Usually the words "Sheraton" and "Seattle" in the same sentence would make us want to pull out our old mix tapes from the early 1990s and start to cry. But this Sheraton near Seattle doesn't seem so depressing.
The renovations are now finally finished at the Seattle-area Sheraton Bellevue. The $5.7 million remodel touched on everything from the guest rooms to the menu to the fitness center.
The changes run with a Pacific Northwest, woodsy cottage theme with a nod to the coastal surroundings. We're a little worried about their description of the plaid carpet in the entry, but perhaps it's more cozy than old-looking.
There is also a large fireplace in the first floor lounge area, near Link@Sheraton -- the Sheraton version of a lobby slash business center. Like so many new hotels, there are individual check-in pods instead of one big counter.
If you're heading to Seattle this fall and looking for a cool place to stay, then consider the Inn at the Market, a small boutique hotel located right at Pike's Place Market. The Inn at the Market was the only Seattle hotel on T+L's Top 100 World's Best Hotels 2008 list and we can see why.
From fantastic views from nearly anywhere in the hotel--city skylines, gardens, waterfront, Pike's Place, and on and on--to the intimacy of a home base with only 70 guests rooms we suddenly can't imagine staying anywhere else.
With all the hullabaloo about the significance of Lucky Number 8 and the opening of the Olympic Games on 8-8-08 at 8pm, little surprise then that Hyatt's Olive 8 Hotel in Seattle is rolling out three new packages with Eight as the backbone. However, there is something a little different about this hotel than the others that have 8-8-08 deals---it's not open yet.
The hotel is expected to open in December but they still are trying to take advantage of the 8 date by offering three packages for people to use when the hotel does finally open.
The Arctic Club Hotel in Seattle will open its doors for the first time on Wednesday but unlke most new hotspots popping up these days, this hotel comes with its own interesting history.
The Arctic Club was an exclusive gentlemen's club formed in 1908 and filled with members who had made their wealth in Alaska with Klondike gold. Naturally, a men's club of this stature needed a headquarters so the building at 700 Third Ave became the Arctic Club Building, complete with ivory walrus tusks on the wall.
Now 100 years and 1 spot on the National Register of Historic Places later, the building has been reborn as a high-end hotel.
If things weren't already bad enough for Barry Sternlicht's Seattle baby, Avalon Holdings (a significant partner and the original developer of the hotel) has sold its entire interest in the project to Starwood Capital.
What: A Guitar Hero III tournament where the winner gets two airline tickets on Southwest Airlines and a stay at the Kimpton FireSky Resort & Spa in Scottsdale.
To ensure your spot in the NCAA-bracket-style tournament, register online by emailing monacoguitarhero@yahoo.com. There are 64 slots open (if you register you get one of those slots), for any level (easy, medium or hard) and it costs $15 to enter. $20 if you are in pairs.
Everyone will get a custom tournament T-shirt, plus entry into a raffle with prizes like a tandem sky dive.
The whole thing is for a good cause as proceeds will benefit the Seattle Red Cross and a Monaco employee who lost his home in a fire.
This is probably our most ideal way to pass time in a hotel these days. That is, unless someone has RockBand!
Chocolates, rose petals, champagne and strawberries are standard fare for the current round of Valentine's Day special packages every hotel dishes out around this time of year. And at the Pan Pacific Seattle several of these are included, too, in particular the champagne and chocolate-dipped strawberries, as well as brunch in bed, extended check out time, and a room with a view of Seattle's Space Needle from the bath tub.
While you're lying in bed, you'll have something to watch as the package also includes free access to all of the romantic in-room movies (really? Only the romantic ones?). And what do you think you'll be wearing in bed? Probably half a set of pajamas.
Yep, this package includes one pair of pajamas to share: they suggest top for her, bottoms for him. We presume they're trying to come up with a cutesy idea but really, can't we decide for ourselves which bits we want to wear, if any? The package starts at $390 per double but we'll only book if we get a pair of pajamas each. And no cartoon ducks or chickens on 'em.
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
Want to know where you can get such a spectacular anti-view of rooftop concrete and the windows of other downtown buildings? This special anti-view comes from the Westin Seattle.
To be fair, this view is the one you get from the tenth floor, which is the first floor of the building to include guest rooms, so it's obviously not intended to be the showcase floor. We figure that when you get higher up in the Westin, the views could improve considerably. In fact, the Westin website advertises its panoramic views, taking in Lake Union, Puget Sound and the nearby Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges, so pick the right room and you'll be better off.
If you're considering checking in to a higher floor of the Westin Seattle in the next week or so, be aware that the cafe inside the hotel will be closed until at least January 1 for some renovations. Pity they're not renovating those tenth floor rooms at the same time and installing some kind of fake view.
