AOL Travel Ideas

10 Innovative Green Hotels in the U.S.

Chris Gray Faust — 2013-04-22T09:17:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Arts & Culture, EcoTravel, Luxury

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All About Giraffes: Get Up Close Views at Nairobi's Giraffe Manor Hotel (VIDEO)

AOL Travel Staff — 2013-01-03T09:09:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel

Find out all about giraffes as Nairobi's Giraffe Manor Hotel.

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8 Bed and Breakfasts with the Best Fixin's (PHOTOS)

The Daily Meal — 2011-08-06T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Best Of, Weekend Getaways

Courtesy of Cornerstone Victorian

Bed and breakfasts promise the warmth and comfort of home for those on the road. But, how many of us are cozily welcomed home with a glass of wine by the fire or awoken by the smell of coffee and freshly baked scones every day?
Like at your most generous friend's house, the innkeepers live on site, so they know the area backwards and front and they can't wait to show you the best of it. The houses themselves, often in an idyllic setting, harbor a rich history and ooze character.

Whether they're haunted, were once homes of grand families, or have been passed down by generations of B&B owners, every portrait and floral bedspread tells a story.

One of the most obvious ways innkeepers show their passion for hospitality is through pampering their guests' palates. The Cocoa Cottage Bed and Breakfast is perfect for chocolate-lovers. Innkeepers make sure their guests are always staring down something cocoa-filled, whether it's homemade chocolates or the richest hot chocolate around. The Gastonian wakes its guests up with lemon ricotta pancakes or poached eggs with grilled tomato, creamy spinach, and apple-smoked bacon.

Near the charming, food-loving small town of Asheville, N.C., the Brookside Mountain Mist Inn boasts a multi-course homemade breakfast starting with scones or muffins, working toward a fresh fruit parfait, and finally an entrée like Belgium waffles, pecan French toast, or a Southwest chicken frittata. The hosts take care of all their guests' needs by accommodating diabetics, gluten-free diets, lactose intolerant needs, and vegans as well.

The romance of getting a key (instead of a card), making your way up creaking, wooden stairs, and receiving a friendly, warm hello from the hosts is surely not lost on us.

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Hotel for Plants, a Seedy Place for a lot of Green (PHOTOS)

AOL Travel Staff — 2011-08-03T09:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News

Hotel Para Plantas

Summer is a great time to get out of town, but whither the azaleas? OgilvyAction has created a hotel for plants so that flowers will no longer have to pay the price for their prodigal owners' relaxation.
Summer is a great time to get out of town, but whither the azaleas? A Spanish firm has created a hotel for plants so that flowers will no longer have to pay the price for their prodigal owners' relaxation.

The new Hotel Para Plantas has been constructed in the Islazul Shopping Center in Madrid, where the unique green house offers a nanny service for plants that are left behind by owners with green thumbs and itchy feet.

The hotel verges on spa: Each plant is treated by a specific botanist.

According to Marisol Garcia, a spokeswoman for the outfit, "customers who miss their plants or want to verify they are healthy can watch them" on the hotel's streaming website.

So much for asking the neighbors to hose down the garden.

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Hotels With Amazing In-Room Amenities (PHOTOS)

The Daily Meal — 2011-08-03T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Food + Drink

Muy Yum/Flickr

The joys of room service are usually 90% fantasy and 10% based in reality.

The joys of room service are usually 90% fantasy and 10% based in reality. Sitting in a plush hotel room in an oversized robe and calling down to room service (while resisting the temptation to call whoever answers the phone Jeeves) is exactly the kind of luxury we want from a hotel stay; it's an escape from the everyday. But the reality of room service has been a much starker thing with cold, chewy food and hardened bread rolls wheeled in to the bottom of your bed as you hold the door open with your foot.

Well, it seems that dry pastry baskets are a thing of the past, with hotels around the world coming around to the fact that if, in this day and age (or "in this economy," take your pick), people are actually booking a room and paying for it, they're expecting much more than a weight-sensored mini-bar with stale, unsalted peanuts. Take Beverly Hills' SLS Hotel. Their very Spanish-inspired room service menu is trumped only by the roving cotton candy foie gras and caviar cone cart that penthouse guests can take advantage of.

