At Oyster, we’re constantly trying to innovate with our customers in mind. We want to make sure we’re always delivering the best experience and best product possible to you, because without you, there’d be no us. So we’re constantly examining how people are using our site and considering things we can do to make the experience that much better for you.
During the last 18 months we’ve noticed one very important trend: People’s monitors are getting bigger. Much bigger! So when we thought about what we could do to give you a better experience, one obvious thing popped into our minds – give you even bigger photos!
We know that you love our photos. So what we do now is simple: We detect the resolution of your monitor, and then we deliver a photo that’s as big as possible. When looking at our maps, the same technology applies: The bigger your monitor, the more map you’ll see. Over the coming weeks and months we plan to extend this to other parts of the site as well.
The image above gives you some idea of the change, but just go ahead and trust us: It’s bigger, better, and badder (in a good way)!
‘Tis the season for lots of feastin’! With turkeys, sweets, fatty trimmings, and sugary cocktails in your face all winter long, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to bump fitness center offerings up closer to the top of your priority list when you’re searching for a place to stay. To offset your festive calorie bombs during your holiday travel, you best be hitting those hotel gyms — and here are our selections for the finest hotel fitness centers in Los Angeles.
With floor-to-ceiling windows and top-of-the-line equipment (as well as a separate exercise studio with spinner bikes), the Terranea’s large fitness center feels more like a full-service club than a typical hotel gym. On the less-rigorous side, the resort offers boccie ball and croquet terrain with free equipment rental, and three pools with great views of the ocean.
"Hyatt Regency Washington is steps away from the U.S. Capitol," they say.
Oyster’s Photo:
Lots of steps, though.
Proximity to power is valuable currency in Washington, D.C. So it won’t surprise folks inside the Beltway that the city’s prominent players occasionally exaggerate their standing. But we’re from New York City, and we couldn’t help but notice that this photo, which appears on the website of the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, gives the false impression that the hotel practically stands in the shadows of the U.S. Capitol.
It doesn’t. Take a look at this photo that we snapped last week during a hotel-reviewing trip to the city and that, we think, more accurately reflects the distance from the hotel to the Capitol — which is, in fact, about a third of a mile. That’s close, just not reach-out-and-touch-it close.
True, as hotel-related D.C. scandals go, this one doesn’t exactly rank up there with Watergate. The hotel’s marketing photo is probably the well-intentioned work of a skillful photographer using a telephoto lens, not a more devious case of digital manipulation. Still, you don’t have to be too great a cynic to see this as evidence that, in Washington, things aren’t always what they seem.
Los Angeles is a pricey place to stay. If you’re not careful, a night in the land of the rich and famous might cost you a pretty penny (unless you find a Vinny Chase-like gentleman to foot the bills for you). But you don’t necessarily have to forgo location, comfort, and trendiness to score a decent hotel deal. We’ve rounded up our picks for the best value hotels in Los Angeles; the spots that give you the most bang for your buck — and even some luxury hotels at impressively reasonable prices.
This 137-room hip boutique offers stylish lodgings and a prime Sunset Strip location. The hallways and elevators are scuffed, but you won’t get this much (stylish rooms with good bedding, a cool pool, a cheap 24-hour restaurant, and great nightlife) for this little elsewhere on the Strip. Read More »
L.A. is a bit of a celebrity-spotting safari. And even though plenty of celebs call the City of Angels home, the area’s hotels are still teeming with famous faces (sometimes drunken, messy faces). For the glitziest, go-home-and-brag-to-your-friends celeb stalkage, we’d like you to know that there’s quite a bit more to the Los Angeles star-studded hotel scene than the ol’ Lindsay Lohan standby, the Chateau Marmont.
We’ve compiled the ultimate guide to who’s been seen where — and where you may have the best shot at an A-list sighting. Here are our picks for the best celebrity hot spot hotels in Los Angeles.
Chateau Marmont, a discreet movie star hideaway since it opened in 1929, attracts celebrities to its popular Bar Marmont, see-and-be-seen restaurant, and private guest bungalows (John Belushi overdosed in one in 1982). An Oyster reporter spotted both Stevie Wonder and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke at coveted patio tables. Jennifer Aniston, John Mayer, and Billy Crudup have been spotted together in the courtyard, Eva Longoria and Christina Applegate were seen on the patio, and Sienna Miller and Josh Hartnett cozied up in the restaurant’s living room. And Lindsay Lohan, Charlize Theron, Mary-Kate Olsen graced Chateau’s halls on a single night.
