The current definition of a limited service hotel is simply a hotel that ‘Omit[s] conventional full service facilities and services such as meeting rooms, swimming pools, business centres and gyms. Customers self-serve and book rooms online at their convenience.’ Tune. For the most part, Nuvo Hotel Suites falls under this standard. The hotel is located in a block of renovated studio apartments, and as such does not have some of the facilities that a larger, full service hotel would have. Our guests do get special rates at a nearby gym and several nearby restaurants but, for better or for worse, we don’t have those facilities attached. This is a pretty popular idea lately; The Days Inn Worldwide, Comfort Inn, and Hampton have all been developing these types of properties for some time now. And, while there have been some bumps in the road, this setup has worked out pretty well so far. In fact it’s worked out so well that we’re now moving to the next step. Automation.

I WISH this was the new Check-In machine

Because we don’t have a 24 hour front desk, if someone were to try and book a last-minute room after the office is closed they wouldn’t get very far before running into some major hurdles. Having management handle these bookings, as well as any check-ins that arrive after the office is closed, can be both stressful and costly. So, in the next few months Nuvo Hotel Suites will be implementing two new services to try and provide better around-the-clock service to our guests. The first is the installation of an automated Check-In booth at our main entrance. This little gizmo will allow last-minute travellers to book, pay for, and get access to a room at any time of the day. The benefits are obvious; the risks are a bit more ethereal. It’s a little impersonal, and no machine will be able to handle all of the routine problems that tend to crop up. So, to handle the latter we will be employing an excellent call center, based out of Maine, to handle the late night issues. The idea is to improve the quality of service during our ‘off’ hours while at the same time keeping the personal touches and sense of style that’s helped to make us as popular as we’ve become. In the next weeks and months we’ll be diligently monitoring the guest feedback to make sure everything is working the way we’d like it to, but if anyone out there has some comments or experiences to share I’d love to hear from you.

The Sunday Times UK has named the Tea Factory, Sri Lanka’s first theme hotel, among the “World’s Best 100 Places to Stay” in its September travel issue. Commenting on the article, Mr Malin Hapugoda, Managing Director of Aitken Spence Hotels, commented: “We are really excited that one of our own iconic hotel properties has been featured in the list of the “World’s Best Places to Stay” by the UK’s leading Sunday newspaper. The Tea Factory Hotel is truly unique to the world as it is the only tea factory which has been converted to a top-class boutique hotel.”

2007 – Ace Magazine Issue 4

Christmas time in London is always magical, with ice skating at Somerset House, German markets in Hyde Park and Covent Garden’s piazza all lit up, but after what feels like a lifetime since the last summer beach holiday, I’m just dying to get away for a few days.

Next month I’m going to Paris (my ‘third home’) for a few nights and now is the time when I obsessively search for the prettiest hotels in the area I want to stay in and then trawl the net for the best deals.  For most people may sound like a pain worse than death, not a secret indulgence, so if you’re planning a winter city break, I’ve done some of the leg work so you can pick the best affordable boutique hotels – I’ve stayed in all of them and would definitely visit again.

A while ago, I went to Paris with my mum and as we planned a night at the Opéra Bastille and particularly love the Marais, we booked to stay three nights the affordable design hotel Le Quartier Bastille Le Faubourg, an affordable design hotel in the 12e arondissement.

The hotel is sleek and contemporary with retro features like curved leather seats, fringing and glass orbs in the reception/lounge.  When you arrive, you’re hit with the kind of seductive, wood and musk aroma that you’d expect from Hôtel Costes.

Neutral tones with bold statement colours are the order for the bedrooms and they have cool design touches like perspex chairs, a flatscreen TV and a very touchable fibre optic light feature.  The beds are so comfortable that you just can’t wait to curl up in the crisp, cotton linen and catch some zzzs after a long day walking in the city.  They also place delicious Granny Smith apples on your pillows each morning to help you get your five a day amid the steak and fromage overload.

The best feature of the hotel is its beautiful outside terrace with wooden decking and red tables, beautiful plants and flowers and gardening can watering features. Paris is full of secret courtyards and Paris fashionistas flock to them for brunch or drink with a bit of secluded people-watching.

