Archive for the ‘Hotels’ Category
December 14th, 2010 Author:
Roger
This is a transcript of a podcast interview I did with Andrew Pike, general manager of the Milestone Hotel - a boutique 5 star hotel in Kensignton, London
How do you see the opportunities and challenges of a five star hotel in these difficult times?
I think we’re probably experiencing some of our most challenging times today. Various factors - one certainly is the recent security alerts that have been in place for a while now that have come very much to the forefront of people’s minds. And perhaps the second thing is the continuing issue with the dollar exchange rate and that’s obviously eating into people’s pockets. A lot of our guests are overseas visitors.
How many guests are American?
Around 50% of our guests at the Milestone, so it’s quite a big number for us.
So you’re trying to keep that clientele obviously and I would think, trying to diversify. Are you having success in that?
Yes we are. We’ve got a fairly strong base of European guests as well but traditionally the Milestone has been a fairly strong US hotel.
With a mixture of guests and the mixture of nationalities, how do you reconcile different nationalities in their needs, requirements and demands, and also the business and leisure traveler?
“We recognize that different nationalities may have specific requirements… but we like to personalize our service and we very much do regard people as individuals and maybe not get too hooked up on customizing in relation to specific nationalities.”
People often get confused on how to define a five star property versus a four star property, and stars vary all over the world and are not a consistent classification in my view. What do you see as the characteristics of a five star hotel?
I think that the basics in terms of quality, comfort, fixtures and fittings (there’s the comfortable bathrooms that work), are all a prerequisite at the five star level. What marks a five star property out above any others is really the service. It’s down to individuals; it’s down to the staff and the interaction they have with guests.
How do you maintain good service?
We’ve got to recruit the right people to start with, you’ve got to recruit people who genuinely love looking after other people, that has to be in place; then its really a question of being fair, appreciating the people that are working with you; great training program - we have one of the most comprehensive training programs for our staff that I think any hotel company has and that’s really key.
Do you check on them (the staff) from time to time with mystery shoppers?
Yes, mystery shoppers are very much on our agenda.
Discerning travelers are now keen to get back to basics. In the old days, of course, you looked for a comfortable bed and clean towels in the bathroom, etc. Now hotel bedrooms are a bit like luxury apartments, with gizmos, such as Wi-Fi, multi-channel television, Internet access, and that sort of thing, but people are getting back to basics in that the main thing is to get a good night’s sleep.
Definitely; I think that’s still the primary requirement and so we’ve adopted a view that, yes we want to keep up to date with technology in particular and you can’t afford to fall behind in those areas, but we recognize first and foremost that the fundamentals - the quality mattress and bed, the air conditioning that works; the fact that it’s not noisy; that’s really the priority for us.
People are really getting into feeling the linen and plumping the pillows and jumping on the bed and mattress and so on. Can you tell me something about that?
Sure. We have a standard with the companies that supply our linen that they provide us with a minimum thread count of 200 per square inch - this indicates how soft the linen feels. If it’s 200 or more it’s going to feel very soft and so that’s a standard we’ve had in place for a little while.
I have a list of things I love to hate about hotels. One of the things I love to hate is air conditioning which is noisy and I can’t regulate it, and windows that don’t open - I’m either hot or cold. How do you handle these idiosyncrasies?
I think the air conditioning requirement is a fairly fundamental one for everybody and we’re lucky we employ some very skilled people that look after that - the whole maintenance of that system is paramount. When we need to replace air conditioning in any part of the hotel then that’s top of the list - everything’s got a life expectancy and we plan for that accordingly.
What are the things that travelers really need, and what are the things they think they need or would like to have as options?
I think the must-haves are very much the basic comforts we’ve talked about - the comfortable bed, a feeling of security, a decent bar where they can get a drink and relax in the evening, anything they need in terms of newspapers and information - I think those are the basics they expect. The “would-like-to-haves”, I think are more down to the personal level and certainly one of the key people in our hotel is the head concierge. If someone is coming to London for a number of days it’s pretty important to have that point of contact. I think that access to information as they need it, when they need it is important too.
How important is internet access and all the high tech gadgetry that travellers need to keep in touch?
Very important I think Roger. Whether it be the corporate guest or the leisure guest, everybody wants to keep in touch with the internet these days. One of the things we decided to do was to offer this as a facility without charge, just because people are using it all the time now, so I’d sat that’s very important.
What is the Milestone’s cutting edge? What is its competitive advantage over other five star properties?
