and want to wed your twentysomething supermodel bride with no press or stalkerazzi?

You go to paradise, where nobody knows your name; more specifically, Rosewood Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda, near Isle de Richard Branson (Necker Island). Oh, and you invite Jimmy Buffett to come along, too.

more ›

Hotel Spas / New York Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Rosewood Resorts / → All Tags

"Cocoon" in Luxury's Lap at the Carlyle's Sense Spa

Where: 35 E. 76th Street [map], New York, ny, United States, 10021

Cached in The Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side, the Sense spa is making headlines for its unabashedly luxurious bent. Both Vanity Fair and the New York Times’ T Magazine recently reviewed the place, and the consensus was clear: This is the place to evoke Great Depression-era excess in the name of the new Depression.

Designed by interior designer Mark Zeff, Sense is about as exclusive as spas go in New York, with just five intimate, super-private treatment rooms, a relaxation room, duet suite, and steam rooms. To get to them, you walk through a barrel-vaulted staircase blanketed with ultra-spendy mosaic platinum squares. VF says it’s like being “cocooned in luxury.”

more ›