We didn’t have breakfast at the hotel (although it looked delicious), but we found an adorable bakery on the Rue du Faubourg St-Antoine where you could sit and have a café crème and pastries.

Le Quartier are a small hotel group that used to own a property near République and now also run Le Quartier Bercy-Square on the nearby Boulevard de Reuilly.  The staff were friendly and talkative and there are plenty of coffee table books and magazines like Madame Figaro to keep you amused.

Rates seem to start at 110 Euros a night for a double classic room in November and December, but check around the web for the best deals (we paid 95 Euros when we stayed).

Le Quartier Bastille Le Faubourg is best suited to second-timers in Paris who are familiar with getting around on the metro.  The location doesn’t have the grandeur of the Louvre area or the Left Bank, but you get a boutique hotel with individual design touches without the sky-high prices of more central hotels.  It’s one of the best places to sleep in style and still have enough Euros left for late-night aperitifs.

Le Quartier Bastille Le Faubourg, 9 Rue De Reuilly, 75012 Paris

Boundary is 120 yr old Victorian warehouse in Shoreditch, East London that has been restored into 3 restaurants and bars (including rooftop drinking space), 12 boutique guest rooms, 5 suites, a bakery (Albion café/ awesomeness) and a food store.

Aside from locally sourced organic produced served and sold in the restaurants and food stores, the unique environmental aspect is the 120m bore holes that have been drilled below the floors of the ground floor restaurant.

One hole collects water and energy from the natural artesian reservoir that flows beneath and the other hole returns the same untainted resource after it has been used to operate the air-conditioning, refrigeration systems, ice-machines and various other equipment.

Aside from the environmental aspects the aesthetics, atmosphere and panoramic rooftops views makes this spot a great early evening haunt for food, drinks and a bed if needed.

via remodelista

European Hotel Design Awards – The Boundary – Hotel of the Year

Godzilla Hostel, Moscow

A fifteen minute walk north of the Kremlin and Red Square is Godzilla Hostel, a multi-storey behemoth of a backpackers resort.

Having been cheated out of our reservation (and 10% deposit) at the scandalous Camelot Hostel, Godzillas’ took us in from the street and found us dorm beds for the duration of our six nights in the capital.

Spread over four storeys, the hostel is priced, like most of Moscow, at the top end of the scale (around £20 a night in a dorm), but with all the mod-cons that that such a price tag deserves. Wi-fi, washing facilities, more than one kitchen, a comfortable lounge and decent security, are some of the bonuses included (along with a manager, Scott, who will help you out and provide conversation).

The place seems to be a popular starting point for many people’s trips on the Trans-Siberian or Trans-Mongolian, and you’re more likely to find a junior CEO of a trendy company in the lounge doing the ‘whole Russia thing’, than a bearded, shabby, thread-bare traveller.

But then that’s the curse of hostels become increasingly kitsch and boutique. All over Europe, hostel owners are realizing they can market their lodgings as a quirky boutique hostel, offering as many private rooms as cheap dorm beds. The result? Budget conscious travellers are having an even tougher time affording to back-pack through Europe. But that’s a rant for another day…..

On a very calm side street in the 17th arrondissement, not far from the Arc de Triomphe and just a few minutes’ walk to the Champs Elysèes, is The Hidden Hotel, a peaceful oasis in the busy heart of Paris. Like its sister hotel The Five, The Hidden also follows its own unique philosophy. Environmentally friendly, ethnic and modern influences combine to create a harmonious design concept. The materials used are left in their natural state whenever possible and are of the highest quality. The rooms are very tastefully furnished and follow the same interior design concept as the rest of the hotel. LCD screens, air conditioning and wireless Internet (for a fee) are all standard. The breakfast buffet places a special emphasis on organic food and offers a balanced variety. When the weather is nice, guests can enjoy breakfast on the small, idyllic patio. The bar creates delicious tapas and mixes excellent cocktails. The Hidden also has a studio that can be specially arranged to meet guests’ needs. The perfect place for business dinners, meetings, a private party, tastings or whatever else your heart desires.
Make your reservation at www.lifestylehotels.net

Right in the middle of Europe’s sport region Zell am See – Kaprun you will find the Mavida Balance Hotel & Spa. The fabulous mountain landscape and the lake form the backdrop for a tailor-made restorative holiday. At the hotel, value is placed on an aesthetic of reduction. People are in the focus, not the design. The rooms are designed in a modern style according to the philosophy of the hotel and you will benefit and experience their charm and sensuality. Bodily wellbeing is taken care of chef Matthias Stalzer, formerly the right hand of Jörg Wörther. He uses only absolutely fresh and regional products and can be viewed over his shoulder in the show kitchen in the process. Enjoy the comforting peace in the pool, the steams baths and the saunas. Float in a unique floating tank or spoil yourself with the special massages and beauty applications.

