Hey people,
I came across this ongoing list of hotels offering iPads to their guests on Hotel Chatter. These hotels are probably much less expensive than the Berkeley Hotel in London that was first mentioned in the post from May 4 (updated May 8). Check back often to see if iPads are coming to a hotel in a destination you're heading.
.sb06
Showing posts with label hotels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hotels. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
T + L: It List -- Best New Luxury Hotels for 2010
Travel and Leisure (T + L) has released its It List for 2010, which profiles 45 of the best new luxury hotels across the world. This is a great list because it provides awareness about fresh, new, and exciting places versus the well-established places that we hear about all of the time. There are still some familiar names (e.g. W, Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, Willard, Ritz-Carlton, Shangri-la, Waldorf Astoria), but they have set up shop in new locations. I have highlighted a few of the hotels for you below, based on the images that stood out to me the most from the list or if I have come across the hotel in other searches. This is somewhat arbitrary, but it represents a pretty good mix of the new flavor out there in the world of luxury hotels.
Upper House, Hong Kong - Awesome website!
Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia
Argos in Cappadocia, Uchisar, Turkey
Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, Lithgow, Australia
Andaz Wall Street, New York, NY
Shangri-La Boracay Resort & Spa, Boracay, Philippines
Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona, Spain
Las Alcobas, Mexico City, Mexico
Enjoy browsing! I have also added the T+L Carry-On blog, tagged just to hotels, to the Blog List and the featured hotels onto the gallery links page. You may want to check out today's Carry-On article on a new hotel under construction in Singapore.
Upper House, Hong Kong - Awesome website!
Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia
Argos in Cappadocia, Uchisar, Turkey
Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, Lithgow, Australia
Andaz Wall Street, New York, NY
Shangri-La Boracay Resort & Spa, Boracay, Philippines
Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona, Spain
Las Alcobas, Mexico City, Mexico
Enjoy browsing! I have also added the T+L Carry-On blog, tagged just to hotels, to the Blog List and the featured hotels onto the gallery links page. You may want to check out today's Carry-On article on a new hotel under construction in Singapore.
.sb06
Friday, May 7, 2010
New Luxury Hotel Resources!
Hey everyone,
As I continue to find interesting stories and hotels, I come across a lot of sites that are useful in searching for a luxury hotel for your vacation. I don't want to overwhelm you with too many sites, so as Hotel Hopper evolves, I will try to to keep the resources listed at the bottom of the page to an optimal set of sites that you can explore for your personal needs. I may add sites on occasion and take some away on others. Here are the best new resources that I have found and have decided to add to the resource list:
Splendia: This site is my favorite of the new sites and maybe one of the best I have seen so far. Not only does it feature a large selection of 4500 luxury hotels all over the world, but it offers a pretty extensive set of options for exploring the collection. These options include, but are not limited to, searching by location and theme, whether it be general luxury, spa, boutique, or design. In addition, once you have started a search, you can refine the search in many ways, such as by the type of experience you are looking for in your vacation, hotel facilities and amenities, style, and location. One of my favorite features is that Splendia also lists starting rates for rooms at the hotels, so you can have an idea of the price point without putting in arbitrary dates for reservations. You can also view all of the listed hotels in your search on a map so that you can make a more informed decision on the exact location you want to stay at your destination. Splendia also has a members benefit club where returning customers can gain access to special rates and rewards. Overall, a great site with useful tools for finding your hotel destination.
Tablet Hotels: This is also another great site that doesn't feature as large of a selection (which is sometimes a good thing), but it has a lot of content related to luxury hotels and travel. Tablet features over 1800 selected hotels and, much like Splendia, has a lot of ways to hunt down your desired hotel. There are two recently released features on the site, which include member access to exclusive and last minute hotel deals, and a nice integrated Google Maps search interface that allows users to search for hotels by location and theme. The Tablet site also provides reference guides for selected destinations and maintains a travel blog, but the best content-related feature on the site is the Tablet 10. This page features all sorts of Top 10 lists for hotels in different categories. I will probably explore this more in a future post so be on the look out.
Preferred Hotels & Resorts: Preferred Boutique was already listed in the resources, but I wanted to add this site as well. Obviously, they are part of the same group, but focus on different categories of luxury hotels. This site is more formal in that it is basically just a search site to find luxury hotels. There isn't much in terms of content, but you are gaining access to a highly rated selection of hotels. There isn't as much 'guidance' as there is on the site as far as refining your search, but there is a nice interactive map so that you can search by location. There is also the I Prefer member rewards program that provides benefits to customers that use the services of the Preferred Hotel Group and its alliance partners.
