The Flat at the Jasmine house Inn, Charleston, SC
If you’re looking for some old-world charm, check out the Jasmine House Inn, located in a tony downtown area of Charleston, South Carolina. The hotel is actually a converted 19th century mansion, and features 12 rooms with as much vintage allure as there are modern innovations. Think 15-foot ceilings and hardwood floors juxtaposed against flat-screen televisions and fast, free Wi-Fi. Most notable is the highly stylized décor (everything matches), including patterned rugs and floral wallpaper. Freebies include continental breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres – but parking is not included.
Read the full review>>
Read More »
by admin on November 18, 2009
Ayres Hotel's Image
Oyster's Photo
Looks like someone got all dressed up for picture day!
On the left is the image of a Deluxe King room displayed on Ayres Hotel’s website. On the right is a picture we snapped during our stay. Can you spot the differences between these two photos?
While most of our Photo Fakeouts demonstrate how photographs can be deceptively doctored to conceal the unappealing or shot to exaggerrate the appealing, this is an example of how simply dressing up a room with a few props — extra pillows here, pretty flowers there — can make an already-luxurious room appear lavish and exquisite.
by admin on November 16, 2009
Mediterranean vegetables layered with buffalo mozzarella at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon
It’s Monday. You’re getting hungry for Thanksgiving. Maybe the changing weather and the transition into the hectic holiday season has you hankerin’ for a foodie vacay. Or perhaps you just enjoy looking at pictures of food, regardless of whether or not the feasting season is upon us.
Slideshow
Whatever your excuse, we know you’re going to devour this slideshow of all the tasty treats we stuffed into our faces during our Las Vegas hotel reviewing process. From the simple stuff — like a bacon cheeseburger with onion rings — to this foamy shrimp concoction at Le Cirque, indulging in all this scrumptious goodness via your computer screen is totally calorie-free.
And we’re still marveling at how these little desserts came to be this color. Las Vegas magic, maybe.
by admin on November 6, 2009
The New York Palace
Hotel beds are typically used for four things: sleeping, watching TV, babymaking, and, unfortunately, lying awake and irritated by crappy sheets, thinking about how much you wish you’d selected a hotel with a better bed.
Slideshow
Since option four totally sucks, check out our slideshow of the very best hotel beds, all of which feel as good as they look. Trust us; we’ve slept in ‘em ourselves.
Whether it’s a plush mattress, linens you could never afford to buy for your own bed, pretty headboards, or lots of rolling-around space, our picks for the dreamiest hotel beds just might make you reconsider any weekend plans that require you to be vertical. Just be grateful we didn’t post this on a Monday morning. You’re welcome.
by admin on October 23, 2009
This weekend, we stayed at the just-opened Surrey Hotel, a 190-room Upper East Side newbie perched on a posh block just off Central Park. Inside a pre-war building fresh off of a $60 million renovation, the luxe property (a member of the Affinia Hotels family) has only been open since October 15th. We got in there to check the place out for you — you know, before you shell out the $500+ for a night there.
Take a peek at some of the photos we snapped; stay tuned for the full review in the New York section of Oyster.
A Deluxe Salon Room
Read More »
by admin on October 21, 2009
It’s been all quiet on the blog front these past few days because, well, we’ve been on a little tropical vacay. Nine of Oyster’s finest hit up the Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica for a four-day weekend excursion — and we did it in style. Since we were traveling in a large group, we shacked up in one of Half Moon’s lavish Royal Villas — ours was a seven-bedroom setup with a private pool — and, of course, we did our job even when on vacation and came home with plenty of photos.
So, what does throwing down $1750 $1480* per night (kicked up to $2800 during the high season!) get you at Half Mo0n? In addition to your villa’s own butler, cook, and housekeeper, your bronzed and boozey body will be enjoying the following:
A private pool...
