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Do You Check If Your Hotel Room Alarm Is Already Set? (We Will From Now On)

Awhile back, we asked HotelChatter readers: Do You Even Use The Hotel's Alarm Clock Anymore? While some overly cautious people admitted to using it in addition to setting their own Blackberry alarms and ordering a wake-up call, it seems that for most of us the alarm clock is in our rooms to tell the time in the dark or charge our iPods.

But our experience this week tell us that someone is using the alarm clocks. That's because ours went off at 4 a.m. the other night, scaring the bejeezus out of us.

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Business Travel Hotels / Hotel Services / Chicago Hotels / Wake-Up Calls / Shut Down Calls / James Hotels / → All Tags

James Chicago is Telling You To Turn Off Your Laptop

Where: 55 East Ontario [map], Chicago, IL, United States, 60611

We all know how clever hotels have become lately with their wake-up calls but one hotel in Chicago is taking a different route by encouraging guests to put away their laptops and go out and have some fun.

The "Shut Down" Calls are now a part of the services at The James Hotel, which is promoting the service as a part of their larger, "Weekday Bleisure" package. (Business + Leisure = Bleisure.) So instead of someone calling your room to tell you to wake-up, they are actually telling you to turn off your laptop. This is something we could use on a regular basis. (That and a mom voice to tell us to "Sit up straight!")

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OpenThread / Hotel Alarm Clocks / iHome Alarm Clocks / Wake-Up Calls / Hotel Amenities / iPod Docks / Hotel Technology / → All Tags

Do You Even Use The Hotel's Alarm Clock Anymore?

Almost every hotel room, from a no-frills budget shoebox to a luxury suite, comes with one standard amenity, an alarm clock. But do you really use it? Do you even need it?

Times are a-changing and many hotel guests bring along their iPhones, cell phones and other travel-sized timepieces to wake them up. Why waste your time with a foreign contraption whose settings you don't understand when you can just use your tried and true cell phone alarm. For back up, you can just use the hotel's wake-up call service, which have gotten pretty creative in recent years.

It just seems like the room's provided gadget is now unnecessary.

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Hotel Services / Hotel Amenities / Wake-Up Calls / Chicago Hotels / Boutique Hotels / → All Tags

Chicago's Wit Hotel Has Awesome Wakeup Calls

Where: 201 N. State St. [map], Chicago, IL, United States, 60601

Okay, so the cutest wakeup call ever would probably be something along the lines of a bunch of kittens nuzzling your face to rouse you gently from your slumber, but this adorably-quirky service from Chicago's new The Wit Hotel comes in a fairly close second. The Chicago Tribune recently stayed at the brand new Chi-town hotel, and was totally lovin' the cute little touches around the room — the "toilet roll comes with a sticker of Rodin's 'The Thinker' affixed," and a warm chocolate chip cookie is handed to you upon check-in — but the feature mentioned that we seemed to dig on the most was probably the wakeup call.

Apparently, The Wit hired a crew of Second City actors to record a bunch of unique wake-up calls from which you can choose the night before: Ann Landers, Harry Caray, or Mayor Richard Daley, for example — but the Tribune Reviewer chose a bit of an intimidating-ish voice to wake up to:

The phone rang.
It was 6 a.m.
"Yes," I said, groggy.
It was the president.
"Enough filibustering!" he shouted.
"OK, but ..."
"Up and at 'em!" he shouted.
"All right, fine!"
On the other end, I heard a dog bark, presumably Bo, the Portuguese water dog. I swung my feet off the bed. "Are you done?" I asked, but the line was already dead.

Cute. Well, scary-cute. Check out the Tribune's full review here, or check it out for yourself: rates at the Wit can be found for as low as $119.

Celebrity Scoop / Wake-Up Calls / → All Tags

A Way To Avoid David Lee Roth's Wake Up Call?

Stern's departure is the worst natural disaster to hit a media company in the decade since consolidation

--Washington Post

Love him, hate him, or don't give a rat's ass about him, Howard Stern is causing a stir in the media world.

At the end of the year he will leave terrestrial radio and reemerge on Sirius Satellite radio in January of 2006.

While we are sure legions of loyal Stern listeners have purchased a satellite radio in order to  follow him to his new home, we are sure there are even more folks who aren't sure about making the satellite plunge just yet.

If you are in that second group, and want to test out satellite radio before considering purchasing the service, or just want to avoid having to wake up to David Lee Roth, W has got your back.

Earlier this year, W launched the first in-room Sirius Satellite suites in NY, and now they have added more satellite radio to more of their hotels.  This page gives you the lowdown on where and how you can get Sirius in your W hotel room.

It looks like they are extending the satellite radio offer to some of the standard rooms, and not just the suites, at least at some locations.

Related Stories:
·   Infinity Settles on A Post-Howard Lineup [Washington Post]
·   W Hotels Launches First In-Room Sirius Satellite Radio [HotelChatter]
·   W Sirius Stays [W]