Hotel Chatter

Forget the taxis and towncars; the hottest way to get around a city from your hotel is by the hotel's own fleet of bicycles. Transportation of the two-wheeled sort first became popular with the hip and boutique hotel names, most notably in New York when The Maritime introduced their classic blue cruisers, The Tribeca Grand brought out the black ones and The Bowery rode by on red Schwinns.

Now the big guys are eyeing the mini-phenomenon of hotel bikes, and Fairmont Hotels are the first big chain to add bicycles to their amenities list at all of their US properties. You see, the Fairmont hotels in Canada have had them already since early

At least the floors in the lobby are uncarpeted

Did you send them your stolen stuff? Fairmont’s Peace Hotel in Shanghai reopens (or reopened, seeing as they’re ahead of us) today, complete with its museum of hotel memorabilia compiled from offerings from the light-fingered likes of you.

The hotel is throwing around words like “grandeur”, “majesty” and “glamorous” to describe the refit, so as you can imagine, this is not going to be your greige boutique hotel. A copper roof, marble floors and Lalique glass around the place is more appropriate.

The 270 rooms will feature “1930s flourishes” but happily 21st century amenities – LCD TVs in the bath, WiFi and Illy espresso

At one point, this was the carpeting at the Foxwoods Cedar Casino (and it may still be!)

While we're on the subject of ugly hotels, let us get back to our first ugly love--Fugly Hotel Carpeting.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that for years and years and years hotels installed bewildering, dizzying, headache-inducing and downright scary carpeting in their public spaces (and sometimes in the rooms!) so as to distract guests from stains, spills and unsavory remnants of accidents, bodily or otherwise.

Fortunately, as we head into the second decade of the new millennium, hotels have found a way to incorporate "whimsical" yet eye pleasing design into their carpet choices. See some examples of that here.

But

On the heels of celebrity newlywed guests, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, comes stunning news that The Viceroy Anguilla has been sold. Even worse, it may no longer be a Viceroy Hotel.

The Daily Herald, a small island publication, reports that the hotel, which only opened last December, has been sold to Starwood Capital, ole' Barry Sternlicht's company. (Remember, Starwood Capital is different from Starwood Hotels.)

As it turns out the previous owners of Viceroy Anguilla (that would be Viceroy and their partner, the Mubadala Development Company) had not completed its loan payments, forcing Citibank to come in and take over the property. It was Citibank who completed the

Play your cards right and tattoo girl might whisk you to her $1000 room.

The colors red and blue have got a little too hijacked by political affiliations for our liking, plus we’re assiduous drinkers, so we’re fully behind the Plaza Athénée Paris’ appropriation of the colors for its new bar nights as well as the sexy new ad campaign it’s using to entice the trenders set through its doors.

Red and Blue Hours is the new name given to the theme nights in the bar. Blue nights hit weeknights 6-10pm and are relaxed, but a little sassy by the sound of things – the hotel is calling them:

An atmosphere for loosening up and letting

We admit it—most of our Hotel Rooftop talk is about New York hotels. Outdoor space is limited and these pretty, overpriced spots are a godsend in the summer. But other cities give good rooftop, too. Case in point: Miami. With stretches of the Atlantic and swaying palm trees, or sunsets over South Beach, the views from hotel rooftops there are far from shabby. And one popular rooftop is about to lift its game, as the Townhouse Hotel's Rooftop Lounge reopens with a new look on August 5.

This hotel's rooftop is one of the most recognizable in South Beach, with its distinctive red beach umbrellas and lounges. Fans of the look will be pleased to

Yesterday we brought you the 10 Sexiest Hotel Rooms Alive! but where there is sexy, there is sometimes not so sexy. Sometimes, there is just downright ugly. And we thought you should know where.

So we've rounded up the 10 Ugliest Hotels Alive! Now, not all of these hotels are ugly on the inside so you can't always judge a hotel room by its questionable exterior architecture. Also, we know beauty is in the eye of the beholder so feel free to differ with us. Just do it in comments below.

Now, brace yourselves as we begin the ugly list. Feel free to grip your mouse for moral support.

Jewelry designer, handbag designer, sometimes model, newlywed, television star and hotelier. My god, we couldn't be more jealous of Ivanka Trump's titles. And if there's one thing Ivanka loves just as much as her new hotels, it's posing in them avec hard hat while they're under construction.

Last year, during the building of the Trump Soho, she donned a swingy red dress to give us a sneak peek into the space and this year, she's doing a navy-and-white nautical thing for a TweetPhoto in the construction of one of the hotel floors of the Trump Toronto.

Sheraton Columbia Town Center

Hotels are trying to cater to sniffly guests by offering PURE rooms, allergy-friendly environments that are free of 98 percent of bacteria or viruses.

The Westin Atlanta Airport in Georgia is introducing 25 PURE rooms; the Hilton Arlington in Arlington, Texas, is making 15 of its rooms PURE; and the Sheraton Columbia Town Center in Columbia, Maryland, has 18 such rooms.

It seems Park Plaza Hotels have quite a fight on their hands with their proposed East London art’otel london hoxton.

Park Plaza had planned to demolish The Foundry to build an 18-storey, 350-room hotel and retail complex housed in a diamond shaped building. But they clearly underestimated the public’s attachment to the venue in Shoreditch, East London. The Foundry was a well loved centre for music, art and

While Virgin America snapped up boutique hotels from Morgans Hotels and JDV Hotels to participate in its frequent flyer program, Elevate, the airline has actually been partnered with Hilton Hotels HHonors program for quite some time, allowing guests to earn points just for sleeping at Hilton.

If you aren't an Elevate member, you should join now because from now through September 30 you can earn double Elevate points with every Hilton Hotel stay. And that includes all brands under the Hilton umbrella with the exception of Conrad Hotels. The points vary depending on the brand, but it's typically either 50 or 250 points per stay. Elevate members must request

For adults only.

With the prevalence of peekaboo bathrooms these days, you'd think that hotels are all a bit sex-crazed. But as always, there's a difference between looking sexy and being sexy.

We at HotelChatter have sussed out the 10 Sexiest Hotel Rooms Alive! These rooms go beyond voyeuristic showers and sex kits in the mini-bars. These are the types of rooms that, in the words of John Mayer, are like "sexual napalm" for hotel guests.

So we're turning down the lights, pouring the finest glass of Merlot (that doesn't come from a box) and slipping into something comfortable while Boyz II Men plays in the background. Just sit back, relax, let your mind go and

You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.

What's the last thing you want to do when you've scored

Our very own hotel Agent Zero returns with yet another review. Her not-real name is Myra Ellen and she's our version of Alex Goran who travels once a week for business, usually along the Eastern seaboard. Every so often, she'll be dropping in with her latest hotel and travel observations. In this episode, she's saddened by the flagship Waldorf-Astoria, which seems to be stuck in a time from long, long ago while newer better spin-offs keep popping up all over the world.

I checked in to The Waldorf Astoria in New York recently. I was there to meet an old friend in town for a conference; we had planned to share a