Winter’s starting to turn into spring up in New England, which means pristine white landscapes turn into a brown slop. What do you do with it? The answer might be to smear it all over your body? Well, that’s what The Wentworth by the Sea has in mind. This New Hampshire inn has put together a great package that makes the most of the muddy season.
Head on up to New Castle, New Hampshire, and you’ll receive breakfast for two every morning, a 50-minute organic mud wrap and a sea facial with a bubbling mud back treatment (which sounds absolutely fascinating). Of course, a molten chocolate cake after the treatments in the relaxation room sure doesn’t hurt!
The tab isn’t too bad – only $289 a night (two-night stay Sunday through Thursday required), as long as you use promotion code P42.
Kimpton’s new Hotel Palomar Chicago welcomes its first guests today to the 261-room art-themed hotel.
The pièce de résistance of this 4-star-caliber hotel is the green roof, which helps promote Chicago’s city-wide eco-friendly initiative. The roof is covered with grass and vegetation and helps improve air quality, clean and retain rainwater, and helps promote Kimpton’s brand-wide EarthCare program.
Located in Chicago‘s River North district, the Hotel Palomar Chicago features an indoor rooftop pool, 23 suites on higher floors and like its sister property is a pet-friendly hotel.
To celebrate the launch of the new Windy City digs, the hotel is hosting a “Hot Sexy City” promotion good for weekend stays through April 28, 2010. Book a room Thursdays through Sundays and get overnight valet parking and two in-room signature cocktails for $139 per room, per night. (The cocktail, for those who need a little convincing is called the Chelsea, and consists of Death’s Door white whisky, pink port, basil and strawberry-allspice bitters.)
The roaming Gnome has found a new way to book hotels: Travelocity announced it will offer unpublished – or ‘opaque’ – hotel deals as part of their hotel offerings.
The concept is familiar: Find deeply discounted hotel rates based on preferred location, star-rating and amenities, but you won’t know the name of the hotel until you book. Here’s the twist: there’s no bidding, and you can see both the available hotels by name and the opaque hotels in one window.
The Top Secret Hotels tab above the general hotel listings will show users unpublished rates at participating hotels, if available. As of now, these opaque hotels include major U.S. cities, and popular cities in Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Mississauga), Mexico (Cancun, Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta, Riveria Maya, San Jose Cabo), the Caribbean (Dominican Republic, Jamaica) and South America (Buenos Aires, San Jose, Sao Paolo).
Unlike Priceline and Hotwire, where users bid on a specific hotel, Travelocity’s opaque hotels are a set price but in some cases up to 45% off the regularly published hotel room rate. Choose the opaque option and you’ll be able to filter based on the hotel’s star rating and general location, and hotel amenities and user ratings, but you won’t know the name of the hotel until you book.
Of the big four OTA’s – Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and Priceline – Travelocity is the first to offer one search that pulls up general hotel results and opaque results in the same window. Why the change? It’s a new way to put the power of purchase in the consumers hands. I took the new site for a spin and here’s what I found:
My search included 3- to 5-star hotels in Boston for this weekend, March 27-28, between $50 and $200 night.
Travelocity returned six hotels – three in the downtown Boston area; three in neighboring suburbs. I choose the 4-star hotel located in Boston’s downtown/waterfront district, with a pool and free Internet access, a user rating of 4/5 and a lowest price per night of $105. My total came to $121.39 (nightly room rate plus taxes).On the next pages I can confirm the room, location and rate, and after putting in a credit card and securing the transaction, you’ll find out the name of the hotel.
As a comparison, I used the same specifications on Priceline and was returned one hotel that matched my needs for $189/night. Travelocity wouldn’t divulge the hotels they’re working with, but Lesley Harris, Vice President of Hotels at Travelocity, told me:
“Travelocity is responding to the needs of our customers, as well as our hotel partners. In today’s economy customers are searching for deals and hotels are looking for a way to drive bookings – Top Secret Hotels is able to accomplish both. We also know that a number of people who currently shop on our site end up going elsewhere simply to buy an opaque product, we now can save customers the hassle of going between sites by providing every type of shopper with what they need all in one place.”
