Tag: Hotels
Sex, Money and a Little ‘Blind Faith’: Travelodge Racks ‘Em Up
by Eva Holland | 09.08.08 | 3:02 PM ET
Photo by ElektraCute via Flickr (Creative Commons)
In its annual survey of books most commonly abandoned in its hotel rooms, Travelodge reports the most popular throwaways include the Kama Sutra, John Prescott’s latest memoir and a whole lot of “lighter reading.” The Guardian has the cocktail-party-worthy survey highlights.
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Yahoo! BuzzShipping Container Hotel Opens in London
by Michael Yessis | 08.22.08 | 1:03 PM ET
Eighty-six steel containers—assembled like Lego pieces—comprise the 120-room Travelodge, which, fortunately, doesn’t look anything like the inside of a typical shipping container. The containers were built in China, complete with bathrooms and wiring in place, before being shipped and assembled in the UK. The method allows for quick construction, and it’s green: Should the hotel be dismantled, the containers can be recycled for actual shipping. The BBC has video.
Women-Only Hotel Floors: Smart or Sexist?
by Elyse Franko | 08.06.08 | 12:27 PM ET
The revival of women’s floors in hotels—complete with vanity mirrors, yoga mats and extra-soft socks to satisfy the “needs” of a modern woman—is sparking controversy among female travelers and hospitality workers. While hotels seem to believe that women’s floors will make a stay more enjoyable by catering specifically to female tastes, the New York Times reports that women’s floors are viewed as discriminatory by many.
Hay Hotels: Count Your Sheep—and Sleep Like Them, Too
by Elyse Franko | 07.22.08 | 9:03 AM ET
Eco-conscious travelers might be pleased by the new accommodation trend that’s spreading through Europe: the hay hotel, which, as far as I can tell, is just an old barn that’s been freshened up a bit and (hopefully) doesn’t smell strongly of manure. Travelers sleep in a dormitory setting atop piles of hay. No pillows. No blankets. Just hay.
Hope for Pyongyang’s ‘Hotel of Doom’?
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.18.08 | 1:27 PM ET
The pyramid-shaped, 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, has been languishing—unfinished—for 16 years. But now Egyptian developers have begun refurbishing what was once dubbed “the worst building in the history of mankind,” Reuters reports. It’s estimated to cost $2 billion—about 10 percent of North Korea’s annual economic output—to finish the skyline-dominating eyesore.
U2’s Bono, Edge Get OK to Reinvent Dublin’s Clarence Hotel
by Jim Benning | 07.18.08 | 11:44 AM ET
Photo by Phil Romans via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
The rock stars’ plan to demolish the riverside Clarence Hotel in Dublin’s Temple Bar district and rebuild it according to architect Norman Foster’s futuristic design was hardly assured to win approval. One conservationist called the design a “cannibalistic behemoth,” and an official inspector said the new building, which will include a “flying saucer-style roof,” would be “seriously injurious to the visual amenities of the area, would conflict with the policies of the current Dublin City Development Plan, and would, thereby, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.”
In Airports, Tough Luck Calls for Creative Sleeping Solutions
by Elyse Franko | 07.15.08 | 2:13 PM ET
As airlines give out fewer hotel vouchers, more passengers are forced to spend the night in the airport when their flights are delayed or canceled. To help travelers remain fully functional even after spending the night on the floor, business traveler Frank Giotto has invented the Mini Motel, a lightweight, single-person tent that comes fully equipped with an air mattress, pillow, bed sheet and alarm clock, among other things.
The Battle Against Porn in Hotels
by Eva Holland | 06.27.08 | 11:50 AM ET
The Smart Set reveals the war various religious groups are waging against pay-per-view porn in big-name hotel chains—and why porn’s days in hotels may be numbered. “Recently,” writes Greg Beato, “representatives from Focus on the Family, Citizens for Community Values, and assorted other professional American finger-waggers met with the top brass at Marriott International in an effort to convince the hotel chain to banish porn from its properties.”
Esquire Complains About Hotel Bar Names
by Michael Yessis | 06.20.08 | 9:51 AM ET
Joe Oestreich is right. They’re generally awful. “The greatest day in a bar owner’s life must be the day he names it,” he writes. “And yet so many hotel bars are called something we can’t in good conscience invite someone to.” Among the names that offend him: Fandangles, Whispers, Celebrities and Bowties. The namers might want to take some inspiration from these places.
Five Writers’ Tales From Hotels
by Michael Yessis | 06.12.08 | 1:06 PM ET
Nice little essays in Travel + Leisure from five writers chronicling time spent at hotels around the world. Among the contributors: Gary Shteyngart (The Heathman Hotel in Portland, Oregon), Mark Leyner (Grand Hotel Sofia in Sofia, Bulgaria) and Daphne Merkin (Mizpe Hayamim in Rosh Pina, Israel).
