Lost AT E Minor

FOR WEEKLY INSPIRATION Why
hotel tomo

Places / 7 of the coolest themed hotels from around the world

One of the things that hotels, and international hotel brands in particular, are often criticised for is a lack of identity, the feeling of being somewhere but nowhere simultaneously. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. One of the emerging trends in the industry is the personalization of hotels around a style or a theme, so feast your eye on 7 of the coolest and most individual themed hotels from around the world!

Hotel Tomo [San Francisco, United States, above] Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Japantown, this hotel is uniquely themed around Japanese pop culture. Anime murals and other related art work are just the tip of this theme’s iceberg. The real reason that people love this theme hotel is because there are gaming suites that let adults plop into bean bag chairs and play video games as though they’re just kids hanging out in Tokyo. The on-site Kabuki Springs Spa gives a little bit of a luxury adult edge to the hotel and reminds visitors that it’s a great place for grown-ups.

hotel aria

Aria Hotel [Prague] Prague is a city known for its musical history and that’s the theme of this hotel located in the heart of the region. It’s a five star luxury resort where musical virtuosos and their fans can immerse themselves in music from the very first step they take on the property. From the Italian mosaic formed from a Gregorian chant to the surround-sound features in each room, every detail of the place is inspired by music.

hotel block

The Block at Tahoe [Nevada, United States] The mountains of Lake Tahoe are a popular place for skiers and snowboarders to spend their winters so it was only a matter of time before a snowboarding theme hotel cropped up. Each room is themed around some aspect of snowboarding culture from the trendy DVS shoe brand they love to the Jones soda they drink. The Delta 9 poker-lovers’ room and the Vivid porn star room are other favourites in this hotel which is designed around the central idea that snowboarders are the world’s newest pimps.

hotel coccoon

Hotel Cocoon [Salvador, Brazil] This hotel prides itself on being the world’s first spaceship hotel. Minimalist design, contemporary colouring and a pool designed to feel as though it’s a lake in outer space are a few of the things that help to set the space ambience of this hotel.

hotel moscow

Moscow Hotel Dubai [United Arab Emirates] There is a luxury hotel in the Middle East where you can pretend that you’re visiting Russia. Aspects of the hotel that enhance this theme include a recreation of the Bolshoi Dome, influences from Russian theatre design, A Tolstoy Library, a Russian restaurant and a coffee shop selling strong coffees from Russia.

hitle iron horse

The Iron Horse Hotel [Wisconsin, United States] This motorcycle-themed hotel hasn’t even opened yet and it’s already taking reservations from Harley riders interested in being among the first to enjoy the place. Located within walking distance of the brand-new Harley-Davidson Museum, this hotel is a luxury spot with special amenities for bikers. Those amenities include indoor bike parking, on-site bike washing facilities, and on-site stores selling everything a motorcycle rider might need.

disney

Disney All Star Movies Resort [Florida, United States] The Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida has numerous hotels with themes ranging from African Wildlife to modern sports. One of the most fun theme hotels there, though, is this one which is all about the different movies that Disney and Pixar have put out over the years. Orlando is truly a family destination and this theme hotel is designed to appeal to families with kids of all ages. Toy Story, 101 Dalmatians and Fantasia are a few of the room themes to choose from.

Tagged: , , ,

RELATED

Thumb

Matthew Palladino

San Francisco artist Matthew Palladino’s work is on my obsessive website viewing rotation. His colourful, clean, folksy images have got me, though I must say that I’m not as drawn to some of his more overt examples of political subject matter as I am to his more personal, introverted images. Regardless, Palladino implements the most beautiful patterns and shapes with his watercolors. And I just can’t get enough. Read more

Thumb

The 10 most interesting boutique hotels in Australia

By definition, boutique hotels are the smaller, more fashionable, niche hotels which offer its guests enhanced levels of service. Previously we’ve covered some of the coolest hotels in the world, but given the rising popularity of independent boutique hotels, we thought we’d show off some of the best in Australia. Read more

Thumb

Princess of Nebraska

The issue of abortion has hardly ever been represented so honestly by a movie. Knocked Up and Juno gave the pro-choice movement a boost, and of those two, only Juno came close to confronting the issue. In the Princess of Nebraska, the main character suffers through indecision, naivety and turmoil that seem much closer to reality. Read more

Also by ANDY BOYD

Thumb

The 10 most interesting boutique hotels in Australia

By definition, boutique hotels are the smaller, more fashionable, niche hotels which offer its guests enhanced levels of service. Previously we’ve covered some of the coolest hotels in the world, but given the rising popularity of independent boutique hotels, we thought we’d show off some of the best in Australia. Read more

YOU'RE SAYING (1)

Beebe Identicon Icon

Beebe said | 20 June, 2008

how is hotel tomo, with it’s ikea inspired furniture… cooler than the hotel des arts in san franscisco.

sfhoteldesarts.com

their “painted rooms” are each done by a different artist.