If I answered that in one, I’d say it’s our staff - the great interaction and the personalized service that we offer our guests.
Do you have any special facilities or services for women travelers?
We do. We have a number of women travelers and there are a number of things we do, that I think are appreciated…if a single female traveler is dining in the restaurant, then our team are trained to not be sitting them in the centre (where they may feel a little bit surrounded) but to find a nice cosy corner. When we’re delivering a room service tray to our guests, we will always allocate a female member of staff to deliver that. And also, being a bit smart about which floor we use- the female traveler will not necessarily want to be on the ground floor. It is little things like that that I think are appreciated.
How important are loyalty programs?
I think there’s certainly a place for them, we recognize that they are important, they are of value to people, but I think with our company, and I speak obviously from the Milestone Hotel’s perspective, I think that what people are looking for more than anything else is recognition. And I think if Mr. Smith or Mrs. Smith check into the hotel , it’s about us knowing what their newspaper is and offering that newspaper up front, having a drink ready for them in the bar that we know they like - I think it’s that feeling of being wanted and made special that’s more important than the points they collect which they may or may not trade in.
http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=5584
October 29th, 2010 Author:
Roger
‘A life in food’ by Bea Tollman is a luscious coffee table book self published by Red Carnation Hotels. It is, surprise, surprise on display everywhere, and was handed to all 350 delegates at a tourism conference last week in Cape Town.
Well, yes, so much for that, you’d think. But the 29 recipes in the book describe what I call ‘real food’ as distinct from ‘mucked about food.’ They are an inspiration for anyone who needs to get everyday food on tables. In fact I’ve borrowed one very simple recipe, ‘The best Dover sole in London,’ for my own forthcoming cook book, ‘Food & the Single Man.’
Here’s the review I posted on Amazon.
‘This book is a love story; a life long affair with hospitality, fine dining and comfort food; a must-read for everyone who loves good food, and preparing it for themselves and their loved ones.
The author, Bea Tollman, is the founder-president of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection of thirteen boutique hotels – five in London, two in Dorset, Guernsey, Geneva, Palm Beach and three in South Africa. Her book provides fascinating autobiographical insights into the career she has shared with her husband Stanley over many decades. Photographs of the Tollman’s with their family and celebrities – from their early days in South Africa, through the evolution of Red Carnation Hotels to today – are juxtaposed with twenty-nine deliciously illustrated recipes.
‘Delicious comfort food has always been my speciality, with each dish highlighting the ingredients and none being overpowering,’ Tollman writes. ‘I believe that most people when dining out or staying at hotels want good value, tasty and satisfying food, without too much complication or fuss.’
Amen to that. There are cookbooks meant for browsing; poetic recipes with a laundry list of esoteric ingredients and minutely detailed dosages and procedures meant to be enjoyed vicariously. Leafing through the pages, you are eating with your mind, your imagination, yet knowing that these are dishes you will never actually attempt to make.
But this is a cookbook of recipes that are simple, easy to follow, lovingly honed over the years, that you know you’ll want to make, and that you know will work! It’s what I call real food, not messed about food…
‘Yes, so many people are going back to that sort of food,’ Tollman says. ‘You can go to a restaurant and everything might look good, piled up, one thing on top of the other. But how can you mix so many flavors together? Are you eating food, or are you eating a creative… picture?’
As a self-catering man, who enjoys cooking for guests, I recommend dishes like ‘Egg & onion dip;’ ‘Bea’s chicken soup;’ Bea’s favorite chicken liver pate;’ ‘Pot roast brisket & chicken;’ ‘Spaghetti pomodoro;’ and the sublime ‘Hand chopped sirloin’ (Hamburger it is not!). ‘Bea’s cheesecake,’ and other puddings look enticing, but I’m not a great dessert man.
I would wish for a few more recipes in this delectable coffee table book, and a ‘rendered down’ text of the recipes that I can use in the kitchen.’
August 19th, 2010 Author:
Roger
Talk about traveling with pets. Here comes British budget hotel chain Travelodge with news that it has found 75,000 teddy bears left behind by their errant owners at its 452 hotels within the last 12 months.
In response to this staggering finding, Travelodge surveyed 6,000 Britons to investigate the nation’s fascination with cuddly bears. The survey revealed that more than a third (35%) of adults admit they sleep with their teddy because they found cuddling their bear comforting; and the calming feeling of a bear hug also helps them to de-stress after a hard day – which aids sleep.