When Futuristic Vacation Villas Go Bad
by Joanna Kakissis | 06.03.08 | 10:29 AM ET
Taiwanese officials started building San-Zhr Pod Village in the 1960s, with every hope that it would turn out to be a hip place to visit or even live. It was supposed to be an ahead-of-its-time kind of development, with spaceship-like dwellings, an amusement park and a dam that protected it against sea surges. But the project turned out to be doomed from the start.
Travel and Scents: Your Limbic System is a Target Market
by Michael Yessis | 05.27.08 | 2:47 PM ET
Photo by josef.stuefer, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
We knew this last year. We just didn’t know how far hotels would go to brand themselves through scent. “Everyone is scenting. Ritz-Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-La, Marriott,” writes Chandler Burr in the June Travel+Leisure. “When it comes to making an impression, a comfortable lobby and high-quality service are essential, of course, but among the more subtle cues, none is getting more attention these days than fragrance.”
TripAdvisor User Threatened with Libel Suit After Reviewing Hotel
by Jim Benning | 05.14.08 | 12:28 PM ET
Very creepy. And it seems other TripAdvisor users posting critical reviews have been threatened, too—apparently by attorneys representing unhappy hotel owners or managers. Catherine Hamm of the Los Angeles Times asked some experts about it. TripAdvisor users “have the 1st Amendment” on their side, she writes. But she adds: “All the experts agreed that those who post on TripAdvisor or like sites need not worry about having their say as long as they frame it as opinion rather than fact.”
New Addition to the Travel Lexicon: ‘Holidate’
by Eva Holland | 05.08.08 | 9:06 AM ET
Move over, glampers. The holidaters—couples traveling together in the very early stages of a relationship, sometimes even a second or third date—have arrived. And according to this Globe and Mail article, a number of large hotel chains are going out of their way to accommodate the travel-as-icebreaker scenario. Special arrangements include two separate bathrooms in one suite, or even two conjoined rooms. “If they don’t end up using the second room,” one hotel employee notes, “they’ll get a 50-per-cent refund.”
Mayflower Hotel Gift Shop Cashing in on Spitzer Scandal
by Michael Yessis | 04.03.08 | 8:23 AM ET
Coffee mugs are selling out. Mayflower mints are going by the case. And “[t]here has been a rush on the Mayflower’s luxuriously soft white terry-cloth bathrobes,” writes Ylan Q. Mui in the Washington Post. The price tag on those robes: $69.99. Ouch.
Mashing Up Washington D.C.‘s Sex Scandals
by Julia Ross | 03.13.08 | 12:03 PM ET
It didn’t take long for camera-toting tourists to ferret out Room 871 at Washington D.C.‘s Mayflower Hotel. The site of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s call girl tryst is the latest in a long list of sex scandal locales dotting the capital. For those interested in mapping out their own tour, Slate helpfully provides an annotated Google mash-up.
Anti-Jet Lag ‘Concept Room’ Offers Blue Lights, Banana Smoothies
by Julia Ross | 03.07.08 | 9:19 AM ET
Photo by Madame Ming via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Those are just two of the remedies being tested in an anti-jet lag “concept room” at the Westin Chicago River North hotel. The Today Show’s Peter Greenberg reports the blue lights are meant to make travelers feel more alert, while the smoothies are considered calming.
Las Vegas’ Hooters Hotel to go Boutique
by Jim Benning | 03.06.08 | 11:19 AM ET
Photo by thenestor via Flickr, (Creative Commons)
Yes, despite the oh-so-clever do-not-disturb signs—not to mention that fact that Hooters and Las Vegas would seem to be made for one another—redevelopers have come a knockin’. That’s the word from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which reports that Hooters Hotel is being purchased by a developer who plans to transform it into a “lifestyle, entertainment-driven boutique hotel and casino complex.”
Deadly Ricin Found in Las Vegas Motel Room
by Jim Benning | 02.29.08 | 11:12 AM ET
The discovery was made Thursday at an Extended Stay America Hotel. Seven people, all apparently in good condition, have been sent to hospitals for observation. It puts the whole bedbugs debate into perspective, doesn’t it?
The ‘Bedbug Epidemic’: Real or Media Generated?
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.26.08 | 12:21 PM ET
“[I]t’s like they’re all rooting for the bedbugs.” That’s how Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, describes the reporters he’d spoken with about the so-called epidemic. There’s so much to love about the hideous bloodsuckers, the Washington Post reports, especially if you’re a trend-hungry newspaper reporter looking for a story.