Category: Austria

Boston: Historic Ames Building becomes Ames Hotel

Boston Ames Building
Image of the Boston Globe article
Ames Building Boston Mass
Picture found in Wiki

In a recent article the Boston Globe reports about the plans to give the Ames Building in Boston, once (from 1893 – 1915) Boston’s tallest building except for The Church of the Covenant, a new life as a hotel.
Ehotelier.com also reports about this development from the same source. As the Boston Globe it suggests that the Ames Building will become a boutique hotel. I fear this is over stretching the term boutique hotel a bit with 125 rooms planned.
For the time being the project is christened The Ames Hotel .
The present developer Normandy partners who teamed up with Brit Richard Kilstock and Eamon O’Marah, acquired the property in April 2007 for US $17,7 mio and anticipates a US $ 40 mio redevelopment.
Prior plans to convert this property into a hotel were from former owners Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation and from O’Callaghan Hotels, a Dublin based hotel chain.
Boston based Cambridge Seven Associated, Inc were architects involved in the O’Callaghan plans.
The building itself looks promising as a hotel from the above pictures. I would suggest the developers to have a look at the Vienna Radisson SAS Style hotel which is similar in structure albeit with only 74 rooms a bit smaller and probably more personal.

New York City: Bike – Share Project: 42 years behind the Dutch!

Usually reading through my Google News Reader I get tons of inspiration for this Blog and I don’t have the time to convert all inspiration into actual posts here.

From time to time I click and share in my reader and so I sort of built a second Blog, gje’s shared items, of items I like to address and sometimes really do address, but usually don’t. Until now I haven’t found a better way of sharing the news from the travel and luxury Blog community. In a window in the right column you see the newest items I have shared.

NYC Bike Sharing

So in my Google News Reader i found this post Pedaling, the Bike-Sharing Project of Archinect. It caught my eye as I noticed recently there is a nice Bike Sharing running in Vienna under the name City Bike Wien.

For us Dutchmen this bike sharing is a very old idea. In 1965 Dutch Provo launched the White Bike Plan. Here is a nice write up about the anti establishment movement Provo. It also explains a bit of the origins of the Dutch coffeeshop culture. Her is another Write up that explains how the 2 White Bike (sharing) plans that actually were launched in Amsterdam didn’t work out. However there is a White Bikes plan running uninterruptedly since 1975 at the Dutch National Park De Hoge Veluwe.

After re reading this post, I decided I need to flesh this post out much more, albeit that the time constraints will make it appear in a bit random order:

  • This post is especially of interest after the magic 07-07-07 Live Earth series of concerts.
  • By coincidence (does coincidence really exist?) I noticed my fellow Travel Blogger Melissa Petri reported about City Bike Wien in her post Bike in Vienna for Europe String just last month….BTW Europe string was a finalist for the Travvies 2007 in February of this year
  • This seems a copy of the original Witte Fietsen Plan (“White Bike Sharing Manifesto”) by the Provo movement in the Dutch language.
    Original Dutch White Bike Sharing Manifesto
    Provo White Bike Sharing Manifesto

    The White Bicycle Plan proposes to create bicycles for public use that cannot be locked.
    ‘The white bicycle symbolizes simplicity and healthy living, as opposed to the gaudiness and filth of the authoritarian automobile.’

  • And here is a photo of the official presentation of the Provo White Bike Sharing Manifesto:
    PROVO PRESENTS THE WHITE BIKE SHARING MANIFESTO OFICCIALLY
    Provo presents the White Bike Sharing Manifesto
  • There even is is an official White Bike Sculpture in the Netherlands:
    White Bike Sharing Sculpture in Holland
    Dutch white bike sculpture.
    The man is real size, not the bike!
  • The Provo Movement in Amsterdam eventually led to the famous sleep in of Yoko Ono and John Lennon in Amsterdam Hilton:
    LENNON ONO HILTON SLEEP IN
    John Lennon and Yoko Ono Sleep In
  • I have a feeling there are European subsidies for bike sharing projects if I read this: Case Study
  • Bike For All, a site dedicated to Biking news brings the news that on 07 07 07 4 friends will arrive at the London Tour de France prologue start having biked 777 miles across 7 countries in 7 days, visiting 7 Tour de France Prologue cities in order to raise money for World Bicycle relief and for Jole Rider in order to enable them to donate Bikes to third world countries

Austria: Schloss Velden, a Most Famous Hotel of the world reopened by a former associate of Bill Marriott on the move…

Could one have a better opening press release than one by Andreas Augustin himself? I don’t believe so.

