royal at the royalton

a few months ago, my friend Audrey introduced me to priceline.com, a concept which to me sounded a little too good to be true. The idea is that you bid for holiday accomodation, as high or low as you choose and hey presto you win some spang -dangle hotel stay for half the price! I thought this website might have been baloney, I mean they have Denny Crane as the face of priceline! although, I do sheepishly admit that I actually love Denny Crane - not to mention Donny Crane! *drool*....

despite my doubts i have been religiously bidding every other day, determined to stay below the ceiling price that Panu and i had agreed on. day after day, i was rejected by priceline, advised that actually, they do not have 4 star hotels in central NYC at my bid. it's ok though, i have the tenacity of a pittbull, it takes a lot more than that to flatten my spirit!

so i bid and bid, and today! Today i won! when we hit NYC in November this year, we are staying at the Royalton Hotel! Up until today i had no idea what the Royalton Hotel actually was but when I casually mentioned to some colleagues that that's where we were staying, they - no joke - almost choked on their tea.

so apparently, the Royalton Hotel was re-designed by Phillippe Starck, designer to the stars and french royalty. the hotel is sumptuous, it is modern, it is art-deco but not patent tacky. it is just divine. and furthermore, it is supposedly the bedchamber of choice for quite a few stars ducking away for a NY shopping trip... oooo yeh.

and the price? we got the place for about half the rack rate. I like!

anyway, that's November, still 121 sleeps away! This weekend, we are off to the land downunder. Someone said to me today, you're leaving summer for the Australian winter?

well, considering it is 25 degrees in the queensland winter, I am hardly complaining!