Tag: Hotels
The Secrets of ‘Hush-Hush Hotels’
by Michael Yessis | 04.17.07 | 7:44 PM ET
Portfolio, the newly launched (and much hyped) business magazine, has an interesting look at how hotels provide privacy for high-end customers. “That Brangelina or Tony Blair would want to be shielded from prying eyes is a given,” writes Laurie Werner. “But now even those who aren’t household names are demanding more privacy—and are willing to pay a high price for it.” Among the perks they’re getting: clandestine arrivals and departures, and in at least one case, a no-fly zone.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Library Hotel: A Leader in Dewey Decimal System Travel
by Michael Yessis | 04.02.07 | 7:14 AM ET
All the rooms at New York City’s Library Hotel are pegged to the Dewey Decimal System, meaning room numbers are long (1100.003 is the Philosophy Room, for instance) and the reading is eclectic. Think of the Library Hotel not as part of a trend, writes Carol McCabe in the Washington Post, “but as a counter-trend.” The hotel’s most requested room: 800.001, Erotic Literature.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Moonwalkers, Stardust and the End of the Earth
by Michael Yessis | 03.16.07 | 8:02 AM ET
We’ve done the math: This week, travelers have professed their interest in the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, India, Venice, Antarctica and hotels with a certain “je ne sais quoi de geek.” Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Best Geek Hotels in the World
* Yes, that’s an equation-covered bed cover at Boston’s Hotel @ MIT.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Hey, Sin City Top This: Grand Canyon West’s New Skywalk
* Moonwalker Buzz Aldren will take the ceremonial first walk Monday. We still ask: What Would Edward Abbey Think?
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Getting It Om In India
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Stardust Blown to Dust
* Of course there’s video.
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Making a Pilgrimage to Cathedrals of Commerce
* It’s all about the 19th-century shopping arcades of Paris.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Miss Manners’ Venice: In a Word, Civilized
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Antarctica: The Crystal Desert
* More on Antarctica: A Brief and Awkward Tour of the End of the Earth
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
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World Hum (this week)
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: ‘100 Places Every Woman Should Go’
Dubai on the Cheap?
by Jim Benning | 03.14.07 | 2:40 PM ET
It sounds like an oxymoron, but it seems that budget travel opportunities are at least beginning to emerge in Dubai. The Economist notes that the country’s first easyHotel is being built, promising modest accommodations at rates of up to 20 percent below its competitors. What’s more, a total of six easyHotels are planned for Dubai as part of an expansion into the region by the London-based chain. The first property is due to open next year.
Stardust Blown to Dust
by Michael Yessis | 03.13.07 | 7:58 AM ET
Photo by heather0714, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
We said our in-person goodbyes to the Stardust last year, and now the iconic Las Vegas hotel and casino is officially no more. The Stardust was imploded early this morning—the AP has the video—to make room for Echelon, a $4.4 billion resort. The Stardust will live on in Vegas history as the city’s first low-cost, mass-market property.
The 13th Floor: Okay With Most Travelers, But a Concern for…Firefighters
by Michael Yessis | 03.08.07 | 8:37 AM ET
Hotels in the U.S. traditionally skip the 13th floor, but Starwood and Hilton are among the companies now refusing to succumb to superstition on their properties. A USA Today/Gallup poll suggests they won’t offend too many travelers: 87 percent of respondents said they would be “comfortable” staying on the 13th floor of a hotel.
Doing Hard Time at the Ritz
by Jim Benning | 01.29.07 | 12:16 PM ET
Paying your debt to society has never sounded so appealing. A man sentenced to home detention in Southern California is doing his time at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, where amenities include Los Angeles’s only waterfront pool and hot tub and Jer-ne Restaurant + Bar, which Los Angeles Magazine raved has the city’s “Best Fusion Cuisine.” The federal prosecutor for the case is nonplussed, observing, “When someone is sentenced to electronic monitoring, normally the presumption is he’s not going to be holed up in a four-star hotel.” Actually, by AAA’s ratings system, the hotel is a five-diamond. In fact, it’s the only waterfront five-diamond hotel in L.A.
