So, about those creeper-peepers staring into the windows of the porno shoot at the mystery Beverly Hills Hotel? Yeah, they could have used some spy skillz.
And now that they've been outed by Page Six and we've got our mega-geeky hotel nerds investigating the blind items, it's only a matter of time before they'll have to face the accusatory stares of their wives.
So, creeping-peeping businessmen in Beverly Hills: your To-Do List today is (1) Get out of town and (2) Learn spy skillz so Page Six doesn't catch you next time.
Here's an idea! Head to Washington, D.C. -- creepy over-sexual businessman headquarters (zing!) -- and hone your creeping skills with The Madison Hotel's "Spy and Stay" package.
Washington, D.C. has been slow to the boutique/design/lifestyle hotel game so Thompson Hotels' Donovan House stands out amongst travelers looking for a chic stay in the city.
It's also kinda cheap too. Tablet Hotels has rooms listed at the Donovan for $149 a night from July 1 to September 1.
Those rates will get you a queen superior room with a queen bed, the cocoon spiral shower, Kiehl's bath products and free WiFi. If you want a king bed, the rate bumps up to $189.
And the deal is for real. We checked dates both during the week and on the weekend in July and found $149 rates both times.
Reviews on the place are solid with the majority of the gripes about how the restaurant or the rooftop bar wasn't yet open (The rooftop should now be.) But this is Thompson--King of the Piece-by-Piece Openings--so we aren't too surprised.
Listen up, Washingtonians of the DC kind (not of the total abstinence society kind): you will be getting a Thompson Hotel rooftop bar and pool this weekend. ADC at Donovan House.
As with other Thompson rooftops it's only for hotel guests yet will eventually open up to invited guests who will carry a special key card a la A60 at 60 Thompson. A flack for Donovan House wrote in:
For now, food and beverage service is being handled by Il Mulino until the new Todd English restaurant is ready. But ADC will eventually have a bar/nightlife component serviced by the new Todd English restaurant in the hotel.
The Todd English restaurant will open sometime in mid/late Fall. So, another Thompson Hotel that's still only open in bits and pieces. Like Thompson Beverly Hills which will unveil its rooftop pool/lounge sometime this June. And Gild Hall, despite a promise of an April opening for the Todd English restaurant, still doesn't have an on-site restaurant.
Maybe we were too harsh on Thompson about their inability to open hotels on time. Because look at what we have now--half-open hotels. Argh. Back to the drawing board.
Also, Thompson is notorious for not having pictures of its hotels. If you go to ADC, snap a few pics for us please!
Pretty much all we've ever cared about in the opening of the Donovan House, the newest hotel from Thompson Hotels in D.C., is what the heck these cocoon spiral showers look like and how they work.
In the first extensive review of the hotel, which we got from Hotel Maven Flying Mermaid, we learned a lot about the property but nothing really about this "exotic" shower.
Now thanks to Scott Nash, we have some great photos and a helpful diagram of how it works:
If you looked down at the Cocoon shower, it would look like this.
· 1: The shower head is here, built in flush to the ceiling. · 2: Soap shelf · 3: On/off · 4: No door, but there's a lip to keep the water from running out. Unfortunately, water does tend to pool here, so if you're not careful you end up stepping in cold water when you're done.
Thanks Scott, now we can sleep at night!
So far, the Donovan House has gotten some decent reviews--decent for a hotel that's still in a soft-opening phase. Of course, the Blackbook-Thompson Hotels love affair continues with Blackbook's recent post on the new hotel saying, "[I]f anyone can get the capital grooving, it’s unquestionably that world leader of fashionable hotel-ing himself, Jason Pomeranc."
Jason, our Groove Meters are on. We're watching you.
Our hotel mavens must be loving the Donovan House in Washington, DC.
Flickr member ScottMichaelNash dropped in a few photos of the hotel into our Flickr pool, including this shot of the bed. Just in case you were wondering: that bear is NOT included.
The newest hotel from Thompson Hotels, Donovan House opened last weekend and today we have the first review from The Flying Mermaid who spent two nights at the place.
Her review is generally positive although the hotel did have some issues like no hot water in the guestrooms one night. The staff was also a bit problematic (a concierge couldn't locate a map of the city) but the Mermaid said they were all very nice and willing to do what they can to make them comfortable.
And when Mermaid had to switch room two times (first time due to being put in a handicapped-accessible room without the cocoon shower, and the second due to lack of hot water), the staff was smart enough to put her in a suite the last time:
We moved down the hall to a gorgeous two room king suite, with two big-screen TVs, one bathroom exactly like the regular room plus an additional half bathroom, and a sitting room with a large plum-colored leather couch. It was a gorgeous (and huge) room, and we were very pleased! After a day of sightseeing, we returned to the room and found the hot water had been fixed, and I had my first warm cocoon shower. We spent Saturday night in the suite, and despite a few additional hiccups (the room phone wasn't working, for example - we had to call the front desk from a cell!) it was a very pleasant stay.
With the exception of the cold water problem, this sounds like normal hotel opening hiccups. We are sure The Pomeranc brothers and Stephen Brandman will get all that straightened out. But just in case, keep on sending us your reviews.
Thompson Hotels newest location, Donovan House in Washington DC, officially opens today (at $179 a night) and we're dying to see what the place looks like.
But apparently, getting a picture of this place is just as hard as getting a job in the CIA. So we're asking any of you DC folk to send in your pictures of the hotel if you got 'em. Or you can drop them into the HotelChatter Flickr Pool.
For now, we only have a few renderings and some real photos to work with. See them after the jump.
The Donovan House is set to open in Washington DC on March 28th and while its sister property in NYC--60 Thompson--might go for a minimum of $300 a night in the darkness of winter, this CIA-inspired hotel will be a lot cheaper. At least on the weekends.
We found a King Superior room for $179 a night March 28th and 29th. A King Deluxe was $189. Both rooms feature this intriguing cocoon-spiral shower of which we are dying to see.
Interestingly, when we looked for rooms from the March 31st to April 2nd, the price jumped up a bit to $479 a night for the King Superior but was back down by the weekend. So we're guessing it's adopting the policy of business hotels which lower their rates on the weekends.
Yet that blows our mind. A Thompson Hotel Business Hotel? Is that possible? Anyways, we think the CIA-theme is much cooler.
0 Comments - Add Yours
by Jenna