Hotique: Hotique is another nice site I found that again provides some pretty good assistance for narrowing your search to a single selection. There are lots of options at the bottom of the home page for searching by category and destination. Once you select one of these options, there are suggestions and featured hotels that serve as a good starting point. Of course, you can always just search if you are looking for something specific. There is also a Travel Center page that offers suggestions on other travel related issues such as destination guides, airlines, and other important details.
Luxique: As far as I can tell, Luxique is not related to Hotique, so I guess making your site sound like boutique is just a popular theme these days. Luxique features a collection of over 2000 hotels that are not limited to just the boutique category. The Destination Guides are a nice feature that provides suggestions for the best luxury hotels by destination and some recommendations on what to do there. There is also an interesting blog that I have refined to hotel articles and added to the Blog List.
As I am beginning to learn and as you are surely seeing by the growing list of resources on Hotel Hopper, there are tons of sites out there for finding a luxury hotel for you travels. For now, I am trying to stick to sites with more of a global capacity, but there are advantages to sites with a more localized focus. It can be overwhelming, but the best sites out there will offer some tools that will help you narrow down that search into something more manageable. Reward programs are also nice once you decide to use one or more of the sites on a consistent basis. Finally, there is something a little more authentic about a visually appealing site. Some of the sites I did not include were certainly lacking in that category, regardless of the other benefits. Try out a few of the sites I have suggested to see what you like. Let me know what you think!
.sb06
As I continue to find interesting stories and hotels, I come across a lot of sites that are useful in searching for a luxury hotel for your vacation. I don't want to overwhelm you with too many sites, so as Hotel Hopper evolves, I will try to to keep the resources listed at the bottom of the page to an optimal set of sites that you can explore for your personal needs. I may add sites on occasion and take some away on others. Here are the best new resources that I have found and have decided to add to the resource list:
Splendia: This site is my favorite of the new sites and maybe one of the best I have seen so far. Not only does it feature a large selection of 4500 luxury hotels all over the world, but it offers a pretty extensive set of options for exploring the collection. These options include, but are not limited to, searching by location and theme, whether it be general luxury, spa, boutique, or design. In addition, once you have started a search, you can refine the search in many ways, such as by the type of experience you are looking for in your vacation, hotel facilities and amenities, style, and location. One of my favorite features is that Splendia also lists starting rates for rooms at the hotels, so you can have an idea of the price point without putting in arbitrary dates for reservations. You can also view all of the listed hotels in your search on a map so that you can make a more informed decision on the exact location you want to stay at your destination. Splendia also has a members benefit club where returning customers can gain access to special rates and rewards. Overall, a great site with useful tools for finding your hotel destination.
Tablet Hotels: This is also another great site that doesn't feature as large of a selection (which is sometimes a good thing), but it has a lot of content related to luxury hotels and travel. Tablet features over 1800 selected hotels and, much like Splendia, has a lot of ways to hunt down your desired hotel. There are two recently released features on the site, which include member access to exclusive and last minute hotel deals, and a nice integrated Google Maps search interface that allows users to search for hotels by location and theme. The Tablet site also provides reference guides for selected destinations and maintains a travel blog, but the best content-related feature on the site is the Tablet 10. This page features all sorts of Top 10 lists for hotels in different categories. I will probably explore this more in a future post so be on the look out.
Preferred Hotels & Resorts: Preferred Boutique was already listed in the resources, but I wanted to add this site as well. Obviously, they are part of the same group, but focus on different categories of luxury hotels. This site is more formal in that it is basically just a search site to find luxury hotels. There isn't much in terms of content, but you are gaining access to a highly rated selection of hotels. There isn't as much 'guidance' as there is on the site as far as refining your search, but there is a nice interactive map so that you can search by location. There is also the I Prefer member rewards program that provides benefits to customers that use the services of the Preferred Hotel Group and its alliance partners.
Hotique: Hotique is another nice site I found that again provides some pretty good assistance for narrowing your search to a single selection. There are lots of options at the bottom of the home page for searching by category and destination. Once you select one of these options, there are suggestions and featured hotels that serve as a good starting point. Of course, you can always just search if you are looking for something specific. There is also a Travel Center page that offers suggestions on other travel related issues such as destination guides, airlines, and other important details.
Luxique: As far as I can tell, Luxique is not related to Hotique, so I guess making your site sound like boutique is just a popular theme these days. Luxique features a collection of over 2000 hotels that are not limited to just the boutique category. The Destination Guides are a nice feature that provides suggestions for the best luxury hotels by destination and some recommendations on what to do there. There is also an interesting blog that I have refined to hotel articles and added to the Blog List.
