Queen Elizabeth — Japan’s Most Famous Love Hotel

Love hotels are part of Japan’s tradition, and the Queen Elizabeth is regarded as the most popular of them all. It’s not because of the great service, but more because of its wacky design. More images after the break...

Shaped like the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, this weird-looking hotel is located in Kanagawa, not far from Tokyo. Apparently the rooms also have a naval theme, so guests feel more like they’re doing it on a real ship.

One of the funniest things about the recently reconditioned Queen Elizabeth Love Hotel is that it features statues of Jake and Rose, from James Cameron’s Titanic, doing the flying pose, on the ship’s bow. I fail to see the connection, but I guess a boat’s a boat, and…well whatever attracts more customers, right?

Via — Link

Ryugyong Hotel — The world's biggest ruin

The construction of the 330 m tall tower in Pyongyang, North Korea began in 1987. It has a total 360,000 m² (3.9 million ft²) floor space and 105 stories. The building should have been opened in 1989, by that time it could have been the tallest hotel in the world and the 7th largest skyscraper. North Korea have spent ~$750 million or 2% of the country's GDP on the Ryugyong Hotel. The hotel was designed to have 3,000 rooms, 7 revolving restaurants, casinos(!), nightclubs(!) and Japanese lounges. In 1989 -the original completion date- they had several construction method and material problems therefore the opening was delayed, but in 1992 the construction came to a complete halt due to funding problems, electricity shortages, and the prevailing famine. More images after the break...

2008 Update: After 16 years Ryugyong Hotel is starting to get back to life. Egypt's Orascom group has recently begun refurbishing the top floors of the tower. The company has put glass panels into the concrete shell and installed telecommunications antennas. South Korean estimations say that it would cost $2 billion to finish the hotel and make it safe, that is the same as 10% annual GDP of North Korea.

In April 2008 Orascom group has started refurbishing the Ryugyong Tower, starting with the top floors. In late 2008 the work on cladding has been the main focus of construction. Works on the tower will be finished by 2012, the year of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, ex leader of North Korea. Orascom claimed that the main goal would mean to make the tower more attractive. Hopefully it does not mean finishing the cladding, yet the structure would be left unhabitable.  The Dubai based Emaar Properties developer company showed their interest in the construction of Ryugyong Hotel Tower. Emaar is one of the largest developer firms in the world and they are known for building the world's tallest tower, the Burj Dubai.

In 2006 the hotel was still not finished (it had reached its full structural height though) and left alone with a crane on the top. The building is completely empty, there is no facade on the tower either. The Ryugyong Hotel with the current structure will never be opened. The Government of North Korea was trying to find new investors to build a new structure, they would need ~$300 million for this. The tower is still by far the tallest in Pyongyang (the capital city) and in the whole of North Korea.

Via Link

Aircraft Hotel

If you're thinking to yourself, "that's sort of a small window for a luxury hotel suite," well, you're right. But it's only because this room occupies the entirety of a repurposed Cold War-era East German aircraft. More images after the break...

OK, the view isn't anything special: the plane stays grounded outside the Teuge airport in the Netherlands. But the room itself, dubbed the Vliegtuigsuite, is spectacular, including three flat screen TVs, a Blu-ray player, a sauna, and a jacuzzi. Guests have access to the entire plane, from your king-size bed in the back all the way up to the cockpit. On Dec. 7th 2007 I post Plane Restaurent and this time a plane hotel, the world is really amazing.

Via Link 1 2 3

Hotel of Key Cards

Ever wondered what to do with all those hotel key cards you’ve accumulated? Maybe you’ve thought about building your own hotel out of the them. No? Well, that's okay, because Holiday Inn had that bright idea, and will be unveiling the Key Card Hotel—yes, a hotel made out of many, many key cards (more than even we have)—tomorrow in New York. The elaborate stunt is part of the chain’s “Key to Change” promotion, which gives guests the chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to a relaunched Holiday Inn of their choice, anywhere in the world. That’s right: this is not your daddy's Holiday Inn. Spending $1 billion on the relaunch roll-out, IHG expects that 1,200 of its properties will have been relaunched by later this month.
Key to Change Promo details

• From September 14 through October 22, guests at a newly relaunched Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express anywhere in the world can enter the contest. Winners will be identified immediately. (And you can play more than once. Bonus!)
• You can also enter online here. (You can generate a promotion code right there on the website. When we played the code was CHANGE85E4. We didn’t win. Boo.)
• Grand-prize winners will win an all-expenses-paid trip to a Holiday Inn of their choice, anywhere in the world.
• Key Card game pieces will also be distributed directly to Holiday Inn Priority Club® Rewards members.
• The Key Card Hotel was created by world-record holder, cardstracker Bryan Berg.
• It’s made of more than 200,000 Holiday Inn key cards, weighs 4,000 pounds, and took four months to construct. It’s the largest card structure Berg has ever built. (Even though he’s created a few city skylines, including Vegas.)
• The Key Card Hotel at New York’s South Street Seaport from tomorrow through next Monday, September 21st.
• Berg will also build a freestanding 9-ft. replica of New York’s Empire State Building in the lobby of the Key Card Hotel, using Holiday Inn branded playing cards.
• The Key Card Hotel has a lobby, bedroom, and bathroom, all furnished with amenities made out of Holiday Inn key cards.
• The first 250 guests who attend the Key Card Hotel grand opening tomorrow, September 17, at 2:00 pm will receive a free night stay at any Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express around the world.

Via : Link

Unique Village

In the Irani@n; province East Azerbaijan, on northern slope of extinct volcano, the artful Azerbaijanians once have constructed unique village.The matter is that houses in village Kandovan are cut directly in rocks, in each rock on the house. The age of some of them exceeds 700 years.The nature has grown up these sharp as canines of a rock, people needed to chisel through only in them rooms and to insert windows and doors. Some doors conduct small twisting ladders. The court yard have also additional economic constructions. Owners decorate the ancient dwellings with modern openwork lattices. In due course inhabitants of these freakish rocks have expanded the houses with stone extensions. Balconies and bridges also increase inhabited space and do its more convenient. In the center of village there is a five-stars hotel. It also has been cut from rocks and is unique similar hotel of Iran. Cost of number from a jacuzzi of 200 dollars.

Hotel made in Salt

All walls, floor and furniture of this hotel are made in salt. It is clear, as around in kilometers the hydrochloric desert was stretched. There is unique building material. This is in Bolivia and, certainly, enjoies huge popularity at tourists. Especially I was impressed with pool before an input in hotel:)) The general peoples and tourists are much love any such exotic features of this type of hotel from an ice or hotels in a cave. It is interesting if to blind a bungalow from dung of the crocodile what there will be turn from tourists?:)