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Ibis Switzerland hotels offer social media pros to manage guests’ Instagram accounts

05 Dec

Ibis hotels in Switzerland are offering guests a new service called Social Media Sitter. With this, customers can use “Instagram professionals” provided by the hotel to manage their Instagram profile while on vacation, enabling guests to “enjoy the city without a smartphone in front of the face,” the company explains on its website.

The Social Media Sitter service is now available at Ibis hotels in Zurich and Geneva. The company lists several “Instagram professionals” on its site who specialize in categories that include fashion, travel, beauty, culture, art, and more.

The Instagram sitter shares “the best posts” on the guest’s profile, though it’s unclear how the service works. Presumably the Social Media Sitter is provided with the customer’s username and password; the company’s video suggests the sitter will follow the guests to capture candid shots and will manage the account’s comments and likes on the user’s behalf.

It’s unclear whether Ibis plans to launch its Social Media Sitter option at its other hotels. The new service appears popular, though, as Ibis’s Geneva and Zurich locations both show their Instagram professionals having been fully booked each weekend throughout November.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Amsterdam Airbnb in a Metro Station Mocks Misleading & Harmful Hotels

25 May

[ By SA Rogers in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

Anyplace can be an Airbnb – including vans, sheds, housing that should rightfully be for rent to the city’s residents, and cozy rooms ‘by the metro’ that turn out to actually be in the metro station. In fact, the latter example is on display in the metro station Wibautstraat in Amsterdam’s city center right now, walled off with glass to put guests on full display of commuters in a commentary on how misleading and harmful listings on the travel accommodations website can be.

Created by Dutch artist Boudewijn Rückert, the installation could be read in a variety of ways without context. If you didn’t know the artist’s intentions, you might think this was an advertisement, or an unconventional room made available by Airbnb as a promotional stunt. But lean in and take a close look at the placard accompanying the exhibition.

The text reads, “This unique location is an ideal base for your Amsterdam exploring. Spacious room with artificial lighting. It is really cosy and comfortable. Very close to the city center, ideal for conference goers. Very safe environment. Open and big windows. Public transport is very nearby.”

@AmsterdamNL #airbnb in metrostation Wibautstraat pic.twitter.com/GbjbUKNugi

— Boudewijn Rückert (@Boudo1963) May 1, 2017

As Rücker notes on his website, roughly 15,000 homes are currently offered “as a permanent holiday” in the city, excluding them from housing and contributing to gentrification. Plus, the way these accommodations are typically styled makes them exceedingly generic in the sterile Silicon Valley aesthetic increasingly referred to as ‘Airspace.’

Nu ook airbnb in metrostation wibautstraat pic.twitter.com/uMuloidhWM

— Boudewijn Rückert (@Boudo1963) April 30, 2017

The artist outfitted the room in furniture and decor you could find in any city around the world thanks to Ikea, along with “a butt-ugly vase with plastic flowers,” with nothing but a photo of an Amsterdam ferry on the wall to hint at the room’s geographic location.

While he’s aware that the installation is bound to press the buttons of Airbnb fans and perhaps the company itself, he hopes it will stimulate conversation around how renting out all these rooms is affecting the lives of people who live in the host cities – a controversy that’s definitely not limited to the city of Amsterdam.

[ By SA Rogers in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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Beyond the Glass Ceiling: 14 Houses & Hotels Made for Stargazing

19 Mar

[ By Steph in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

iceland igloo hotels 4

Watch for shooting stars and identify constellations from the comfort of a warm and cozy bed in rooms designed to provide nearly unfettered access to the sky, with transparent roofs blurring the lines between indoors and out. From hotels in some of the world’s prime stargazing locations like Finland and Chile to homes equipped with observatories to a tree house that literally lifts its lid, these see-through structures flood the interiors with sunlight during the day and offer amazing views at night.

Starlight Room

starlight room

starlight room 2

starlight room 3

starlight room 4

starlight room 5

Set on faux skis, with a glass ceiling and walls, the Starlight Room looks out onto the Dolomites in the northern Italian town of Cortina d’Ampezzo for high-altitude views far from light pollution and noise. The tiny hotel room accommodates singles and couples, and contains little more than a double bed and television. Guests arrive via snowmobile or snow shoes, and room service is delivered, though it looks like exiting the cabin to go to the bathroom in the snow might not be the most pleasant experience in the middle of the night.

The Sky Den Literally Lifts its Lid

sky den 2

sky den 4

The roof of this tree house by architect George Clark opens to the sky, enlarging the space so it can be used as a protected indoor shelter or an open-air observatory. Located in England’s Kielder Water & Forest Park, the Sky Den has flat-pack furniture built right into its movable walls, so guests can pull down and set up whatever they need to be comfortable, from beds to stools and benches.

