We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
The next VIP in the series is Deidre Woollard, the founder and head writer at popular luxury blog, Luxist.com. Despite writing about what's hot in the luxury world, Deidre has spent time in a Super 8 Motel. Of course, she would never stay there again. Instead the next time she visits Louisville, Kentucky, she'll probably hit up the Seelbach Hilton. Enjoy.
For a couple of years while getting my MFA through Spalding University's limited residency program I spent a lot of time in Louisville, Kentucky.
Each semester we spent 10 days in a hotel in Louisville. For the inaugural session of the program they put us in a Super 8 hotel. Not just any Super 8 Hotel, but one that happened to be located near what appeared to be a crackhouse.
It was noisy, loud and scary but both the visiting professors and students bonded as we chaperoned each other from elevator to room for security's sake. It was the last semester the program ever stayed there.
For the rest of my time in the program we stayed at the Seelbach Hilton, the grand old hotel downtown which was built in 1905. It was quite an improvement from the Super 8.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
The next VIP in the series is Johnny Jet, aka John DiScala, the man behind the extremely popular travel website and newsletter JohnnyJet.com. If there's ever a question you have about airlines, airfares, hotels, resorts and travel in general, Johnny Jet is the man to ask. And that's probably because he's been there. Twice. Enjoy.
It's an honor to be writing for HotelChatter.com and when they asked me to pick my favorite hotel - I had to think about it. It's been over 10 days and I'm still thinking about it. Seriously, reflecting back, I realize I might be one of the most spoiled or luckiest S.O.B.'s on earth as I have been fortunate to stay at some incredible places over the years.
However, to pick one that’s totally unique and definitely in my top 10 has to be Longitude 131. It’s far far away in Australia’s Red Center in the town of Uluru/Ayers Rock. The 15 luxury "tents" resort is built on a sand dune. It’s for adults-only (over 12) so forget about bringing the kids. It has won many awards, including The Robb Report’s Top Ten Haute Hotels in the World, and is eco-friendly.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
The next VIP in the series is George Hobica, who created one of our favorite websites ever, Airfare Watchdog, which gives readers the lowdown on the cheapest airfares around the world. Enjoy.
I've been pretty much all around the world and stayed in a lot of hotels, from the swank Cipriani in Venice to the idyllic Four Seasons in Bali. It's pretty depressing, at least to me, to end up in a dumpy hotel with polyester sheets and strange odors, and windows that won't open. So I like to spoil myself when I travel, or at least have the same level of comfort on the road as I do at home (we do have operable windows chez moi).
And I feel both spoiled and at home at Boston's Copley Plaza, now a part of the Fairmont group. Built the same year that the Titanic went down (1912), all of its 383-rooms have been newly renovated in a style befitting its vintage, without being too fussy or fusty.
Here's why I else like it: It's dog friendly, very friendly. As you'd expect from someone who owns a Web site called Airfarewatchdog.com, this is a must. They even have a "canine ambassador," a gorgeous black lab named Catie stationed in the lobby at the concierge desk. If I'm going out for the night, I leave my wheaten terrier with the concierge so she won't be lonely.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
The next VIP in the series is Charles Ogilvie, in-flight entertainment director for Virgin America. Charles is always on the go checking out new cities and new products. His latest travels have landed him in Kuala Lumpur where he stayed at the budget TuneHotels. Enjoy.
I am writing this VIP hotel review using my in-room WiFi connection at a "no-frills" hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia called TuneHotel. I just came in today from Singapore on AirAsia's new SIN-KUL flight (I'll tell you about the experience a different time, but it was great!)
"Malaysia" is buzzing in Singapore this week at the Singapore Air Show, as the country is both a hot regional and international destination and a growing international hub. Too bad I can't stay very long, otherwise I'd love to explore this country a bit.
However I did get to pop into a newly renovated building called Central Plaza earlier that houses a mighty and growing list of international carriers' downtown offices.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
As a sightseer, I love hundred-year-old palace hotels like New York's Plaza, Chicago's Blackstone, and San Francisco's Fairmont.
But as a historian, I recognize that luxury establishments made up only a tiny percentage of all hotels, and that most people stayed in more modest hostelries.
One of these, the Cosmopolitan Hotel on West Broadway in Manhattan, has been in business since 1851, operating in the same building and serving the same kind of middle-class clientele for more than a century and a half!
The rooms are small and the décor is modern, but it's in the same historic building that's pictured on a nineteenth-century trade card in my book. And you can't beat the Cosmopolitan for affordable accommodations in the stylish SoHo neighborhood.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
Our next VIP in the series is Ben Lerer, the co-founder of Thrillist.com, a daily e-newsletter for guys detailing the best in food, drinks, events, gear, services and travel. Thrillist just recently launched a San Francisco-centric edition and here's where Ben stayed on his last trip to the City by the Bay. Enjoy.
On my last business trip to San Francisco, I was put up in the Hotel Tomo in Japantown. I can't say I was giddy about the lodgings -- Tomo's essentially a Best Western, and Best Western isn't exactly the sexiest company out there* -- but I was completely blown away by my experience.
The property was cool, with a boutique hotel feel, the service was great, and the price was fantastic.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
The next VIP in the series is Gabe Rotter, author of the Simon & Schuster novel Duck Duck Wally about a chubby whiteboy who is the secret ghostwriter for a famous gangsta rapper, Oral B. Since Wally's beloved bulldog Dr. Barry Schwartzman is an important character in the book (he gets dog-napped!) we figured Gabe could tell us a safe place to travel with your dogs. Enjoy.
My favorite dog-friendly hotel is a place I'll likely never be able to afford again. I went there once, a few years ago, for two nights. And I'll be working it off until the day I die, old and hunched and grey and wrinkly, drooling into my Jello and dreaming about my two, wonderful nights with my bitch at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
The next VIP in the series is Ben Mandelker, co-founder of the popular TV blog TVgasm.com. These days he's toiling away as a screenwriter in Los Angeles--ok, so maybe not toiling right this moment--but he is writing the B-Side Blog and he's been tapped to write the remake of "Easy Money" for MGM Studios. Enjoy.
Exchange rates haven't been friendly to American tourists in Paris, but luckily, it's still possible to find cheap lodging in the heart of the city. Take, for example, the Hotel du Mont Blanc. Located smack in the middle of the Latin Quarter, this two-star hotel is walking distance from some of the city's biggest attractions: the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Jardin du Luxembourg, to name a few.
More importantly, it's mere footsteps away from the Place Saint-Michel Metro Station, which doubles as a stop for the RER, making airport trips -- not to mention excursions to Versailles -- a breeze (trains to Charles De Gaulle, Orly, and Versailles all pass through this specific station).
