Friday, January 14, 2011

Brown's Hotel

Brown's Hotel is a luxury 5-star hotel in London, England. It opened its doors in 1837 and thus is the oldest London hotel still in business. Since 3 July 2003 it has been owned by The Rocco Forte Collection and is a member of The Leading Hotels of the World.

Brown's Hotel is set in the heart of Mayfair on Albemarle Street. It is located within walking distance of shopping streets such as Bond Street and Regent Street in addition to theatres, art galleries and central London landmarks. It also sits on the doorstep of Green Park and Hyde Park.

Interior

The Brown's Hotel is noted for its traditional English Victorian sophistication fused with a contemporary feel. The bedrooms are designed by Olga Polizzi and combine modern features with traditional furnishing and are all individually decorated. The standard rooms are 32 to 40 square metres in size with the suites being 50 to 95 square metres.

The hotel has several restaurants and bars including The Albemarle (formerly the Grill), an informal A La Carte restaurant which serves both English and continental cuisine, the Brown’s English Tea Room which has served afternoon tea and light snacks since the mid nineteenth century and the The Donovan Bar, which pays homage to the British photographer Helmut Newton with his iconic prints. The bar is furnished with wooden floors, black leather seating and dark country check banquettes. In one corner are pornographic photographs and a table for 12. The bar serves over sixty cocktails and thirty wines and champagnes.

The hotel also has 6 conference rooms, serving up to 120 people
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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

740 Park Avenue


740 Park Avenue is a luxury apartment building on Park Avenue in Manhattan, which has been the home to many wealthy and famous residents. The building also carries the address 71 East 71st Street.

History

An apartment previously belonging to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., currently owned by Stephen Schwarzman, when sold by Saul P. Steinberg in 2000, brought a price "slightly above or below $30 million," reportedly the highest price ever paid on Park Avenue. Rockefeller moved to the building in 1937.

The apartment house has 31 units, and has the highest ceilings and widest hallways on Park Avenue. The exterior of the building is clad with limestone. It was built in 1929, designed by Rosario Candela and Arthur Loomis Harmon, the design partner of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. The builder was James T. Lee, grandfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Life in the building is amusingly described in the New York Social Diary.

In 2005, author Michael Gross published a detailed book on the building and its history, 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building. According to Gross, builder Lee's daughter Janet Lee Bouvier and son-in-law Jack Bouvier took the final open lease (according to one account, for free), and their daughter Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis grew up there.

Famous residents

* Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (wife of John F. Kennedy), childhood home.
* David H. Koch, occupies an 18-room duplex on the fourth and fifth floors said to have been purchased in 2005 for $17 million.
* Ronald Lauder, businessman (son of Estée Lauder and brother of Leonard Lauder).
* John D. Rockefeller, Jr., lived from 1937 to 1960 in a 24-room, 12-bath duplex.
* Steve Ross, late CEO of Time Warner
* Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group (who bought it from Saul Steinberg for just over $35 million).
* J. Ezra Merkin, Hedge-Fund Manager (son of late businessman Hermann Merkin).
* Irene Bouvier, american actress and socialite
* John Thain, last chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch.
* Thelma Chrysler Foy, automobile heiress.
* Arthur and Joseph Santry, CEOs of Combustion Engineering.
* Vera Wang, bridal gown designer who inherited a 10th and 11th floor duplex from her father, C.C. Wang.


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Extended stay hotels

Extended stay hotels are a type of lodging with features unavailable at standard hotels. These features are intended to provide more home-like amenities. There are currently 27 extended stay chains in North America with at least 7 hotels, representing over 2,000 properties.[citation needed] There is substantial variation among extended stay hotels with respect to quality and the amenities that are available. Some of the economy chains attract clientele who use the hotels as semi-permanent lodging.

Extended-stay hotels typically have self-serve laundry facilities and offer discounts for extended stays, beginning at 5 or 7 days. They also have guestrooms (or "suites") with kitchens. The kitchens include at a minimum usually: a sink, a refrigerator (usually full size), a microwave oven, and a stovetop. Some kitchens also have dishwashers and conventional ovens.

Extended stay hotels are popular with business travelers on extended assignments, families in the midst of a relocation, and anyone else in need of temporary housing. Extended stay hotels are also used by travelers who appreciate the larger space a typical suite provides.

Residence Inn is credited with popularizing the "extended stay" concept. The chain was launched in 1975 in Wichita, Kansas by Jack DeBoer, and acquired by Marriott Corporation in 1987. As of April 2005, there were over 450 Residence Inn hotels in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Jack DeBoer has jumped back in the Extended Stay market developing a concept called Value Place.

Other upscale brands of extended-stay hotels, such as Staybridge Suites which is part of the InterContinental Hotels Group, have made this segment of the lodging industry one of the fastest-growing.

One of today's most popular long term lodging brands came from the merger of Extended Stay America and Homestead Hotels. Both these chains were already well established when they combined in 2004 to become Extended Stay Hotels with over 670 owned and operated properties nationwide.

Another worldwide hotel chain, Choice Hotels International, franchisor for name brands such as Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn and Quality Inn, entered the extended stay market with their MainStay Suites brand. They proceeded to acquire the Suburban Extended Stay hotel chain in 2005, making them a sizeable extended stay system with over 150 hotels open and under development.

In the United States, a popular low-budget extended stay chain is Intown Suites. The chain, which was founded in 1988, now has nearly 140 locations in 21 states, and is distinguised for offering weekly rates much lower than many other chain lodging companies in North America.

Extended stay concept is steadily spreading throughout Europe due to increase in the number of travelers and business people visiting every year. The concept was organized by Belgium Housing and the chain of hotels covers 42 countries of Europe including all the major cities of the continent.

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