Win a night for two at The Langham, London

The Langham, London has been delighting guests with enchanting encounters since she opened in 1865 as Europe’s first ‘Grand Hotel’. Now she has completed an £80 million transformation, exuding a graceful and timeless elegance, blending a sense of the past with the style of today.
We’ve teamed up with the lovely people at The Langham to [...]

Three reasons to hit London in August

Here at Gekko we could give you three hundred good reasons to visit us here in the capital of good old Blighty. However, we know you’re busy people, so we’ll just stick to three fabulous August highlights:
The Proms 2009
In a nutshell:
For a century the Proms have been celebrating the very best of classical music. The [...]

Wimbledon 2009: The Places to Stay

As Wimbledon fever hits the UK, you may well want to be a part of the action. Watching Wimbledon from courtside is the thing to do this summer, yet it can be a huge hassle for people. Tourists flood into London, filling up the buses and trains and making it a tricky to journey [...]

The Daily Telegraph’s favourite luxury hotels

The Daily Telegraph’s Ultratravel 100 Awards, voted for by the Telegraph’s readers, have been announced, celebrating the very cream of luxury hotels. Of course, the award winners were all hotels that Gekko heartily recommends…
Best Spa Hotel: The Grove, Chandler’s Cross, Hertfordshire
A country house (minus the normally requisite Jane Austen kitsch) that’s only 30 minutes from [...]

London 2012: 5 top hotels for the Olympics

The big news in the hotel world this week is that Holiday Inn has signed a deal to become the official hotel sponsor for the 2012 London Olympics. As everyone knows, the Olympics is a huge marketing tool so there’s no doubt that the partnership will benefit both sides.
Holiday Inn will hopefully be able to provide [...]

Gramercy Park Hotel, New York – if it’s good enough for Jessica Alba…

Stylish, cool, opulent, lavish; just a few words to describe the super-trendy Gramercy Park Hotel, located on Lexington Avenue in the Gramercy District of New York.
So no surprise to find that two of the hottest (in every sense) US celebs Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel spotted hanging out there in the hotel’s 18th floor private [...]

The Big Sleep Cardiff – being John Malkovich

As befitting a hotel owned by nutbag actor John Malkovich, The Big Sleep is both ridiculously cool and a little bit schizophrenic. Set in a slightly barbaric 60s office block, the harsh exterior gives way to a refreshingly unique interior, full of crazy orange walls and photos of John M himself.
Each room is unique in [...]

Malmaison Manchester – Northern Rock and roll

If you’ve got a bit of cash to spare and you want to hang out in Manchester’s hip Northern Quarter, then the Malmaison is for you. Just seconds from Piccadilly Station, the Malmaison straddles a beautiful Victorian building and an achingly modern extension which nicely sums up the hotel.
Traditional service in a minimalist contemporary design. [...]

Hotel Costa Verde, Costa Rica – the hotel in a plane

If you really want to live the high life, stay in this crazy hotel in the Costa Rican rainforest. The Hotel Costa Verde is based in an 1965 Boeing 727. The plane used to fly around the world on South Africa Air and now serves as a two bedroom suite on the edge of the [...]