As I am beginning to learn and as you are surely seeing by the growing list of resources on Hotel Hopper, there are tons of sites out there for finding a luxury hotel for you travels. For now, I am trying to stick to sites with more of a global capacity, but there are advantages to sites with a more localized focus. It can be overwhelming, but the best sites out there will offer some tools that will help you narrow down that search into something more manageable. Reward programs are also nice once you decide to use one or more of the sites on a consistent basis. Finally, there is something a little more authentic about a visually appealing site. Some of the sites I did not include were certainly lacking in that category, regardless of the other benefits. Try out a few of the sites I have suggested to see what you like. Let me know what you think!
.sb06
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Oyster's Best Luxury Hotels of 2010
Oyster recently posted its 2010 list for the Best Luxury Hotels in the selected locations of Boston, Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Jamaica, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. The feature ranks 90 of the best hotels in terms of their rooms, service, food, and many other features. The list is a bit Four Seasons heavy, but hey, they are great hotels no matter where they are. Here's the listing of the top rated hotels in each of the destinations:
Boston: Four Seasons Boston
Dominican Republic: Sivory Punta Cana
Hawaii: Four Seasons Maui
Jamaica: The Caves
Las Vegas: The Bellagio
Los Angeles: Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons
Miami: The Setai
New York: The New York Palace
Orlando: Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes
San Francisco: The St. Regis San Francisco
Washington D.C.: The Jefferson
It would be great to see this list expanded when Oyster begins to feature more cities. This is a great resource for finding luxury hotels in the featured locations and is a bit more manageable than some of the other resources that feature hundreds and thousands of hotels to browse. There are also lists featuring the best boutique hotels, business hotels, spa hotels, and other categories if you're interested in browsing other themes. More on The Setai in the future. For more information on Oyster, see post from March 8.
.sb06
Boston: Four Seasons Boston
Dominican Republic: Sivory Punta Cana
Hawaii: Four Seasons Maui
Jamaica: The Caves
Las Vegas: The Bellagio
Los Angeles: Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons
Miami: The Setai
New York: The New York Palace
Orlando: Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes
San Francisco: The St. Regis San Francisco
Washington D.C.: The Jefferson
It would be great to see this list expanded when Oyster begins to feature more cities. This is a great resource for finding luxury hotels in the featured locations and is a bit more manageable than some of the other resources that feature hundreds and thousands of hotels to browse. There are also lists featuring the best boutique hotels, business hotels, spa hotels, and other categories if you're interested in browsing other themes. More on The Setai in the future. For more information on Oyster, see post from March 8.
.sb06
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Featured Article - Best Business Hotels in NYC, Boston, and D.C.
From time to time, I will feature articles from other sites and blogs as I come across interesting ones. For the most part, I will try to share articles that feature a particular category of luxury hotels or an in-depth look at a particularly interesting hotel. This week, I'd like to share with you an article from the The Suite Life Blog, which features some suggestions for nice business hotels in three often frequented cities in the Northeast: New York City, Boston, and Washington D.C. You can check out the article here. In addition, I have added the Perfect Escapes site to the resources listed at the bottom of the page.
The article offers options in each city at what it calls moderate and luxury levels and also lists links to other favorite business hotels in Chicago, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. For Boston, the article suggests The Charles Hotel at the moderate level and the XV Beacon at the luxury level. For NYC, the Affinia Shelburne and The Benjamin Hotel are the locations of choice. Finally, the article serves up The Churchill Hotel at the moderate level and Kimpton's Hotel Palomar for D.C., which ironically was also featured recently on the TripKick blog and has a great restaurant called Urbana I check out during restaurant week. I think of the three cities, I love what the Boston selections have to offer the most, and they both have great individual websites so be sure to check them out!
More on The Suite Life Blog and Kimpton Hotels in the future!
.sb06
The article offers options in each city at what it calls moderate and luxury levels and also lists links to other favorite business hotels in Chicago, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. For Boston, the article suggests The Charles Hotel at the moderate level and the XV Beacon at the luxury level. For NYC, the Affinia Shelburne and The Benjamin Hotel are the locations of choice. Finally, the article serves up The Churchill Hotel at the moderate level and Kimpton's Hotel Palomar for D.C., which ironically was also featured recently on the TripKick blog and has a great restaurant called Urbana I check out during restaurant week. I think of the three cities, I love what the Boston selections have to offer the most, and they both have great individual websites so be sure to check them out!
More on The Suite Life Blog and Kimpton Hotels in the future!