Camouflage House

camouflage house 2

camouflage house

A habitable greenhouse, Hiroshi Iguchi’s Camouflage House blends into the landscape, with an inner core of private spaces surrounded by a glass enclosure. Almost completely transparent, the house in Nagano, Japan incorporates an interior garden via openings that allow trees to grow straight up the angled roof from the courtyard.

Transparent Ceilings and Floors

glass ceiling house

glass ceiling house 2

glass ceiling house 3

glass ceiling house 4

This four-story house in Shanghai by architect Yung Ho Chang of Atelier FCJZ features a glass roof as well as transparent floors on three levels, so you can see the interior of each floor in addition to the sky. Designed as a concrete box with no windows, the home gets all of its daylight from the ceiling. Talk about radical transparency – the toilet is even visible from just below the dining room.

Bob Hope’s UFO House

bob hope ufo house 2

bob hope ufo house 3

bob hope ufo house 4

bob hope ufo house 5

Designed by John Lautner in 1973, the house Bob Hope lived in for decades with his wife Dolores features a dramatic oculus for daylight and stargazing. The bizarre-looking structure was nicknamed ‘UFO House’ and ‘Volcano Home’ for its unusual shape when viewed from afar. Lautner refused to claim the project as his own work, reportedly because Dolores Hope demanded changes to the interior that didn’t fit his artistic vision.

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Beyond The Glass Ceiling 14 Houses Made For Stargazing

[ By Steph in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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Snoozeboxes: Mobile Container Hotels Travel by Truck or Rail

22 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

snoozebox trailer flat bed

Modular, stackable and robust, these cargo containers may not look like much on the outside but provide surprisingly refined accommodations inside and can be packed and shipped cheaply and easily around the world to meet different demand.

snoozebox modular system interior

snoozebox interior module design

Recently renovated, the newest Snoozebox models can be shipped by road, rail, air or sea, fully deployed within two days and configured in a variety of ways for festivals, events or emergency housing.

snoozebox shelves sofa door

snoozebox fashionable interior design

snoozebox new remodel version

Making them appealing for off-the-grid contexts as well, “each of the units require no mains service – no provision for electricity, water or sewerage is necessary. each room is climate controlled and features a wet room, double bed, flat screen TV, power sockets, free wi-fi and a safe.”

snoozebox wet room walls

snoozebox door room divider

These small-footprint shipping container modules allow for “two upper level units, each offering two bedrooms, can be placed on top of the lower level, accessed by stairs with a walkway leading to each dwelling. internally, each temporary residence has four stowed bunk beds, which can be readily and easily converted.”

snoozebox stairs and ramps

snoozebox interior space design

shipping container hotel design

The older models were a bit more bare-bones in terms of their cladding but still provide all of the essential basics, including flat-pack circulation structures and shade provisions for sunny and hot climates.

[ By WebUrbanist in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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Fairytale Hotels: 15 of the World’s Most Magical Lodgings

15 May

[ By Steph in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

Magical Hotels Main
Waterfalls stream down the sides of mountain-shaped, moss-covered structures, while white horses gallivant in front of castles that look like they were ripped right out of a book of fairytales. These 15 hotels are among the most magical places to stay anywhere in the world, from ancient palaces in India to gleaming ice hotels in Quebec. While some are a peek at how the 1% live, others are surprisingly affordable.

Magic Mountain Hotel, Chile

Magical Hotels Magic Mountain 2

If elves took up residence in Hobbiton, this is what their homes would look like. The mountain-shaped structure is dotted with arched windows and obscured with lush greenery. Waterfalls stream down the sides to drench the moss, ferns and flowers. Located within the remote Huilo-Huilo Biological Reserve, the hotel requires an adventurous spirit to even access, but it’s well worth the effort. Nearly everything is constructed from locally, sustainably sourced wood.

Neemrana Fort Palace, India

Magical Hotels Neemrana

A 15th-century palace built into the hillside in India is now a five-star, 55-bedroom hotel with kingly views over the nearby village. Neemrana Fort Palace is full of authentic decor from periods throughout India’s history and contains displays that educate guests about the palace’s fascinating past. Though rooms here start at just £50 per night, guests are given the royal treatment, with options including poolside spa treatments and hot balloon rides over the valley.

Fairytale Hotel in Belgium

Magical Hotels Balade Gnomes 1
Magical Hotels Balade Gnomes 2

Sleep in a surreal medieval-style chamber within a massive wooden Trojan Horse at Belgium’s La Balade des Gnomes Hotel. This bizarre retreat boasts ten unique rooms sculpted with the natural earthen building material known as cob to create all sorts of curved custom surfaces. The horse is just one of the hotel’s suites – others include a troll’s lair and a Macquarie Island room with a boat-shaped bed.