And it's not just high-end hotels adopting this new trend. The Ace Hotel in New York will send a hot or iced cup of super hip-and-delicious Stumptown coffee to your room 24 hours a day. At the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami, you'll adopt a "hate to go, but love to leave" attitude when your stay comes to a close with a whimsical and tasty "Ready to Fly" meal.

If the London fog becomes too thick for you to leave your hotel, join the Charlotte Street Hotel's Sunday screenings with a three-course meal just downstairs. Or let's say you feel like a wine tasting but can't possibly be bothered to leave your room? Hope you're staying at the One and Only Palmilla, where the room service wine list reads like oenophile's dream.

Now where to plan my next in-room mixology lesson?

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Cornell Computer Students Create Program to Keep TripAdvisor Honest

Andrew Burmon — 2011-07-27T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News

Vibragiel/Flickr

A group of Cornell University computer science students have created a program that can determine with nearly 90% accuracy whether hotel reviews on travel sites like TripAdvisor or Expedia are real or promotional.

The findings, presented at the 49th annual Association for Computational Linguistics on Sunday, showed that fake reviews can be picked out because they follow certain patterns.

According to Cornell's news service, researchers found that real reviews tend to coalesce around concrete words like "bathroom" and "price" while fake reviewers tend to spend more time setting the scene with words like "vacation" and "my husband." Essentially, fake reviewers make a big effort to seem like real people. Real people don't.

TripAdvisor boasts that it has programs designed to pick out fake reviews, but many still slip through. Picking them out by hand is also nearly impossible: The Cornell researchers found that humans identify fake reviews no better than chance.

The new software is being pitched as a potential "first-round filter" to get rid of opinion spam. TripAdvisor, at least, could use the help.

A cursory search of reviews of hotels in Mexico City finds plenty of entries that rather neatly match the fake review criteria.

A review of the rather obscure Suites Contempo hotel - written by a first time contributor to the site leads with this: "The great thing about this boutique hotel is service! Service you will not get at a large chain hotel where you are just another guest. Over the last 4 years, I have easily spent 3 months in this hotel, so I consider it a second home."

Is the review fake? It certainly hits the marks, but I'm not the one to ask (full disclosure: I'm human). Someone better go get the Veritasinator 3000.

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Why Vancouver Kicks Ass

Marielle Bingham — 2011-07-27T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Weird, Arts & Culture, Food + Drink, Nightlife

CanadaPenguin/Flickr

Sitting between three bodies of water and the Coastal Mountain Range, Vancouver benefits from gorgeous scenery. Mountains are well and good, but visitors would do well not to be distracted from the city's happening cultural scene. Sitting between three bodies of water and the Coastal Mountain Range, Vancouver benefits from gorgeous scenery. Mountains are well and good, but visitors would do well not to be distracted from the city's happening cultural scene.

Fast-paced Vancouver is buzzing with young artists, creative musicians, and all-around eccentric thinkers that create a unique twist on the typical "modern city." While wandering the city's bustling streets, pedestrian's pass stylish vintage stores, trendy little restaurants, and probably a few lively street performers.

Vancouver has found a way to maintain its status as Canada's frontier town: pushing boundaries. Visitors would be well-advised to join the maddeningly hip crowd.

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Best Celebrity-Owned Homes & Hotels You Can Stay In (PHOTOS)

The Daily Meal — 2011-07-24T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Celebrity

I am Mike's photos/Flickr

Estate: It is a word that conjures wealth, history and old money - a term bandied about by the elite. The attraction of an estate is not a trampoline in the backyard or really refreshing leaps through the sprinkler. Instead, an estate offers all-inclusive luxury to its residents, luxury you (let's face it) probably cannot afford.