Was Your Hotel Room Coffee Maker Used as a Mini Meth Lab?
by Jim Benning | 01.25.07 | 4:30 PM ET
If it has reddish-orange stains and your room smells of chemicals, then the answer just might be yes. Gross.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Wanderlust and WiFi
by Michael Yessis | 01.19.07 | 9:35 AM ET
This week, travelers are looking for a taste of luxury and a nice beach to catch some rays and ... surf the Internet? We’re off to Hermosa Beach, Aspen, Walt Disney World, Mount Everest, Hawaii and one dirty hotel in Virginia.
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Netscape (current)
Top 10 Beaches With WiFi Internet Access
* Not the kind of surfing we prefer at the beach.
Dirtiest Hotel in the U.S.
TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards (2006)
Tropicana Resort Hotel in Virginia Beach, Virginia
* One quote on TripAdvisor: “This had to be the toilet bowl of Virginia Beach.”
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World Hum (this week)
‘Has the Romance Gone Out of Travel?’
* Let’s not ask the travelers who stayed at the Tropicana in Virginia Beach.
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FlightStats
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Beneath the Glitz, a Middle-Class Aspen
Most Read Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Top Luxury Attractions at Disney World
* Plus, a slideshow.
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2007 by Bob Sehlinger with Len Testa
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
Travel With Rick Steves
Most Dugg Travel Podcast
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Martin Sargent: Web Drifter
* The podcast described: “Journey with me now as I visit the physical loci of the most outrageous, surprising, intriguing and important websites I’ve bookmarked during my years of furious Internet surfing, actually going ‘behind the websites’ to get to know, and learn from, the time travelers, shamans, UFO cult leaders and other geniuses who created them.”
Hotel Guests Love Watching ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ Will They Love Live Sex On-Demand Even More?
by Michael Yessis | 01.18.07 | 9:28 AM ET
“The Da Vinci Code” may have been the official most-popular in-room movie of 2006, but how would it rate against, say, live sex on-demand? Soon we may know. At least one entrepreneur has proposed offering live sex programming to guests in U.S. hotels.
The Jekyll & Hyde B&B: What They’re Saying on TripAdvisor
by Michael Yessis | 11.20.06 | 9:00 AM ET
The “charming basement laboratory” is “cute!”, but beware of the limping, slurring innkeeper. World Hum contributor Kate Hahn has a funny rundown of what faux TripAdvisor members are saying about the Jekyll & Hyde B&B in her latest piece for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.
This Magazine Cover Has the Philadelphia Hotel Association Running Scared
by Michael Yessis | 11.01.06 | 11:54 AM ET
Philadelphia Magazine usually distributes about 6,000 copies of its glossy pub to hotel rooms around the city. Not this month, though. November’s issue features a cover story about murder in the city, with a subhead that reads: “One terrifying night on the streets—and why everything we’re doing to stop the shooting won’t work.” Philadelphia Hotel Association executive director Ed Grose “urged hotels to think twice before providing guests with copies” of the magazine, according to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
R.I.P. Stardust Hotel
by Jim Benning | 10.31.06 | 5:59 AM ET
Photo by heather0714, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
I spotted the guy in the ghoulish grim reaper costume, gripping his faux scythe, at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas Saturday night. He fit right in among the other Halloween revelers—the scantily clad nurses, the Top Gun pilots in their flight suits and reflective sunglasses, Richard Nixon and his entourage of Secret Service agents. But the grim reaper really should have been skulking several blocks up the strip at the Stardust, where death loomed like a hazy cloud of casino cigarette smoke. On Wednesday, the half-century-old hotel with the strip’s most iconic neon sign will close for good. The usual implosion will follow in several months, paving the way, as the Vegas hotel life cycle dictates, for a new megaresort.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Skimpy Skirts and Thunderbolts
by Michael Yessis | 10.27.06 | 11:30 AM ET
There’s a hint of fear in the air, but, as always, we’re still hitting the road. This week the Zeitgeist leads to Paris, Dubai, Iowa, Mexico City and the most scenic toilet in the world. Let’s go.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Japanese Tourists Succumb to “Paris Syndrome”
* I’ve seen a bit of coverage of this story this week, and the New York Post gets the best headline award: Paris Leaves Japanese French Fried.