We came, we saw, we slept there. And we’ve rounded up our findings into a sort of Oscars of LA hotels — the “Oyscars,” if you will — to make it easy to find the best hotel to suit your needs. Whether you’re seeking a party hotel or a place where you can maintain your fitness regimen while on the road, here are our picks for the best hotels in L.A.
Remember where Richard Gere and Julia Roberts stayed in Pretty Woman? This is the place. At the glittery corner of Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, the iconic 395-room Italian Renaissance-style tower hotel underwent a renovation in 2006 and 2007 that added a spa and a Wolfgang Puck steakhouse, CUT, designed by Richard Meier. Rooms are classically luxurious, with Italian marble bathrooms and 400-thread-count sheets. The hotel’s best asset, though, might be its utter lack of stuffiness: Everybody gets treated like a friend here, not only the celebs and royalty. Just like in the movie.
We like to keep abreast of the latest in hotel package offerings, and this one from the Hotel Diva in San Francisco is certainly titillating, if also a wee bit tacky: the boutique property, part of the (female-run!) small West Coast chain Personality Hotels, is shilling a hotel package that shamelessly promotes and encourages Cougardom. That is, the act of being a Cougar — a female on the prowl for younger male playthings. Stupid and gimmicky? Sure. But since the haters are probably gonna hate, we’re gonna tell you a little secret: it’s not a terrible deal.
You could spend 50 bucks on your monthly Botox injections (kidding, sort of), or you could add that 50 bucks to your room rate at the Hotel Diva and get all these Cougar-friendly amenities with the Cougars With Personality package — oh, and everything comes in pairs, so you can bring your wingwoman, too:
A one-night stay ($159.00)
Two Hanky-Panky animal-print thongs ($22.00 each)
Two Lemon Drop cocktails
Two $25 Gift Certificates for the Epi Center MedSpa ($50.00 – and yes, they do Botox)
Professional bra fittings at Nordstrom (free, though the reminder that the ol’ ta-tas may be a bit closer to the waist than they were the last time you got a professional bra fitting is probably priceless…)
“A list of San Francisco’s hottest Cougar bars” (we assume this is where young dudes hang out)
A standard room on October 30th is $159; with the Cougar package, you’re looking at a rate of $209. So for $50 you get at least $100-worth of goodies – who says an older woman can’t have a cheap, hot night if she doesn’t mind being a cliche and is prepared to take responsibility for causing irreparable psychological damage to her children by openly identifying as a Cougar?
So, as you may have gathered, we just got back from Hawaii. We spent a good chunk of our bronzed post-trip bliss sifting through the thousands of photos we snapped during our time in the Aloha State — and plenty of the most stunning images we came home with were snapped outside the hotels we reviewed. Oyster’s photo editor, Atif Ateeq, has sorted through the thousands of photographs our reporters brought back to Oyster HQ and has handpicked some of his Kauai favorites.
Go ahead — do some desk daydreaming. We won’t tell your boss.
In celebration of Oyster launching our newest collection of Hawaii hotel reviews, we present you with a little island gift from us to you: a beautiful slideshow of all the food we’ve collected (and consumed!) during our Oahu hotel reviewing process. Don’t say we never bring you anything pretty back from our trips.
Though we’re certain you don’t need to be reminded, photography is a major part of what we do at Oyster. Each of our reporters has gone through extensive photography training; they’ve taken each and every photo (100K+) you’ve seen on the site.
As the photo editor here at Oyster, my team and I have taught the reporters everything they know — and we’ve sifted through hundreds of thousands of photos to get to the ones you see on the site. Our new Travel Photography Tips series will share some of what we’ve learned along the way.
In the video above, I kick things off by explaining how to clean your Nikon D700 to ensure that your post-trip buzz isn’t killed by photos with unsightly lens smudges or dirt. (Note: these tips apply to almost any digital SLR – not just Nikons!)
Insights and stories on travel from the company that brings you expert hotel reviews. Got a question, a hot tip or a cool idea? Email us. Also, visit our Founders' Blog or the new Tech Blog.