Estate: It is a word that conjures wealth, history and old money - a term bandied about by the elite. The attraction of an estate is not a trampoline in the backyard or really refreshing leaps through the sprinkler. Instead, an estate offers all-inclusive luxury to its residents, luxury you (let's face it) probably cannot afford.

Or maybe not. More and more of the world's rich and famous are offering their personal estates or building brand new ones not as just as personal playgrounds, but as resorts available to the public.

In the oh-so-exotic-sounding Turks and Caicos is Parrot Cay Resort, where you can rent the Caribbean getaways of such notables as Bruce Willis, Donna Karan, Keith Richards, and Christie Brinkley. A little closer to home, in South Beach, the former Versace mansion has been converted to Villa by Barton G., a luxury boutique hotel complete with a fine dining room and afternoon tea service in the Mosaic Garden. Further on the horizon is Belize's Blackadore Caye, where actor Leonardo DiCaprio is rumored to be teaming with Four Seasons to build an eco-friendly, sustainable tourist destination.

Though not all the celebrity resorts are within the budgets of the average Joe (i.e. Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island), some of the destinations, like the Biltmore Estate's Inn, make it possible to live like a king, however briefly.

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Legionnaires' Disease Sickens 6 Aria Vegas Hotel Guests

AOL Travel Staff — 2011-07-15T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News

Mike Miley/Flickr

Six cases of Legionnaires' Disease have been reported among guests of the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, reports the Associated Press.

Tests of the water in several hotel guest rooms between June 21 and July 4 revealed elevated levels of the bacteria Legionella.

A letter since sent by the Aria hotel to its guests indicated that additional water treatment measures have been put in place.

"We will continue to monitor our water quality on an ongoing basis to ensure the safety of the water system and our guests," said Paul Berry, vice president of hotel operations, according to the Las Vegas Sun. He went on to say that Legionella bacteria is a concern for all large buildings.

According to the paper, no bacteria was detected in the most recent round of testing, but there was no indication of when those tests were conducted.

All six people infected have recovered.

Legionnaires' Disease, caused by Legionella, is a type of pneumonia. It is so named because of an outbreak of the sickness that occurred at a 1976 American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized with a Legionnaires' infection annually, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

It seems that this is not Aria's first run in with Legionella. Lawrence Sands, Southern Nevada's chief health officer, gave indication that Aria was investigated in the spring of 2010 after reports of the illness surfaced, reports the Sun. No increased risk was found at that time, but the bug was found in the hotel's hot water system more recently.

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German Tourist Awarded $50 for Egyptian Resort's Nazi Sketch

AOL Travel Staff — 2011-07-07T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Weird, Holidays

Simone Ramella/Flickr

A Munich court awarded a German retroactive $50 discount on his trip to an Egyptian resort after he sued the hotel for putting on a performance that depicted teutonic goosesteppers and giving away his sunbed.

Der Spiegel reports that the angry tourist demanded that the resort pay back 25% of the cost of his holiday, $985 amd an additional $719 for ruining his vacation. The judge awarded the man $50 for the emotional damage of being mocked as a Nazi, but ruled that that the sunbed was in fact hotel property and pool attendants could give the chair to whomever they pleased.

The man accused the resort of being racist, but the judge retorted that though the performance was in poor taste didn't make it racist.

Sharm el-Sheik is a popular destination for Europeans, particularly for divers and snorkelers. A German snorkeler was killed there earlier this year by a shark. The fish was not accused of racism.

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Chateau Marmont Miniseries Highlights Historic Hollywood Hotel (PHOTOS)

Kate Auletta — 2011-06-28T13:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News

Sarah_Ackerman/Flickr

Beloved Hollywood hangout Chateau Marmont, home to countless trysts, power meetings and even deaths, will soon take center stage in an as-yet-untitled miniseries by Hollywood heavyweight writer Aaron Sorkin and "The Office" favorite John Krasinski, Deadline Hollywood reports.Beloved Hollywood hangout Chateau Marmont, home to countless trysts, power meetings and even deaths, will soon take center stage in an as-yet-titled miniseries by Hollywood heavyweight writer Aaron Sorkin and "The Office" favorite John Krasinski, Deadline Hollywood reports.

