Hamster Hotel

Posted by Miss Cellania in Travel & Places on November 17, 2009 at 12:03 pm

The Hamster Hotel is now open in Nantes, France. No, it’s not just a clever name. Frederic Tabary and Yann Falquerho converted a room in an old building to a human-sized hamster cage complete with a running wheel and hay to sleep on! Guests will be able to live like a hamster complete with grain offered for meals.

“The hamster in the world of children is that little cuddly animal. Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small,” said Mr Falquerho, who was dressed as a hamster.

The price for the room is currently 99 euros for a night, but the price will go up when Wifi and a TV screen are installed. Link -via Arbroath

 
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Neatorama Shop » Home & Garden » Ice Trays

Luxury Capsule Hotel

Posted by John Farrier in Architecture on November 10, 2009 at 4:23 pm


Photo: Design Boom

In 1979, Japan built its first capsule hotel — an inn with rooms consisting of little more than a bed, and certainly not enough room to stand up. Now developers in Kyoto are contrasting that minimalist approach with luxury furnishings at the 9h Hotel, which will open in December. It’s called 9h because users are expected to shower, sleep for seven hours, and then rest in a nine-hour period — although you can rent your room for up to seventeen hours at a time. Each pod comes with customizable lighting to help lull you to sleep and then gently wake you.

Link via Fast Company (where there are pictures of a similar endeavor in Manhattan)

 
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Newest Travel Craze - Sleeping In Beds Of Hay

Posted by Queuebot in Travel & Places on September 17, 2009 at 7:57 pm

The travel industry may be suffering during these tough economic times, but hotels in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have found a way to attract new visitors – let them sleep in beds of freshly raked hay in converted barns. For as little as 8 Euros per night ($11 U.S.),  backpackers, couples, families, and (in the case of one German hotel) groups of up to 60 can bond by eating together around a camp fire and then
rolling around in the hay.

Without the need for new construction, heavy laundry bills or other forms of high energy consumption, hay hotels are also an effective means of low-impact, sustainable tourism.

Link – via holeinthedonut

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by baweibel.

 
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Website Exposes Fake Hotel Photos

Posted by Alex in Blog & Internet on September 11, 2009 at 2:55 am

Have you ever gone to your hotel room and thought "hey, this rinky dink room wasn’t at all like the photo on the website!" (I’m looking at you, Boston Omni Parker House Hotel). Well, a website named Oyster has stepped up to the task of taking actual honest-to-goodness (not photoshopped for brochures) photos of hotels. Surprisingly, a lot of the hotel rooms – especially the expensive ones I never stay at – are really nice looking, so it’s kind of a fun way to gawk at hotels you’d never stay at …

So far Oyster only has a limited number of hotels in just a few cities* but photos of the one I’ve stayed at, the Embassy Suites Hotel on Paradise Road in Las Vegas looked exactly like what I remembered. They should step it up a notch and maybe accept user submitted photos (this being Web 2.0 and all).

LinkThanks Leah!

*Too bad they didn’t have photos of the rinky dink room I stayed in at the BOPH – it was literally the size of a closet! And actually the experience is quite useful: whenever I read reviews of a hotel at TripAdvisor, Expedia or similar websites, I always look up the Omni Parker – that way, I can gauge how much of the review is plain BS.

 
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V-Houses

Posted by Miss Cellania in Architecture on August 29, 2009 at 12:12 am


These V-Houses were designed by Heinz Legler for use as eco-friendly shelters. They are in temporary use for workers is a forest near Yelapa, Mexico, but have proved so popular that more have been ordered to house resort guests. They feature solar panels, composting toilets, and a greywater system to reuse as much water as possible. No excavation needed to set these treehouses up, just stick them in the ground! Link -via Digg

 
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Neatorama Shop » Computer & Office » Road Mice

Why settle for a boring computer mouse when you can surft in style with Road Mice, a cool wireless computer mouse that looks just like the car of your dreams?

Road Mice is available in various Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ford models including the popular Dodge Viper shown to the left.

It's the perfect gift for the auto-enthusiast in your life!

See more Road Mice »

One-Cent Hotel Rooms in Venice

Posted by Miss Cellania in Advertising, Travel & Places on August 15, 2009 at 7:13 pm

An advertising mistake will costs thousands of euros for the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Venice, Italy. An online advertisement posted a room price as one-hundredth of a euro per night instead of 150 euros ($213). Before the ad was changed, 230 people booked 1,400 room nights at that price.

The company say the mistake was made at the offices of IHG in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States.

“Although a pricing error, IHG is committed to honouring the 1-cent rate for guests who have a valid confirmation,” the hotel group’s Monica Smith said.

The total cost of the mistake could be 90,000 euros (or $128,000). Link -via Digg

 
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Luxury Resort Offers $19 Room. The Catch? There's No Bed!

Posted by Queuebot in Travel & Places on August 13, 2009 at 4:34 pm

The Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego is trying a new tactic for drawing guests in a struggling economy: the "Survivor Package." For $19 a night, guests get a tent to sleep in (no mattress, linens, lights, or air conditioning, and forget the free breakfast).

Managers of the luxury resort hope people will return after the promotion willing to pay full price for all the amenities.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by PlumPerch.

 
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Tianzi Hotel

Posted by Miss Cellania in Architecture, Travel & Places, World Records on July 14, 2009 at 11:40 am


The three men in this picture are Fu Lu Shou, which means good fortune, prosperity, and longevity. But in this version they are a ten story building! Tianzi Hotel is in Hebei Province, China, and holds the world record for being the “biggest image building”. See more pictures at Killer Directory. Link -Thanks, David!

