Tag: Hotels
Hotel Concierge: ‘There Are Definitely Days When I Want to Hide Behind the Desk’
by Michael Yessis | 02.20.08 | 10:17 AM ET
Photo by Elsie esq., via Flickr (Creative Commons)
I would, too, if I had to deal with the “shamelessness” of the guest requests chronicled in this W story. Among them: Tending to a guest’s elderly relative, shopping for a double-decker bus and, strangest of all, securing breast milk.
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Yahoo! BuzzMonte Carlo in Las Vegas to Reopen Friday
by Michael Yessis | 02.11.08 | 2:13 PM ET
Three weeks after a three-alarm fire broke out on the top floors of the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas, the hotel and casino will reopen on a limited basis Feb. 15. Most of the rest of the hotel will reopen the following week, according to Reuters.
The Ryugyong Hotel: ‘The Worst Building in the History of Mankind’?
by Michael Yessis | 02.05.08 | 10:14 AM ET
Longtime World Hum readers will be familiar with the Ryugyong Hotel, a sad icon of North Korea. “It’s a hotel that stands 105 floors, has 3,700 rooms and is crowned with five revolving restaurants,” we wrote in 2005. “No one has ever stayed in it. In fact, it has stood derelict since 1989.” Esquire recently dubbed the building the worst in the history of mankind.
Fire Breaks Out at Monte Carlo in Las Vegas*
by Michael Yessis | 01.25.08 | 1:46 PM ET
The three-alarm fire started on the roof of the hotel and casino around 11 a.m. Las Vegas time, according to an early report from the AP.
Grounded 747? No, it’s a Hostel.
by Ben Keene | 01.08.08 | 3:31 PM ET
Man to Stay in Paramus, New Jersey Ikea for Six Nights
by Michael Yessis | 01.07.08 | 4:23 PM ET
Mark Malkoff, aka the guy who visited all 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in 24 hours, checked into the Ikea this morning and will remain there through Saturday, eating at the Ikea restaurant and perhaps sleeping in a four-poster Hemnes. I bet the Ikea fanatics who spent the night at the temporary Ikea hostel in Oslo last summer are jealous.
Barricaded Hotel Workers Living on ‘Food Delivered in a Bucket Pulled up on a Piece of String’
by Michael Yessis | 01.04.08 | 10:22 AM ET
Rock Stars in Hotels: ‘Whatever Happened to the Good Old Days?’
by Joanna Kakissis | 11.29.07 | 12:21 PM ET
Trashing a hotel room like a wild animal is so 1990s. Today’s rock stars want the same things many of us want in a hotel—clean and quiet rooms without intruding housekeepers, high-speed Internet access, an in-hotel gym and maybe some San Pellegrino in the mini-bar, writes David Browne in The New York Times. “These guys want to go back to their rooms and have peace and quiet,” Jennifer Chiara, a travel agent who works with musicians, tells Browne. “Gone are the days of people riding a motorcycle down the hallway.”
Slide Show: ‘A History of the Hotel’
by Michael Yessis | 11.28.07 | 10:21 AM ET
Photo of the Las Vegas Hilton by Markyboy81, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Modern hotels trace their history to early America, and Slate currently has a terrific slide show from A.K. Sandoval-Strausz depicting just how the country built and shaped them. “The hospitality industry is one of the fastest-growing segments of the international economy,” Sandoval-Strausz writes. “So it is easy to forget that the hotel, as we know it today, was once a new invention, an experiment that initially met with failure and endured periods of slow, halting development.”
Hostelling Seeks to Honor 100th Anniversary With U.S. Postage Stamp
by Michael Yessis | 11.16.07 | 10:39 AM ET
German schoolteacher Richard Schirrmann started the hostelling movement in 1909, and throughout its history Australia, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan and Sweden have all honored it with commemorative postage stamps. Hostelling International USA wants the United States to join those countries for the 100th anniversary of hostelling, and it’s asking travelers to help by signing an online petition.
The World’s Most Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotels: From the Amsterdam Hilton to the Chateau Marmont
by Michael Yessis | 11.09.07 | 11:23 AM ET
The Guardian’s Sean Dodson picks 10 sleeping giants of rock, including the spot where John Lennon and Yoko One had their “Bed-in for Peace” (Amsterdam Hilton), the hotel where Led Zeppelin chucked TVs out windows (the now de-balconied Hyatt Riot House, pictured, on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip) and the place where David Bowie lived in Berlin while recording “Low” and “Heroes” (Hotel Ellington). One obvious clunker: The Hotel Rival in Sweden, which is owned by Benny Anderson of ABBA fame. I’ve heard “Dancing Queen.” I’ve seen “Mamma Mia.” ABBA ain’t rock.
Pod Hotels: Not Just For Japanese Salarymen Anymore
by Eva Holland | 11.09.07 | 7:57 AM ET
In Japan, pod hotels are old news. The first one, Capsule Inn Osaka, opened in 1977. Writes Karen Burshstein in a National Post story: “With more than a passing resemblance to the drawers in a morgue, it was a weird but nifty addition to Japan’s space-starved cityscapes.” Now, though, the concept has spread, and mini-hotel rooms are popping up in London, New York, Amsterdam, Vancouver and elsewhere. They range from the garish yet economical (the low-cost and bright orange easyHotels,) for instance, to trendy and high-tech (like Dutch company Qbic‘s LCD TV screens and changeable color schemes that match your mood, pictured) and many are available for only a few hours at a time, neatly filling the gap between a red-eye landing and the start of a long day of museum or gallery hopping.
