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View All TagsWestin Hotels / Hotel Workspaces / Project Hive / Hotel Business Centers / Geek Hotels / Digital Nomad Hotels / → All Tags
Need to Get Some Serious Work Done While Traveling? Consider Westin's New Rentable Workspaces
Are you ready to dive into the hive?
Some good news for digital nomad tribes today--you no longer have to squat in uncomfortable hotel lobby chairs to get your work done.
Westin Hotels have announced a new business center concept called Project Hive and like its name suggests, the space is designed to help you and fellow worker bees be more productive. Even better, you can rent out these spaces on LiquidSpace.com without having to be a paying hotel guest.
The 260-sq.ft. hive (some are even smaller than this) offers all that you could want from an office setting including: media:scape by Steelcase technology with video conferencing and a four-person seated workspace; Samsung TVs, floor-to-ceiling whiteboards, printers, Xbox 360s for games and DVDs and even office supplies like pens and light refreshments.
Best of all, there is both wired and wireless internet available for no extra fee. And when you need a break from all the work, you can admire a large-scale wall mural in the workspace, designed by Westin's VP of Design, Erin Hoover and her team, which is derived from the Fibonacci sequence.
Hotel Technology / Hotel DVRs / DirecTV / Hilton Hotels / Hotel News / Geek Hotels / → All Tags
Woot! DirectTV is Rolling Out DVRs for Hotels
Have you ever stayed in a hotel and wished you record your favorite TV show to watch after you come back from a night out? We have, plenty of times. Especially if we forgot to set up the recordings on our TV back home.
It might sound crazy but we've actually wondered when the heck hotels were going to start installing DVRs. But it looks like we won't have to wonder any more.
DIRECTV has just announced their new DIRECTV Residential Experience for Hotels which will allow guests to pause, rewind, forward and best of all record from over 100 HD television channels during their hotel stay. Just like you do at home. It will even look the same (but of course, hotels are allowed to put some "branding info" onto the home screen.)
DIRECTV also offers an anti-microbial remote for guests to use too (We still hope housekeeping wipes down every remote anyways.)
Right now the Residential Experience for Hotels is in 110 hotels across the country, including a few Hilton Hotels. We'll be on the lookout for more hotels to add this amenity soon.
Have you stayed in a hotel with a DVR recently? Let us know where!
[Photo: ColbyPerry/Flickr]
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Floating Beds and Outdoor Bathtubs: Inside Singapore's New Majestic Hotel
What did TripAdvisor rate "Trendiest Hotel of 2011?" This one: the Hotel New Republic in Singapore's Chinatown. Don't let that color your judgment however, since our recent stay proved that "trendy" here doesn't mean it's overcrowded, packed with scensters or cheap furniture to look "cool." Instead, the New Republic is a quiet 30-room design-focused hotel that has expertly renovated a historic Chinatown shophouse into a place we sincerely wish we had booked for more than one night.
To be completely honest, of all the hotels we've experienced in Singapore, the New Majestic is the first one we'd return to on our next trip. It is ideal for travelers who seek out unique spaces that reflect the spirit of the destination (ah hem, not a big chain hotel) and for those who desire to be outside of the business district, in the heart of culture. And maybe those who want a funky pool too.
Rooms at the New Majestic begin around $200 per night, which we paid. There really aren't any bad rooms, but we'd try for the second floor where each room has either a balcony or a patio, some of those patios with outdoor soaking bathtubs. It's details like this—and there are many of them—that give you a sense that the New Majestic is having fun...fun with design, fun with being in Chinatown and fun with having you there, doing things like taking an al fresco midnight bath by the light of a lantern.
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The Marriott at Brooklyn Bridge Was the Geekiest Geek Hotel This Weekend
We love geek hotels. Really, we do. The geekier and more kitted out with tech goodies, the better, but the Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge was quite possibly the geekiest this past weekend in a plain paper-and-pencil (and pocket protector) way.
Hundreds of people descended upon the hotel this weekend for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, their No. 2 pencils sharpened and their "don't copy me" glares practiced. In fact, it was the 35th Anniversary of the competition, first begun by puzzle god Will Shortz. The 2012 champion is Dan Feyer and, though the fun is done for now, it'll be back—same place—next year.
If you're up for some serious crossword challenge and you're into the idea of spending a weekend hanging out at a hotel, then mark these dates on your calendar: March 8-10, 2013.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
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A Rainbow Whirlpool and Shopping Cart Chairs
Thus far into our exploration of Singapore's funky Wanderlust Hotel, we've taken you inside the Space Suite, the Typewriter Suite and of course into a regular room, as bright purple as it was. Now's the time to have a look around the lobby that gets it in so many design publications, and a few other surprises.
There's something about Singapore hotels you should know. Once you go above tourist class into luxury level, almost every hotel has a pretty lovely swimming pool for beating the high temperatures. Below, in the "affordable" category of hotels where the Wanderlust rules, it's extremely rare to find a pool. The Wanderlust has compromised—there's a small outdoor deck with some designer patio furniture, a postage-stamp of a lawn and a sunken, rainbow whirlpool. While too small for a swim, it's plenty large for a late evening soak with a beer.
