Category: Hotels

Finding a Cool Hotel in Amsterdam – Nothing Zen! Part 7

Here we go again with my “Nothing Zen” series

A fellow TrendHunter, a very trend setting young lady from Down Under, younger than my 2 daughters (who, by the way, are two very trend setting young ladies themselves) is going to attend a conference at the VU university of Amsterdam in July and asks me whether I could recommend a Cool Hotel in Amsterdam.

My first reaction
Off course I first recommend her to stay in my own Haagsche Suites in The Hague, as commuting between The Hague and Amsterdam is usually only 45 minutes and my credo is always: “You should party in Amsterdam, but sleep in The Hague!”.

My second reaction
However, because her conference schedule is from 8.00 AM until Mid Night, she only needs a nearby comfy bed to crash and sleep in.

So my second suggestion to her is to look at the then one year open Qbic Hotel which is within walking distance. No other hotels are nearer by. Next near are some hotels at Schiphol Airport, but a bit noisy maybe.

My third reaction
As a local your knowledge of local hotels tend to be scarce. My only Amsterdam experience is a couple of nights stay at the Pulitzer Hotel, see my review at VibeAgent. Therefore this question is not so easy to answer. First I will give some off the cuff recommendations:

While talking about VibeAgent, fellow Vibe Agents recommended:

  • Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel
  • The Pulitzer Hotel
  • Bilderberg Hotel Jan Luyken
  • Hotel ‘t Jagershuis
  • Bed and Coffee
  • Amsterdam Marriott

Finding a very clever feature at VibeAgent
While looking in detail at VibeAgent, I discovered a very handy travel planning feature which is not so obvious. This is the map you get if you type in Amsterdam at their Hotel Search:

VibeAgent Amsterdam Search Page

The orange signs mean that the hotel has been reviewed by one or more of the VibeAgent members (who are called VibeAgents).
Here the order starts with the Pulitzer.
However, If you know the exact location where you have to be, you can drag the center of their map to your exact destination. Then their search results change while you move. Excellent thinking!

Vibeagent Search Results

Now the VU location is in the center of the map and suddenly you note a completely different list of hotels starting with the Novotel and the Holiday Inn.

VibeAgent has a long way to go with acquiring more content, but this is a very helpful tool to get names of hotels in a city you don’t know yet!

Fellow TrendHunters mentioned:

Hm TrendHunter should do a bit more homework. Maybe the lady in question and I should get together and do some more research.

Historic Hotels of the Benelux has 2 Amsterdam Hotels:

Some suggestions from the Weekend Hotel list for Amsterdam:

I believe there is no better site for finding a cool hotel in The Netherlands and Belgium than Weekendhotel. Search results of Weekendhotel should be matched with their List of Favorites which counts 38 hotels and B&B’s and even apartments in Amsterdam.

Maybe co author – and owner of the site- at Weekendhotel, Willem steps in with some suggestions as well, as I know he always looks at my Zen Series.

I intend to follow this up with my own list of favorite Amsterdam hotels after a bit more checking.

It still is very time consuming!

Booking a Hotel Online in Berlin: Nothing Zen Part 6

ITB BERLIN 2008 TIPS FROM THE T-LIST

Where to stay in Berlin?

General
So I will be meeting a couple of fellow Travel Bloggers (T-Listers) at the PhoCusWright Travel bloggers Summit.

As a hotelier, my primary focus is Luxury Hotels, although I must admit that anyone who sees the various subjects covered here, might doubt that.

I use the tag Nothing Zen, because when you want to find a real gem, something special, something that doesn’t appear so easy on one of the big sites like Booking or Expedia or so, you have to spend still an enormous amount of time.

When I started this Zen Series I reached as conclusion:

My first conclusion is: Look at various dedicated hotel sites, be it luxury, design, romance or whatever you have in mind and then check back with the bigger sites as Booking, Expedia and the like.

And that still is basically my approach. Cumbersome? Yes! Time consuming? Yes! Stupid? No! The main reason for this approach is to see whether the search possibilities for the real small real luxury hotels (maybe B&B’s) are getting better on the Internet.