The 80-year old hotel, owned by hot hotelier Andre Balasz, sits perched in the Hollywood Hills off Sunset Boulevard overlooking its domain.

Its guest list includes a who's-who of Hollywood, and has put up everyone from Vivien Leigh, Barbra Streisand and John Wayne to the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus. Led Zeppelin rode motorcycles through the hallway, Howard Hughes moved into the attic and, perhaps most famously, John Belushi died of a drug overdose there.

The Bar Marmont is famous hangout for celebrities and industry heavyweights alike--visiting the back garden is like entering a Hollywood agency (they offer some pretty stiff drinks, FYI).

"I almost feel it's my extended living room," Krasinski told Deadline. After a meeting at the hotel last fall, Krasinski was waiting at the valet, looked up at the hotel wondering if there had been a project focusing on the property. When he learned there hadn't been, he set out to do a "history of the Chateau Marmont," which soon morphed into a "definitive history of Hollywood using the Chateau Marmont as its epicenter." As such, the miniseries will probably be around eight hours.

The Chateau had its moment in the spotlight already when Sophia Coppola's "Somewhere" was filmed there. But this miniseries will delve deep into the history of Hollywood through the eyes of perhaps its most famous hotel.

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9 Sublime Health Retreats Across the U.S. (PHOTOS)

AOL Travel Staff — 2011-06-17T07:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Food + Drink, Luxury, Spa & Wellness

Ranch at Live Oak

Everyone has their own reasons to feel completely worn out. The holidays, children, work, and what happens on "The Bachelorette" are stresses that can really break just about anyone down. That's when you know it's time to book a week-long retreat where your greatest concern will be whether to go on another hike, take a seaside yoga class, or attend an organic cooking demonstration.
Everyone has their own reasons to feel completely worn out. The holidays, children, work, and what happens on "The Bachelorette" are stresses that can really break just about anyone down. That's when you know it's time to book a week-long retreat where your greatest concern will be whether to go on another hike, take a seaside yoga class, or attend an organic cooking demonstration.

Situated in some of the most serene, scenic parts of the country, these health retreats range from strict detoxification to a calming week of vegan food and Pilates. Regardless, the goal is to leave with a renewed spirit (and a flat stomach). With nutritionists on staff, award-winning spas, and all-inclusive fitness itineraries, these retreats are well-being havens and what's more - they don't scrimp on the food. Our friends over at The Daily Meal have put together a list of their favorite places that will, no matter your reasoning,

No matter what your reasoning, will make you feel like you again - a well-rested, fitter, healthier, and more spiritual you.

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Oprah Slept Here: Outrageously Expensive Washington D.C. Hotel Suites (PHOTOS)

Julie Wolfson — 2011-06-14T07:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Luxury

The Ritz-Carlton

Washington D.C. is a city that knows how to welcome the queen of daytime TV, business magnates, and heads of state from around the world. The Mandarin Oriental, The Four Seasons and The Ritz-Carlton offer lavish suites to pamper the powerful people who visit Washington D.C.

During a recent tour of the most exclusive hotel suites in Washington D.C. we learned how hotels prepare for VIP visits from world leaders, CEOs, and influential media moguls. Oprah Winfrey has made many appearances in the capital to visit the first family for the inauguration and to attend the Kennedy Center Honors. Washington D.C. is a city that knows how to welcome the queen of daytime TV, business magnates, and heads of state from around the world. The Mandarin Oriental, The Four Seasons and The Ritz-Carlton offer lavish suites to pamper the powerful people who visit Washington D.C.

Prepping for VIPs: It Takes an Army...Or a Security Detail

When asked how the hotel staff prepares for the arrival of a VIP, Mandarin Oriental General Manager Amanda Hyndman leads her team to understand the specific requirements for each guest. The staff confers with their travel agent or butler to find out how the room should be prepared.