HAVE YOUR SAY




Please be sure to enter your name and email before submitting this comment. Please also refer to our comments policy.

I love the rock and roll! I love the sheer coarseness of it all, the sweet rambling mayhem that a standard guitar set-up and Marshall amps stacked to the roof can generate. The audacity of it. Read more

Bill Callahan’s Woke on a Whaleheart is a little trip I take myself on every now and then when I’m looking to really sink myself into a piece of music. Read more

Australian group Pivot have recently signed with the mighty Warp label and — even better (well, for us anyway) — have written a fun Secret Playlist for us. You can see where the many disparate influences have seeped into their latest recording, the beautiful and colourful, O Soundtrack My Heart.

We have a bunch of new playlists up on our sister site, My Secret Playlist, a music discovery website and weekly email publication in which we invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. Over the past few weeks, acts such as The B52s, Team Genius, Pivot, Jukebox the Ghost, Moby, Katy Perry, and the Dandy Warhols, among many others, have written about the music that inspires them. To sign-up to receive the weekly My Secret Playlist publication, just enter your email address into the website’s subscription box.

There’s a lot I could say about South African artist Robin Rhode.  But to simply say that he’s endlessly cool pretty much sums it up. In fact, he’s so cool that Nike’s been accused of ripping off one of his pieces for a television ad (can you say plagiarism: just don’t do it?) Read more

An archaeologist at Stanford, Michael Shanks, has completed an interesting study of the ‘prodigious amount of thought’ given to the design and layout of a casino’s gambling floor, such as the pictured Las Vegas Venetian. Read more

Once upon a time there was a real connoisseur of jeans, Hidehiko Yamane, as expert and demanding as only certain Japanese ‘otaku’ can be. Read more

WE'RE RESPECTING

WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

Thumb

Two Americas

There are two Americas: one which strives to create its own culture, music, and art with a strong sense of ethics in mind, and another that drinks 32-ounce energy drinks before waiting on line to get into a club packed with women trying to get back at their overbearing fathers, and homophobic men with a fondness for Axe body spray. How do we bridge the divide?

Thumb

Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo was the first blacklisted writer to win an Academy Award. However, he could not claim the award until years later because he had been forced to write under a pseudonym. Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten and even spent a year in jail as a result of investigations into Communist influences in the motion picture industry. This documentary is fascinating not just for its examination of a bizarre period in American history where fear replaced reason and innocent men were jailed, but also for how Trumbo dealt with these hardships. Read more

Thumb

Micah P. Hinson takes the good with the bad

We said a few weeks back that Micah P. Hinson is ‘like every rustic, broken down, and pieced back together country great that’s ever been. Only hipper and slightly less sombre’. With that in mind, we spoke to him recently and asked him whether his hometown of Texas was a difficult place for a young, aspiring musician to grow up in: Read more

Thumb

Brian Ulrich

I love the sense of intimacy about the work of Chicago-based photographer, Brian Ulrich. His retail project Copia ‘is a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live’. We interviewed him recently and asked him what camera he uses once he gets inside a store he’s photographing: Read more

Thumb

Mike Bertino

This is Mike Bertino and his work absolutely wonderful. He’s got this original, almost lo-fi Tim Biskup thing going on and it makes me really want to grab a beer with him. I love when artists give their pieces names like Knuckle Inferno and Man Beard. It just makes them that much better. He keeps a blog where he publishes his latest work and lets you know where they’re available for purchase, so go check it out. I think I’m going to ask him to be my BFF. Well, at least one of them. Not the only one. Cause, you know … I have more than one. Read more

Australian illustrator Moofus is just 11 years old. As he says, ‘my mum and dad won’t let me leave school to get a proper job, so I draw lots of pictures’. This limited edition print of Sydney’s Coogee Beach is printed on Epson heavyweight matt paper with archival inks and is just US$20 through the Lost At E Minor store. Read more

dear science poster

WIN

Happy, happy, joy, joy! We have a TV On The Radio poster designed by Tunde, as well as Dear Science on vinyl, to give away to a randomly selected Lost At E Minor subscriber who leaves a comment under this post telling us why they simply must have it.

WHAT YOU'RE DOING

  • Sarah is reading the New York Times

  • Christian is listening to The Revisionists

  • Sally is listening to Nuuro

  • Jess is reading My Secret Playlist

  • Ana is playing a good mood

  • Chanoa is watching Tabatha’s Take Over

  • Sindhu is spotting patterns in the sky

  • Rajasee is reading Garfinkel

  • Andy is listening to Idiot Pilot

  • Lost At E Minor is listening to Firekites

What are you doing?

CAPTCHA


[Advertise here]


DISCOVER MORE

SO...


IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?

We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Or if you’d just like to talk amongst yourselves, that’s cool too. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.

If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.