A quarter of male respondents reported they take their teddy bear away with them when traveling on business. As it reminds them of home and a bear cuddle helps them to nod off as they miss a bedtime cuddle from their partner. In addition, over a quarter of adults 26% use a teddy bear hot water bottle so that they can have a warm bear hug to help them nod off.
Psychologist Corrine Sweet says: ‘Cuddling a teddy bear is an important part of our national psyche as it evokes a sense of peace, security and comfort. It’s human nature to crave these feelings from childhood through adult life. This is why 35% of British adults sleep with their teddy bear. It’s not surprising, then, that taking a cuddly bear on a business trip is so popular, even among men (25%). A bedtime bear evokes the secure feelings of home and warmth, which can aid sleep – just like in childhood.’
‘We have never had as many as 75,000 cuddly bears left behind in Travelodge hotels before,’ says Shakila Ahmed, a Travelodge spokeswoman. And our staff has worked extremely hard in reuniting the bears with their owners. Amazingly, the owners have not just been children – we have a large number of frantic businessmen and women calling to say they have forgotten their teddy bear.’
Well, yes. A lady psychologist I know says that teddy bears represent ‘safety objects.’ In the absence of a real human being, hugging a bear in bed is ‘soothingly tactile and comforting.’
‘A teddy bear on a man’s bed,’ she adds, ‘shows his sensitive side to a lady visitor – although more than one cuddly animal may not be quite so cute.’
I don’t know about that. But I don’t think, Vanessa, my life-size inflatable doll would like a teddy bear around.
February 4th, 2010 Author:
Roger
We could all make our own list. But here’s an interesting take from the on-line hotel comparison site www.trivago.co.uk. According to Trivago, they all offer a ’special atmosphere and have very good reviews from travellers:’
1. Santini Residence, Prague
The elegant Santini Residence offers nine spacious suites, where couples can enjoy hours of leisure time together. Some rooms have a special highlight: Ornate ceiling paintings that attract the attention of all visitors. Located in the middle of the historical centre of Prague, the luxurious hotel is an ideal base for exploring the capital of the Czech Republic. The Prague Castle and Charles Bridge are easily accessible. In the evening, guests can relax with a glass of red wine in soft lighting and with musical accompaniment on the cosy sofas in the hotel lounge. From £104 per double room per night including breakfast via www.lastminute.com.
2. Hotel 41, London
Guests at Hotel 41 are located in the neighbourhood of the Queen: The luxurious city hotel can be found behind Buckingham Palace. In a quiet and exclusive location, the hotel welcomes its guests with the flair of a traditional London club. In the tastefully decorated lounge with chandeliers and antique furniture, couples can enjoy their afternoon tea in an elegant atmosphere. After a stroll over the Tower Bridge and through the streets of the bustling capital, comfortable and stylish rooms await the guests of the hotel. From £244 per double room per night via www.booking.com
3. Hotel Gródek, Krakow
The Gródek hotel is tucked away in a small side street in the historical centre of Krakow. The 23 guest rooms are individually furnished with a great attention to detail. From here, guests can embark on a journey into the past. The popular “Kings Way” takes travelers past the memorial of the Battle of Tannenberg, a large gothic tower and the medieval marketplace. Only two minutes separate this area from the charming city hotel. In the intimate atmosphere of the hotel restaurant, guests can enjoy the evening with a romantic candle-lit dinner. From £86 per double room per night including breakfast via www.lastminute.com.
4. Villa Contessa, Bad Saarow
The Villa Contessa is located in Bad Saarow on Lake Scharmutzelsee in Brandenburg and is only around one hour’s drive from Berlin. Located in picturesque natural surroundings, this small hotel is home to eight mundane and lovingly decorated rooms. Highlight for lovers: The Rose Spa Suite with a private bio-infrared sauna and a four-poster bed. Guests who book the luxury suite can enjoy the hotels award-winning cuisine in private on the lakeside terrace. Couples can spend time on a romantic carriage ride, in popular thermal baths or on a boat trip on the lake. From £173 per double room per night including breakfast via www.villa-contessa.de
5. Moulin d’Abbaye, Brantome (France)
Moulin d’Abbaye is located in the charming market town Brantome in a restored mill house on the tranquil River Dronne. The rooms are all named after the Bordeaux grands crus and decorated with a meticulous attention to detail. In the small town in Dordogne there is a lot to see: a well-preserved medieval city, ruin and Gothic facades on the Rue Joussen. After a leisurely stroll through the city, travelers can enjoy a romantic dinner in the hotel’s restaurant and become enchanted by the magic of this hotel. From £130 per double room per night via www.HRS.com.
