Vienna Bristol renovation

The Bristol Bar in the Bristol Hotel in Vienna has just reopned, the first part of a major overhaul of the five-star hotel.

The Bristol Bar is "indisputably"  one of the most favourite meeting places in Vienna for both guests and visitors, according to Hotel director Gerald Krischek. The main features of the Bristol have survived the renovation, which included furniture restoration and leopard patterned carpet flooring, plus a new lick of paint.

Opposite the state opera house, the hotel is known for its musical connections. This snippet comnes from The Spectator of June 1929:

"As we sat in the restaurant one evening, at the Bristol Hotel, enjoying the music after the hard work of the day, a particularly exquisite melody was being played. On asking the name of the composer, to our surprise we were told it was the head waiter."

The hotel is the subject of 'High Noon for the King's Moll' - a story in Hight Times at the Hotel Bristol. 

Beckham and the £15,000-a-night Le Bristol

Much has been made in the Press about David Beckham's residency in Paris where he is said to be paying £15,000 a night for the Imperial Suite at Le Bristol. The hotel's most expensive suite, pictured here, overlooks the garden and should be room enough for Victoria' wardrobe and their four boys.

Le Bristol is often in the news, not least on this blog, and it has many stories to tell, such as the extraordinary tale of the Hope Diamond, revealed in Chapter 19 of High Times at the Hotel Bristol.

Who knows the history of the Hotel Bristol in Kuwait?

An email arrives from the grandson of the late Jassim Al-Wazzan, one of the founding partners of the Hotel Bristol in Kuwair. He wants to know when the hotel opened.

Anyone who knows of the history of this hotel should get in touch. This postcard just came up on eBay. It was posted to an address in France in 1966.

Hotel Bristol air force souvenir

Here's a rarity, just come up on eBay – a tie with the Hotel Bristol advertised on it. Its seller merely says: "Strategic Air Command advertising tie Bristol Hotel Colombo Air Force Excelsior", which seemeds a little jumbled. There's a label from the Excelsior hotel in Frankfurt -Am-Maine in there too.
But the modern Hotel Bristol in Frankfurt looks as if it hasn't been there five minutes. So there was a Bristol Hotel there before...

False start to the New Year in Gurgaon Bristol

The Bristol Hotel in Gurgaon on the south side of New Delhi is one of the smartest in India, and it had a big New Year celebration planned with popular DJ rapper Honey Singh. But it didn't happen. At the last minute a complaint about his lyrics was lodged by the writer Kalpana Misra, who got up an on-line petition and sent it to the hotel's management. The petition attracted nearly 3,000 signatories and trended on Twitter. The anti-women sentiments of lyrics sung by the 28-year-old Punjabi singer, who studied music at Trinity Laban in London, were deemed particularly inappropriate after the recent horrendous Delhi gang rape, and a police report has been issued against him.
The event's organisers have not disclosed how much the cancellation has cost them, but it is thought to be no small sum.
The full story is carried in the Times of India.

Accolade for Sarajevo Bristol

The Bristol Hotel in Sarajevo has just been chosen as the leading hotel in Bosnia Herzegovina. The 4-star 186-room hotel operated by independents Shaza Hotels, was destroyed in the recent conflict and re-opened less than two years ago. The award at the World Travel annual get-together in the new Conrad Algarve in Portugal where Hotel Bristol's managing director, Kai Behrens, said, "This prestige world award is extra motivation and challenge for all of us for an even better and more successful business. Our success is due to the great effort and dedication of all staff  and we are determined to continue building a positive image of the hotels – as well as the city – of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole."

Hotel suite for the "unfathomably rich"

When Barbra Streisand stayed in the Prince of Wales Suite (above) at the Hotel Bristol in Vienna, she was dismayed to find that the bed was too high for her small dog to jump onto, so the hotel had some steps built for the mutt. The story is told by Christian L.Wright  in the current edition of Condé Naste Traveler, in which the magazine ranks the eight-room Prince of Wales Suite as one of the eight "most lavish and expensive on earth" for the "unfathomably rich", costing up to $18,000 a night.
The story of the Prince of Wales and the Hotel Bristol is told in High Noon for the King's Moll, just one of the engaging chapters in High Times at the Hotel Bristol. The story can be read on-line.