British Hotel Chain Reports ‘Surge in Naked Sleepwalking’
by Michael Yessis | 10.26.07 | 12:13 PM ET
Travelodge’s annual “sleepwalker audit” revealed a “seven fold increase in sleepwalking customers” in the last year, and 95 percent of those sleepwalkers were naked men. A Travelodge spokesperson told Reuters that the hotel chain has more male visitors than female “so that could be a factor” in the gender imbalance.
San Diego Hotels Fill—With Wildfire Evacuees
by Jim Benning | 10.23.07 | 12:17 PM ET
Usually when I drive past Hotel Circle, a road near the 8 freeway here in San Diego packed with hotels, my heart goes out to the visitors there because, well, they’re staying in a place called Hotel Circle, with views of traffic zooming by on the freeway. It’s not the most attractive location San Diego has to offer. But that’s the least of the concerns of many guests staying in those hotels now. As would-be tourists and business travelers postponed visits to San Diego, canceling hotel reservations to avoid the raging wildfires, locals snapped up hotel rooms in droves as they evacuated threatened or even burning homes. A number of hotels have offered discounts to those in need.
Schrute Farms: Top-Rated ‘Beet-Related Agrotourism Destination’ or Brilliant ‘Office’ Prank?
by Michael Yessis | 10.22.07 | 5:43 PM ET
That’s Schrute as in Dwight Schrute, the ninja-loving paper salesman on the U.S. version of The Office. In last week’s episode, he opened his farm to visitors as a “beet-related agrotourism destination,” offering three themed rooms: America, night-time and, my favorite, irrigation. The plot thread featured Dwight’s shout out to TripAdvisor, which, in a silly and inspired publicity stunt, currently features a real page dedicated to the faux Schrute Farms. Among the reviews: A rave from Dwight’s co-workers Jim and Pam, who visited the farm for a romantic getaway.
Guardian Picks Top 10 Hostels in the World
by Jim Benning | 09.11.07 | 11:30 AM ET
Making writer Benji Lanyado’s list of the top hostels around the globe: Art Hostel in Sofia, Bulgaria (“The Bulgarian avant garde is still in its infancy, and it’s mainly in this hostel”); the Gershwin in New York City (pictured)—yes, a hotel (“Just off 5th Avenue, the building is a 13-storey homage to Andy Warhol and all things pop art”); and Hostel Celica, Ljubjana, Slovenia (at the former prison, “People turn up for tours of the Celica even if they aren’t staying”).
Elliott: Five ‘Ridiculous’ Travel Rules That Should Be Abolished
by Jim Benning | 08.15.07 | 1:00 PM ET
Consumer travel columnist Christopher Elliott has identified five travel rules that he says “make no sense whatsoever” and should be done away with. For starters, he thinks airlines should stop barring travelers from changing the name on an airline ticket they purchased, so they can transfer that ticket to someone else if, say, a relationship goes south before a trip. “Well, air carriers disingenuously claim that they prohibit name changes because they’re worried about security and potential fraud,” he writes. “But what they won’t tell you is they’re also worried about their earnings.”
‘Galactic Suite’ Space Hotel Planned for Earth Orbit
by Michael Yessis | 08.13.07 | 11:56 AM ET
Not just any hotel. A boutique, pod hotel, according to Galactic Suite Limited director Xavier Claramunt. The “pod structure, which makes it look like a model of molecules, was dictated by the fact that each pod room had to fit inside a rocket to be taken into space,” writes Pascale Harter in a Reuters story. Galactic Suite says guests will use Velcro suits that stick to the walls in order to move through the hotel. For the privilege, it plans to charge $4 million for a three-day stay, as well as “eight weeks of intensive training at a James Bond-style space camp on a tropical island,” Harter writes. I’m not quite sure what a James Bond-style space camp might involve (Gadgets? Martinis? Leggy women with punny names?), but I have a feeling the training session could be more fun than spending three days cramped in a pod, wearing a Velcro suit.
Hannibal Lecter to Hotel Guests: ‘It’s Time to Wake Up’
by Michael Yessis | 08.08.07 | 11:43 AM ET
Creepy. But is it better to get a wake-up call from from a faux Hannibal Lecter, offering you a breakfast of fava beans and a nice chianti, or, depsite requesting one, no wake-up call at all? The former can be had at the Curtis Hotel, a pop culture-themed lodging in Denver. The latter, according to a story in the New York Times, is, unfortunately, becoming more common. Hence, travelers are losing trust in hotels to wake them at the appropriate time, and are increasingly taking the responsibility of waking themselves up with their cellphones or their own alarm clocks.
R.I.P. Rock ‘n’ Roll Balconies at Hyatt ‘Riot House’
by Jim Benning | 08.06.07 | 2:46 PM ET
Reports ‘Laurel Canyon’ author Michael Walker: “The textured concrete balconies (above) from which Led Zeppelin and entourage hurled bottles of Dom Perignon, Zeppelin drummer John Bonham teetered and singer Robert Plant crowed ‘I’m a golden god!’ (immortalized in Cameron Crowe’s ‘Almost Famous’) are being ripped out like so many meth-rotted teeth as part of a $24 million renovation of the property.” The West Hollywood hotel on the Sunset Strip is replacing the balconies with glass that will enclose the rooms. That might be an improvement to the property, but writes Walker: “[I]t’s always mournful when another little piece of L.A.‘s anarchic rock and roll heart is taken away.” The changes are part of a larger trend, Walker e-mails: