Category:
Hotels
Hotels
The Non-Smokers Inn
Lyndon Sanders opened the Non-Smokers Inn in 1981 in Dallas. At the time, it was the first exclusively non-smoking hotel in America. Actually it may have been the first to offer any rooms exclusively for non-smokers, period. I'm not sure. But as it turned out, he anticipated the non-smoking trend too well. From cnn.com:
In a business sense, he was ahead of his time -- too far ahead. The Non-Smokers Inn did well at first, but by 1991 Sanders had to turn the hotel over to new management, which changed the name to the Classic Motor Inn, and allowed 22 of the 135 rooms to welcome smokers.
It wasn't that the world had turned its back on his idea -- it was that the world had embraced it too thoroughly. Major hotels had started putting in nonsmoking floors, and advertising the fact; people who didn't smoke suddenly had no trouble finding a clean, fresh-smelling room. The Non-Smokers Inn, struggling for business, had to become something else and let smokers in, because the nonsmokers no longer had to look so hard for what they desired.
It wasn't that the world had turned its back on his idea -- it was that the world had embraced it too thoroughly. Major hotels had started putting in nonsmoking floors, and advertising the fact; people who didn't smoke suddenly had no trouble finding a clean, fresh-smelling room. The Non-Smokers Inn, struggling for business, had to become something else and let smokers in, because the nonsmokers no longer had to look so hard for what they desired.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 30, 2018 -
Comments (0)
Category: Hotels, Smoking and Tobacco, 1980s
Wine On Tap
In 1953, the Hotel Terminus in Dijon, France upgraded its amenities to include free red and white wine on tap in every room.If this hotel is still around, I can't find any evidence of it online.
The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pennsylvania) - Jan 7, 1954
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Dec 30, 1953
Update — relevant meme:
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 13, 2016 -
Comments (3)
Category: Hotels, 1950s
Love Hotels Book
Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 27, 2010 -
Comments (5)
Category: Sexuality, Books, Hotels, Asia
Follies of the Mad Men #93
Okay, so your establishment is NOT the Bates Motel. But do you even want to remind your customers of the horrible things that can happen in anonymous hotel rooms?
Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 28, 2010 -
Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Death, Hotels, Europe
CasAnus
The CasAnus was designed by the Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout. He writes:This house takes its shape from the human digestive system. While CasAnus is anatomically correct, the last part has been inflated to humongous size. CasAnus is made to function as a hotel, including a bed and a bathroom.
If you stayed there, you could say "This place is crap," and not necessarily mean it in a pejorative sense.
Also by van Lieshout, along similar lines, is the BarRectum (aka Asshole Bar):The bar takes its shape from the human digestive system: starting with the tongue, continuing to the stomach, moving through the small and the large intestines and exiting through the anus. While BarRectum is anatomically correct, the last part of the large intestine has been inflated to a humongous size to hold as many drinking customers at the bar as possible. The anus itself is part of a large door that doubles as an emergency exit.
via corporeality.net
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 03, 2008 -
Comments (8)
Category: Architecture, Art, Buildings and Other Structures, Scatology, Excrement, Hotels
Rough Luxe
The concept behind the Rough Luxe Hotel in London seems to be that the rooms look like crap (unfinished walls, peeling paint), but you pay a lot to stay there because they've rebranded crap as "rough luxury". How much do you pay? £250 a night during regular season, which is about $380. Our look is a mix of old and new, furniture and art; combining colours and beautiful fabrics with cheap materials and existing distressed original walls. Cheap materials are treated as precious items and preserved for their beauty and memory of the site.
Most rooms don't have a TV because "as you are in one of the most exciting capital cities in the world, you probably wouldn't need one." Oh, and you might have to share a bathroom. My favorite touch: a sign in one of the rooms declares "This is Shit".
For that kind of money I'd be happy to let someone stay in my "rough luxury" garage. I'd even put out a sleeping bag for them.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Dec 01, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Hotels
Other World Kingdom
The goal of the OWK is to get as many male creatures under the unlimited rule of Superior Women on as much territory as possible. Gradual realization of this goal in its final consequence will mean the introduction of an Absolute Matriarchy - the only righteous social order.
However, the OWK is not a sex resort. According to wipipedia:
The forms of domination appear to be severe, with little if any sensuality or seductive qualities. Psychodrama does not seem to be a concept the ladies there understand or practice. There is reportedly NO sexuality or sexual contact at the OWK, and the behavior seen in videos seems to bear this out.
If this sounds like a place you'd like to visit, you better do so soon. The OWK has recently been put up for sale. The asking price is eight million euros.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 29, 2008 -
Comments (3)
Category: Hotels
A Long Weekend in Paso Robles
I'm off for a long weekend of wine tasting around Paso Robles. My wife and I are starting the vacation tonight by staying at the Madonna Inn near San Luis Obispo, which deserves a mention here on WU. From Wikipedia:The Madonna Inn is a motel of flamboyant style in San Luis Obispo, California. Opened for business in 1958, the motel was the creation of Alex Madonna, who died in April 2004, and his wife Phyllis. The motel is a monument of unremitting kitsch, a Swiss-Alp exterior, and lavish pink common rooms. Each room in the Madonna Inn is uniquely designed and themed. Its famed rock waterfall urinal is a fixture along California's Central Coast. Many tourists come to visit the urinal, to the embarrassment of males who genuinely need to use the facilities.
I don't know which room we have, but it's one of the more budget-priced ones. (The place ain't cheap.) The next two nights we're unfortunately just at a Best Western.
I will, of course, keep my eye out for weirdness while on the road. In fact, whenever I travel by car in California I take along my map of Eccentric California, which has provided quite a few interesting detours over the years (to the dismay of my wife, who isn't as enthusiastic about the weird stuff as I am, though she's more into the wineries than I am -- I'm more of a beer guy -- so it's a trade-off).
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 14, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category: Alex, Hotels
Annoying Gadgets
We all love gadgets. Except for the truly useless and frustrating devices. Those we hate and ridicule. The Japanese actually have a term and category for such items: Chindōgu.Recently, while browsing through the catalog for WHATEVER WORKS, I found two examples of Chindōgu.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jul 30, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Business, Products, Domestic, Food, Inventions, Travel, Hotels
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