With many guests arriving from around the world, we asked Hyndman how the Mandarin Oriental handles caring for guests who speak so many different languages. The staff at the hotel represents 58 countries and many languages, so they can plan accordingly. Last year delegations from China, Thailand and the Ukraine were all met and cared for by staff members who speak their language.

Hyndman tells of times when high-level delegations have sent their security team to the kitchen to help choose a piece of meat then taste it before the meal is sent up to the room. Extreme requests have included 20 vases of gardenias, particular brands of candles, and precise food requests. Recently one musician required a specific set of ingredients for a shake that included kale, broccoli, lettuce and spirulina ready for when he checked into the hotel.

When asked how the Four Seasons prepares for VIPs, Head Concierge Javier Loureiro responds, "Things change. Needs change. Our job is to respond to the changes."

On call 24 hours a day, a hotel butler is the main point of communication between the delegation and our hotel staff. "During a VIP's visit we get very little sleep. Our job is to take care of immediate needs of the VIP at any time of day." When asked about unique requests, Loureiro adds, "Some guests are interested in fast automobiles. One man wanted the hotel to arrange a choice of four to five ultra-luxury cars parked downstairs for him to choose from."

Suzie Sims, director of diplomatic sales at The Ritz-Carlton, emphasizes the importance of a security plan. The Ritz-Carlton on 22nd Street has two entrances, required by the Secret Service, including a separate diplomatic entrance. Most teams set up cameras in the hallway and a command post.

Anything a Guest Wants, They've Got It

Some Ritz-Carlton guests have been known to reserve a connecting room to be transformed into a gym, lounge, or formal meeting room. The hotel staff has also transformed adjoining rooms into dressing areas for their butler to iron, steam, and arrange extensive wardrobes. Some guests have arrived with such a large number of suitcases delivered by moving truck, that an extra room was reserved to store the luggage.

Recently, Sims was asked by a VIP to help with a birthday surprise for a guest. Hotel staff got to work pre-dawn to quietly fill the suite with hundreds of balloons while the guest was sleeping in the next room. The staff often gets requests for specific TV channels. Sims remarks, "We bring in a cable guy to reconfigure the channels. There is always a way to make it work." If the President of France wants to watch Bravo, they will make sure the giant TV in his suite has Bravo.

The Ritz-Carlton staff represents more than 30 nationalities. "We need to speak their language and be ready to cook their food. I work closely with the ambassador's protocol office to learn how to communicate with each guest properly and be as culturally sensitive as possible. Since we have Ritz-Carlton hotels throughout the world, we reach out to our colleagues in that country for resources and recipes. We can recreate the club lounge experience from another country."

The Ritz-Carlton Suite, the Presidential Suite at the Mandarin Oriental, and The Royal Suite at the Four Seasons were designed to entice the rich and powerful with the highest level of luxury, service, and security. Now that Oprah has wrapped up the 25 year run of her show, we may see her enjoying the posh hotels of Washington D.C. more often, unless she has already reserved the Lincoln bedroom.

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Travelodge: Future Hotels Offer Lure of Virtual Sex

Andrew Burmon — 2011-06-08T16:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News, Weird, Luxury

ell brown/Flickr

According to a report sponsored by the budget hotel chain Travelodge, future hotels will offer technology allowing their clients to make remote digital love to their spouse or partner.

The "Future of Sleep" study, authored by self-proclaimed futurologist Ian Pearson, also hypothesizes that in 2030 "video, audio, smells and tactile experiences produced using our bed or bed linen will play a key role in helping to make our dreams feel real."

Obviously Pearson sees pay-per-view as a thing of the past. He also claims travelers will be seeing the internet through contact lenses and that they will be able to digitally turn their hotels into simulacrums of their bedrooms.

There is no dancing around the fact that this sounds ridiculous, but Apple's introduction of the iCloud this week already means that traveler's digital possessions will likely travel with them. The bigger reach may be concluding that hotels will offer any of these services gratis in 2030 when, in 2011, so many are still charging for the damn wifi.

This news may also be greeted with a certain degree of displeasure by certain travelers who don't mind taking a break from home. Just because you can take it with you doesn't mean you'll want to.

