Chedi's smart furnishings.
The ski set will have all eyes on Andermatt in the Swiss Alps come December 6 for the opening of the uber-smart Chedi Andermatt Hotel.
The hotel is expected to have 50 rooms and 119 apartments, and will include two restaurants, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, spa and ski butlers.
At an altitude of 1440 metres between the peaks of Gemsstock and Naetschen, Chedi is within walking distance of Andermatt's old town in the Lepontine Alps. The hotel is 90 minutes by train from the cities of Zurich and Lucerne and is two hours by train from Milan.
The Official State Hermitage Hotel, St Petersburg.
It's the first winter resort for hotel group GHM. The group's other properties include Chedi Muscat, Legian and Chiang Mai.
For St Pete's sake
Nip and tuck: the Tin Sheds apartments on Norfolk Island.
As its title suggests, the Official State Hermitage Hotel in St Petersburg will be the only mandated hotel of the State Hermitage Museum when it opens this coming European summer.
A shuttle service takes guests to the museum, comprising six buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, said to house more than 3 million items of which only a portion is on display.
The hotel, meanwhile, is in the city centre on Pravda Street, considered part of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's St Petersburg. It has 126 rooms and suites, each with hardwood floors and soft lighting akin to the interior of the State Hermitage Museum.
The Metro Apartments Darling Harbour has been spruced up.
The hotel's main restaurant is named after Catherine the Great, the founder of the Hermitage, while Russian tea can be taken in the Michelangelo Cafe, which opens on to the street.
See thehermitagehotel.ru.
Adventures of Tin Tin
High life: luxury in Chedi Andermatt.
Don't be fooled: the Tin Sheds on Norfolk Island are, in fact, new apartments with leather lounges and pop-up televisions placed at the end of king beds.
Opened in May, each of the apartments comes with a 2013 model Fiat 500 convertible (included in the stay) that can be used to visit the island's national parks, beaches and the World Heritage-listed Kingston and Arthur's Vale area. Apartments cost from $425 a night for two.
Not a drop to drink
Egyptian tourism managers have celebrated the opening of an alcohol-free hotel at the popular beach resort of Hurghada, a move they hope will lure conservative Muslim tourists to a region popular with foreign and local visitors, Reuters reports.
Les Rois Hotel is one of the first "dry" hotels to open on Egypt's Red Sea coast.
The hotel, which has 134 rooms and 35 suites, has allocated the top floor
and a swimming pool to female guests — conservative Muslims believe in segregating males and females who are unrelated.
Darling, you've changed
Sydney's Metro Apartments Darling Harbour has had a spruce up, with new kitchens in all apartments, new beds and refurbished lifts.
There's also free wi-fi throughout the two apartment buildings in Sussex Street and King Street.
Apartments cost from $180 a night.
See metrohotels.com.au.
Send Room Service items to jreddy@fairfaxmedia.com.
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