As most people who suffer from technophilia know, a lot can change in a year. In the year that we released our first Best Geek Hotels List, the iPhone beat out every other cellphone on the market, the MacAir usurped the MacBook and saved shoulders worldwide, Guitar Hero and Rock Band raged, and Facebook surpassed MySpace, at least in our group of friends.
While most hotels are still rather slow to adopt technology -- hello, working free WiFi please?-- we did find a new crop of geek hotels that were worthy of superlatives. Some of these hotels have been geeking it out for a while and some are still in beta. But much of the source code remains the same:
Being geek is a cultural endeavour, so after searching every henhouse, outhouse, and boathouse around the world we have put together our list of the world's top geek hotels for 2008. From artificial intelligence, to high end gadgetry, to geek service, and geek movie worship, the hotels on this list have a certain je ne sais quoi de geek.
We have another Geek Hotel tip in our inboxes today and finally, Europe is getting some representation, specifically Stockholm. Malc writes in:
The Hotel Rival has a 32" HD LCD TV and a Sony DVD player with line in. And whatever is playing, be it the TV, a CD or your laptop plugged in, feeds through to a speaker in the bathroom above the shower and there is a volume control on the wall. Its really cool.
Geeks will also love the free WiFi in the lobby. However, if you still have some anti-social behavior left over from middle school, you may not like the hotel's happening bar and lounge scene.
Already, tips are coming in from readers about their favorite Geek Hotels. Like this one from Flickr member Dead Squid:
My fave geek hotel would have to be the Hotel Avante in Mountain View, CA. No flat panel TV, but retro styling, comfy chairs, solid network connectivity, daily beer busts (ok, cocktails) in the foyer, a HiFi room where you can get out of your room to listen to music, loaner CDs, and a useful desk with something other than a Gideon's bible make for a very, very pleasant stay.
The proximity to Silicon Valley also has a sufficient geek quotient. And notice in the desk, a mini-etch a sketch, a slinky, a yo-yo and of course the geeky Rubick's cube. What? No Casio calculator watches?
We've been to plenty of hotels where the TV hardly worked and the Internet connection was spotty. But some properties are on the other end of the spectrum: true Geek Hotels. What does it take to be a Geeky Hotel? Way more than just free WiFi, that's for sure. Being geek is a cultural endeavour, so after searching every henhouse, outhouse, and boathouse around the world we have put together our list of the world's top geek hotels. From artificial intelligence, to high end gadgetry, to geek service, and geek movie worship, the hotels on this list have a certain je ne sais quoi de geek.
