Tag: Snapshot
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The Belgraves: Less Than a Week From Opening
With just six days to go till Thompson crosses the pond and Belgraves opens (finally), we popped round this morning to see how things looked. Would they be on track?
Well, from the face of it, yes. The entrance, lobby and restaurant looked finished, down to artwork on the walls and tables laid for dinner. The hotel sign was affixed to the wall. The imposing doorway was in place. It all looked pretty much ready to go on the ground floor.
Then we looked up and saw what looked like unfinished rooms through the windows – some appeared to have curtains, some not. Will they open with all their rooms on Wednesday? We hope so, but it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker if they didn’t.
Snapshot / Hotel Bars / Budapest Hotels / Hungary Hotels / → All Tags
You May Feel Spinny At The Bar At Budapest's Zara Continental, But It Won't Be The Booze
Not bad for a hotel bar, right? Especially a hotel that cost you less than $100?
But yes, this is the Zara Continental Hotel in Budapest that we spent the weekend at for the princely sum of $65 per room, per night, thanks to a slamming deal on Jetsetter.com. The hotel is set in a former bath house - so there's Art Deco decoration on the outside, a huge fancy revolving door, and this stunning, also Art Deco, lobby.
Turndown Service / Snapshot / Florence Hotels / Hotel Services / Hotel Poetry / Hotel Beds / → All Tags
Cookies and a Lullaby: Is This The Perfect Turndown?
Chocolates at turndown are all well and good. Port, even better. But, if we lay aside our greedy tendencies for a moment, we’d say that this sincere wish for us to have a good sleep is probably better than both of them.
We found this on our pillow at bedtime during our stay at the Golden Tower Hotel in Florence: a copy of the Brahms Lullaby, which sounds like this and reads like this:
Lullaby and good night, with roses bedight
With lilies bedecked is baby's wee bed,
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessedLullaby and good night, thy mother's delight
Bright angels beside my darling shall stand;
They will guard thee from harms, thou shalt wake in my arms
They will guard thee from harms, thou shalt wake in my arms
Snapshot / London Hotels / Fairmont Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Hotel Amenities / → All Tags
Is This The Kind Of Ironing Board You Expect At The Savoy?
What happens when you check into the Savoy and realize your posh Savoy-friendly clothes need ironing?
Well, if you’re most Savoy guests, you probably call down to reception and ask for some kind of butler service. But that didn’t occur to friends of ours who checked in last month and promptly realized they had 15 minutes to get their clothes pressed and onto their bodies.
Having established that there wasn’t an ironing board in the room (presumably because most Savoy guests go the butler route), they called down to reception and asked for one. Yes, said the person on the end of the phone, it’ll be straight up.
About four minutes later, the phone rang. It was the front desk, letting them know that the guy was outside with the ironing board but hadn’t been able to rouse them with his knocks. Sure enough, he was there, along with an iron and an ironing board.
Snapshot / San Diego Hotels / Hotel Spas / Hotel Cafes / → All Tags
The Rancho Bernardo Inn Wants You To Get Out of Their Room...
...and book an appointment at the spa or play some golf!
When we checked into the Rancho Bernardo Inn outside of San Diego the other week, we thought that housekeeping had forgotten to remove a stickie note from the TV. But upon closer inspection we saw that it was a faux handwritten note encouraging us to book a tee time on the golf course. We don't play golf so we tossed it aside.
But then we found another stickie note in the bathroom, saying "Everything looks better after a trip to the spa." And we found yet one more stickie note above the mini-bar encouraging us to hit up the hotel's Cafe Granada for some coffee in the morning. Hee! What a clever technique to get us out of the rooms and explore the property (and spend some money.)
Snapshot / Park Hyatt Hotels / Hyatt Hotels / Chicago Hotels / → All Tags
There's Just Something About the Park Hyatt Chicago...
We'll admit it; we have a thing for photographing hotels at night. There's something about the glowing windows, the architecture lit by spotlights and the knowledge that the interior is still a flurry of activity, even when everyone else has gone to bed. Other hotels we've night-stalked are the Langham London and the Mandarin Oriental London, for example.
Last night—Halloween night—we sauntered by the Park Hyatt Chicago, not a new one for us as we've stayed and reviewed it before, but there's just something that keeps us coming back.
The hotel recently unveiled their revamped NoMi restaurant, Spa and lounges, and we've heard rumors that more renovations are on the way. Last night, however, all was quiet.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
Snapshot / London Hotels / Fairmont Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Killer View / → All Tags
The Savoy Looks As Fly From Above As It Does From Below
Now here’s a view we’d really love to entertain from our hotel window – you don’t get much more iconic than this.