6. Amfitriti Paradosiakos Xenonas, Nafplio (Greece)
The Amfitriti Paradosiakos Xenonas is a small and elegant hotel in the beautiful port town Nafplio. Each of its five rooms is individually decorated in a particular colour. Handmade carpets and antique furniture give the rooms a romantic historical feeling, without losing the modern day comforts. With a view of the sea from the breakfast terrace, guests can begin their day on the Peleponnes. Lovers of Greek mythology also have a lot to explore, with the archaeological sites of Epidauros and Mykene nearby. From £68 pounds per double room per night via www.booking.com.
7. Hotel The Pand, Bruges
The first-class hotel The Pand is located in the centre of Bruges. Decorated with numerous works of art, antiques and rich fabrics, guests are surrounded by luxury. A boat trip on the “Reien”, the canals of Bruges, is a must on a visit to the city in Flanders. Under picturesque bridges there is a lot to discover along the banks: Hidden gardens, artistic facades and medieval houses. Travelers can also spend the day by the open fireplace in the library of The Pand. From £149 pounds per double room per night via www.booking.com.
8. Il Cantico della Natura, Magione (Italy)
Il Cantico della Natura is built out of massive stones from the 16th Century and is home to twelve rooms and suites. Surrounded by olive trees guests have a breathtaking view of Lake Trasimeno. The rooms are cosy and are individually decorated with fine furniture. In the Jacuzzi or the sauna, lovers can take advantage of the “dolce vita”. For adventure seekers, the hotel regularly organises various activities such as sailing, mountain biking or cooking classes, in which fresh ingredients from the Umbrian region are used. From £139 per double room per night via www.fastbooking.com.
9. Villa Carona, Carona (Switzerland)
In Ticino, in the south of Switzerland, Villa Carona can be found in the artistic village of Carona. In the two hundred year old Patrician House, the hotel has 18 individually designed rooms. At this family run inn, rest and recreation are in the foreground. In particular, the gardens of the house are a little paradise: Here guests can have a breakfast with a view of Monte Generoso before they go on the popular hike from Carona to the picturesque village of Morcote. From £88 pounds per double room per night via www.hotel.info.
10. Ca‘n Simó, Alcudia (Majorca)
The small family-run hotel Ca‘n Simó with only seven rooms is situated between the bay of Alcudia and Pollensa. In traditional Majorcan architecture, guests can enjoy the amenities of modern luxury away from the tourist hustle and bustle of Majorca. The area around the lively town of Alcudia is also a place for peace-seekers: Whether a romantic walk on the beach, a tour of the nearby golf course or an excursion to the dragon caves of Porto Cristo. After an exciting day on the Balearic Island, guests can relax in the hotel whirlpool or sauna. From £85 pounds per double room per night including breakfast via booking.com
Trivago compares the rates of 53 booking sites for 400,000 hotels worldwide. Additionally trivago has integrated over 15 million hotel reviews and shows the overall rating for each hotel. trivago does not just compare the prices of online hotel booking sites, but also the rates. Users can see whether breakfast is included and if cancellation and payment by credit card is possible. Trivago has the first “Freestyle” meta search: travelers are able to search by holiday region, city or hotel name. Trivago has its headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany and currently operates 21 international country platforms.
December 14th, 2009 Author:
Roger
Recruit a worldwide team of 200 peripatetic celebrities, critics, food writers, hoteliers, restaurateurs and assorted entrepreneurs and ask them to report on what they consider to be the best in travel: This is the formula for the fifth edition of Courvoisier’s “The Book of the Best,” published this month in London (Vermilion/Random House, £12.99). It is edited by the food critic Loyd Grossman, who is taking over from Lord Lichfield, founder-editor, who started the publication 10 years ago.
The result is a travel guide packed with tips and opinions, verdicts and often idiosyncratic insights. The new edition covers 58 countries with 2,500 entries on the best hotels, restaurants, bars and cafés, clubs, museums, galleries, markets, fashion designers, festivals, spas, sports, theater, music, shopping and sightseeing.
Scattered throughout the book are essays on such eclectic topics as Wolfgang Puck (”chef to the stars” in Los Angeles); Literary New York (readings, bookshops and tours); Best of the Bush (Australia); Melbourne Foodie Musts; Big Breakfasts in Sydney; Indian Choice; Top Tailors, and Pub Grub (London); Nile Tours (Egypt); Bistros, Choice Cheeses, Chocoholics Choice (Paris); Exotic Adventures (Himalayas); Private Palace Hotels (India); Pub Culture (Ireland); Piazza Campo dei Fiori (Rome); Best Parks in Tokyo; Café Life (Amsterdam); A Great River Journey (Papua New Guinea), and the Blue Train in South Africa.
