Best Geek Hotels? Really?
Hotel industry blog HotelChatter is running a story in which they anoint the “Best Geek Hotels in the World 2.0″. Their picks? The Hotel Sax in Chicago (XBox gaming), Hotel Avante in Mountain View (convenient to Google HQ), the Westin in Sydney (Matrix tie-in), the Pod Hotel in New York (dedicated social network), the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi (high-tech opulence), and the Langham Palace Hotel in Hong Kong (fancy color IP phones).
We’re sure they know hotels better than we do, but we wonder about their knowledge of geeks? As web workers, we’re the working type of geek, and for us a “best” hotel includes decent desk chairs, wifi with no stupid proxy servers, and an ample supply of outlets. What about you? Where have you stayed that made your web-working life easy enough that you recommend it to all your friends?
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Hi Mike:
Thanks for reading. Two things, one we are not an industry blog. We take a holistic view to chronicling hotels — guest reviews, hoteliers challenges, location and price, of course.
Second, while our annual Geek Hotels list is more about cool hotels that intersect with geek culture — chosen from comments and editor research, you might dig our annual hotel wifi report, which is more in line with working from the road:
http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2007/4/29/175723/520/hotels/Best_WiFi_Hotels_2007
We have been doing this for 3 or 4 years and find that yeah, biz travelers these days pretty much want a free working WiFi connection, a decent amount of outlets, and no stupid proxies, firewalls, or spyware.
All our contributors, members and editors travel a ton and are writing/uploading stuff from the road, so yeah, it is what we are looking for as well.
Cheers,
Mar
For me, I find Super 8 to be great (if you are a driving road warrio)….generally free wifi, decent continental breakfast, a decent chair/table/outlets, and usually no more than $75 or so. Hard to beat!
I am a web based travel agent, and my husband is a business traveler. He just got back from a trip to Chicago and he stayed at the Hotel Sax and was truly amazed. He said that there are seriously expensive designer desk chairs…he has no idea what kind they are, but he was totally comfortable. He also said he got online easier than he had anywhere else, and there were plenty of outlets in the rooms. He told me that it was the best “working” hotel he’s ever been in. And he’s been in a LOT of hotels for work.
Here’s the best part. He got a special code from one of the guys who work at the hotel. This code gave him 20% off the room rate and he was thrilled. I’m not sure how long it’s going to work, so if you’re going to Chicago anytime soon, book it now!
The code is: “cache08″
Just go to the hotel website, http://www.hotelsaxchicago.com and put the code in the promo box when prompted.
And I will say, he LOVED the Studio lounge. You’ve got to visit the hotel just to check it out. I think he did more playing than working, but he really enjoyed the whole experience.
Check out my website for all the best travel deals and info on the best hotels.
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GoEverywhereTravelGirl
Stayed at Sax last week. Easy internet access everywhere…all free. Desk has tons of outlets and ability to push computer content to the 42 inch LCD in split screen mode. Didnt see the studio, but the meeting space was amazing. easy place to work for sure.
Does the Hotel Sax in Chicago get points because they make the XBox 360 available to guests?
I’ve tried to put together a better list here – http://triphunter.co.uk/nerd-alert-the-10-geekiest-hotels-on-the-planet/ (and i’m definitely a geek!)