Uh-oh, I feel like having my birthday at Klapsons hotel instead. It looks so awesome! The interior is gorgeous and no two rooms are alike. There is a shower facility right in the middle of the room, enclosed with glass only. The rooms are all lined with full-length mirrors. Kinky. Hahaha.

Guys, should I hold my birthday at Butter or just have a hotel room party?

Instead of eating at the same local restaurants and seeing the same people you see every week, why not plan a fun weekend trip to somewhere exciting and new? Check out weekend getaways and luxury travel vacations…

by Tan Hock Beng

Hardcover: 216 pages. Publisher: Gingko Pr Inc (August 1999). Language: English. ISBN-10: 9810082452. ISBN-13: 978-9810082451. Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.5 x 1 inches. Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds

This used book – buku bekas – really teaches how certain Asian tropical structures support the natural beauty of their environment. Not only are the photographs carefully composed to show harmony of the organic and the man-made, but Tan Hock Beng’s text offers useful comments about using materials, line, light (and other factors) to design a great tropical home or resort.

This used book – buku bekas – concentrates on Bali, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, but there is also a single example from each of Tamil Nadu and Bintan. Then this used book – buku bekas – illuminates these featured structures with plenty of photos from all over the region. This format gives space to a huge number of other hotels and homes and temples, without making the book seem crowded. Some very clever editing went into this used book – buku bekas. The juxtapositions are quite effective. Comparisons (for example, a series of passageways in a Cambodian temple shown opposite an open-sided walkway in a Bali boutique hotel) are well-chosen and useful. The reader will definitely get a sense of regional furniture, decor, and objects d’art, but the concentration of the author is architectural / structural. (Go to books Bali Style, Thai Style, et cetera, for all the little details). There’s a pleasing balance of the poetic and the practical, making this a great resource and reference used book – buku bekas.

 Rp 540.000,-  Rp 398.000,- (Discount 35%)

Desso custom-created 650 square metres of flooring for CitizenM hotel in Amsterdam. The floor features a map of the city taken from an ariel satellite photo to help you navigate your way. Long before it became popular to safeguard the environment, Desso was already doing regular on-site checks to ensure the best possible environmental production methods. In addition, every Desso carpet and carpet tile carries a unique GuT test number that proves it passes GuT tests for contamination and emission. They also have initiatives for re-using carpet to ease the burden on landfills, and ongoing research programs for environmental awareness, product and packaging. So not only does this cool flooring go room to room, but cradle to cradle as well.

Member Rates from $159

The Hotel at Terminal City Club is ready to welcome you - sleep well!

Terminal City Club members benefit from exclusive discounted rates in the Club’s boutique hotel and are able to extend these savings to their family, friends, and corporate clients. For more information or to arrange a tour of the guest rooms, contact Hotel Reservations & Sales Manager Kelly Bontje at 604.488.8606.

Whether you’re looking for cool new restaurants in your city, the hidden boutique hotels, celebrity travel tips and celeb chefs to cook your dream meal for you – journeyPod is in the know! Sign up for our free luxury travel email…

As we turned the corner with our stroller and luggage, the black-panelled glass with the big words PUR caught my eye! “There it is!” I exclaimed, and we hefted towards our hotel for the weekend. The streets were bright with people, and our walk from train station to hotel a surprisingly short and enjoyable saunter. Quebec City, it seems, is a walking city. We were excited! Our long planned whirlwind trip was upon us! Even our son was happily babbling away at all the strangers, waving his snack trap, sending Cheerios out onto the cobblestones. We walked in the glass front doors, expecting loungy music, and a trendy vibe, all for $145 per night. (and yes, this was a good rate for Quebec City on Labour Day weekend, don’t get me started on the rates for the other side of town at the Marriot or Delta…)

The Hotel we stayed at was supposed to be a trendy boutique hotel, one where the amenities were modern, the stay comfortable, and the atmosphere very minimalist and urban. I envisioned a similar experience to the Brookstreet Hotel out in the suburbs of Ottawa, or perhaps Indigo downtown. Classy, trendy, simple, yet… refined modern styling with a hip take on luxury.