Andreas is the man behind

Schloss Velden was officially opened on Sunday May 27 2007 with 7000 guests for the opening ceremony. On Monday May 28, 2007 it was opened for 300 guests who could have their first nap in this Castle originally dating back to 1590.

At the moment I write this I find it a bit strange there is no other form of communication about this opening on the sites:

  • of the hotel Cappella, Schloss Velden. Note the way the name is presented….and note its press page simply states:

    “Press Room…..We need information for this page. (sic!),

  • of the Management company Capella Hotels,

than a press release dated March 3, 2007…..

A Royally missed opportunity I would say in this Internet Millennium….

Rather than reiterating Andreas words, I will remain silent, until I have visited the place somewhere in the first half of 2008 and been able to look around and ride the Woerther Lake, preferably with this Boesch below….

Velden Boesch
Velden Boesch

BTW, I have asked former ultimate boss of Mr Horst Schulze who currently operates Capella and is a former COO of the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company LLC, a Marriot subsidiary, i.e. Mr Bill Marriott, whether he would like to comment on this new venture of his former associate Mr Horst Schulze in his Blog Marriot on the move. Why? Because there is some scepsis in the world of travel Bloggers whether the Blog of Mr Marriott is a pure unbiased blog or a simple means of self promotion (proclamation?) of the Marriott on the move community.

Mr Marriott’s Blog’s “terms of use” state inter alia:

We will only post comments that are relevant and appropriate to the Marriott on the Move community. It may take a couple of days for your posting to appear, especially on weekends, or it may not be published at all. We may react to some comments either individually or as a cluster of comments on the same topic. While there is a possibility your comment may not be published at all, we truly hope by laying out the “rules of the road” we will avoid that from happening as much as possible. For example, a posting about a particular element of our service at many our hotels would be addressed on this blog. On the other hand, a posting that raises a specific issue or billing dispute may instead be referred to our Customer Care or another department, so we can work directly with you to resolve the issue. If you a have specific issue or billing dispute, please contact our Customer Care group at https://www.marriott.com/marriott/contact.mi. You should not assume that a posting on this blog constitutes notice to Marriott of any such matters or for any legal purposes.

and:

The bottom line is that we want to hear from you – both the positive and negative!

Recently however they allowed a negative comment:

Posted By: matz (27/05/2007 10:16:28 PM)
Comment: Quite a blog you run. Everyone seems to love uncle Bill and the Marriott hotels. Why not, for the sake of honesty, publish less complimentary comments (my comments were ignored. I will find other venues outside the “family” As a lifetime platinum guest ,more recently a former guest who prefers to boycott your operation, I am highly insulted Your community service is admirable. Pay attention to your non-existing customer service

Let’s see what happens.

Update 1

My questiond disappeared unanswered from Mr Marriot’s blog.

Update 2

I was trying to weed out dead links in various posts and found out this:

We are sorry to inform you that Schloss Velden is no longer managed by Capella Hotels and Resorts. We hope, however, that you will choose to visit one of our other Capella Hotels.

Last edited by GJE on December 5, 2011 at 4:56 pm

Shortcut: A City Blog about European cities

Shortcut logo

Today I discovered the nicely written Shortcut, A European City Blog with a nice lay out. It writes about 17 European cities.

It used to write about upcoming events, but nowadays in true web 2.0 style it links through to Yahoo’s Upcoming.

A pity Shortcut don’t feature The Hague.

Go enjoy yourself!

Added July 1, 2007
I changed the URL as they have moved to another provider.

Kitzbuhel luxury hotels ban Russian tourists

Kate Connolly reports in the Guardian of today No room at the plush Austrian inn for Russians and their rubles that 16 out of 20 of Kitzbuehel’s four- and five-star hotels have agreed to limit Russian tourists to 10 % of total.

Sepp Schellhorn, president of the Austrian Hoteliers Association, condemned the Russian quota as “absurd” and “shortsighted”. “This is not in line with the wishes of those who promote Austria or the Austrian economy,” he said.

But the head of Sporthotel Mayr-Reisch, Rupert Mayr-Reisch, said: “We’ve learned from other resorts, like St Moritz. You get a bit of a nationality imbalance when one nation gets the upper hand. It’s more pleasant when there are not too many people from one country in the same hotel.”

However, Mr Schellhorn said that it was ridiculous to speak of a mix of nations: “Think about it: Kitzbuehel has a large number of Germans, but no one has ever thought of trying to limit their numbers.”