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Inside a Pantone Color Room at Singapore's Wanderlust Hotel
You know when you walk into a hotel room, and it's just so different, and you're not really sure if it's going to be "different" in a good or bad way, but you stick it out anyway? Yeah, that's exactly how it was for us recently at The Wanderlust Hotel in Singapore.
Having seen the art-filled Wanderlust in design publications for a few years now, we just had to stay. Booking for one night via Tablet Hotels cost us $233.05 Singapore dollars total, which is $183.70 USD for the lowest category room, on the Pantone color-themed second floor. Checking in amidst all the funky furniture of the lobby made us feel cool just for being there (more on the public areas tomorrow), which should always be the goal of a well-designed space, and the friendly reception assigned us Room 205. The color? PURPLE.
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A Look at the Typewriter Suite Inside Singapore's Wanderlust Hotel
Okay, so we've already showed you all around the Space Suite inside Singapore's Wanderlust Hotel, but now we're going inside another of the boutique hotel's themed rooms and this time, it's not so out of this world. It's the Typewriter Suite.
On the top floor of this 29-room hotel in the Little India neighborhood sits a range of themed suites, each conceptualized by local design company fFurious. And once we walked into the place and saw those huge typewriter keys above our heads, and the custom bench plus that mid-century modern couch, it was decided: should we return to Singapore and to the Wanderlust, this is the suite we'd want. It's kooky enough to have novelty appeal, but not so crazy that it's uncomfortable.
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A Look at the Outer Space Suite Inside Singapore's Wanderlust Hotel
It's been in magazines and on design blogs aplenty, but the "Space" Suite at Singapore's Wanderlust Hotel is a space you've got to see with your own eyes to appreciate.
Every duplex suite on the top floor of this 29-room hotel in the Little India neighborhood has been conceptualized by local design company fFurious; the "Space" suite is just one of the many looks, and by far the most popular. Maybe the allure comes from the mystery of outer space, or a youth spent sleeping under astronaut-covered sheets? Our guess: it's because the room is pitch-black with only a fiber optic ceiling of stars at night—great for a fantasy night of romance or if you're anticipating a crazy hangover.
Hilton Hotels / Geek Hotels / Hotel Technology / → All Tags
A Look at Hilton's Brand New Technology Lounge
Back in April we learned that the Hilton Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia was undergoing a massive renovation that would actually set the blueprint for all future new Hilton Hotels. Yay, new stuff!
The fruits of the renovation debuted five brand new design concepts from the check-in area to the restaurant and of course, up in the guestrooms. We were able to peep at some of the new designs via computerized renderings but we've only just noticed an actual photo of Hilton's new Technology Lounge pictured right here.
Hong Kong Hotels / Business Travel Hotels / Geek Hotels / Free WiFi / Guess The Hotel / → All Tags
A Few of Our Favorite Things at East, a 'Business Hotel with a Life'
We got a chance to tour the East Hotel in Hong Kong in the city's Taikoo Shing district which bills itself as a "business hotel with a life" and while the hanging chairs in the suites definitely topped our list of Things We Liked, there's so much more to explore.
Our contributing editor, JetsetCD, did a thorough review of the hotel last year so be sure to read her play-by-play of an overnight stay if you're interested in booking a room here. But for now, allow us to pull out a few of our favorite things about East:
Geek Hotels / Bitcoin / Howard Johnson Hotels / Disneyland Hotels / Red Roof Inns / Hotel Technology / → All Tags
Could You Be Paying for Your Next Hotel Stay in Bitcoin?
For a brief moment this year, the Howard Johnson in Fullerton, Calif., near Disneyland, was taking an unusual form of currency--bitcoin.
Bitcoin is an electronic currency that's only accepted in the digital world. It's not recognized by any government, it's entirely unregulated and the only ways to get your hands on bitcoin is to either buy it with real cash or spend days "mining" for it on the internet. For more on how it works, you can (try to) read the bitcoin entry on Wikipedia.
Yet, Jefferson Kim, the owner and manager of both the Howard Johnson and the Red Roof Inn in Buena Park was eager to use bitcoin for hotel reservations saying that he would "personally like to see the BTC succeed." On the hotel's website, he detailed how to pay for a room with bitcoin.
One person who took him up on this? Wired contributing editor, Joshua Davis, who wrote about bitcoin for a piece in the New Yorker (the October 10th issue.) Davis booked a room at the hotel online for 10.305 bitcoins.
Hotel Technology / Four Seasons Hotels / Hotel News / Hotels with iPads / Geek Hotels / → All Tags
The Four Seasons LA Will Soon Be Equipped With iPad 2s
Starting October 3, the posh guestrooms at the Four Seasons Los Angeles will be a whole lot more glamorous thanks to the brand-new iPad2s that will be installed.
The gadgets will be loaded with ICE Technology which will enable guests to make restaurant reservations, order room service, book massage at the spa, put in housekeeping requests and call up their Porsche from valet, all through the iPad.
Now, while hotels using iPads in the rooms to perform functions that a telephone once took care of is nothing new, this is a huge step for an older luxury brand like Four Seasons Hotels. And the FS LA is not just the first hotel on the West Coast to have this technology but also the first Four Seasons hotel in the world to feature it. Yeah, they're kind of a big deal.
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