Best Hotels Around the World for Geeks, Neo Wannabes

If you are the kind who follows white rabbits, has weird deja vus, pops red pills, and you are planning to go to Sydney, Australia, anytime soon (not necessarily in that order,) the 31-story, 416-room Westin is the best hotel for you. After all, it was the place where the Deja Vu scene from Matrix was filmed and number 3 of the list of "best geek hotels in the world 2.0," whatever that means:

1. Hotel Sax, Chicago
Sixth floor Studio is a room open for guests from 4pm to midnight which is "powered by Microsoft," meaning it has XBox 360 with the best games, Windows Media Center HDTV and Zunes a go-go.

2. Hotel Avante, Mountain View
Near Google's HQ, the Avante is nothing fancy but includes a bunch of random stuff in every room, like Etch-a-Sketch, a Rubik's cube, a deck of cards, a slinky, tape and scissors. For some reason.

3. Westin, Sydney
Nothing special about this one, except it's a five star and they probably will kick your ass if you try to break into the walls to escape room service's tips.

More geeky hotels at the link. [Hotel Chatter]

11:40 AM on Tue Mar 4 2008
By Jesus Diaz
10,765 views
9 comments

Comments

SnowLeopard at 12:08 PM on 03/04/08
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Sidney with a y, not an i.
The Lab at 12:35 PM on 03/04/08
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How about the Hotel @ MIT? They have circuit boards etched in the lights and on the bed spread. Some robot from Dr Who is in the lobby. However, a notable absence of any actual functional tech. Basically _only_ for neo-wannabees.
jaypoc at 12:42 PM on 03/04/08
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In Hotel Avante, Mountain View, CA... Why would they put a slinky in the desk? lol.. I doubt there's stairs in the room and can you imagine someone out in a hotel hallway releasing a slinky down the public staircase? What if someone trips over the slinky at the base of the stairs? lol. Just seems like an odd/somewhat useless item to place in the room :)
Atsumi at 01:15 PM on 03/04/08
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Hah, I'm not sure if I'd want the people on the room next to me playing Rock Band all night.

"Tk tk tk tk" isn't the best sound to sleep to.
fuzzycuffs at 01:15 PM on 03/04/08
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You know what else the Hotel Avate has? A pair of my Oakley sunglasses that went missing there when I stayed there for business a year and change ago. *furious*

I even offered a reward, but some Neo wannabe must have taken them and run.

Also, truth is the place was kind of a dump. Yes, there were interesting trinkets in the desk. I remember the sink was fun too, but I've now seen those raised bowl sinks everywhere now (and they splash water everywhere).

But it all seemed like a facade over an old California desert hotel.
Samifumi at 01:34 PM on 03/04/08
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The best geek hotels are ones like a Hampton Inn where you don't spend $1000+ per night. The money you save you actually buy stuff for yourself, and not cover the hotel's overhead.
mitchel_stevens at 01:54 PM on 03/04/08
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can't believe Jesus didn't know about THIS HOTEL.
Laura at 08:45 PM on 03/04/08
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Yeah...I'm sorry, but I've stayed in Hotel Avante multiple times over the last few years. It's one of those hotels that fits the artsy-modern-postmodern hotel schtick, and yeah, Google puts up a lot of its people there when they're traveling to corp, but it's just NOT that good a hotel--the W in Silicon Valley beats it, especially in general hotel needs. Wireless signal at Avante was terrible, for that matter. It has some interesting non-geeky amenities, but what geek wants the main part of the hotel--every part but the bedrooms, actually--to lack AC? A week there one summer was awful, and I LIKE hot weather.
webbehr at 10:45 AM on 03/05/08
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www.21cmuseumhotel.com - Louisville, KY. Funky, cool techno artsy. When you book your stay, let them know your musical preferences and they'll have a preloaded iPod ready when you arrive.