The Travelocity star ratings are based on research from the Travelocity team which may include on-site inspections, post-trip customer feedback, and quality of amenities and staff, in accordance with industry standards. Travelocity sent me a copy of their rating system descriptions and it’s pretty standard:
5-star: Luxury properties that exhibit an exceptionally high degree of service and hospitality. 4-star: Superior properties with a high level of service and hospitality, as well as a wide variety of amenities and upscale facilities. 3-star: A high level of service with additional amenities, features, and facilities. 2-star: These properties meet a traveler’s basic needs for comfort and convenience while offering moderate aesthetic enhancements in the property grounds, room decor, and quality of furnishings. 1-star:These properties meet a budget-traveler’s basic needs for comfort and convenience. They tend to be located near major attractions or thoroughfares and provide clean guest rooms.
Overall, an interesting concept from Travelocity. As someone who books hotels frequently, it’s nice to have the option to choose from the exact hotel property, or just press your luck with the hotel price without having to bid. Just remember: Top Secret Hotel reservations are non-changeable, non-refundable and non-transferable. Your credit card will be charged in full at the time of booking. If you’re headed to a new city or destination, I highly recommend you book with a hotel you know, or a brand you’re comfortable with. For those frequent visitors to a repeat destination, it’s worth pressing your luck for a discounted rate.
News from the Google camp is that engineers are testing out a new way to view hotels on Google Maps. The new feature will allow Google users to find and compare hotels and prices, based on a specific location.
“With this feature, when you search for hotels on Google Maps you’ll be able to enter the dates you plan to stay and see real prices on selected listings. You can click on the price to see a list of advertisers who have provided pricing information for that hotel, indicated by the “Sponsored” text, and click through to reserve a room on the advertiser’s site.”
It’s unclear who the advertisers are for the testing phase, but the blog states “this new feature will not change the way that hotels are ranked in Google Maps.” Google Maps lists and ranks businesses based on their relevance to the search terms entered by the user, along with geographic distance.
Google is testing the new hotel feature with a small number of users. No word on when the search engine will roll out the new feature but if they do, we’ll be first in line to take it for a ride.
No one knows the perils of summer better than a woman trying on a swimsuit for the first time after winter. Thanks to a few months of cozying up with comfort foods and flannel pajamas on your sofa, the bikini-body you rocked last summer has gone a little soft.
Since you can’t hide behind your favorite baggy sweater forever, one New York hotel is announcing a promotion that helps you get in shape for summer. The Kimberly Hotel‘s “Budget-Friendly/Body-Healthy” package is tailored to the traveler who needs to get away, and get in shape.
You’ll get a weekend stay that includes the selection of two services from The Kimberly’s New York Health & Racquet Club, located on East 45th Street between Lexington and Third. A personal trainer will also provide nutritional guidance and/or a complimentary massage. Your stay includes breakfast and dinner for two via room service, and a late check-out. The get-in-shape package starts at $850 (actual retail price: $1,280), double occupancy, for the two-night weekend stay and is valid through Aug. 31, 2010. (Price does not include taxes, surcharges, etc).
The Renaissance ClubSport in Orange County, California, is offering local residents the chance to join its fitness club. The Jr. Olympic size pool, weight and cardio equipment, and personal trainers are now available to residents and hotel guests. Memberships to the hotel fitness center include: Use of all fitness amenities, online nutrition tracking, preferred member room rates and one free guest pass per month ($25 value). In addition, you’ll get 10% off dining and spa services.
For those who want to do good while doing their body good, the Four Seasons Hotel Boston is hosting their annual Run for Hope on Sat., June 12, 2010. The Run for Hope is an annual 5k run and 2k walk to raise funds for pediatric cancer care and research. This year the hotel hopes to raise more than $80,000 for the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
In addition to hosting packages and events around fitness, many hotels offer in-room exercise guides and videos to help you stay in shape while you travel. Affinia Hotels and Omni Hotels offer “get fit” kits that include yoga mats, dumbbells, exercise bands, and DVD tutorials so you can work out in the comfort of your room.