Image courtesy of Pullman hotels
Happy Friday, everyone. We’re reporting live from East Hampton, where the beach town is currently under the same oppressive heat wave as much of the East Coast. In that spirit, we’re attempting to cool things down with some chill hotel news of the week.
If you’re new to “Hotel News We Noted,” this weekly column tracks our favorite interesting, wacky, weird and wonderful news of each week in the hospitality space.
Cool Opening: Hotel Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach
Accor’s upscale brand, Pullman, has launched their latest property and fifth in Thailand, Hotel Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach. Nestled on Naithon Beach, one of the prettiest parts of the West Coast of Thailand, the property offers some spectacular vistas – waterfalls and vantage points over the Andaman Sea, plus amenities like gratis Wi-Fi, Nespresso machines, a spa, two restaurants and four bars. Plus, there’s plenty of room. The hotel offers 277 rooms, including seven spacious suites.
Big Booking News: Stayful, A Cool Approach To Boutique Hotels
Love boutique hotels? Try Stayful, a new online travel site focused exclusively on booking stays at independent boutique hotels. Through a proprietary bidding system, Stayful offers last-minute discounts on boutique properties and is backed by former executives from Expedia, Hotels.com and Joie de Vivre. Properties included in the initial beta include some of our favorites – New York’s Standard High Line, Hotel on Rivington and Gansevoort Park Avenue, as well as San Francisco’s Hotel Diva and Hotel Fusion. The site just launched on July 17, but we’re excited to see how it continues to develop.
What Summer Travelers Want In A Hotel: Pools, AC
A new study by Kayak shows the top amenities that summer travelers want in a hotel. Not shockingly, pools and air-conditioning top the list – and the order is flip-flopped for those traveling internationally. Not all European hotels are air conditioned, so it’s well worth checking on that tidbit of information. Other top amenities include an airport shuttle, parking and Internet.
Cool Hotel Perk: Bacon Paintings
Our colleague Libby Zay reported on this a few days ago, and it’s too good not to include in our weekly roundup. Check out what The Woodlands resort in Texas recently did for guests – hint, hint, it involves bacon art. Kudos for great service, and for actually reading the “comments” section of a rooms request. We prefer this to last year’s blanket fort request, for sure.
This will be our final “Hotel News We Noted” column on Gadling. Please stay tuned via Twitter to see if Hotel News pops up in a new iteration soon.
Source: Luxury Travel - gadling.com
