I’ve mentioned AirBnB in a few of my traveling posts, most recently the story of my roadtrip from Portland to Nashville. Ever since my boyfriend Nick and I discovered the site, which lets people rent out their homes to travelers, we rarely stay in hotels anymore. In fact, thanks to AirBnB, we’ve spent a few nights in a modern townhome in Belgium, a week in a gorgeous apartment in Rome, a night in a historic home in Kansas City, 10 days in a south London flat, two weeks in a fabulous Paris apartment, a night in a midwife’s cottage in Wyoming, and the list goes on. If you’re willing to sacrifice the mint on your pillow, there are many reasons to try AirBnB instead of a hotel on your next trip. Here are a few… Keep reading »
Tag Archives: hotels
Have Your Bed And Eat It Too At The World’s First Cake Hotel
It took a team of 14 bakers, pastry chefs, and candy artists nearly 3,000 hours to create the world’s first edible pop-up hotel in Soho, London. The Willy Wonka-esque wonderland welcomed its first guests this week, a couple who enjoyed a carpet made of meringues, bouquets of sugar roses, fudge windowsills, spongecake pillows, 100 pieces of edible art, and a clawfoot bathtub full of caramel corn, which sounds incredibly uncomfortable, especially if a stray kernel found its way into one of your body cavities, but that’s neither here nor there. Check out a few more pictures of this massive sugar coma waiting to happen, after the jump! Keep reading »
Want To Spend The Night In A Human Digestive System? Plus 6 Other Weird Hotels We Discovered This Year
What is this stunning piece of architecture, you ask? It’s a Belgian hotel called CasAnus, which allows visitors to spend the night in a replica of a colon, complete with a giant anus. Hey, whatever floats your boat, right? With that in mind, we thought it might be a good time to round up some of the other unique hotels that caught our attention this year. Click through to check out 6 more loony lodging options!
We Want To Go To There: 8 Affordable Castle Hotels
Want to travel like a queen? Why don’t you book a stay in a castle on your next trip? Turns out the phrase “affordable castle” isn’t an oxymoron: from Belgium to France to Ireland to New Jersey(!), we found eight beautiful castle hotels with prices starting at less than $200 a night (a few for much less than that). Click through to check ‘em out, and prepare to add a few new entries to your travel bucket list…
The Bed Bug Registry Will Possibly Save You From Bed Bugs, Definitely Freak You Out
When I visited The Frisky offices in New York earlier this year, I stayed in a cute little hotel near Central Park. One morning I got up to take a shower, and as I turned on the water I noticed an apple seed-shaped speck on the bathmat. I reacted like most people would: backing out of the room slowly, sprinting for the phone and whispering, “I … found … a … bed … bug” as if the tiny parasite were an unstable man with a gun. Within moments, the entire housekeeping staff rushed through the door and hustled me into a different room. Luckily my little visitor turned out to be the only antisocial bed bug in history, so my stuff wasn’t infested and I avoided any bites, but the whole experience really freaked me out (so much so that I quarantined my suitcase in my garage for weeks after returning home). Next time I stay in a hotel I’ll definitely do a search on Bed Bug Registry first — this website compiles reports of bedbugs to help travelers and renters make informed choices about where they stay. The bad news? All of those little red dots are bed bug infestations. If you need me I’ll be in my bunker. [Lifehacker]
Karl Lagerfeld’s Hotel Redesign Will Include Greek God-Inspired Frescoes Of Baptiste Giabiconi
Today in Karl Lagerfeld Is Really Weird: the silver-gloved fashion kaiser was recently appointed the new landscape planner of Monte-Carlo’s sumptuously swanky Hôtel Métropole, which means he’ll be redesigning the entirety of the hotel’s exterior, including the pool, terrace, gardens, and a brand new restaurant by the Chef of the Century himself, Joël Robuchon. What will Karl be doing with this carte blanche? Oh, just what any sane person would do given the opportunity: decorate the whole thing with photographic frescoes of Baptiste Giabiconi, his male model muse, reimagined as some kind of Greek god. Um, yeah. The results are every bit as bizarre and amazing as you would think, and if you’re familiar with Karl’s previous forays, then you’ll recall last year’s carved chocolate sculpture of the one-time Katy Perry arm candy in his tighty-whities. From the mouth of the Kaiser himself, the world’s highest paid male model is “good with clothes and great with no clothes.” Okay! [Telegraph]
Fancy A Night In A Hamster Hotel?
I don’t know about you guys, but whenever I’m at a hotel, I look around and think, This is nice, I guess, but you know what would be better? A giant hamster cage. Apparently a lot of people share this sentiment, because a hotel in western France called Villa Hamster provides just that — yep, hamster cages for humans — and business has been booming since it opened in 2009. The hotel owner, 42-year-old Yann Falquerho, saw a void in the “animal transformation” hotel niche and pounced on the opportunity to give guests the full hamster lifestyle experience, from human-size running wheels to hay stacks to sleep on. What’s for dinner? Organic hamster grains and water in a tube, of course! Not only is the hotel often totally booked, Falquerho says many guests even spend their time at Villa Hamster on all fours. Sounds like the perfect romantic getaway, huh? [Oddity Central]
One Damn Good Reason To Plan An Impromptu Trip To Chicago…
Okay, so it may not be an entire Missoni-designed condominium tower, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t impressive: renowned Italian fashion house Bottega Veneta was given carte blanche to design a 1,400-square-foot suite in Chicago’s Park Hyatt Hotel. The Lake Suite by Bottega Veneta boasts a master bedroom, separate living and dining areas, a kitchen, an office, and two bathrooms, all decorated in their trademark understated, unfussy luxury. Of course, the room wouldn’t be complete without touches of the brand’s signature woven leather, which embellishes the furniture drawn from their home collection. The press release states that the “warm and light” palette is composed of signature Bottega Veneta neutrals, “like pergamena and noce.” Pergamena and noce! Imagine that. [Refinery29, Park Hyatt Chicago]
Knitted Hotel Room Created By Artist Kate Jenkins
At the Hotel Pelirocco in the English seaside town of Brighton, guests can cozy up in an entirely knitted room. Dubbed ”Do Knit Disturb”, the single room comes with a slew of knitted objects including a lamp, comforter, toothpaste and toothbrush, telephone cover and matching curtains, reports The Guardian.
Other woven creations found in the yarn filled room include a traditional English breakfast and a do not disturb sign. Check out all the photos here…
In The Future, Hotels Will Offer Virtual Lovemaking
Is it almost the year 2030? I certainly hope so, because I plan to be traveling a lot that year. The hotel chain Travelodge has published a study about what we can expect our hotel sleep accommodations to be like in the future. Here’s what we have to look forward to according to engineer Ian Pearson:
We will be able to replay our favorite dream from a menu just like choosing a movie. Also, we will be able to link into dreams with our partner or family and friends and enjoy a shared dream experience. Remote virtual love making would allow individuals to ‘connect with their partner’ while away from home, although lenses could be worn to adjust how their partner looks.
What? I mean, wow! It’s so very “Inception”-esque. And virtual lovemaking sounds so, well, convenient! If this stuff really comes true, there are some wonderful business trips in my future. Does Travelodge take reservations for 2030? [Telegraph] Keep reading »
