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Chic-Basic Hotels / Hotel Toiletries / Hotel Porn / Budget Chic Hotels / → All Tags

The Best Things at Hotels Are Free

Sometimes in life, it’s the little things, and it appears that Chic&Basic hotels in Barcelona and Amsterdam truly gets this.

For starters, their toiletries are funny. (Don’t deny that that soap didn’t make you chuckle.) It could be the crappiest soap you’ve ever used—something that smells like feet and dries out your skin—but who cares?! The packaging is so darn basic it’s unavoidably cute.

Second, the Chic&Basic web site is like free porn! Well, kinda. The site features a photo of two chicks lying in bed together, one with her arm suggestively draped over the other and another with two men and one woman in bed together. How chic!

However, you’ll have to click on the Castellano version of the site to see these suggestive photos—apparently people who only read English are too uptight for these sorts of things. Or, if you’re like us, too immature.

[Photo: Fatty Tuna]

Budget Hotels / Spain Hotels / Chic-Basic Hotels / Gat Hotels / Room Mate Hotels / → All Tags

Small, Cheap and Hip in Spain

Think Spain, think hip and think ultra-modern, but without a too-distressing price tag, and you’ve got what some are saying is a revolution of hotel mini-chains across cities like Barcelona and Madrid.

A cross somewhere between boutique hotels and budget hostels, we’re talking places like the two Gat hotels in Barcelona; Matt Gross gave the the Gat Raval kudos a couple of years back but the Gat Xino goes one step up by skipping the shared bathrooms, and gets more love than the Raval. Although you should be warned that even the Gat manager says herself that “Gat is not for people who like to spend a lot of time in their rooms." Gulp.

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Chic-Basic Hotels / Hotel Deals / Summer Deals / → All Tags

Chic & Basic Offering End of Summer Discounts

Where: Spain

The Chic & Basic brand, a Spanish hotel chain with locations in Barcelona, Madrid and Amsterdam, is offering some end of the summer discounts at a few of its hotels and apartments. Here's what we found:

· 25 percent off two new Chic&Basic hotels/apartments in Barcelona--the Urquinaona and Bruc apartments
· 25 percent off hotel in Amsterdam
· 25 percent off the Born hotel in Barcelona. (only 20 percent off Fridays and Saturdays.)
· 30 percent off rooms/apartments at the Colors hostel or the Chic&Basic Madrid apartments.

These deals are good for the month of August and room rates (without discount) start around 68 Euros for a studio apartment. Hotel rooms get to be a little more expensive at 130 Euros.

Have you stayed at a Chic & Basic? Send us a reader review!

Amsterdam Hotels / Chic-Basic Hotels / → All Tags

Tales of the Chic & Not-So-Basic

Where: Herengracht 13-19 1015BA , Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1015BA

Though one expects to have one's expectations challenged while transitioning to a foreign continent, I did not sufficiently recalibrate my concept of the 'hotel' to prepare myself for the Chic & Basic.

And so begins Nick Martens' account of the boutique hotel Chic & Basic Amsterdam over at BygoneBureau.com.

With rooms "the size of an average refrigerator box" and all-white modern minimalist furnishings and décor (reminiscent of an Apple store), the Chic & Basic should possibly be renamed, the Chic & Peculiar.

Starting with the arrival, as most rooms are up a very narrow, steep winding staircase (and no elevator). OK for this oh-so-young-and-fit traveler, but any one with mobility problems would find it challenging if not impossible.

Second oddity: the lighting. The only light source in the room is a large backlit picture of an attractive couple. So your options are either all light, or no light. So much for reading in bed.

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