Category: Luxury

After The T-List: The L-List

On 7th March Paul Johnson of A Luxury Travel Blog launched the L-List

Calling all luxury bloggers!

Inspired by the recent T-List that’s doing the rounds, I thought it’s about time we started an L-List. As you may have guessed, L-List stands for Luxury List, and it provides luxury bloggers a means of being discovered. You might be blogging about any aspect of the luxury arena… cars… fashion… food and wine… travel… whatever. My goal is simple: I want the hard work of many luxury bloggers out there (Allison, Ava, Courtney, Deidre, Mary, Nicole, etc. – note to self: where are all the male luxury bloggers?!) to be recognized and hopefully the L-List can help in achieving that.

Pffff I am counting already 27 Blogs…What do I add?

Happy Reading over the weekend!

Well, I did believe I Blog about Luxury Travel and Luxury Accommodation…if you don’t believe me, please check out Happy Hotelier’s Luxury Tag, but alas I didn’t make it (yet) to the L-List (-:.

Look here for Paul’s Technorati Ranking.

Finally: From now on I will try to stay away from Lists for some time, because it can easily become an addiction 🙂

Added 14 March:

Well nobody less than Mary Winston Nicklin of The Informed Traveller was so kind to add me to the list.

Dutch Erfgoed (=Heritage) Hotels changes name into Historic Hotels of the Benelux

ERFGOEDHOTELS OLD SITE

The association of Dutch Heritage hotels by the name of Erfgoed Hotels Benelux (erfgoed = Dutch for heritage) has changed its name into Historic Hotels of the Benelux. Its nice new brochure has already the new lay out. When everything goes all right, its old lay out of its website here above will change into the new lay out here below this week:

HISTORIC HOTELS BENELUX

Historic Hotels of the Benelux is a member of Historic Hotels of Europe.

Historic Hotels of Europe is a partner of Historic Hotels of America

Dutch Design (5): FG Stijl

College Hotel Amsterdam redesigned by FG Stijl

FG Stijl – the F comes from Finegan and the G from Glintmeijer – is a Dutch firm of architects and designers.

Colin Finnegan (1968), a British native with a British degree in interior design, lives and works in Amsterdam for over 16 years and formed a partnership with Gerard Glintmeijer in 1995.

Gerard Glintmeijer (1968), a Dutch native, started his career in the field of the hospitality. He studied at a Dutch hotel school, textile and management and finished his study as a concept designer and interior stylist.

FG Stijl Architecture and Interior design are located on one of Amsterdam’s islands where Design related companies are cozily clustering together.

A selection of their past Projects:

  • Restaurant Parkheuvel ** [2 Michelin stars], Rotterdam April 1997: Furnishing and re-styling of the complete interior.
  • Restaurant Calla’s *, [1 Michelin star], The Hague, September 1998: Concept development and furnishing for a new restaurant. International surrounding, in which meeting people and dining are the main issue. Modern new-chique.
  • Restaurant Rosarium, Amsterdam, August 1999: Concept development and interior design for a new restaurant with wine-bar, conference rooms and other facilities. Total 1400 m2.
  • SIMPLY BREAD, the natural food company, which first opened in Maastricht in September 2000 and will open stores in The Hague and in Rotterdam soon: Concept development and interior design for Pilot store.
  • Restaurant Aux Moulins, Kinderdijk (yes very near to the UN heritage site of the 19 windmills, a must see in The Netherlands), August 2000: Furnishing and re-styling of the complete interior.
  • Beachclub De Kust, Bloemendaal – Zandvoort May 2001: Furnishing and re-styling of the complete beachclub and restaurant.
  • Hotel Greenpark , Leidschendam (a suburb of The Hagues), April – August 2001: Concept development and interior design of the ground floor bar|brasserie|restaurant| entrance|reception|lounge|terrace.
  • Unilever, Rotterdam, April 2002: Concept development and interior design of the boardroom and the entrance hall of this Dutch food and perfume multinational.
  • Parkheuvel *** [3 Michelin stars], Rotterdam Januari 2003: Design, furnishing and re-styling of the complete interior, incl. new kitchen and toilets.
  • Heineken Head office, Amsterdam, December 2003: Material- and color advice for its restaurant.
  • Panisse, a pastry shop, inspired by Restaurant Calla’s, The Hague, December 2003. Architecture and interior design.

Note: The Restaurant Parkheuvel has changed ownership and has now only one Michelin star for 2006/2007.

Bill Gates: more of a Hotelier (2)

As mentioned earlier, Four Seasons is under bid from Bill Gates and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, the principal behind Kingdom Hotels.

After obtaining favorable recommendations from a special Committee of independent Directors, the Board of Directors of Four Seasons has approved the take over and anticipates completion in the second quarter of 2007 subject approval by the shareholders. More in a press release of Four Seasons.

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.”