There’s a large basket, 20ft wide and 10 ft high, weighing a quarter of a ton, with over 100 varieties of plants and flowers inside, hanging on the side of the new Hotel Indigo London Paddington, owned by London Town Hotels. It’s the world’s biggest hanging basket, and it’s being called the ‘The Hanging Gardens of Paddington’.

According to a press statement from Intercontinental Hotels Group PLC (www.ihgplc.com/, LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG), the company which runs the Indigo brand hotels, the basket took three weeks to create by a team of designers, engineers and gardeners, and 8 hours to winch into position.

The giant basket was created to mark the opening of Hotel Indigo London Paddington and hangs 7.5 metres (25 feet) from the ground off the side of the building.  Hotel Indigo London Paddington is a new boutique hotel, which makes changes to its décor in line with the changing seasons to keep the hotel feeling brand new and interesting for guests.

Karin Nielsen, spokesperson for Hotel Indigo, said that “Our hotel is all about unique design, bold colours and seasonal changes so what better way to mark its arrival in the UK than by creating the world’s largest hanging basket.  We’ve taken our inspiration from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the world, and hope that our hanging garden will become a wonder of London.”

Room prices start from £125 room only (excluding VAT).  To book a room at Hotel Indigo London Paddington visit www.hotelindigo.co.uk or call 0871 942 9242. And the new Indigo in London is the first boutique Indigo hotel outside North America, where there are 21 Indigo hotels. Photo copyrights - IHG.

Speaking of new hotels, the New York Times says that the recession has resulted in a funny situation - New luxury hotels are cheaper than existing hotels, which have an established presence and loyal customers. Not so for the new ones, which are struggling to fill up their rooms in an economy where travelers are cutting back spending, and going down market.

The point here is that savvy travelers can now get accomodations and other perks at luxury hotels for the same price which they would pay an older and not-so-luxurious hotel which doesn’t offer all the perks and ameities of the new one.

The article goes on to list various new hotels in Maui, Miami, Portland and New York, where you can get astounding rates 60-70% below the listed standard rates.

Posted on January 20th, 2009 by Thomas
Filed under: Hotels, News, World