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Behind Schedule With Your Hotel? Do a Shangri-La And Hedge Your Bets
Here’s some skewed logic to start your week off. You’re a soon-to-be-open hotel, you’re not sure exactly how long it’s going to take for your paint to dry and your air con to get whirring, and you’re watching other new hotels around the globe getting called out for opening late. What’s the solution?
Well, if you’re Shangri-La, your solution is to hedge your bets. The bizarrely named Shangri-La China World Summit Wing in Beijing was originally slated to open "at the end of the year". And even now, despite Shangri-La just having appointed a GM, they’re not quite sure when it’ll be ready for us to bed down, announcing this weekend that it’ll open "at the end of 2009 or early 2010."
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Sydney's Shangri-La Upgrades Its Cafe Mix Restaurant
Sydney's Shangri-La Hotel already serves up drinks in a bar we approve of - its Blu Horizon Bar which has amazing views over Sydney Harbour and the Opera House. Downstairs, the all-day dining spot Café Mix has just had a revamp and earlier this month relaunched with a new look and a new menu.
The new look includes extra seating and Café Mix now seats over two hundred guests. You can get nearly anything you want here: there's Indian, Japanese, Chinese and Australian cuisine, plus (something we really like) a dessert buffet which includes a chocolate fountain.
To celebrate the new look there's a special on every Friday night until October 16. It's a seafood buffet with fresh oysters, king prawns, crab and lobster for A$99 ($85) per person.
Tags: Hotel Opening Rates / Hotel Opening / Shangri-La Hotels / China Hotels / → All Tags
New Shangri-La Ningbo Gives Shanghai Luxury Style For Just $120 a Night
Although properties in New York and Chicago are out of the picture for now, Shangri-La Hotels are continuing to expand in Asia, just opening a new fancy high-rise is the Chinese city of Ningbo. The Shangri-La Ningbo would be your typical five-star property, if it weren't boasting of special introductory rates as low as $120 and a residential community of 60 apartments.
Available until December 31 for stays in a deluxe room, the $120 opening deal will hopefully attract tourists on a sidetrip from visiting Shanghai, as Ningbo is just across the Huangzhou Bay. For that $120, you'll get a whole bunch of free stuff: free buffet breakfast, free broadband internet access, free use of hookups and speakers for iPods and other digital accessories, and access to the gym with pool and two tennis courts.
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Shangri-La Santa Monica Goes GQ
Mmm, Channing Tatum. Mmmm, shirtless dudes in GQ. Mmmm, Shangri-La Santa Monica.
The August issue of GQ features one of the most kickass photoshoots ever: a shirtless Channing Tatum gallivanting around the Shangri-La Santa Monica. He's in the hallways; he's in Suite 700 (and, uh, he's kinda messy in an endearing, manly kind of way) which has two bedrooms and a wrap-around terrace with one of "the best views in the world."
Photographed by Mario Testino, the hotel is, admittedly, sort of background for the Channing Tatum hotness here — and, though the property is not as prominently featured in the images as heavily as the hotel spotlighted in Annie Liebovitz's Peninsula photos, we think we can deal.
Check out the pics here.
[Photo: Mario Testino]
Tags: Killer View / Kuala Lumpur Hotels / Shangri-La Hotels / → All Tags
See the World's Biggest Twin Buildings Without Leaving Your Room
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
It sounds kind of dirty to say that you can see the world's biggest twin buildings without even leaving your hotel bedroom, but in this case it's true in the most non-sexual sense: this photo was shot from a room at the Traders Hotel in Kuala Lumpur by davidduran. And yes, those are the Petronas Towers. Straight out the window.
The Petronas Towers are officially the tallest twin buildings in the world (once upon a time, they were the tallest buildings on the planet — but they've been dethroned by Taipei 101). And you can see 'em pretty well (that is, well enough to tell your friends you "saw" the towers) from The Traders, which is a 571-room Shangri-La property in the middle of the city.
Make sure you ask for a "Park View" room (the "City View" rooms, though they sound better, actually don't face the towers) and be prepared to shell out at least 700 MYR ($200-ish) for it.
[Photo: davidduran]
Tags: Shangri-La Hotels / Moscow Hotels / Hotel Openings / → All Tags
Break Out the Vodka: Shangri-La Expands Into Russia
Talk about mixing cultures. The Shangri-La Hotels group has just signed a deal to create its first-ever Russian property, a 400-room hotel in Moscow. And with the deal involving an agreement with the China Huaming International Investment Corporation, there's a real Chinese theme going on with it.
The hotel — whose official name seems to have not been released yet — will be on the top floors of the Park Huaming Business Centre in the north-east corner of Moscow, about six miles from central Red Square (shown). Many of the rooms will have views over the Chinese-landscaped gardens in the complex; and as for dining, guests will be able to choose between a Russian and a Chinese restaurant (We're thinking Chinese for the food and Russian for the drinks?)
Expected opening date is not until 2012 so we'll get some more details before then, but we imagine that even keeping it out of the super-expensive central area of Moscow won't make it any cheaper. Fancy hotels in Moscow are simply expensive, no matter what — and this one surely won't be any different. But at least it will have free WiFi.