World’s Least Favorite Airline
TripAdvisor (survey)
Ryanair
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Beyond Skimpy Skirts, a Rare Debate on Identity
* Hassan M. Fattah’s story explores the limits of multiculturalism in Dubai.
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
* Two weeks in a row at the top for Bryson’s memoir of growing up in 1950s Iowa.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Hotels Ditch Imposing Desks for Friendly ‘Pods’
* Three reasons why: To lure younger customers, to improve employee productivity and, of course, to increase revenue.
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Farecast
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Apple’s Gift to Travelers: Magsafe Airline Power Adapter
Rockers for Immigrant Hotel Workers’ Rights
by Jim Benning | 10.03.06 | 6:52 PM ET
It’s a rock-‘n’-roll-travel day here at World Hum. We’ve already reported on Dave Navarro and the sexiness of travel and Rush drummer Neil Peart’s travel-writing talk, and now comes word that Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello is down with the plight of Los Angeles immigrant hotel workers—so down, in fact, that he was one of 400 protesters arrested near LAX last week. Morello and his band are no strangers to the world of rock-travel news: Last year, Audioslave made history as the first American rock band to play Cuba in 26 years. News of Morello’s arrest was reported on the Web site of his lefty non-profit, Axis of Justice, which also offers music recommendations—French rocker Manu Chao, who sings in Spanish, Arabic, Galician and Portuguese, among other languages, makes the list.
“Fawlty Towers” Hotel Gets Makeover
by Michael Yessis | 09.25.06 | 6:36 AM ET
Your Hotel Minibar Key: Unlocking Overpriced Snacks and Diebold Voting Machines
by Michael Yessis | 09.20.06 | 7:07 AM ET
A Princeton professor and graduate student say on their weblog they were able to open a Diebold voting machine using a key “used widely ... in hotel minibars.” Lovely.
Hotel Bed Jumping HQ
by Michael Yessis | 09.15.06 | 7:30 AM ET
For photos of families jumping on beds, kids jumping on beds, hipsters jumping on beds, people in Las Vegas jumping on beds, cruise ship bed jumps, bed jumping videos and just about all the bed-jumping images one can take, Hotel Bed Jumping HQ is your place.
Adios, Savvy Local Concierge. Hello Third-Party Product Pushers.
by Michael Yessis | 09.11.06 | 5:49 AM ET
Yes, it looks like the days of the all-knowing, time-tested concierge are on the wane. On the heels of a story about airlines outsourcing their call centers to India comes this piece in the Wall Street Journal about hotels hiring third-parties to handle their concierge desks. Unaware travelers, unfortunately, seem to be the losers. “These third-party concierges may have an agenda beyond making guests happy—namely, selling enough tickets to turn a profit for their employers,” Hannah Karp writes.
Liam and Noel Gallagher Plan Oasis-Themed Hotel Chain
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.06 | 7:15 AM ET
The famously mercurial brothers behind the band Oasis are reportedly pitching a hotel chain in the United States to be called Supernova Heights, which will feature rooms based on their songs. “All around the World,” for instance, might have a travel theme. And maybe the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” suite will allow visitors to make like Liam and Noel, drinking copious alcohol and having obnoxious spats with their traveling companions. As for what the “Wonderwall” room might look like, your guess is as good as ours. Life Style Extra reports that many of the brothers’ ideas are not sitting well with investors: “Their plan to install alcohol and cigarettes in every room of their New York hotel, in honour of their track ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ has gone down like a lead balloon because so many people are anti-smoking.” Look for the hotels by the end of 2007. Definitely maybe.