But, alas, this was where the enthusiasm for our fancy urban hotel experience ended. What we got was an IKEA decorated hotel that seemed to run out of money before the finishing touches could be put in. It was urban without the polished chrome, trendy without the class. The attention to minimalist detail was, in fact, not.

We had a King room, which, after a long train ride, was giving me ideas of a massive king sized bed in which to sink, out son playing happily around it, us recovering from the journey before seeking dinner. The bathrooms were described as opulent modern design with a big tub OR a shower, both which would provide ample comfort after a day walking the streets of the city. A mini-bar and bottled water would greet us in our room. An LCD TV was standard, and up off the level that a toddler could reach. Cribs were complimentary. Cribs! Not playpens, not cots, but cribs!

Ummm yeah….

As we exited the elevator onto our floor, we couldn’t see. Literally. The entire hallway was painted black, with the room numbers stencilled in burnt orange on the bottom of each door. I suddenly felt as if I was in one of those U-Stor-It places where you have indoor storage rooms with the hallway all the way around the outside, each with a big number on them and a roll-top door. It was so dark, if not for the recessed pot lights in the ceiling, we would not have found our way very well. I suppose this could be fun, but we weren’t expecting this level of weirdness upon checking in. I had never, in all my life, associated black as a proper hallway colour, especially in a hotel. From the iPod white of the lobby to depths of Mordor in the hallways, we had gone from Retina-burning-glossiness to secret bat-cave darkness in a blink.

Our room was small, and overlooked the street below us. Thankfully, it looked out over a decadently wonderful coffee shop we later began calling “our coffee shop”, and my husband would look out the window in the morning and know when it was time to go get croissant, since the delivery truck arrived. They make an expresso drink called L’orgasme, which is doppio expresso, dulche de leche, and whipped cream. Another, called Le petit printemps, was doppio, maple syrup, and whipped cream. I ordered my coffee in French, and felt as if the summer of French courses had indeed paid off.

In our room, we discovered the following exceptional things:

• Indeed the king sized bed was a double, maybe a queen
• The “crib” was an ancient Evenflo playpen that creaked constantly when our son was in it (he slept on the bed with us the whole weekend) The surround for the air conditioning unit was not attached to the wall (I brought painter’s tape to baby-proof the room, and we taped it to the wall)
• There was no mini-bar OR bottled water OR coffee machine in the room
• There were no extra blankets or pillows available
• No ice machines or kitchenettes were available (we couldn’t heat up formula, nor get ice for the tepid tap water)
• The restaurant was closed (upon further investigation, it has always been closed), and there was no room service
• The soaker tub and shower were lovely, but very difficult to get in and out of (no safety grip bar things at all!)
• The shower head was adjustable height-wise, but not centred in the tub
• There was mold in all the grout lines of the shower (YUCK! I told the front-desk person upon check out about it so that the next person would not have to deal with that)
• The shower curtain was not waterproof… Seriously! Water went right through the fabric onto the floor
• The desk, sidetable, and stools were made with glossy melamine, and the corners were very, very sharp (Not kid safe at all, we had to move some of it to where our son could not get at it and worry constantly about the rest)
• The phone only worked sometimes
• The iPod-docking clock radio in fact had no radio on it. If you didn’t have an iPod, you couldn’t listen to music at all
• The LCD TV was in fact a Dell monitor with speakers and an external remote attached. The quality of picture was at best, fuzzy, and the volume was terrible
• Black curtains on the window facing West made the room heat to oven-temperature during the day, which the A/C unit could not keep up to
• There were no dressers to put clothing in, but there was a fancy recessed lighting box thing that jutted at hip level along one wall
• No iron or ironing board
• A tiny broken chest of drawers stuffed into the closet that couldn’t be fixed to put something into
• A safe that didn’t work

So, there we were.