Don’t look for consistency or objectivity (it takes a serious celebrity to be as fatuous as: “Taillevent is easily the best in France,” Judith Krantz). But there’s too much good stuff here to quibble about that.
Entries are arbitrary and inconsistent. The United States gets 41 pages; Britain 34; Hong Kong, seven; Japan and Thailand six each; Singapore three; South Africa two; places like Fiji, Sri Lanka, Bermuda and Jamaica have half a dozen entries among them; Cuba gets a page; while Finland, Malta, Israel, most of the Gulf states and the Philippines are left out altogether.
“The book is highly subjective; we make no claim to objectivity. Most guidebooks either rely on one person’s opinion, or like Michelin on a highly trained team of professionals. Whereas ours is based purely on the subjective thoughts of 200 people who are demanding, cosmopolitan, and sophisticated,” says Grossman. “The best is going to be their collective view. But there’s no question that the best has more to do now with best value and local character than it did, say, two or three years ago. There has been a pretty healthy turn away from the sort of preposterous ostentation of international luxury.
“Of course, you’re going to have predictable things; I mean when you talk about Paris hotels, the Crillon is going to be there. But what we’ve tried to do this year is to get off the beaten track and stress the interest of things that are local and particular to the various places, to counteract the wave of homogenization one finds everywhere. This is not my personal restaurant guide. But I have attempted to stress value, more about attractions for kids and culture, which I find play an increasingly important role in determining travelers’ itineraries. That may explain why travel to cities has become increasingly popular. Many people visit the Far East on business and return for pleasure. This is my first year as editor. But Patrick [Lichfield], who started it, is a benign influence; he travels incessantly and knows a lot of people.
“The length of contributions, and indeed which countries get listed at all depends on our contributors; that’s why we have these little essays on places like Vietnam that our gang are increasingly traveling to. If one of our contributors said, ‘By the way, I’ve just spent three months in Timbuktu, it’s a fabulous place,’ we’d write about it. This year we’ve identified places, like Lyon, that tend to get missed out. It’s very amusing to see the opinions of people both on sacred cows and new discoveries. It’s an exceptionally good worldwide telephone directory.”
I recognized only a handful of the celebrities listed at the front of the guide - authentic luminaries like Peter Ustinov, Richard Branson, David Frost, Andre Previn, Ralph Steadman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jeffrey Archer, Michael Caine, Joan Collins, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Dame Barbara Cartland.
Lichfield and Grossman recruited 12 of the top celebrities as a jury for 16 somewhat gimmicky “Best Value” awards (”Not the best of the best but amongst the most interesting and stimulating of the best,” Grossman says). Singapore Airlines (Best Airline), Four Seasons-Regent Hotels (Best Hotel Group), Dubai (Best Airport Shopping) and Hong Kong (Best Destination) are arguable, though what you might expect; but Melbourne Moomba (Best Festival); Roscoff Belfast (Best British Restaurant); St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow (Best British Museum), and Opera North in Leeds (Achievement in the Arts in Britain) started me turning the pages. And I wouldn’t quarrel with Best British Breakfast (Simpson’s-on-the- Strand) and Best Pub (The Dove) both in London, or Lyon as Best European Weekend Destination.
“The Book of the Best” carries the usual disclaimer about not accepting advertising or payment for entries. But it may be a tad incestuous when celebrities just happen to praise one another. Alain Ducasse (a contributor) at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo is hyped as the World’s Greatest Chef - which he may well be - but did he pay for his meal at Joël Robuchon’s “temple of gastronomy” in Paris? And is it cynical to suppose that Ustinov got the presidential suite at the Westbury in Dublin because he is Sir Peter Ustinov? Perhaps you have to be a celebrity to get a free lunch.
“I would be extremely distressed to find out that anyone involved with the book had ever had a quid pro quo, or said, let me stay for free and I’ll give you a write- up,” Grossman says. “At least we didn’t ask Alain Ducasse to write his own blurb. And I happen to think that because he is a great chef, his views on a restaurant, colored as they may be by his philosophy, are bound to be interesting.”
