Teapots from The Plaza, Teaspoons from the Waldorf: Why Collectors Love Hotel Silver

A neighbor who knows I write about hotels recently invited me to her home. “My mother collected hotel demitasse spoons,” she said.

A Jazz Age actress and flapper, Mom liked to take tea at posh spots like the Ritz Carlton in Boston and New York’s Savoy Plaza. Read more

Another New Trick for Google Glass — Now You Can Use It to Book a Hotel Room

IPads are so yesterday. Last Thursday, a self described geek named Rodney Loges tapped his Google Glass and became the first person in the world to book a hotel room using the wearable technology. Read more

How Olivier Widmaier Picasso Turned the Sofitel New York Lobby into an Art Gallery

Olivier Widmaier Picasso looks the part. Or so it seemed at last night’s opening of Revealed, the exhibition of 30 photographs of 20th-century artists he curated for Sofitel.

With his compact build and energetic intensity there’s a passing 21st-century resemblance to his grandfather (his mother, Maya, is the daughter of Pablo Picasso and Marie-Therese Walter). And though a lawyer by training, his current interests orbit the art world. Read more

A First Look at WestHouse, A NYC Hotel That Feels Like a Private Club and Channels Art Deco

WestHouse, a new midtown boutique hotel, sports an inviting lobby, but you can’t just waltz in. At least, you’re not supposed to. Read more

Renaissance Murals on the Ceiling: The Sherry-Netherland Lobby Gets a New Old Look

If you last visited the Sherry-Netherland hotel two or three decades ago – or even early last year – expect a jaw-drop moment when you next enter the lobby.

For nearly 40 years, the lobby ceiling – a parade of graceful arches stretching what seems a mile high – was white. Generations passing through assumed it was always so.But history buffs, Art Deco enthusiasts and Sherry aficionados with long memories (and even longer lives) know otherwise. Read more