Hotel Reviews

When I first moved to the UAE back in mid-2011, I had come to the conclusion after several previous holidays that Dubai was the…

One of the perks of my job is being able to see the progression of hotels from mere ideas and drawings right through to…

Very often, when out and about reviewing hotels or sifting through property announcements at HotelDesigns HQ, I encounter some variation on that old hospitality…

In recent years, the global hospitality industry has been marking the steady rise in popularity of the ‘aparthotel’. And looking at the trends, it…

In March I made a long overdue trip back from the antipodean colonies to the motherland. To break up the frenetic efforts to see…

I have reviewed a Sofitel before – the Sofitel Hamburg. It was an hotel I found very difficult to like; the décor was cool…

Sleeping umbrellas and rear elevation curling around the pool, balconies giving guests a view of the beach and sea Reception lobby – click to…

Putting new in old, contemporary into antique, can be a difficult trick. Mix in English vernacular style and wave a designers’ wand. Magic in…

Breezy Bay for Bracing Blows October and the sea temperature is nearly 70 degrees, and bikini clad sunbathers catch the last rays of the…

I try to look at different types of hotels in both Reviews (166 of them) and Miniviews (and there are over 150 of those),…

For many years my practice worked for island hotel groups, the Hugglers (see Club Hotel and Spa) and the Seymours of Jersey (see the…

Going green means many things to many people, from adding solar power panels to a roof to a through total reworking of energy use….

When I stayed at the Shangri-La in Dubai I had no doubts about what I would be looking at. The review was specifically so…

Now owned since 1998 by Elite Hotels, enough time has passed since the ownership of De Vere to be able to see the image…

It stands almost as a symbolic icon of the recovery of Germany from past disasters. Top floors burned out, requisition by occupation forces, rebuilt…

Pretoria is the administrative capital of South Africa, Every morning commuter trains bring civil servants in to work, in a town with tree shaded…

Budget hotels have flourished in recession. Not only will business people trade down, but the ‘bang per buck’ element has become exaggerated as new…

The building is an existing 116 bedroom hotel in San Francisco, built in 1913. It had been recently purchased by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and…

Last time I rode a luxury train it was the Orient Express UK end, steam pulled from London to Kidderminster, and not the blue…

In February 2005 I reported that Shangri-La had signed a lease on the space in then planned Shard, and had already started design work…

A few years ago I was in Washington to Review a couple of hotels. Staying in a Staybridge Suites I was collared by the…