Well, yes. Until we read that Mohamed al Fayed praises the Ritz in Paris as meeting the exacting standards of César Ritz 100 years ago, when al Fayed is both a contributor and owner of the Ritz.
A crucial test for a travel guide is what it says about places in your own backyard or familiar stamping ground.
“The Book of the Best” barely scrapes by on its listings for the Côte d’Azur - sound on art and museums; otherwise predictable and pedestrian.
But for London, the guide comes alive. Apart from a few dud entries, it’s an excellent London restaurant guide, with an inside track to the trendiest and best value places in town. So I’ll take it with me when I next go to Hong Kong.
1994 International Herald Tribune
September 21st, 2009 Author:
Roger
The Oyster Box: The re-birth of a legend
It’s not every day that legends are made (let alone re-born) – even in the hotel business! So the other day this brief, almost laconic item rose above the usual clutter:
‘Legendary hotel to reopen
Umhlanga Rocks, Durban Kwa-Zulu, Natal, South Africa
‘The Oyster Box, part of the Red Carnation Hotel collection, South Africa’s legendary boutique hotel, reopens on 1 October 2009. The 90-room property on the beach with its own oyster beds [sic] has undergone major alterations and additions. It now incorporates eight villas with their own pools; a 4,500 square feet Presidential Suite with pool. It has four restaurants [the hotel not the Suite]; four bars; meeting and function rooms; cinema; a traditional eastern Hamam spa and gymnasium. The opening coincides with the inaugural Emirates flight from Dubai to Durban six days a week.’
The item was written, I understand, with obvious pride and affection, by Beatrice (‘Mrs. T’) Tollman, president and founder of Red Carnation Hotels, a family-owned collection of 4- and 5-star family-owned luxury boutique hotels, and a legendary ‘hands-on’ hotelier.
The Oyster Box, ‘sitting grandly on the dramatic shoreline of the Indian Ocean, overlooking the iconic lighthouse of Umhlanga,’ is Red Carnation’s third South African property. The Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa in Cape Town, winner of ‘Top City Hotel in Africa and The Middle East’ in Travel & Leisure magazine’s 2009 Awards; and Bushman’s Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Wellness Spa in the Cederberg Mountains, recently voted ‘Best Hotel in the World.’
In the interest of ‘truthful journalism,’ I should declare an interest. I’m writing this piece for pleasure, not for profit. But I have built up my own collection of interviews with Red Carnation staff, from hotel managers and concierges to chefs doormen, which are posted as ‘podcasts’ on RCH’s web site (www.redcarnation.com) and come to some critically affectionate understanding of this unusual company. I also voiced the video tours of the RCH properties and got brownie points when one of them won an award recently..
‘Journalists should not have friends,’ I can hear the editor over my shoulder saying. (The editor, Russell J. Boner, my boss and sometimes reluctant mentor at McGraw-Hill’s International Management magazine, was a veteran of the Wall Street Journal’s puritanical newsroom.)
Well, okay. But I have to say that several of the Red Carnation hotels that I have experienced are among the very best of any hotels I have known; often achieving that elusive amalgam of comfort, friendliness and efficiency that I call hospitality.
‘Hello, Oyster Box? I’d like to book a beach-view double with a king-size oyster bed, please!’
June 25th, 2009 Author:
Roger
November 1st, 2008 Author:
Roger
I was quite pleased to read that the third YOTEL (the Japanese inspired ‘capsule’ hotel) has launched its third ‘airside’ site at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. (You can find my original YOTEL story through the search engine here on RogerandRandy.) The new YOTEL is located in the secure transit area on the second floor of Lounge 2, close to Pier D.
YOTEL opened its first hotel inside London Gatwick’s South Terminal opposite international arrivals in July 2007; the second at Heathrow (on the mezzanine level inside Terminal 4) in December 2007.
I have not yet stayed at a YOTEL. But they promise to be a refuge for travelers who want a cheap and cheerful place to lay their head for a few hours at any time of the day or night. Ideal if you have an early flight, or you have a hefty wait in transit or time to kill before a meeting.
YOTEL ‘cabins’ come with all the facilities you would expect from a comfortable hotel room. Both ‘premium’ and ‘standard’ cabins come with en suite bathrooms, and 24-hour room service. Each cabins is equipped with a desk, free Wi Fi, wired Internet access, and ‘techno-wall’ entertainment system.
Prices for a standard cabin range from £25 (35 euros) for four hours and around £56 overnight, while a premium cabin costs £40 for four hours, and around £82 overnight. Cabins can be booked on line at www.yotel.com