- …two stories of beachy chic decor…
*Note: price updated to reflect the deal we got by booking with Half Moon’s Fall Break offer: we’d booked a Garden View 5-bedroom villa and were upgraded to a 7-bedroom villa upon arrival; we paid $5912.60 for all four nights, which came out to $164 per person, per night. Wow. Additionally, groceries for 9 people for a 4-day, 4-night trip came out to $560 total.
Read More »
A luau at The Grand Hyatt Kauai
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.
Read More »
by admin on September 30, 2009
On this week’s episode of AMC’s hit Mad Men (spoiler alert!), little miss Peggy Olson and Duck had an, um, “encounter” at The Pierre. This isn’t the first time the storied NYC property has made a cameo on the show; in season one, Don Draper had an awkward meetup with department store heiress Rachel Menken in the hotel’s white-tablecloth restaurant to solicit her help with an ad campaign.
These days, those white tablecloths are gone. In non-TV-world, the iconic Manhattan hotel just debuted a new, refreshed look this summer after undergoing a $100 million renovation — and obviously (recent upgrades or not) the look of The Pierre as depicted on Mad Men, set in the early 60′s, isn’t quite the same Pierre we’d visit today. Would you, Mr. Modern Ad Exec, still take the office hottie to this place to charm the panties off of her? Or has it been of an “in with the plasma TV’s and out with the sensual elegance” sort of situation? Let’s scope it out, shall we?
Mad Men, Season 3, Episode 7 (Photo: AMC)
A Traditional Room at The Pierre in 2009
Then: um, looks like a fancy old hotel with lots of ornate details and a carpet that you probably don’t want to spill red wine on.
Now: Some of the finishes seem to be the only remaining old-school touches left in the room — though the 2009 issue bedskirts and fluffy pillows certainly do make the bed seem quite a bit more plush than Mad Men’s interpretation of the old room. Though it’s hard to compare the morning-after sexy factor without a naked lady in bed.
Read More »
by admin on September 29, 2009
Here’s a special surprise for everyone: beaches in Hawaii are crowded. Just like Vegas pools.
Listen, all we’re saying is that you shouldn’t expect the beach behind your Hawaiian hotel to look much like the beach that particular hotel has pictured on its website. The real thing may be a different beach altogether, a big patch of sand densely populated with children and their inflatable beachgoing companions, or, you know, up against a mammoth construction site.
These wouldn’t necessarily qualify as photo “fakeouts,” per se — more like “somewhat misleading inclusion of photos of deserted beaches in photo galleries on hotel websites.”
Observe:
In Hyatt Regency Waikiki's photo gallery
Our Hyatt Regency Waikiki beach experience
Hilton Hawaiian Village shows no people in the water
Oh look! People in the water. And a parking lot!
In conclusion: you won’t have the beach to yourself. You know, in case you were confused.
by admin on September 24, 2009
A newly-renovated room in the historic wing
What does a $60-million renovation of an iconic Hawaiian hotel look like? Apparently, it looks like this.
Starwood Luxury Collection’s Royal Hawaiian (on Oahu), a.k.a. the ”Pink Palace of the Pacific,” has just come off a pricey makeover — and those dolla bills certainly weren’t used to tone down the resort’s signature girly-hued decor. Also (and this is pretty important): only the guestrooms in the historic wing have been renovated; the rooms in the tower haven’t undergone any upgrades yet.
But: the new rooms have quite a bit going on, no? While the still-to-be-renovated rooms sport the look of, in the words of our reporter, “subdued rooms from generic midrange hotels like the Hawaii Prince Waikiki,” the new decor in the historic wing looks…busy. Patterns on the walls, the chairs, the carpet — it’s all quite modern and fun and colorful, but it can’t possibly be everyone’s taste, right? Maybe not ideal for the bachelor party before an island wedding?
If you’re into the whole zen, calming-white thing, we’d suggest checking out the Halekulani instead. If the photo of this room alone was too much for you, maybe you should just sit at your desk and flip through pretty pictures of beaches to chill you out.
