Hope Street Hotel, Liverpool 4*

After check-in we were escorted to our room. The man who escorted us wanted to show us the high-tech shower, the problem was, he didn’t know how to use it!

This hotel is supposed to be a “chic boutique-hotel” and it is said that is it the celebrities first choice. It is a 4*, but incredible expensive. The rack-rate is 150 GbP for a double-room without breakfast!







For my liking, this hotel was too minimalistic. We had a good laugh when we opened the closet and ther were only 2 hangers there! VERY minimalistic! There were also no place for the soap to be, so it was kind of “sliding” around the basin, not very chic…

The bath-room was nice (apart from the soap-thing) and the toiletries were REN-products. VERY NICE!





So what’s wrong with this hotel? The lacking of service… Every day there were something. The first day we ordered one chicken-salad and one sandwich. After we had ordered the waitress confirmed the order: “Two sandwiches?” We corrected her and she wrote it down, we thought. After 30 min. we got… guess what? Two sandwiches… We said we ordered one sandwitch and one chicken-salad and the waiter (another one) looked at us with an empty look, mumbled something and took one of the sandwiches away. Not an excuse! After waiting for 30 min. we decided to take the sandwich, we were not ready to wait another 30 min. We asked the waiter to give us the sandwich and he gave it to us without an excuse at all! To get the bill was another 15 min… The restaurant were nearly empty so I don’t understand why it took them so much time!

At the first afternoon we found an used underwear at the floor. YACK! When we went out for dinner I went to the reception and told them. The woman there looked at me, with the same emtpy loook as the waiter, like this was perfectly normal. I then said she may wanted to tell the house-keeping and her answer were: “Will you bring it down for me?” :-0 I was SHOCKED! I said I did not want to do that, and that I exepcted it to be taken care of when we went for dinner. It WAS taken care of, but NO excuse! This was not the only “insident” with house-keeping. Every day we had to ask for either water, toiletries or towels! One day I asked the front-desk to bring all three, as they had forgotten. She asked me if there had been anybody there at all, and I said yes, they had done the bed. When I came back we had gotten only towels…

This is NOT mine...

Breakfast was good, if it hadn’t been for the very slooooooow waitresses. I can understand it was busy, but to wait for 20 min to get butter one day, 20 min. for toast another day, and 20 min. for coffee is too much for me.

I can fully understand that things can happen everywhere, the problem is when they don't know how to take care of it WHEN it has happened.

I don’t know if this hotel treat everybody the same, or maybe the celebrities get a higher level of service? When I went out I could understand there were something going on as the people at the front-desk were “tip-toeing”. I was right…. I don’t know WHO it was (I am not familiar with English celebrities), but a man, from the pavement outside the hotel, came in to get his autograph! I wonder if this important man found used underwear at his room… 

The good thing with this hotel was the REN-products (when we got them), the free wireless internet, the DVD player and the close location to where we were going. I am NOT going to stay here again. Next time in Liverpool I will try the new Hilton, whitch is going to open in sept. 09.

Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport, 4*

We only stayed here for one night. I booked through Hotwire and payed about 40 Usd for three persons! There were no problems with check-in and the room was nice and clean. A little bit cramped, but ok for a night between two flights.

We didn't have breakfast, but there are lots of places to eat at the airport.







Some of the good things with this hotel are:
The hotel is located AT the airport!
They have an out-door swimming-pool. You can use this after checking-out, just ask for a card in the reception. You get access to the showers and bath-rooms at the fitness-room, so you can always make yourself ready for the air-flight! :)

The not so good things:
No free internet-connections
You had to pay 1 Usd. per item if you want the hotel to keep it for you between check-out and your flight-dep.

Arrived at Okura Frontier Hotel, Tsukuba

It's not Conrad, but it's ok. :) will write about it tomorrow.

We are leaving Tokyo today

We will take the fast track train (not bullet) to Tsukuba today. The journey will take about 1 hour from Asakusa. Our next hotel will be the Okura Frontier Hotel. Fortunately we will have wireless connection there.

Hello from TOKYO

I don't have internetconnection, but there is a computer at the executive-lounge, so have to be quick. Just wanted to say we arrived safe. There were no delayes and we had no problems with reaching the flight in Paris, although we only had 1 hour.

The temp. is about 30 degrees c. and overcast. It's warm, but not as humid as in Orlando.Conrad Tokyo (our hotel) is VERY nice. I will write about that later. I think we will have wireless connection in Tsukuba, so will have some more time to write from there. Will also upload pictures.

Signature at MGM Grand 5*

Signature is a part of the MGM Grand, but there are only suites and junior-suits. The property consists of about 5000 suits/junior-suits!







Check-in went without any problems and we were escorted to our room. WOW, the room was FANTASTIC! We had a room at the 30-or-something floor and we had a spectacular view!











The room had a kitchen with lots of ”gadgets”, everything from toaster, to knives and forks, to a blender. I really liked the room and the hotel, but there were some problems with the service, mainly the house-keeping. Every day without one (out of four) we had to call house-keeping to do our room. One day we had to call three times, and even after the third call they forgot it. In the evening it was too late so we just asked for towels. NO excuse were given!

The bath-room was HUGE with shower and jacuzzi. I never tried the jacuzzi, as I am a little bit skeptic to how it has been cleaned… Clean-freak, that’s me!





The toiletries were Judith Jacobs. The bottles were nice, but I didn’t like either the soap nor the body-lotion. It dried out my skin!



Complimentary bottles of water were given every day.

I don’t remember if we had wireless connection, but IF there were, it cost something, because I remember we didn’t use the wireless.

The pool at the Signature was great. Quiet and relaxing. The pools at MGM Grand were noisy, packed with young people and "party-party". I can imagine this must be the ultimate party-place for young people. The pools by itself was very nice, but because of the drinking youngsters it wasn't a place for children, although our son loved the "river-pool".





Check-out were VERY slow. We had to wait for 20 min.! I would expect a property with over 5000 rooms to have more than one person at the front-desk at check-out time!

Las Vegas

This is the most strange city I have ever been to. All the hotels are like a big shopping-centers. Yesterday, when walking from the mono-rail, inside my hote, I saw all this in 5 seconds:

A newly married couple
Girls in bikinis
A "hen-party" group (with all that is following)
People too drunk to speak
Business-people
People shopping
Families

What a strange mix of people, only in Vegas!

We are staying at The Signature at MGM Grand. I will write about the hotel later.