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.
Thanks go to another HotelChatter tipster, tombarnes20008, who dropped this photograph into the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool. It's a picture of the view from the balcony of Room 433 in the Westin Palace Madrid, and while it's far from the ugliest anti-view we've ever seen, it's certainly a view we might be a bit disappointed to find.
Take a look around from this balcony in another direction and we're fairly sure we'll see a much prettier side of Madrid. But this view is so plain-Jane that we'd think we should've paid less than the $500 minimum you'd pay for a room like this. It's all a matter of perspective. Our expectations are just higher.
Ever paid much attention to the floral arrangements at a hotel? Admittedly, we haven't, but perhaps that'll all change now that we know Westin Hotels have got a partnership going with the woman some people say is the world's best florist.
We didn't have any idea there was a world's best florist, but apparently Jane Packer fits the bill pretty well. She writes books about floral arrangements and counts Calvin Klein and Donna Karan on her client list. And now she's done a deal with Westin to provide designs for flower arrangements they'll use in their hotels across the world.
This means Packer's created a style guide for use in all Westins. The floral designs are meant to be strong and innovative "in single-color ways" to help Westin show their sense of style. It's an interesting idea, so keep an eye out for the vases at the next Westin you visit.
More hotel lawsuits happening this week. This time The Westin Bonaventure in downtown LA is suing crazy Phil Spector for stiffing them out of more than a $100,000.
TMZ, getting back to celebrity justice basics, reports:
In the suit, filed today in L.A. County Superior Court, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites says they reserved rooms for the music producer's lawyers and expert witnesses during the trial. After seven months of trial, the hotel alleges, Spector had racked up a bill to the tune of more than $104,000.
Apparently, Spector didn't pay the bill because he was hoping to get some sort of steep discount. Now the hotel has sued Spector, his wife and his agent. Looks like Spector will have to find some new digs before his second trial begins in September. The first trial in which he stood accused of killing Lana Clarkson ended in a mistrial.
At least one of you dear readers was intrigued and then ticked off by the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park's package centered on the NYC Waterfalls, artist Olafur Eliasson's man-made waterfalls along Manhattan's East River.
If the $630-per-night price tag got your blood boiling (hey, this is the Ritz-Carlton, after all), perhaps this offering from the Westin New York at Times Square can be your blood pressure medication.
Last summer, we checked up on the Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa, a massive 19-acre condo-hotel development at the base of Beaver Creek Mountain (near Vail) slated to be completed "Summer 2008."
Well, we swung by the site to check on progress and, um, yeah. About that whole opening-this-summer thing? It's gonna be a stretch.
Get your hot dogs, sunscreen and beer guts ready: Independence Day is just over two weeks away! If you're headed to a big city for some fireworks fun, we'll be taking a look at hotels with prime fireworks views. Have a favorite hotel for gawking at bombs bursting in air? Send it our way.
If you're sweatin' down in a Southern state (or, as luck may have it this summer, roasting even in a Northeastern state), consider bouncing on over to the Windy City to check out the legendary Navy Pier fireworks and the famed Taste of Chicago festival.
Our Fourth of July weekend hotel pick: the Westin Chicago River North, right in the middle of all the action.
The city of Napa has been pushing hard for a major face lift the last few years and so far so good.
The food and arts institution Copia, was recently coupled with Oxbow market, turning it into a foodie's paradise. Obviously this is having a positive effect if Starwood is opening a condo-hotel just down the street on September 18th called Westin Verasa.
If anything ever forces you to go to Jersey City (just kidding...sorta), you'll be able to stay in a brand spankin' new Westin as of November 1st. Based on these construction shots we scored, things seem to be coming along nicely and an on-time opening may even be a possibility!
Among the Westin Jersey City's features that may help to make Jersey bearable (kidding again!) are the views of Manhattan:
The suites are all located on the curve of the front of the building. The bathrooms for the suites will have deep soaking tubs set right by the windows for Manhattan views. The Presidential [suite] will have a 180 degree views from SoHo to Battery Park.
The Westin Jersey City will have plenty of food, too, with two restaurants and 24-hour roomservice planned.
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by amandak
Ever paid much attention to the floral arrangements at a hotel? Admittedly, we haven't, but perhaps that'll all change now that we know 
