New websites and apps offer previously unavailable insight about hotels. Check out these great new resources:
Hipmunk Hotels: Bringing its innovative airfare comparison technology to hotels and AirBnB rentals, the Hipmunk website and app maps out rooms and color-codes them according to their value relative to local rates. You can also filter properties by proximity to nightlife, food, shopping, and even “vice.”
Concierge Insider Guides: The new app from InterContinental Hotels delivers worldwide destination guides (complete with interactive maps and video tours) from the ultimate hotel insiders: the company’s 120 concierges.
Oyster.com: This site sends out an army of professional reviewers to critique and photograph thousands of properties around the world. Especially revealing is the “photo fakeouts” section, which juxtaposes misleading hotel promotional images with real-life Oyster shots.
Who She Is: Splitting her time between New York and London, with an Italian passport to boot, Pavia Rosati—who was the executive editor of DailyCandy for nearly a decade—has always been a go-to person for travel tips. “I once planned a honeymoon in Greece for my intern’s brother’s best friend’s cousin, whom I never even met!” she says—fodder for her recent venture.
Her Big Idea: The new website Fathom compiles vintage-style e-postcards—complete with personalized snapshots—from celebrities, trendsetters, and regular folk in the know. The result is a lively, opinionated travel blog with a fun, retro feel. “We’re all for edited, user-generated content,” Rosati says. Up next? A mobile app with guides for everywhere from Buenos Aires to Beirut, plus an online boutique that’s meant to be “a one-stop shop for all your travel needs.”
Longford Fivehead - Dewsall (above) The always spot-on tasteful Lulu Townsend of Chic Retreats has just added a lovely—and rather unorthodox—new property to her portfolio. Dewsall is a gorgeous listed and restored Regency house in Herefordshire, near the Welsh border, which can be rented in its entirety—when, that is, it’s not in its other guise, that of a chic little pop-up hotel a few weeks a year. The house is perfectly, ravishingly restored, with huge ensuite bedrooms, entertainment rooms (with all the mod cons) and a kitchen to make regular World of Interiors readers sigh with longing. A bonus: their Great British Safari—whereby guests hike into the Black Mountains, take kayaks or canoes from Glasbury to Hay, or go pheasant shooting—complete with luxury tents and gourmet meals.
Whether you prefer the fast-paced streets of Manhattan, the ancient ruins of Rome, or the romantic gondolas of Venice, we’ve got your next vacation covered—all for more than 30 percent off standard rates. And don’t forget that all Vacationist reviews include tips, a room to book, and destination information from T+L insiders, so you can explore the world’s most exciting cities like a true insider.
PLUS This month we’re also offering special two-day sales at over 100 Preferred Hotels thanks to the Check-in For Japan program, and all proceeds will be donated Japan relief. So no matter what you’re looking for, we have an experience for you.
Value is not measured by room rate alone. You also have to consider how much a hotel’s goods and services cost. To get a sense of the relative expense of luxury properties, T+L determined the average price of a hotel bar martini, from Buenos Aires to Bangkok.
Montreal: $16 New York City: $19 Mexico City: $12 Rio de Janeiro: $15 Buenos Aires: $17 London: $23 Prague: $10 Lisbon: $12 Cape Town: $7 Rome: $23 Paris: $25 Dubai: $17 Mumbai: $15 Bangkok: $10 Singapore: $18 Shanghai: $13 Sydney: $21
Be on the lookout for these new art projects this coming spring.
Architecture The charming port city of Avilés, in northern Spain, has unveiled the Centro Niemeyer—designed by 103-year-old architect Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian poet of poured concrete. Programming at the cultural center includes art, opera, and film and kicks off this spring with “La Luz,” an exhibition about light curated by acclaimed Spanish film director Carlos Saura.
Museum The Carlos Slim Foundation’s newest masterpiece? The Museo Soumaya, in Mexico City’s Polanco district. Architect Fernando Romero’s six-story building—a torqued pavilion of steel, glass, and aluminum—will house a collection ranging from old masters (Rubens; Tintoretto) to Modernist works (Picasso; Tamayo).
A Greek Islands getaway is one for the bucket list—a trip of a lifetime complete with tours of whitewashed villages, lunches at seaside food stands, and endless hours on sun-soaked deserted beaches. But with almost 3,000 islands in all, how do you hone in on the right hotels? Enter Vacationist’s Greek Islands Week, for deals on charming properties in Patmos, Kos, and Crete, and up to 40 percent off at the 88-room Margi Hotel, in Athens, just minutes from the Adriatic. Book your Greek Islands experience now.
Looking for a room at one of New York City’s buzziest hotels? Look no further than Vacationist, where we offer exclusive deals at the world’s best hotels, including this one, on the northern edge of Manhattan’s Flatiron District. The property is also the site of new John Dory Oyster Bar, featured on our brand-new Romance edition for iPad, on sale now. For those looking for something special for two—it almost Valentine’s Day, after all—we also have over 30% off at properties in Costa Rica, three hotels in Italy, and more. What could be more romantic than that?
What makes Vacationist stand apart from other sites? It delivers T+L-quality hotels at prices that can’t be beat. Case in point: the list of hotels on sale now, which includes Il Salviatino, a 15th-century estate that was featured on the 2010 It List, T+L’s compendium of the biggest hotel openings of the year. And you won’t want to miss the Langham Huntington (one of this year’s T+L 500 hotels) for 20% off the standard rate. Looking for deals at more award-winning T+L hotels? Click here now.
Truth be told, we’ve been obsessing over the Farmhouse Inn—in Sonoma, California’s Russian River Valley—since the property’s renovation in 2009. And now that Vacationist is offering rates of almost 30% off at the 18-room hotel, you may find us at tasting local wines with the property’s master sommelier, or perhaps unwinding after a treatment at the hotel’s rustic spa. Prefer exclusive beach villas to country charm? This week Vacationist brings you Cabo San Lucas and Phuket, as well.