It is, if you hadn’t recognized it, looking down on the entrance of The Savoy London. We took it from room 649, where our friends were staying. How swish does it look! How gleaming is the gold on that figure! How very debonair and London!
Luckily the stay was equally impressive, with our friends deeming it one of their top hotel stays ever.
Snapshot / Hotel Restaurants / Canadian Hotels / Toronto Hotels / Thompson Hotels / → All Tags
Thompson Toronto's Canadian Burger Would Make Us Thankful
While lots of Americans have the day off today in honor of Columbus Day, our friends up in Canada are celebrating Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, Canucks!
As much as we love a big turkey feast, we're wishing we were spending this holiday at Thompson Toronto, where we'd order one of these delectable All Canadian Burgers from the hotel's 24-hour diner The Counter.
While she comes in turkey and veggie varieties, we can only speak of--and heartily recommend--the beef burger. And, of course, the French Fries instead of salad or crispy rings.
Snapshot / Hotel Bathtubs / Bangkok Hotels / Hotel Bathrooms / → All Tags
This is Not Your Average Hotel Bathtub
So you're staying in a "design hotel" and you've been upgraded to a suite. You walk into the bathroom expecting a large, luxurious white soaking tub and you come face to face with...this.
This is a traditional wooden tub, found in each of the bathrooms at the 13-room boutique Luxx Hotel in the center of Bangkok.
You've got a couple options with this sort of tub. You can take a regular stand-up shower, a sit-down bath, or fill the thing up with hot water, letting the water spill over the edges onto the floor as you lower yourself in for a good soak. The floor of the bathtub is set with something of an infinity drain, so it's all good. Now if only the vintage aspect of this tub could be paired with the modern comforts like a bathroom TV...and we'd be all set.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
Snapshot / Killer View / Intercontinental Hotels / Joie De Vivre Hotels / Hotel Bars / San Francisco Hotels / → All Tags
A Little Bit Of Inception From The Top Of The Mark
How’s this for an Inception moment? There we were, yesterday, having lunch at the Top of the Mark in San Francisco’s Intercontinental Mark Hopkins, looking idly at the view of the Transamerica Building, the Golden Gate Bridge and Twin Peaks when we cast our eyes southwest and noticed The Clift. We’d stayed there last week, so that tickled us.
But then our eyes panned a little to the right and saw a tiny rooftop oasis with palm-type plants and bushes and sun loungers. And as we were thinking how cute it was, we realised that it was the penthouse at the Hotel Adagio. And, coincidentally, our room, since we’d checked in at 11pm the night before to find the hotel full. The only room available? The penthouse. So instead of walking us to another hotel, lovely Peter at the front desk did us the honors.
So there we were in the rooftop bar of one hotel, looking at our ex hotel and our at-the-time-current hotel room. Yes, it was as convoluted as a Christopher Nolan script.
Snapshot / Anantara Hotels / Thailand Hotels / → All Tags
You Know You're at a Thailand Hotel When...
You're arriving to a hotel. What is the first thing you notice on the property? Probably the hotel's sign or maybe a grand porte cochere, right? In most cases, sure, but not in Thailand. Pull up to any hotel—or for that matter, house, restaurant, gas station—and instead you're greeted by mini temples, shrines to the spirits of the land and to the gods.
These temples, called ศาล พระภูมิ, may be mini but the design, care and devotions to them are elaborate affairs. Everything from bottles to water to strands of fresh flowers and fruit are offered to the spirits, and though every hotel has one or two, they aren't exactly part of the grand tour; the shrines are a Thai custom, as commonplace to the locals as windchimes are to us, though the shrines are obviously deserving of greater reverence.
Snapshot / London Hotels / Battersea Hotels / Hotel Views / → All Tags
As Hotel Verta Languishes, Here's The View From Its Neighbor
As it happens, just as poor old Hotel Verta was being touted for sale, the other week we found ourselves at its neighboring property, Hotel Rafayel on the Left Bank.
It’s been a while since we wrote about it, and it was our first visit, so we were hyper excited to get a Groupon for afternoon tea there.
The tea itself was pretty unimpressive, but what was awesome was the view – which, presumably, the Verta shares. We were overlooking Wandsworth Bridge, opposite Chelsea Harbour, and although we couldn’t see all the way east to the Houses of Parliament, it was a gorgeous setting.
The highlight? When helicopters came in to land, just to the left of the tea room. It happened a few times during our tea, and it didn’t get boring once.
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