For the question “Where to stay in Berlin?” I did even more research than for the same question in prior posts of my Zen Series because there are a lot of hotels in Berlin and there is a bit of progress online:

  1. I discovered Tumblr and used it to scrap and paste a lot of Berlin Hotel related stuff (over 80 items thus far) in Happy Hotelier | Tumblr.
  2. Some fellow Travel Bloggers that I will meet in Berlin, posted about their hotel reservations earlier:.
  3. Tripadvisor is now totally UGC oriented.
  4. Booking.com now is more UGC oriented and getting some weight.
  5. Venere was already UGC oriented much earlier an has tons of reviews.
  6. Unfortunately Kango is developping the technique of review scraping, but has that only implemented for a few USA cities, fortunately, recently they have implemented a dedicated Google derived Travel Blog search engine that is helpful to search the Travel Blog scene
  7. I was a beta tester at VibeAgent and although it has some very nice features and is constantly developing new features and additions, it takes some more time until it is fully usable.
  8. I discovered Hoteltip.

Some Finds collected in Tumblr that have my attention:

  • Hotel De Rome. Gee I would love to stay there!
  • Spreebogen. Near the Hauptbahnhof;
  • Hansablick, mentioned positively on various sites.
  • ArtOtel Center West;
  • Bleibtreu;
  • Lux 11, also mentioned positively on various sites;
  • Hotel Qmentioned positively on various sites;
  • Radisson SAS With the famous Aquadome in its lounge: Alas fully booked;
  • SORAT ArtOtotel Berlin;
  • Generator Hostel in east Berlin,where Europe A La Carte stays, cheap, but a bit too basic for this spoiled hotelier :-);
  • Honigmond Garden Hotel;
  • Kuntlerheim Luise, a tip from Willem my co author at Dutch Weekendhotel Weblogand already on my wish list for quite some time.
  • Miniloft Mitte also a tip from Willem;
  • Ackselhause Berlin, again from Willem. Ouch It has a Flash website. Hoteliers should be forbidden to use flash on their websites
  • Corbusier Hause, Willem again;
  • Grand Hyatt Berlin Hotel ;
  • Mitart, very interesting, unfortunately no TV that I need to get asleep and no Internet connection, a necessity when you attend a Bloggers Summit.
  • ELLINGTON HOTEL BERLIN a find of Guardian writer Sean Dodson who initiated my Zen Series
  • Hotel Concorde; huge;

While Tumblring around I found out that Hotel Chatter is easy navigable and quick and to the point (easy to Tumblr, Gridskipper is also good navigable, but has clustered 10 hotel suggestions around themes like Cheap, Historic, Pensions and so on. The creative Bloggers sites like Les Explorers and Wandalust are unsearchable. The International Herald Tribune Travel blog has hardly anything worthy to say about Berlin Hotels. The Guardian Site is very good navigable and searchable.

The “Classic” approach as per my earlier Zen Series posts:

  • The Hedonist Guide (Hg2),

    Style 8, Atmosphere 7, Location 8
    Arcotel Velvet
    Smart but simple, this design-friendly hotel has a great location in the heart of Mitte…
    From EUR 138

    I skipped the really expensive ones here

    Style 7, Atmosphere 7, Location 8
    Westin Grand
    Luxurious, classically designed five star hotel in Mitte – perfect for shoppers and gourmands…
    From EUR 390

  • Mr and Mrs Smith: No Berlin Hotel in their Portfolio!!!
  • Relais et Chateaux: just one: Bayerisches Hous;
  • Luxury Culture:No Berlin Hotel in their Portfolio!!!
  • The Kiwi collection: They have 8
    

    One of the latest boutique hotels in Berlin. After reunification, the Dorint chain carefully converted the structure into an upscale hotel of artfully simple, Zen-like minimalism.
    Enjoy the opulent splendour of a castle full of history and charm. Now a luxury hotel, the Schlosshotel is an oasis of calm within easy reach of Berlin’s city centre.
    Known for its personal service and classic elegance, The Regent Berlin is one of the most prominent hotels in the capital city.
    A holistic atmosphere, where spaciousness, brightness and outstanding service combine to create an exceptionally personal ambience as tranquil as the countryside, all in the very heart of Berlin…Welcome to the Mandala Hotel!
    Like its famous predecessor, the Hotel Adlon Kempinski which was reopened in 1997, is a symbol of luxury. Modern upgrades and uncompromising service standards have kept it a premier location in Berlin for either the business or leisure traveler.
    Hotel de Rome, originally an old bank, was converted to make use of the buildings full architectural splendor, thereby offering guests an authentic Berlin experience.
    Amid the energy of the city, The Ritz-Carlton, Berlin welcomes guests with a gracious atmosphere, exquisite amenities and impeccable service.