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Pierre Hotel To Install Panic Buttons In Rooms

Kate Auletta — 2011-06-01T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News

Getty Images

New York's famed Pierre Hotel has suspended a supervisor and agreed to install panic buttons in all rooms following two high-profile incidents involving sexual attacks at Manhattan hotels, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In late May, Assemblyman Rory Lancman, a Democrat from Queens, suggested legislation to install such buttons in rooms following a scandal involving former IMF head honcho Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the Sofitel.

It seems New York hotels are taking note of this seemingly silly request.

Peter Ward, the President of the New York Hotel & Motels Trades Council, told the WSJ: "Let everybody in the world traveling to New York know that when they stay in a hotel room, the person cleaning that room is armed with a button that they can immediately press if you're stupid enough to get inappropriate."

A Pierre spokeswoman, Nora Walsh, confirmed that the hotel would give room attendants a panic button, not unlike those given to the elderly following an incident involving Egyptian banker Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar at the Pierre on Sunday. The alleged victim reportedly told supervisors about the assault on Sunday, only to be told to wait until Monday to inform security. As a result, a supervisor has been suspended.

Ward told the paper: "When an employee goes to their supervisors and says 'I've been accosted, I've been assaulted' we don't want some manager who's been so badly trained that all they do is put it in a log book. We want a manager who understands there's a whole variety of things that needs to happen."

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Hong Kong on High: Time Lapse Video From Ritz-Carlton - World's Highest Hotel

Chris Anderson — 2011-05-17T07:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Video

This AOL Travel exclusive Hong Kong time lapse video was shot from the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, the world's highest hotel.

The speed and activity of Hong Kong along with the immense scale, and the kinetic energy are often hard to translate to those who haven't been there. Hong Kong is in constant motion and you just want to dive in.

I dove in for two years and loved every minute of my time there. On a recent trip back I visited the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, the world's highest hotel. The Ritz is 480 meters high and takes up floors 102 through 118 in Hong Kong's newest skyscraper, the ICC.

The Ritz provided a fantastic platform to shoot from, as blogger Melanie Nayer found out when she attended the opening back in March, 2011.

The segments of this time lapse video were taken from the 111th floor, and from the Ritz's infinity swimming pool on the 118th floor.

In the video you can see Kowloon in the first segment. The second bit shows Kowloon with the main island across Victoria Harbor. The third clip shows ferries zooming around with Sheung Wan in the distance and the fourth is where the main Hong Kong commercial port traffic flows.

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15 Great Hotels For History Lovers (PHOTOS)

Kate Auletta — 2011-05-08T09:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel

Historvius

Location, location, location. This real estate mantra is something to live by when seeking out the perfect hotel. In fact, if you're after historical sites on your next holiday, the setting of your hotel could be key.

Location, location, location. This real estate mantra is something to live by when seeking out the perfect hotel. For history buffs, a hotel setting can be key to a stay.

From balcony panoramas of World Heritage sites to hidden ancient baths in the basement, some hotels have that little something extra to really immerse their guests in history. So, where can one find these perfect places from which to enjoy the sites of cultures past?

We asked our friends at historical travel website Historvius.com to put together a selection of just some of the very best hotels for history lovers.

Text and photos courtesy of Historvius.

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Mohamed Kotbi, Waldorf Astoria Waiter, Forced to Change Name, Sues Hotel

Rebecca Dolan — 2011-05-03T09:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News

guille78, flickr

A North African waiter at New York's Waldorf Astoria was forced by hotel management to change his name multiple times to keep him from scaring guests.

Mohamed Kotbi, a Moroccan-born banquet waiter, had worked at the famous hotel since 1984. But, two days after the September 11 attacks he was asked to don a nametag with a new alias - John.

The measure, he was told by hotel management, was to prevent him from frightening guests.

"I put it on. I was in shock," Kotbi told the New York Post.

He filed discrimination complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2005 and 2009. He was eventually given a name tag bearing his last name, but his trouble didn't stop there.

