The U.S. hotel industry has lost more than just rate premiums, according to Alex Calderwood. It’s lost a sense of personality as well. Calderwood should know something about individualism personified in brick and mortar. He, along with his fellow co-founders, started Ace Hotel Group, which manages and partly owns a four-property portfolio of boutique hotels that is brimming with as much character as a big-budget acting ensemble.
The Bonnet Creek Resort adjacent to Walt Disney World, featuring a 500-room Waldorf=Astoria, a 1,000-room Hilton Hotel and a Rees Jones signature golf course, celebrates its grand opening November 12.
The International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show® (IH/M&RS) has announced winners of the coveted Gold Key Awards for Excellence in Hospitality Design. Winners, finalists and "Designer of the Year" Alexandra Champalimaud were honored this morning during a breakfast ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental New York. Honorees were selected by a panel of notable industry experts from a field of more than 225 projects representing 24 countries. The Awards are sponsored by Interior Design and HOTELS magazines and coincide with the 94th annual IH/M&RS, running through November 10 at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
Jonathan Tisch walked into the hotel room at the Loews Miami Beach, looked down, and saw too much taupe. Tisch, CEO of Loews Hotels, had approved the carpet months earlier at a design meeting for a major renovation of the oceanfront resort. But after seeing the fabric in a model room, Tisch ordered more blues and greens. ``He felt it was a little drab,'' recalled top designer Greg Walton, of RTKL Associates in Coral Gables. ``He really wanted that Miami feel in the room.'' Tisch, 55, hasn't delegated many decisions when it comes to the first major remake of the most profitable hotel in the Loews chain.
Even in a city filled with striking architecture, the Wit makes a powerful impression — a green-tinted glass box with an angled roof and a yellow lightning bolt shooting down its State Street facade. But there’s much more to the Wit than its design. The hotel, which opened in May, has a superb location in downtown Chicago, bright rooms with mesmerizing views and an eager-to-please staff. During my recent visit, the hotel — the first in a new chain from Doubletree (itself a division of Hilton) — managed to be all things to all people; business travelers, vacationing families and trend-seeking 20-somethings all seemed to love the place.
October 8th will mark a new milestone for acclaimed architect Dianna Wong: the grand opening of the newest W Hotel, the W Washington DC. Wong's Los Angeles firm (www.diannawong.com) designed the interiors for the entire hotel, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten's new J&G Steakhouse, DC's first Bliss Spa, and all 317 guestrooms and suites. Nakheel Hotels spent $100 million on the 18-month transformation of the former Hotel Washington, famous for its landmark rooftop lounge offering spectacular views of the White House and surrounding monuments.
All those fashionistas rushing through the new W Hotel lobby to make the scene at the rooftop bar may be missing the splashy design details that could soon end up in bedrooms, baths and living rooms across the region. The $90 million makeover of Washington's former Hotel Washington, which reopened in July, rebooted the dated lobby chandeliers by plugging in LED lights and dressed up bathrooms with bronze vessel sinks. In the bedrooms, the headboard for the 11-inch thick, plush-top mattresses is a built-in niche, backlit with amber light.
A 10,000-square-foot suite that includes a basketball halfcourt rents for $25,000 a night at Palms Casino Resort. At MGM Grand's Skylofts, you'll find a bathtub that fizzes with tiny champagne-like massage bubbles, TVs in the mirrors and airport pickup in a $400,000 car. If you're worried about your mortgage and your job, such luxuries might sound downright obscene. But Las Vegas has always specialized in turning fantasy into reality — for a price. Several Vegas hotels offer suites with futuristic amenities, audacious themes, enough room to hold a wedding along with the honeymoon, and pricetags to match.
The International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show® (IH/M&RS) and Boutique Media Group today announced the launch of boutique DESIGN New York, a groundbreaking new hospitality interiors fair that will coincide with the 95th annual IH/M&RS in November 2010. Featuring an edited selection of 200 exhibitors, boutique DESIGN New York will serve as an opportunity for interior product manufacturers to showcase the latest in high-end, unique and innovative design products for hospitality.
The luxury, full-service Mosaic Hotel today announced that it was ranked among the top 10 small city hotels in the U.S./Canada with fewer than 100 rooms by Travel + Leisure World. The hotel is operated by Gemstone Hotels & Resorts, a full-service hotel management and asset management company that specializes in luxury and upscale urban hotels and complex, multi-faceted resorts. The property also is a member of the Preferred Hotel Group family of brands, featuring more than 185 exceptional hotels and resorts in the most desirable locations around the world.
NEW YORK -- This summer, Desires Hotels is giving you the opportunity to “Select Your Altitude To Accommodate Your Attitude.” And you might be asking yourself, “Just what does that mean?” Well, Desires Hotels has four unique alfresco scenes in their modern boutique hotel collection, all offering great daytime and nightlife experiences for their guests, all at unique elevations. “Select your altitude,” gives you the choice from taking in the lounge scene, dining on grilled cuisine, listening to live music, or shaking your groove thing all under the stars. While in order to “Accommodate Your Attitude,” guests get to choose from either terrace lounges and restaurants or rooftop bars — the four exclusive outdoor environments, give Desires Hotels guests an array of different ways to enjoy unique and wonderful nightlife scenes during those summertime months.
The Pierre, the iconic U.S. flagship of Taj Hotels on New York's Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park, will re-open June 1 following a meticulous $100 million renovation to create new guestroom and bath interiors and to reconfigure first floor public areas to accommodate a new restaurant, Le Caprice at The Pierre, as well as 2 East, a new lobby lounge, and a graciously welcoming reception area.