  • Travel Intelligence have a few: They do not allow you to kwout, but via Tumblr I could go around that:

    Travel Intelligence

  • Hotel Designs UK reviewed 3 Berlin Hotels:
    • Adlon
    • Rezidors Regent
    • Park Inn
  • Great Small Hotels:: No Berlin Hotel in their Portfolio!!!
  • Epoque Hotels have the Bleibtreu
  • Avant Garde Hotels have the Bleibtreu and the K Damm 101
  • Design Hotel have the Bleibtreu, the Lux 11 and the Mandela
  • Small Luxury Hotel has the Brandenburger Hof.
  • Alastair Sawdays has no German hotels in his portfolio!!
  • Room For Romance have no Berlin hotels in their portfolio!!
  • XO Private Collection have improved their site considerably and have 3 Berlin Hotels in their portfolio:
    1. Adlon Kempinski, off course
    2. Brandenburger Hof and
    3. Schlosshotel im Grunewald.
  • Perfect Escapes Improved their site and offer 5 or 6 Luxury Hotels In Berlin (one problem is that they didn’t get their addresses right yet) easily to click trhough to availability and in that respect an example for other OTA’s
  • I-Escape has 3 hotels:

The OTA Sites

Haha I spent so much time on the research for this post that I almost forgot to make a reservation. Berlin is quickly selling out…

  • Expedia.com is, as Booking, a huge OTA. What I don’t like is that they list all hotels, even if there is only partial availability. You have to click through many screens. On the other hand that is helpful if you want to break up a stay of several days and stay in two accomodations. Also clever is that you can click up to 4 accomodations in order to compare them. I like their maps!
  • Tripadvisor: Although great for it reviews, it is not very helpful for direct booking. If you try to get a price comparision your screen gets full of new windows and then you have to do a lot of DIY….
  • Booking.com Thusfar my trusted one, you can search on guest reviews. It tends to be a bit slow. Its availability is very reliable.
  • VibeAgent Unfortunately not there yet at all for direct bookings. One example: Radisson SAS was sold out according to several sites, but open according to VibeAgent…when clicking on Rates to Go rate that popped up. I only got a few (very few compared to the other sites Bookings had availability on 50 and Rates to Go only 7 or 8) available hotels…No Radisson SAS. Therefore I have the distinctive impression that the deal between Rates to Go and VibeAgent is only to lure visitors into visiting the Rates to Go Site. It became worse when I clicked another hotel that via Venere (while not visible on Verere’s own site. Venere in VibeAgents frame gave the impression that there were rooms available. It asked me to fill out my credit card details, which I did and only thereafter came back with the announcement that there was no availability…Very disturbing and now I have to check my creditcard invoice if nothing is happening with it….
  • Hoteltip. It comes fast with some interesting deals, but has as a trade in for its speed not very much details, so you need other sites for the backup info.
  • Hotels Combined.Com I had seen it once, but it was Europe A LA Carte who drew my attention to it again. Much Sleeker than Hoteltip, but for the details of the rooms you have to click trough to another OTA. Hm after a few trial and errors the site kept coming up with Asiativ, but there you have the same problem as with tickets for flights: You can only book 14 days in advance. Grrrr.

Updated Monday March 3, 18.00 hr

Finale Verdict

Finally I found a moderately priced place to stay in Pension Elite through Booking.com. I have not looked into Priceline.

My conclusion is that the aggregators like Hoteltip. Hotels Combined.Com and VibeAgent are becoming stronger and offer some help, but you need the reliability of a real OTA and you cannot book something without having checked out the property on Tripadvisor.

To to my view it is still much more of a hassle than would be necessary to DIY hotel bookings if you want something special, especially when you have time constraints or are a notorious late booker like myself.

Updated March 4, 2008 14.00 hr

Preparing for the Travel Bloggers Summit in Berlin: Nothing Zen Part 5

ITB BERLIN 2008 TIPS FROM THE T-LIST

The Event

I am looking forward to the opportunity: On March 5 and 6, 2008 I will be meeting a couple of fellow Travel Bloggers (T-Listers) at a Travel bloggers Summit at ITB Berlin (International Travel Boerse (or Fair), Berlin.

More about the Summit itself later. For now a link to the Blog that has been launched to keep the community informed: ITB 2008 Tips From The T-List

Nothing Zen
In December 2006 I started my Zen series as a sort of status report about how the Internet is developing to help you with planning and booking a trip. Nothing better than to report about your own travel preparations to see how advanced or not the Internet is with respect to DIY Travel.