Crazy House Hotel, Dalat, Vietnam

Weirdest Hotels Crazy House 1
Weirdest Hotels Crazy House 2

The aptly named Crazy House Hotel in Vietnam began as the private residence of architect Hang Viet Nga, who clearly let her imagination run wild in creating an organically shaped structure reminiscent of the Barcelona ouvre of Antoni Gaudi. Made from the base of a dead tree, the house is full of ladders leading into hidden nooks and through tight tunnels. Rooms cost as little as $ 22 USD per night.

Thorngrove Manor Hotel, Adelaide, Australia

Magical Hotels Thorngrove

The Thorngrove Manor Hotel could easily double as a princess castle at Disneyland, it’s so picturesque. Located in Adelaide, Australia, the castle-like structure looks centuries-old but was actually built in 1994 as part of a vineyard. Though all the rooms are together in one building, there are no common spaces, and couples staying there never need to see other guests.

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Fairytale Inn 15 Of The Worlds Most Magical Hotels

[ By Steph in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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World’s Weirdest Hotels: 14 Unique Offbeat Accommodations

06 May

[ By Steph in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

World's Weirdest Hotels Main

There are art hotels with unusually creative and strangely-themed decor, and then there are hotels shaped like giant anuses, which are in a different class altogether. Hotels so strange and unusual that they qualify as roadside attractions whether you spend the night or not include a massive toilet, an operable crane, a survival pod with disco decor, a giant beer can and a manor where you can eat breakfast with giraffes hovering over your shoulder.

Hotel Shaped Like a Giant Anus, Antwerp, Belgium

Weirdest Hotels Anus
Weirdest Hotels Anus 2

It’s unlikely that you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Gee, I’d love to spend a night or two inside a giant anus,” but you have that opportunity anyway if you’re ever traveling through Antwerp, Belgium. Hotel Casanus began as a tongue-in-cheek work of art but is now actually a functioning rental on a small, isolated island as part of the 30-acre Verbeke Foundation Sculpture Park.

Giraffe Manor, Nairobi, Kenya

Weirdest Hotels Giraffe Manor

It’s certainly not every day that you can enjoy a gourmet meal in a quaint historic mansion as giraffes lean in through the windows over your shoulder. Giraffe Manor is located on a 140-acre sanctuary for one of the most endangered subspecies of giraffes in the world, Rothschild’s giraffes. The manor, which has ten guest rooms, offers up plates of giraffe food that you can feed to these hungry guests so they don’t go after your breakfast.

Sand Hotel, Dorset, England

Weirdest Hotels Sand Dorset

What’s the opposite of an ice hotel? A hot-weather alternative that’s no less ephemeral is the Sand Hotel in Dorset, England. Made of 1,000 tons of sand by British sculptor Mark Anderson, the hotel featured open ‘rooms’ that could be rented for only $ 21 a night.

Sewer Pipe Hostel, Mexico City

Weirdest Hotels Sewer Pipe

In case staying inside an anus sculpture is too extreme for you, perhaps a sewer pipe will be more accommodating. Mexico City’s TuboHotel is made up of stacked, reclaimed concrete sewer pipes with little more than a queen bed and a lamp inside.

Mount Gambier Jail Hotel, Australia

Weirdest Hotels Jail Australia

The spartan rooms of the Mount Gambier Jail hotel in Australia don’t look much different than they did when actual prisoners were staying there, and little has been changed about the entire facility since it was a functioning jail. It’s far from luxurious, but that’s kind of the point: the hotel markets itself as an ideal place to stay for penny-pinchers and the broke.

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Worlds Weirdest Hotels 14 Unique Offbeat Accommodations

[ By Steph in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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Destination Design: 12 Forward-Thinking Modern Hotels

08 Apr

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

Hotel Architecture Main
Whether by totally transforming a city’s skyline, subverting old standards of hotel architecture or creatively reclaiming historic structures, these 12 unusual modern hotel designs have become destinations in and of themselves. These aren’t just cool-looking concepts that may or may not ever become reality – they’ve actually been built and are open for business.

Bella Sky Hotel by 3XN

Hotel Architecture Bella Sky 1
Hotel Architecture Bella Sky 2

Two wedge-shaped towers connected by a small skybridge taper down to the ground at 3XN’s Bella Sky Hotel, a new landmark in Copenhagen. Not only does this unusual design transform the city skyline, it also has the benefit of giving all 814 guest rooms view of the surrounding landscape.