[Photo of Red Square: gmetrail]
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This Summer, The Kiddies Stay Totally Free at Shangri-La Hotels
Shangri-La has seriously been stepping it up recently, making a name for itself in the freebie world by coming forward as the first international luxury hotel chain to offer free WiFi on all its properties. And now they're stepping up their game even more with the announcement of their "Kids On Us" program at seven of its properties this summer, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: children under 12 years old to "eat, play and stay free."
Per a Shangri-La press release:
From now until 30 September, 2009, "Kids On Us" offers great savings for families including extra bed in the parents' room for up to two children at no additional cost and complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner from the resort's children's menu. Various recreational facilities such as full use of the adventure zone, trapeze, jet-skiing, horseback-riding and nature trail walking can also be enjoyed at no charge.
Yeah. Nice for those of you with little ones. The participating resorts are: Rasa Sentosa Resort in Singapore; Shangri-La's Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa and Golden Sands Resort in Penang; Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort and Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa in Kota Kinabalu; Shangri-La's Mactan Resort and Spa in Cebu; and Shangri-La's Boracay Resort and Spa.
Also! Taking advantage of the "Kids on Us" program scores you a complimentary room night for a future stay at any Shangri-La property — and you can research the other destinations on your hotel's free WiFi connection! Without the kids bugging you because they'll be downstairs eating their free breakfast! Yay! Everyone wins.
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After Pulling Out of Chicago, Shangri-La Ditches New York Too
Sigh. More bad news for the NYC hotel scene. (Hey, remember yesterday when we reported that a hotel actually opened on time, as planned, on schedule somewhere in the world? Miracles do happen. That was nice.)
According to Crain's Business, Shangri-La has pretty much pulled out of their plans to open up a New York City property, which was supposed to be located in back of the Seagram Building at East 53rd Street.
Crain's says:
Late last year, construction at the site stopped and Shangri-La has since removed any mention of the New York property from its corporate Web site.
Apparently, the development may have stopped due to "fierce opposition from Community Boards Five and Six over the building of a loading dock for delivery trucks" — but that could be just one of many reasons.
And this comes after news that the Hong Kong hotel group had pulled out of its plans to open a Chicago property. Which is all kind of sad, because we love us some Shangri-La 'cause they give us back the love with the luxe amenities and the free WiFi.
[Photo: Wikipedia]
Tags: Hotel Deals / Shangri-La Hotels / Hotel Packages / → All Tags
Pay Only For What You Use With Shangri-La's CustomStay
We're big fans of getting something for nothing. But what about getting something for a small extra cost? Doesn't sound quite as sexy but the Shangri-La hotel group has launched CustomStay which, although sounding a bit like the strategy of a no-frills airline, does sound like a decent idea.
CustomStay works like this: as you book your Shangri-La room online, and choose the "Best Available Rate" option, you'll then get a screen offering you a range of other services like airport transfers, breakfast, laundry, spa treatments and resort activities. The neat trick is that you pay a lower room rate if you don't want any of these, and if you do, the individual service costs get cheaper the more you request.
Tags: Hotel Video Tours / HotelChatter Reviews / Shangri-La Hotels / Malaysia Hotels / → All Tags
Inside Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa
Ever since a friend of ours stayed here last year and came back declaring it was the “best hotel in the world. Ever” we’ve been intrigued about the Rasa Sayang resort in Penang. Being a Shangri La property, obviously it’s going to be nice. Yet we have an underlying aversion to the word “resort”. Could this one overcome our snobby tendencies?
Tags: Abu Dhabi Hotels / Hotel News / Shangri-La Hotels / → All Tags
Shangri-La Abu Dhabi Will Have Arabic Gondolas
Prior to these last couple years of explosive construction in the United Arab Emirates, we had only thought of Abu Dhabi as the mystical location where Garfield would ship Odie the dog when he was being especially annoying. Now, thanks to the proliferation of grandiose hotels in the area, it's somewhere to which we'd gladly ship ourselves, especially since the Shangri-La Abu Dhabi is about to get a sister with a Traders Hotel next door.
Tags: Shangri-La Hotels / Philippines Hotels / Hotel Openings / → All Tags
Shangri-La Goes Far Flung With Boracay Island Resort
While we think that the W Maldives' removed atoll location and private boat are pretty sweet when it comes to remote escapes, apparently resorts continue to push the boundaries of accessibility.
This is the case with the newest addition to the Shangri-La hotel family, the Shangri-La Boracay in the Philippines. To reach the 219-room, 36-villa exotic wonderland with 3,800 feet of secluded beach, guests must first fly into Manila, then take a hopper flight 45 minutes south to Caticlan airport, from where another 30 minutes of land and sea transfers launch. Once you hit the sand, however, the Boracay enclave sets out to envelop you in 5-star luxury with one of the Philippines' largest free-form swimming pools, activity pavilions, and the peace of a surrounding nature preserve.
You may be removed from civilization, but get this: the in-room broadband internet is free! It better be too, as we looked into room rates for April and they're looking to start around 20,580 Philippine pesos, but don't let all those digits fool you; that's $428.58 USD. At least you'll still be able to check your bank account balance online and do currency conversions on Google.
[Photo: Shangri-La Boracay]
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