My 5 Areas of Interest
As I said earlier traveling is about 4 distinctive areas of interest, but actually there are 5 (I now have added as nr 2: “Where to stay in B?”, because that is also the main focus of this blog). Here is the list:

  1. How to travel from A to B? Like: by plane, train, car or by boat? (I hate buses).
  2. Where to stay in B?
  3. How is B looking? Maps, pictures and descriptions (what you usually look for in a paper guide)
  4. How are the people of B?
  5. Things to do in B? Bars, restaurants, theaters, musea, scenic parts

1) How to travel from The Hague to Berlin?
Well this one is simple this time. First, as a hotelier, it is always difficult to plan well ahead of time as there are always last minute guests and/or last minute changes of guests. I have a decent car. The trip to Berlin is 703 km according to my Tom Tom. Main part of the trip is over German motorways without speed limits, so I can burn the rubber a bit. I also like to tour around a bit by car at destinations, because it gives me a better feel of the geography. I have a laptop and some camera gear to take with me which would be a lot of weight for an airplane and last, but not least I like to smoke which is not allowed anymore in planes and trains. Finally, with the very low level of service at airports (I always feel like being in a lorry of pigs heading to the slaughterhouse) and in airplanes and all the delays, there is not so much time to gain when you travel up to 700/800 km. So I decided to go by car.

More to follow, because I hit the “Publish Button” far too early this time:-)

And p.s.: Happy Leap Day!

Buenos Aires – Real Small and Luxury Boutique Hotels

General
This post has been on my back burner for quite some time.

The reason i have revived it is that Buenos Aires is moving up on my wish list to visit. Also I realise there is nothing wrong with ongoing work on posts once published.

Originally I copied and pasted an article that Ian Mount wrote for the Wall Street Journal under the title The SoHo of Buenos Aires – How hip, deal-seeking tourists are transforming a once-sleepy area- dated October 14, 2006.

Why copy a complete article? Because WSJ is notorious for moving around their content and hiding it behind all sorts of barriers. Chance that if you see it once you will never be able to find it back, let it be point your reader to the original article.

Then I stripped it because my main area of interest is the real small Luxury Buenos Aires Hotels and in particular the people behind them.

Finally co author Willem on Dutch Blog Weekendhotel gave some ideas in a post since he spent a couple of weeks in Buenos Aires in 2007.

So in line with my New Year’s Resolution to press the “publish button” more often, I post this and also tag it as WIP (for work in progress) to remind myself that it is a work in progress that occasionally needs some attention

Buenos Aires

For the past three years, Buenos Aires has quietly attracted the attention of international travelers looking for a cool but cheap destination as Europe became prohibitively expensive. Buenos Aires offers some of the old-world chic of Paris or London at a fraction of the cost.

This tourist influx is prompting a new movement to open up the city’s fringe neighborhoods, with a wave of new boutique hotels, Argentine-fusion restaurants and stores featuring cutting-edge work by local designers. Much of this is concentrated in the once-quiet middle class neighborhood of Palermo — far from touristy areas such as Recoleta and Microcentro.

A glut of former grand houses on Palermo’s cobblestone streets is attracting investors — both local and foreign — who are transforming them into stylish hotels that can involve less risk and less capital than bigger projects. Across the city, there are about 20 of these designer hotels — a cross between a cozy bed-and-breakfast and a high-end hotel with all the perks — . These intimate hotels can command relatively high rates, anywhere from $80 to $140, because travelers are willing to pay for an experience that feels more authentic. Many are in Palermo, while others are in the gritty, antique-filled neighborhood of San Telmo and in Las Canitas, known for its upscale restaurants and apartments.

The small hotel movement dovetails with changes in Argentine tourism. When the country’s industries were undergoing large-scale privatization during the Menem presidency in the 1990s, 70%-80% of visitors were business travelers who stayed at chain hotels, says Juan Luis Paredes, a senior hotel, tourism and leisure consultant at Horwath. Overall, average hotel occupancy rose from 41% in 2002 to 72% three years later, according to an annual HotelBenchmark Survey by consulting group Deloitte. Daily room rates increased by more than 30% over that time.

20 Boutique Hotels

So there are about 20 Super Boutique Hotels in Buenos Aires, 8 of which I will describe here:

Krista
The French-style mansion in the neighborhood of Palermo was once the family home and practice of Dr. Raúl Matera, a private doctor to former President Juan Perón. It had become a derelict building.

In 2004, two locals gutted the house and turned it into a 10-room hotel, called Krista, filling it with art nouveau furniture and serving croissants in the room where patients once had their temperature taken. “I never thought of running a hotel,” says co-owner Cristina Marsden, a 34-year-old former marketing executive. “But when the dollar rose against the peso and the city filled with foreigners, I saw the advantage.”