Hotel Marques de Riscal, Spain by Frank Gehry

Hotel Architecture Riscal Gehry

Whether they’re world-class museums or relatively small hotels in the Spanish countryside, architect Frank Gehry’s designs are anything but ordinary. The City of Wine complex for the Marques de Riscal Winery in Elciego, northern Spain features a wavy metallic exterior meant to reflect the colors of the winery’s signature bottles with their silver foil and gold mesh covering. The building houses a five-star, 43-room hotel as well as a restaurant, a spa offering ‘wine therapy,’ a wine shop and a viticulture museum.

ParkRoyal Hotel by WOHA

Hotel Architecture Park WOHA 1
Hotel Architecture Park WOHA 2

Terrace after terrace of vivid greenery characterizes WOHA’s Parkroyal Hotel in central Singapore. A series of towers is elevated above a wavy, sculptural ground-level platform characterized by breezy courtyards that blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture

Hotel Architecture Fogo Island

A cantilevered dining hall reaches out over the rocky coastline of Fogo Island, Newfoundland in Canada. The Fogo Island Inn, by Saunders Architecture and the Shorefast Foundation, is a contemporary 29-room hotel merging traditional craftsmanship with modern aesthetics for a dramatic look that pays proper tribute to the landscape.

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Destination Design 12 Forward Thinking Modern Hotels

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Bubble Hotels: Spacious Spherical Retreats Set in Nature

14 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Boutique & Art Hotels & Global. ]

pod hotel on hill

Somewhere on the scale between tent and cabin lies the bubble hotel, an optionally transparent or opaque plastic retreat that is roomier than normal camping accommodations but more minimal than a traditional bed and breakfast.

pod hotel in context

pod hotel room interior

Attrap Rêves provides such pods in sizes up to 13 feet in diameter in the rural hills of Marseille, France. They are made to be lightweight, portable and low-impact solutions for ecologically-minded travelers wishing to be closely connected to the environment.

pod hotel furniture

pod plastic plus deck

Each unit comes furnished with nighttime essentials like a bed and nightstand as well as pair of chairs and table for sitting during the day. The opacity of the shell ranges from fully see-through to light-permitting depending on desired degree of privacy.

pod hotel all weather

Airlock-style entry passages allow for an extra layer of separation from the flora and fauna of the outside world, as well as a de facto mudroom for shedding shoes and wet clothes as needed. Some units also sport outdoor decks for additional lounge space.

pod hotel at night

A nearby lodge acts as restaurant, check-in counter and managerial center for the set of pods strewn about the fields, forest and hillsides of the area. Apparently, the pod is back in fashion, at or at least has revived a bit of French passion.

[ By WebUrbanist in Boutique & Art Hotels & Global. ]

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360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Hotels’

Amsterdam Airbnb in a Metro Station Mocks Misleading & Harmful Hotels

Beyond the Glass Ceiling: 14 Houses & Hotels Made for Stargazing

Starlight Room

The Sky Den Literally Lifts its Lid

Camouflage House

Transparent Ceilings and Floors

Bob Hope’s UFO House

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Beyond The Glass Ceiling 14 Houses Made For Stargazing

Snoozeboxes: Mobile Container Hotels Travel by Truck or Rail

Fairytale Hotels: 15 of the World’s Most Magical Lodgings

Magic Mountain Hotel, Chile

Neemrana Fort Palace, India

Fairytale Hotel in Belgium

Crazy House Hotel, Dalat, Vietnam

Thorngrove Manor Hotel, Adelaide, Australia

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Fairytale Inn 15 Of The Worlds Most Magical Hotels

World’s Weirdest Hotels: 14 Unique Offbeat Accommodations

Hotel Shaped Like a Giant Anus, Antwerp, Belgium

Giraffe Manor, Nairobi, Kenya

Sand Hotel, Dorset, England

Sewer Pipe Hostel, Mexico City

Mount Gambier Jail Hotel, Australia

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Worlds Weirdest Hotels 14 Unique Offbeat Accommodations

Destination Design: 12 Forward-Thinking Modern Hotels

Bella Sky Hotel by 3XN

Hotel Marques de Riscal, Spain by Frank Gehry

ParkRoyal Hotel by WOHA

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Destination Design 12 Forward Thinking Modern Hotels

Bubble Hotels: Spacious Spherical Retreats Set in Nature

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Posts Tagged ‘Hotels’

Starlight Room

The Sky Den Literally Lifts its Lid

Camouflage House

Transparent Ceilings and Floors

Bob Hope’s UFO House

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Magic Mountain Hotel, Chile

Neemrana Fort Palace, India

Fairytale Hotel in Belgium

Crazy House Hotel, Dalat, Vietnam

Thorngrove Manor Hotel, Adelaide, Australia

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