Not what the brochure had promised at all, but in fact, was so far from it we just looked at each other and burst out into laughter as our son ground cheese crackers into the black carpet. My husband called down to the front desk to ask if our room had been assigned wrong, since we had asked for a King room. They assured us that indeed it was a King sized bed. We gave up on trying to rectify other problems with the room, since the front desk staff seemed, at best, unaware of how to actually address someone who was complaining. One poor girl had a constant “deer-in-headlights” look to her when we went and asked about a family-friendly restaurant to go to. She had no idea what restaurants were around the hotel, and couldn’t help us. Oh dear…

We contemplated switching hotels, but the fact of the weekend was upon us. Every hotel was full, and if we changed now, it might cost us a lot more out of our meagre vacation fund to do so. We looked around, shrugged out shoulders, and decided to make the best of it. Changing rooms wasn’t an option either, since the hotel was fully booked. We are adaptable people, we could manage. Besides, we weren’t going to be spending a lot of time here. We had a city to see!

And that was the brunt of it. When we left on Monday morning, I bid adieu to our Emo-goth-IKEA hotel and we headed towards the station. As we boarded the train, I realized we left the green painter’s masking tape holding the the A/C unit to the wall, the mini-bar fridge closed, and the lamps to the side table.

Maybe that will be a hint for them.

This weekend while out on a college tour adventure, we stayed at a newly redone hotel called the Artmore in Atlanta.  They describe themselves as:

An independent boutique hotel, the Artmore prides itself on delivering a personalized guest experience, not previously seen in Atlanta.

It is a 1924 building done in Spanish-Mediteraen style with a really cool courtyard.  We loved the room, it was a double full bed room with its own little kitchenette and nice bathroom.  Decorated in a “mod” style with old movie star photos and comfy beds.  It was a fun, unique place to stay and the girls loved it.  The only downfall was that they have techno music playing in the courtyard and while it was cool in the background as we hung out in the courtyard talking,…. it wasn’t so great at 11:30 when all we wanted to do was sleep.  We had an interior courtyard facing room.  Thankfully, they shut it off at midnight.  I would definitely stay again, though, I would request an exterior room.

Something about the way that the Thai Airways flight attendant announced, “Welcome to the Kingdom of Thailand,” made me feel as if I would soon be landing in a magical place. As I looked down upon the aquamarine sea, punctuated throughout with islands of various sizes and shapes, my mind filled with images of sandy beaches, lush fauna and flora, endless waterfalls and, of course, cocktails by the poolside.

When I arrived at the Indigo Pearl, a resort that DH found on a boutique hotel website, the stress of the previous weeks started to loosen its grip and I felt my body eager to relax into submission.

DH had arrived the night before in order to spend a day scuba diving. After I registered my passport, the attendant packed my bags into a golf cart and drove me to the room; she said it was too far for me to walk from the lobby. As she expertly maneuvered the cart around tall Rhododendrons, quirky fish-tail ferns and a jungle of other tropical plants, which I could not name, I felt like I had landed in a scene from Jurassic Park, without the dinosaurs, of course. It wasn’t just the lushness of the jungle-like resort, but the fact that the layout was discretely private without making one feel too lost and forgotten.

The room that DH had booked for us included all the amenities a couple would want for their honeymoon: backyard with private pool, outdoor bathtub for two, lounge bed and cushions and even matching lounge chairs, in case we wanted to bath in the nude. The decor of the room smartly married exposed concrete, hardwood, stone tiles, galvanized steel, recycled plastic and rubber to create a luxurious and comfortable space, a home away from home. The satiny-soft cotton sheets, wrapped around a king-sized bed, was invitingly alluring, unlike the sheets of the previous hotel that I had stayed in only a few weeks before (love motel my ass!). I particularly loved the gigantic teak sliding door that separated the bedroom area from the bathroom and the unique toilet paper dispenser.

DH was not due back from his diving trip for a few more hours so, after unpacking my bags, I went in search of something refreshing to drink. I didn’t need to venture far before I stumbled upon an airy bar, overlooking one of the resort’s pools on one side and the well-manicured lawns on the other. I found a nice perch on the pool side, ordered a gin cocktail and slowly eased into vacation mode. Our holiday in the Kingdom of Thailand was off to a good start.