This past November, Kotbi was again asked to change his name, and was given a nametag reading "Edgar." He was reportedly told by hotel management: "It's better to be Edgar than Mohamed today."

Kotbi is now suing the Waldorf for religious and racial discrimination. He is claiming the hotel's work environment was "hostile," not only because of the name changes, but because it did nothing to keep co-workers from tormenting him.

According to his suit, other Waldorf staff called Kotbi names like "terrorist" and "al Qaeda boy."

In a statement to USA TODAY, Hilton hotels said "the Waldorf has more than 1,600 employees 'representing six continents around the world and operates a non-discriminatory hiring policy'."

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Check Your Room.com Offers 'What Room Are You?' Quiz

Kate Auletta — 2011-04-21T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News

God bless the gimmick. The new website, checkyourroom.com has created a "What Kind Of Room Are You?" quiz to get people to find a hotel room--anywhere in the world--that fits their personality best.

The quiz asks 7 questions--ranging from favorite cuisine to style to, randomly, "who is your hero?" The choices? Frank Sinatra, Cassanova, Steve Jobs or Che Guevara.

The room options include classic, romantic, modern or adventurous.

If Che Guevara is considered "adventurous" and not "revolutionary", then that's just fine.

If taking a quiz isn't an ideal way to find a hotel--after all, it's not the most direct method to find a room--wannabe travelers can check out rooms around the world by destination and even expectations.

Travelers can pick what they believe is most important to their stay: view, design, decor or size.

While we're still a little dubious about the site, it's certainly worth playing on.

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Bert Kreischer, The World's Worst Hotel Guest?

Libby Zay — 2011-04-20T15:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, News

Bert Kreischer

How would you react if you walked into a hotel room and saw a pair of legs poking out from under the bed? A Travel Channel television host has taken it upon himself to frighten house keeping services at hotels by "redecorating" rooms. Might he actually be the world's worst hotel guest?

Comedian and actor Bert Kreischer, who hosts Bert the Conqueror, has been surprising hotel maids by re-arranging common hotel room items and other props into creepy art forms. The American TV personality tells an Australian news site, news.com.au, his goal is to leave each room in a "semi-disturbing manner."

Some of Kreischer's creations include toilet paper formed into the outline of a body (a la a crime scene), a toilet made to look like a snake with fangs dripping with blood, and a giant dog made from towels and linens.

Bert Kreischer

He's also stuffed a shirt to make it look like a torso was being kept in a mini-fridge, used clothes to make it appear like a man was hiding underneath a food cart, and left a sheet dangling out of a hotel room window to make it seem as if someone has escaped.

Kreischer then posts photos of his creepy creations on Twitter, asking followers to come up with captions.

But what might be even more disturbing is that Kreischer says his escapades began in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas in order to draw attention away from what is really going on in his hotel room.

"I realized that if a maid was insightful enough she could tell exactly what I had done in my hotel room and she might think less of me," Kreischer tells the news outlet.

Bert Kreischer

"So I tried to throw her off my trail by putting an ironing board in the bathroom next to a pillow encrusted toilet ... and that started it all."

Kreischer did not divulge exactly what goes on behind closed doors in hotels, or if he's ever had to foot a bill for defacing property. He also says he has not heard how hotel staff react to his makeovers, but always makes sure to compensate them for their trouble.

"I am long gone by the time anyone from the hotel sees my 'art,' but I always leave a generous tip and never destroy anything or create anything that would be a hassle to put back together in a matter of seconds."

So which hotels are the most fun to play around in? Kreischer tells the website that: "Hyatts and Hiltons offer the most amount of stuff in the room for you to create with... Holiday Inns and Red Roof Ins a pretty bare bones and you end op having to go into your suit case for props, but mostly all the props are the same... which makes it tough to come up with new ones."

At least for now, it seems like Kreischer will be continuing his hotel hijinks. "Just so you know: I bought 100 feet of parachute military cord & a survival knife this weekend...hotel catastrophes are a fear no more," announced the prankster on his Twitter feed on Tuesday.

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