 
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Monasteries as Hotels

Posted by Miss Cellania in Travel & Places on April 16, 2009 at 11:11 pm


Monasteries have always welcomed travelers. When they are no longer used for monks, they make great hotels. Many have upgraded their accommodations in recent years to compete with luxury resorts.

As well as being physically beautiful, ex-monasteries are often strikingly spiritual, as if centuries of prayer and plainchant have seeped into their massive walls. A stay in a cloister seems to incline one to contemplation, reading, sleeping well and turning off the mobile.

Get a closer look at five such ex-monasteries. Link -via Boing Boing

 
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A Hotel With a Unique View

Posted by Queuebot in Travel & Places on February 14, 2009 at 3:19 am

Everland is a hotel with only one room including a bathroom, a king-size bed and a lounge.  What makes it so different is that – because it is also an art installation – this hotel travels! The Everland has been ‘parked’ in the most unsual places, like the roof-deck of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Leipzig, Germany.

Now the hotel is in Paris, high above the city, with a spectacular view on the Eiffel Tower from its place at the roof of Palais de Tokyo.

Considering how unique a night in this hotel is, the price is not so crazy: you can get the only room and the unique view for 333 Euros during the week, 444 Euros during the weekends.

Link – via uglydoggy

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by scbr.

 
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Neatorama Shop » T-Shirts About The Economy
$700 Billion T-Shirt

Times Square Hotel is Dirtiest in Nation

Posted by Queuebot in Travel & Places on February 6, 2009 at 3:51 pm

The dirtiest hotel in America?  According to millions of voters and reviewers, that distinction goes to the Carter Hotel in Times Square, New York city.  Everything from rats and mysterious stains to dead bodies under the bed have earned this one star hotel this unique distinction. 

"Hey, maybe Times Square isn’t so Disneyfied after all; millions of travelers on Trip Advisor have voted Hotel Carter on West 43rd Street the #1 filthiest place to stay in America. Comments on Trip Advisor range from revolting ("I don’t know where to begin… Roaches, rats, mice, horrible smells, dirty sheets, horrifying bathrooms, outlets that hang out of walls… But the worst part about it was that at 4 a.m. I woke up to a bunch of guys breaking into our hotel room while we were sleeping!!") to panicked ("It’s like a HORROR movie in real life, it’s so bad that its just not for real. Barack Obama, please shut it down!").

Hotel Carter’s manager tells NY1 that because they are a one star hotel, they have one star standards of cleanliness. But we’re pretty sure even a one star hotel shouldn’t be charging $130 for rooms that come with a dead body under the bed."

See also TripAdvisor’s  Top 10 list of the filthiest hotels in America.



Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

 
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The World's First Jumbo Jet Hostel

Posted by Queuebot in Car & Vehicle, Travel & Places on February 5, 2009 at 10:51 pm

Big jumbo jets have to be taken out of service after so many years in the air for safety reasons, which leaves the owners with the problem of what to do with them. Most end up in vast aeroplane grave yards where they’re stripped for their useful parts then left to rust.

This 1976 Boeing 747-200 plane (formerly of Singapore Airlines) in Stockholm, Sweden got a lucky break when a budding hostel entrepreneur bought it and converted it into the worlds first Jumbo Jet hostel.

With suitably uniformed "cabin crew" and loads of the plane’s original features, the grounded aircraft is a unique hostel experience. You can even spend the night as the captain in the converted cockpit suite!

Book a night in the plane.

More pictures at the link below.





From the mid of January, hostel guests will, for the first time ever, be able to spend the night in a real, seasoned jumbo jet – on the ground! This is the perfect way to start your trip abroad. The plane is a used out jumbo jet model 747-200 made in 1976. It has been awarded a brand new, modern interior decoration, offering night guests an experience apart. It’s exciting for aviation enthusiasts and families with children as well as for business people. This exhilarating experience leaves no-one indifferent –we promise.

Link – via funtasticus

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Jake.

 
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The Salt Hotel

Posted by Queuebot in Travel & Places on January 12, 2009 at 12:56 pm

A hotel in Bolivia always has salt on its dining table – actually, its dining table is salt! Here’s the strange Salt Hotel of the Uyuni Flats:

The hotel was built in 1993 by a salt artisan who saw a mint in the number of tourists looking for places to stay while visiting the flats. The lodge has 15 bedrooms, a dining room, a living room and a bar.

The buildings’s roof, and bar are built of salt and even the floor is covered with salt granules. The walls are made of salt blocks stuck together with a cement-like substance made of salt and water. During rainy seasons, the walls are strengthened with new blocks, while the owners ask the guests to avoid licking the walls to prevent deterioration.

Link

 
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Brown Dyed Hotel - A Flash Game

Posted by Stacy in Flash Games on January 3, 2009 at 10:03 pm

This game is surprisingly hard. You have to figure out how to get through each page without any direction whatsoever. It’s believed that there are 12 levels, but apparently there are some hints on the site that more exist. Will you figure it out? If you do, let us know in the comments. I got stuck on the Cirkles level (you can tell what level it is by the URL). I know what to do; I just can’t get it done.

Link via Jayisgames

 
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Refrigerated Beach?

Posted by Miss Cellania in Travel & Places on December 17, 2008 at 12:19 am

The new Palazzo Versace hotel in Dubai wants to provide every luxury to its guests. The latest planned innovation is a refrigerated beach!

The beach will have a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface.

The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.

Versace’s plans have shocked environmentalists. Rachel Noble, the campaigns officer at Tourism Concern, which promotes sustainable tourism, said that the carbon generated by such projects would contribute to climate change, whose worst effects would be felt by the poor.

“Dubai is like a bubble world where the things that are worrying the rest of the world, like climate change, are simply ignored so that people can continue their destructive lifestyles,” she said.

The hotel should open in late 2009 or early 2010. Link -Thanks, Chris Tackett!

 
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