Get a Social Media Butler with Your Stay at the Madison Hotel—for $47,000

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Heading to Washington, D.C. to watch President Obama get sworn in for his second term? Want a luxurious hotel experience while you’re there? With all the excitement of witnessing a moment of history and living in the lap of luxury, how will you have time to live-tweet, Facebook and Instagram your experience?

Well, worry no more. According to the Daily Dot (via Mashable), the Madison Hotel is now offering an “Inaugural Town and Country” package. For a mere $47,000 (a four-night stay), the package includes a private Lincoln Town Car and driver, a couple’s massage, a $5,000 gift certificate for clothes, a night in a different hotel and the exclusive services of a dedicated “social media butler.”

What is a social media butler, you ask? According to the Madison Hotel’s press release, digital marketer Victoria Devine will “chronicle you Inaugural experience so your friends and family can follow your adventures on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.”

Devine will “post on all of your accounts so you don’t have to fumble for your phone to catch that perfect Facebook profile picture!”

When interviewing with the Daily Dot, Devine said she had never been a social media butler before, but has experience live-tweeting conferences for previous clients.

She and the hotel haven’t exactly worked out what her services would be—like if she’ll have to work 24 hours a day. “We haven’t really figured out the details,” she said. “I guess we’re waiting to see if anyone buys it.”

Regardless of the money, would you want a social media butler? Or would you prefer to just post yourself? Comment and let us know!

*Image from www.thedailywhat.tumblr.com

A New Boutique Hotel Opens in Cincinnati!

When you think boutique hotel, Ohio isn’t the first location to come to mind. And as Ohio-natives, of course, this news excited the McConnell Marketing team.

21c Museum Hotel opened to the public this week in downtown Cincinnati. The hotel is a result of a three-year renovation of the 100-year-old former Metropole Hotel in the city centre (across from the Aronoff Center for the Arts and around the corner from the Contemporary Arts Center).

“The location is perfect, it could not be any better,” Steve Wilson, co-founder and CEO, said.

Like all 21c Museum Hotels, the boutique hotel also doubles as a contemporary art museum. Wilson refers to his 21c properties as “the only museums in the country that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are free to visit.”

According to the Business Courier, “The hotel is also home to the Metropole restaurant, led by executive chef Michael Paley, it has 8,000 square feet of exhibition meeting and event space, the 21c Spa will open soon and the rooftop bar will open in spring 2013.”

Wilson and his wife, Laura Lee Brown, opened their first 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky in 2005. The Cincinnati property is their second location, with a third scheduled to open in Bentonville, Arkansas and a fourth to open also in Louisville.

InterContinental New York Barclay Rooftop Pumpkin Makes Debut

Just in time for Halloween!

Entering their second year of harvesting on their rooftop garden, the InterContinental New York Barclay’s first and very own pumpkin has made a debut! According to the hotel’s blog, New York Barclay Buzz, the pumpkin “was the hotel’s first experiment with using our on-site compost to enhance the soil from which it was grown.”

“Here at the hotel, we believe in promoting sustainability in both big and small ways,” the blog went on to say. So when it came to building a pumpkin crate, InterContinental New York Barclay’s carpenter built one from recycled wood!

Still growing daily, the Halloween squash currently measures 3 ½ feet in circumference.

The pumpkin will be on display in the hotel lobby during Halloween week. In the mean time, according to the hotel, Chef Serge Devesa and his team from the Barclay Bar & Grill will be sharpening their knives in anticipation of carving the autumn gourd!

McConnell Marketing Clients Make 2012 Readers’ Choice Awards by Condé Nast Traveler

It’s a good week for McConnell Marketing! Many of our clients have made “The Best in the World!” list by Condé Nast Traveler Readers:

InterContinental New York Times Square
Willard InterContinental, Washington, D.C.
Hotel Vitale – Joie de Vivre
Ventana Inn & Spa, Big Sur – Joie de Vivre
Shorebreak Hotel – Joie de Vivre
The Saguaro Scottsdale – Joie de Vivre
Mandarin Oriental, New York
St. Regis, New York
St. Regis, Washington, D.C.
Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park
Ritz-Carlton New York, Battery Park

According to Condé Nast Traveler, “The 25th annual Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Survey is available through a secure website. The questionnaire contains lists of candidates in various categories (Cities, Hotels, etc.). Individual candidates are judged by relevant criteria for each. Those that receive a required minimum number of responses are deemed eligible for a Readers’ Choice Award.”

This year, a record 46,476 readers participated and elected a grand total of 1,306 winners ranging in the categories of hotels, islands, cities, cruises and airlines.

Congratulations to all the winners!

St. Regis Washington, D.C. Named Wedding Destination of the Week

A big congratulations to the St. Regis Washington, D.C.! Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine has featured the hotel as the Wedding Destination of the Week!

Of the hotel, the online magazine said:

“An icon of restored elegance where glamour meets tradition…the gracefully remained St. Regis Washington, D.C. is the hotel of choice for royalty, presidents and prime ministers in the nation’s capital.

The Astor Ballroom is the capital’s most sought after venues for weddings. Soaring palladian windows, handcrafted ceilings and crystal chandeliers create a magical atmosphere that is both majestic and intimate.”

Grace Ormonde Wedding Style is an interactive online magazine that is committed to being “the luxury wedding source and the gateway to helpful, meaningful online planning content for today’s Sophisticated Bride who is ready to tie the knot.”