Green Hotels for Earth Day Escapes
Eco-friendly lifestyles are the newest marketing mantra for urban hotels. Here are a handful in North America that equate checking in with making a difference.
Photo Caption: The bar at ALT Hotel, Montreal. Courtesy Groupe Germain
Eco, huh? THAT BETTER NOT BE MULTICOLORED PLEXIGLASS UP THERE.
LobbyFriend App Keeps You Informed During Your Hotel Stay
LobbyFriend emerged out of a genuine desire for more interaction among guests, hotel staff members, and hotels themselves. LobbyFriend can be downloaded as an app onto your smartphone, or simply opened on a mobile web browser. You then create a profile, similar to Facebook, with a photo, a description of yourself, and basic info like employer, job position, degree and gender. But you can only log onto LobbyFriend once you’ve checked into a participating hotel. And once you’ve checked out, your session is immediately wiped out. Right after handing you the room key, the participating hotel will also hand you a postcard with a special PIN on it. Guests use that pin to “enter” the virtual lobby of that particular hotel. Once inside, you can scroll through the hotel’s “news feed.” This is a stream of guests chatting with each other, requesting local advice, and being notified of special events or promotions going on at the hotel.
Oh good God, no.
“Panic Room” at the Au Vieux Panier hotel in Marseille, France by Tilt.
Aptly named.
“Listen, lady, the jacket’s not fooling anyone. Please stop stalking the front desk.”
- “Who’s your favorite - Tony, Toni, or Toné?”
- Distracting, enormous wallet
- I didn’t know bartenders were allowed to drink with the patrons (because you know that’s who the guy on the right is. And the guy on the left is the nightly lounge act.)
The amazing and forever quirky Maison Moschino Hotel.
If I walked into my hotel room and saw this in my bed, I’d shit myself.
“Move the coffee maker and ice bucket out of the bathroom; it was sitting on the sink beside the toilet. Ewwwwww!!!!!!!”