.sb06
Monday, March 8, 2010
Oyster and Raveable -- New items added to the Hotel Resources List
More additions!
I've just added two more resources to the link list at the bottom of the page. I thought about adding a separate list for hotel reviewing sites, but figured most of you were already well aware of the Kayak, Expedia, etc. type of sites so I figured I wouldn't crowd the page with commonly known resources. I also didn't want to add too many review sites because they can be cumbersome to browse through and incredibly subjective. I suppose my reviews will be subjective as well, but for the most part, the design is the primary focus, and nice features are pretty much nice features no matter how you look at it.
The two new sites I just added are Oyster and Raveable, which provide hundreds of reviews of hotels good and bad. Both sites focus exclusively on hotels, versus more travel oriented sites that discuss hotels as just a part of the total travel package. In addition to being able to search for hotels and reviews, both sites feature extensive listings of the best hotels by city as well as categories, themes, and features. Oyster also features very extensive photo galleries for the hotels on the site, which is very helpful for getting a good feeling about the hotel. Raveable also features a blog list of the best travel blogs out there on the web.
Reviews on both sites are very thorough, although Oyster claims to post professional, unbiased reviews versus Raveable, which pulls reviews from real customers primarily through TripAdvisor and MyTravelGuide. I think both types of reviews can be useful, but it depends on which you trust more. Both sites also allow viewers to check rates and availability for the hotel you are checking out...just some added convenience so you don't have to bounce around between multiple sites. The only downside to the sites is that they are basically limited to US and nearby destinations at this time, so you world travelers out there will have to wait until they extend their coverage.
Until next time!
.sb06
I've just added two more resources to the link list at the bottom of the page. I thought about adding a separate list for hotel reviewing sites, but figured most of you were already well aware of the Kayak, Expedia, etc. type of sites so I figured I wouldn't crowd the page with commonly known resources. I also didn't want to add too many review sites because they can be cumbersome to browse through and incredibly subjective. I suppose my reviews will be subjective as well, but for the most part, the design is the primary focus, and nice features are pretty much nice features no matter how you look at it.
The two new sites I just added are Oyster and Raveable, which provide hundreds of reviews of hotels good and bad. Both sites focus exclusively on hotels, versus more travel oriented sites that discuss hotels as just a part of the total travel package. In addition to being able to search for hotels and reviews, both sites feature extensive listings of the best hotels by city as well as categories, themes, and features. Oyster also features very extensive photo galleries for the hotels on the site, which is very helpful for getting a good feeling about the hotel. Raveable also features a blog list of the best travel blogs out there on the web.
Reviews on both sites are very thorough, although Oyster claims to post professional, unbiased reviews versus Raveable, which pulls reviews from real customers primarily through TripAdvisor and MyTravelGuide. I think both types of reviews can be useful, but it depends on which you trust more. Both sites also allow viewers to check rates and availability for the hotel you are checking out...just some added convenience so you don't have to bounce around between multiple sites. The only downside to the sites is that they are basically limited to US and nearby destinations at this time, so you world travelers out there will have to wait until they extend their coverage.
Until next time!
.sb06
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Great Sites for Luxury Hotel Browsing
Hey everyone,
While I continue to get the site up and going with content, layout changes, and so on, I want to let you know that I've found some really great sites out there for exploring various types of luxury hotels around the world. I've posted a growing list of these sites at the bottom of the page, so check them out. I haven't had a chance yet to take a thorough look through each and every site, but all of them appear to be excellent from what I've seen. Once I can get through all of them, and maybe find some others, I'll post about which ones are my favorites and why.
There are also a few feeds listed at the bottom of the page, including the newest one that I added today from Trendhunter.com, which features articles and image galleries of the trendiest hotels and themes. I also have some interesting blogs that I've found in my searches that I think have a lot of interesting content and focus mostly on hotels. Enjoy the sites and check back for my next post!
.sb06
While I continue to get the site up and going with content, layout changes, and so on, I want to let you know that I've found some really great sites out there for exploring various types of luxury hotels around the world. I've posted a growing list of these sites at the bottom of the page, so check them out. I haven't had a chance yet to take a thorough look through each and every site, but all of them appear to be excellent from what I've seen. Once I can get through all of them, and maybe find some others, I'll post about which ones are my favorites and why.
There are also a few feeds listed at the bottom of the page, including the newest one that I added today from Trendhunter.com, which features articles and image galleries of the trendiest hotels and themes. I also have some interesting blogs that I've found in my searches that I think have a lot of interesting content and focus mostly on hotels. Enjoy the sites and check back for my next post!
.sb06
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