Earlier this year, I posted about Citizen M, a cool hotel opening this summer at Amsterdam Schipol Airport. The hotel started taking reservations today. As an opening promo, the hotel is offering 100 free nights scattered throughout its reservation calendar. As I was messing around with it today, I found one available Aug. 16, 2008, and I’m sure there are others still left. I thought it was important enough to post about here and over at Kayak.com. You can check out the Kayak.com post below if you want.

Either way, it’s a cool deal at a hotel I’d love to be visiting this summer. Sadly, the ‘dam is not on my itinerary. Hopefully, it will be on one of yours….

Free Rooms at Citizen M Really Do Exist

Here’s an unusual travel-related summer internship: The Four Points by Sheraton Best Brews Summer Intern. Yup, the intern selected will have beer tasting as one of his or her duties for the hotel brand. Says the press release:

This isn’t your frat brother’s job though, the internship will come with the frothy perks of tasting and toasting, but will also include learning the inner workings of the Four Points by Sheraton Best Brews program and the ever expanding craft beer industry and beer business. Like all executive internships, this position will start pouring in June and tap out in August.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what craft beer has to do with Four Points by Sheraton. While I work on that, anyone who wants to apply should get cracking. The deadline for applications in April 26.

Looking for a place to rest your head in North Seattle? We think it might be a good idea to avoid one block in particular. That would be the 12000 block of North Seattle’s N. Aurora Ave., where not one, but two motels have been shut down by the Washington State Health Department in the last week.

Inspectors reportedly first found mold and unsanitary conditions at the Orion Motel and shut it down last week. Next on the chopping block? The Seattle Motor Inn, where health inspectors apparently discovered vanities concealing buckets of “dark brown, fetid water,” mattresses with exposed wires, contaminated water in the pool and inoperable smoke detectors. Eww!

In the vast majority of cases, a hotel closed for a $400 million multi-year renovation project isn’t likely to drop everything to entertain your request for a reservation two years hence. Unless, of course, you’re Steven Spielberg.

Vancouver’s historic landmark Hotel Georgia (which, in its day, housed everyone from heads of state to Sinatra to Elvis) was understandably bowled over to receive a call from Mr. Spielberg, requesting accommodations at the hotel for the 2010 Olympics. The hotel happily obliged and has since been referring to Spielberg as its Guest No. 1 (a far better title than Client No. 9). The hotel is scheduled to open in 2009.

Renovations to the hotel will morph the original hotel’s 313 guest rooms into 168 suites and private residences. Chef David Hawksworth will open a dining room at the property, which will also include a weight-training and fitness facility and an outdoor pool flanked by fireplaces.

Spielberg Booking a Good First Step in Heritage Hotel’s Return to Glamour

On April 1, the Affinia hotel group re-opens its hotel in the nation’s capitol after extensive renovations. Bearing what might just be one of the most timely hotel names ever, given the recent Spitzer scandal’s connection to the surrounding city, the 343-room Liaison Capitol Hill aims to please with a six-choice pillow menu (um, I’ll take the white fluffy one), in-room spa treatments, Aveda bath amenities and the Travel Smart program, which offers frequent travelers perks like in-room chargers for electronic devices and free toiletries in airline-approved sizes. Inside, over-sized portraits of world leaders balance out the otherwise swanky urban decor. The rendering above depicts the new lobby.

To celebrate its opening, the hotel is offering the Liaison Capitol Hill Grand Opening Special, with rates starting at $110/night for weekend stays through Aug. 31.

Rarely does one (meaning this travel blogger) Google a vacation resort and get as many search results associated with a particular celebrity as vacation resort web sites. But that’s what happened when I searched for the Casa Magna resort in Tulum, Mexico. Up came oodles of references to Drew Barrymore, who is rumored to have visited the Amansala property recently during a scouting mission for wedding locations. The celebrity blogs are afire with news of the star’s probable wedding to boyfriend Justin Long, whose greatest filmic achievement to date involves an appearance in Dodgeball.

We’re not really sure if we care about Drew’s wedding. (She needs to make another good movie first. Music & Lyrics? What was that? Now, Never Been Kissed. That’s a movie.) But if you were to have your wedding there, we think you’d be pretty stoked. The self-described “eco chic resort” offers wedding packages for couples who dream of exchanging vows on white sand in front of the blue, blue ocean.

But the resort layout is what makes it ideal for destination weddings. Originally built by Colombian drug king pin Pablo Escobar, the property offers rooms in two beach front villas. Rooms can be booked individually, but wedding parties often choose to rent one or both villas ($15,500-$28,000/week) to house their guests. Villa rentals include meals prepared by private chefs.

And you thought your last trip to London was expensive. Try going to Bath, home to hot springs and ruins of Roman Baths some 2,000 years old. One TravelPoster’s photograph of the popular ruins is shown here. The Guardian reports that the town in the English countryside is the UK’s most expensive destination when it comes to average nightly hotel rates. The same story reports that average nightly rates in the UK exceed those found anywhere else in Europe.

UK Hotels are the most Expensive in Europe

Here’s an entry for the annals of pop-culture history:

Who: Eliot Spitzer (alias Client No.9) and “Kristen”

Where: Room 871, the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC.

What: The deed

We wonder if the hotel will follow in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s footsteps and quietly refurbish the room and then renumber the entire floor to stop pesky travelers from ogling the now-infamous doorway (or worse, requesting it for their own pervy dalliances).

We also wonder if, perhaps, Spitzer and his lady friend booked the Mayflower Hotel’s current promotion, the Flirt with an Escape Romance package. The package includes overnight accommodations, Champagne upon arrival, breakfast for two, late checkout and a discount on flowers from FTD.com.

Four Seasons properties in Hawaii are offering different versions of the same Free Night promotion for stays before the end of June 2008.

- Four Seasons Resort Lana’i at Manele Bay: The Resort is offering its
5th Night Free with Breakfast promotion now through June 30, 2008 with
nightly room rates from $495.

- Four Seasons Resort Lana’i, The Lodge at Koele: The Lodge is offering
its 4th Night Free promotion now through June 30, 2008 with nightly room
rates from $345.

- Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu (pictured): The Resort is
offering its 5th Night Free promotion from March 27 through June 30, 2008
with nightly room rates from $725.

- Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea: The Resort is offering its 5th
Night Free promotion from April 6 through June 10, 2008 with nightly room
rates from $620.

If you’re as intrigued by the first Citizen M hotel as we are, then we’re guessing you’ll want to try your luck at winning one of the 100 free rooms the hotel is giving away to celebrate its opening. There are two ways to earn a free stay at the hotel, slated to open in the coming weeks at the Amsterdam Schipol Airport. Every 100th person who registers to become a “citizen” on the site will receive a free night at the hotel, as will the author of every 100th post to the Citizen Community forums. There, travelers can post suggestions, reviews and travel tips in categories like shopping, dining, nightlife and romance.

The much-blogged-about hotel has garnered tons of buzz with its pre-fab construction and slick, high design interiors. Following in the footsteps of New York’s Pod Hotel and London’s Yotel Hotels, the newcomer aims to woo travelers seeking uber-chic, yet reasonably priced accommodations in urban areas. Instead of spacious rooms with lots of hotel services, Citizen M concentrates on the basics - a comfy bed, flat screen TVs - but compensates by outfitting its rooms in the ultra mod sort of look that appeals to the iPod generation.