There is a new player in the hotel review space which is TVTrip.com. TVTrip hosts video reviews of hotels. At this time they have “115 destinations, 5530 hotels, 494008 reviews, 4937 videos”. That is a very small percentage of the world’s hotels but the value of actually being able to see the hotel (if they have a review for it) seems of greater value to me than a textual review.

Popularity: 46% [?]

New York City is considering a plan that would turn Bellevue hospital, the famous mental institution, into a hotel. Just think of the great marketing campaign they could run using the famous “Crazy Eddie” (is he still alive?) of New York radio commercial fame. “Come on down our prices are insane!”

Guests at Bellevue will soon be given bathrobes instead of straitjackets, if the city can convince a developer to turn its most famous nut house into a luxe hotel.

City officials yesterday said they’re confident the hospital’s old psychiatric ward, which until the mid-1980s provided something short of four-star accommodations to countless kooks and criminals, would help fill a void in Manhattan’s East Side medical corridor.

Originally, officials considered turning the 1931 Italian Renaissance-style building on First Avenue between 29th and 30th streets into condos, but oddly, the layout of a mental institution is better suited to a hotel, Melissa Konur, vice president of the city’s Economic Development Commission, told The Post. “There are long corridors, and the rooms aren’t very big,” she said.

Popularity: 41% [?]

The site Macenstein had an article about a UK hotel that is adding an iMac to each hotel room:

Hotel chain City Inn has decided to put a brand new iMac in every room in its London and Manchester hotels.

According to Macworld UK, City Inn has partnered with software company DirectStreams which developed a system to allow guests to use the iMac as a TV, radio, DVD and CD player, as well as allow for full access to the iLife suite, Office apps, and the internet.

What’s really cool here is that through the use of Faronic’s Deep Freeze software, no data is recorded on the iMac’s hard drive, and the systems are returned to their default state each day (remind me I want to install that on a few friend’s systems this coming April 1st). This means people need not worry about the security risks normally associated with shared environment computers. It also means you should pack a USB thumb drive if you are planning to write any reports on the road and don’t want them to mysteriously disappear in the morning.

So how do I get my podcasts loaded on each of their computers I wonder…. hmmmmm

Popularity: 31% [?]

I booked and paid for a room using Hotwire.com last weekend and then ended up paying for a second hotel room. Why? It turns out that there is a catch with the HotWire service that you should know about.

If you are not familiar with HotWire.com it is a site that sells unsold hotel rooms at a significant discount. It is similar to the better known Priceline.com. With Priceline you bid for what price you are willing to pay (which is a hassle). With HotWire they will tell you what price you can pay for a hotel that is rated a certain number of stars with particular set of amenities. Neither site tells you the name of the hotel before you pay for a pre-payed, non-refundable room. On HotWire you choose a general geographic area, decide if you need the pool at a 3 star hotel or if the 2 star hotel with free internet is what you want.

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Popularity: 66% [?]

When I was in Istanbul recently I stayed in two different hotels. The first one was a European style business hotel near Taksim. The second one was a small hotel, Hotel Historia, just behind the Sultanahmet mosque (the blue mosque). The first hotel was wonderful but was probably about twice the price of the second hotel. Neither of the hotels is what Americans would expect from a typical hotel room. A typical American style hotel has two double beds or a king size bed. A typical small European hotel might fit a double bed but there would not be any floor space. More likely you will find smaller twin beds. The rooms are smaller. I noticed with the Hotel Historica that the reviews for the hotel ran from people who loved it to people who hated it. Some of the people who hated it were Americans who I think arrived with the wrong expectations.

So what should you expect? These boutique hotels can be a wonderful experience. The hotel Historica was inexpensive. It had an elevator, but you will not always find this in these older hotels which is one of the reasons I like to pack light. The hotel was clean and the people were wonderful. It had high speed internet although not good coverage from my particular hotel room. No problem, it had a nice comfortable lobby which looked more like a living room. As I sat checking my email someone brought over a glass of hot tea. The breakfast was included and was beautiful as well as tasty. The hotel was 2-3 blocks from one of the main sites in the city. Someone did not like this place? I don’t get it.

Popularity: 23% [?]