1555 Malabia House
The first-built of the boutiques is 1555 Malabia House, is a converted convent in Palermo; rates start at $105.

Soho All Suites
The minimalist Soho All Suites offers longer-term stays, with rates from $120. It is located not far from 1555 Malabia House.

Home
UK record producer Tom Rixton and Argentine PR Director Patricia O’Shea got the idea for Home when they got married in 2002 and found out there were hardly hotels suitable to receive their wedding guests.

Patricia says that since they opened the hotel in December 2005, competition in the area has been heating up. She suspects some aspiring hoteliers of sending spies to check out her operation, which features antique French wallpaper and a 3,000-square-foot garden. The tipoff, she says, is when locals come for just one night, ask a lot of questions about how she runs the business and then check out with a suitcase full of the hotel’s “Do Not Disturb” signs and laundry bags: “I can spot them from a mile away.”

Bobo
Price hikes are one of several problems for travelers. At Bobo, an 85-year-old mansion in one of the most upscale areas in Palermo, prices start at $100, up from $80 when it opened in 2004. Hotel manager Belen Albertelli says the reason for the rise was an increase in overhead due to the country’s 10-12% annual inflation.

The Cocker
For hoteliers, not all new projects are guaranteed to go up without a hitch. Two years ago, English couple Ian Spink and Aidan Pass bought and began to renovate a 3,500-square-foot, three-floor apartment in a old San Telmo building. Soon after, they say a neighbor threatened legal action to halt the conversion of a roof terrace into a room. Other building residents objected to problems caused by the construction crew.

The couple’s $125,000 investment is now a five-room hotel. It is named after their dog. On the wall behind the reception desk, Mr. Pass has painted a black-and-white, Guernica-like mural of men grappling and fighting — a symbol, he says, of the fraught construction experience. In the top left, a women peacefully sits cross-legged. “She symbolizes the future,” says Mr. Spink.

Mansion Dandy Royal
Via Hotels of the Rich and Famous:
The Mansion Dandi Royal Offers A Full Spectrum Of Amenities – Elevators, Laundry Service, Swimming Pool, Jacuzzi, Gym, Solarium, 2 Exquisite Indoor Patios, Computer Room, Meeting Room, 2 Spacious Elegant Salons With Superb 1925 Original Wooden Floors For All Sorts Of Events, Excellent Sound Systems, 2 Stages For Shows And Rehearsals. -mansion Dandi Royal Has An Excellent Staff Always Willing To Indulge And Cater To Its Guests,who Also Have The Possibility Of Taking Private Or Group Tango Lessons At The Dandi Academy. -the Hotel Has 15 Rooms On 5 Floors.

Design Suites
I had spotted Design Suites already inJune 2006. When I now look at their site I have the strong impression that the place is really well designed, but lacks the personal note.

More to follow with updates and grateful for any suggestions from my readers.

Edition will be the name of the new Schrager/Marriott brand

Marriott and Schrager
Marriott and Schrager, (Boyscouts?)

In a meeting today in Beverly Hills Ian Schrager and J.W. Marriott, Jr. will introduce the name Edition for their earlier announced venture. They will announce signed development deals with the first properties being opened in 2010. They have reached agreements with developers for the first nine of what eventually could be more than 100 Edition hotels in markets around the globe. Under the agreements, Edition hotels are now planned for Paris, Madrid, Costa Rica, Miami, Washington, Chicago and Scottsdale, Ariz. Two hotels are planned for Los Angeles.

They are in advanced discussions involving 20 more hotels with as many as 30 agreements in prime locations expected by the end of 2008.

Six months ago, they anticipated having only five projects announced by the end 2007, essentially half of what has actually been signed.

The hotels will have an average size of 150-200 rooms. Not exactly what I would call a Boutique Hotel Brand.

World-renowned architects and designers will be recruited to create one-of-a-kind buildings spanning the complete range of project types, from new construction, to conversions, to dramatic renovations. Mr. Schrager will be leading the Edition venture on concept, design, marketing, branding and food and beverage. Marriott will be overseeing the development process, and will operate the properties.

Source: E Hotelier.

Added:

Probably E-Hotelier cited from a press release…

Very cleverly Mr. Marriott devoted a post to it on his Marriott on the Move Blog from which I pinched the photo.
Quite funny Mr. Marriott picked this photo where he has his eyes open and Mr Schrager not so much.
There I learned that actually the meeting was on January 29, 2008.