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Hotel Hell / Travel Tips / → All Tags

Fighting the Foot Fungus of Death

Yeeccch. Hostels. They can be pretty rank, even if they make traveling a possibility for people who wouldn't normally be able to afford it. We don't like showering near strangers, so we tend to avoid them whenever possible, but luckily, Washington Post writer Karin Tanabe did all the hostel research we won't.  And, unless she's failing to mention it, none of her feet have succumbed to any kind of fungus.

That's not to say that she hasn't had to suffer at all. Of the BVJ Louvre Hostel in Paris, she writes:

The walls are bare; the common room is, well, common; you have to constantly push a button while showering to keep the water coming out in short spurts; the metal bunk beds sag in the middle; the bedding seems to be made of porcupine quills; and there are no lockers of any kind.

Hmm. If they renamed it the Hostel Marquis de Sade, we bet they could charge more for it.
 
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Hotels / Hotel Hell / Design / → All Tags

Filtering the Hotel Chatter

We'd like to think that the whole point of soundproofing in a hotel room is so that other guests aren't disturbed by our "activities", but it's often the other way around. Blaring TVs, arguments over the relative quality of what's on Spectravision, and connubial (and non-connubial) bliss all have a way of filtering through the walls, usually past bedtime.

As the New York Post's Lydia Gordon reports this week, hotels should be a lot quieter: A hotel room can be properly soundproofed for an additional $1,500 over the current industry standard, a tiny cost for a room at the Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton which can run for $300 a night or more. Considering that noise if the number one complaint by hotel guests, hotel chains should be falling over themselves to upgrade the soundproofing, but alas, it's still not the case.

Yet there is a glimmer of hope; Kimpton spent $1 million upgrading the soundproofing at the Palomar D.C., and the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas has heavy soundproofing, especially in their suites. Stay anywhere else, though, and a pair of earmuffs will be necessary.

[Image via apreussler/Flickr]

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Hotel Hell / → All Tags

Let Them Eat Cake (and Stay at the Holiday Inn)

If you're reading this blog, you already know that anyone who uses the internet to organize travel--as opposed to making their butler do it--is patently unworthy of gaining entrance to a luxury hotel. Take your socks and sandals elsewhere, people.

At least, that's the message from Niels Pedersen of Supranational Hotels, which represents 1,100 hotels in 75 countries. According to Niels, fancy hotels should strenuously avoid slashing prices and posting these last minute hotel deals on the interweb, lest they attract "the wrong sort of people". To wit:

Once superior hotels reduce their standard tariffs below 30%--and many cut them to 50% in a panic bid to fill their rooms--the clientele they attract via web portals can do harm to the image of the property. It's about a person's inner values of self-esteem and self-confidence. The key test for the wealthy is whether their children will meet the right kind of people.

Right. You wouldn't want your family to meet a nice couple splurging on a room at a pricey hotel, when instead they could be lounging poolside, sharing a family-size bag of cheetos with Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. Niels, she's all yours.

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New York City / Books / Hotels / Hotel Hell / → All Tags

Getting High with Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet hosted an event here in New York last night to celebrate the launch of their Cities Book (see our review here). While most of the evening comprised the usual drinks and finger foods upon which writers subsist, there were some new ideas thrown into the PR mix. We loved the tour of Top of the Rock which, as New Yorkers, we would never have visited otherwise.

It's not as iconic as the Empire State Building, but who cares when you can book what time you go to the observation deck online? Plus, it's the only spot in the city with an unobstructed view of the whole of Central Park. Oh, and the elevator has a plexiglass top, so you can look up and see the cables while they project a seizure-inducing light show.  

Continuing the rooftop theme, there was also a tour of the Hotel Gansevoort. Their rooftop bar (and pool) is swanky in that Eurotrashy way that the Gansevoort seems to have perfected. If you've booked a room there, make sure that no one else is in it when you arrive; our tour group interrupted a man sitting on his bed. Thankfully, he was tying his shoes.

So, last night we learned to embrace our inner tourist, and to always lock the deadbolt in our hotel room. Sounds like a full evening to us.

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