BACE Blog

International hotels :: cool, modern and affordable

March 23, 2009 by Mel Lim | hotel + travel | 1 Comment

Traveling can be both fun and stressful. We had recently taken a long trip from SD to LAX to Taipei to KL to Penang and it almost took us 30 hours to get to my destination from my loft.

And of course, since we couldn’t afford first class tickets, we were packed like sardines in what I called the “steerage” class. Yup. Sometimes, I feel like even though our tickets had cost us more than a few grand, it didn’t really matter because we still could not afford to cough up another 8k for those GINORMOUS first class “pods”.

Anyway, we may not be able to help you with your plane tickets, but we thought we would share some hotels on our list that are affordable, cool and modern. Over the years, we’ve traveled to numerous countries but mostly for business, which means we are on a BUDGET. And since our travels are mostly tradeshow related, our stays would normally be around 10 days.

We know that with trade show fees, shipping costs, airfare, your accommodation maybe the last thing on your mind. We hope to share with you some of our favorites:

Back in 2003, we stumbled upon this little hotel in Barcelona called Hotel Banys Orientals located at the cool El Born district in Barcelona. It was perfect; clean, modern and conveniently located in the midst of the Cathedral and the Gothic district. I believe we paid €80 per night for a really nice room. The price may increase by now since it’s been rated as Condé Nast Traveller’s 2003 list of 50 most recommended hotels in the world.

In London, our favorite hotel is hands down BASE 2 STAY. It’s approximately £91 per night. Each room has a kitchen equipped with fridge, microwave and utensils. Not to mention the oversized bathroom. The hotel location is superb. Literally 5 minutes away from Earl’s Court (where we exhibited) and 2 minutes from the tube. The are so many restaurants in Kensington Garden that it’s not hard to find a decent restaurant. Our favorite is Masala Zone!

And with a kitchen in our room, we were able to do a bit of groceries at Mark’s & Spencer (located a block away) and cook in our room. That helped save us a ton of money, especially when visiting for more than a week with our USD currency against the British Pound £.

In Tokyo, we were blown away by the service of The Park Hotel. We booked through Tablet Hotels with room rates approximately $95 per night. Centrally located in Shiodome, with easy access to Ginza, we walked EVERYWHERE. The subway system in Japan was efficient and clean; except sometimes everything is in Japanese!!! But other than that, the hotel staff was excellent in providing us with maps in English, and making special arrangements to accommodate our trade show items and transportation.

Our recent trip back to Penang, Malaysia, we were happy to see that the hotel scene welcomes a brand new “MODERN” breed called G Hotel, noted as the most stylish address in Penang. Penang is known for the best Malaysian food and with the hotel strategically located along the infamous Gurney Drive and connected next to shopping center Gurney Plaza, you can shop and eat your hearts out. The best thing is, a HUGE standard room is only $72 per night. And not to mention the hotel daily buffets…

It’s exciting to discover that class and sophistication do not have to necessarily come with high price tags. It’s just a matter of hunting down the gems around the world.