Don’t take me wrong, I love stylish hotel rooms. The problem is when you throw out practicality for design or even worse still throw out taste.

Here are some of the most questionable design choices we’ve come across.

via hotelchatter.com

The Gray Hotel Milan - via hotelchatter.com

The Gray Hotel, Milan

OK these stairs look great but they’re not only terrifying to use sober but are downright dangerous after a few champagnes.

Ivy Hotel - via hotelchatter.com

Ivy Hotel - via hotelchatter.com

Ivy Hotel, San Diego: Star Suite

This hotel touts itself as an “adult playground” which I guess should give most people a clue about what to expect. Nothing however really prepares you for the chains, stripper poles and glaring bad taste you find though.  The service however is surprisingly good – or so we’re told.

Oh and we should mention too that strippers are part of the rooms service menu!

via hotelchatter.com

via hotelchatter.com

Mama Shelter, Paris

Mama Shelter’s is kind of the ultimate geek hotel.  The rooms come with IMacs, the restaurant has communal digital tables.  They also have IBooths run, yes by IMacs, which take photos of you and distribute them on digitial screens throughout the lobby and hotel.  That all sounds fun if you’ve got geeky leanings, but the problem is that geeks whilst very intelligent, often lack basic common sense.  So without going into too much detail just for a second consider the visual horror of a geeky dork thinking its a good idea to surf the internet sitting on this chair, first thing in the morning prior to getting dressed.

Mama Shelter's Paris

Mama Shelter's Paris

The New Luxury Signal: Emotional Stability

The New Luxury Signal: Emotional Stability

Luxury resorts used to sell status and spectacle. Now they sell something quieter: relief. Guests arrive overloaded, and the best resorts are redesigning around sensory calm, reduced friction, and emotional steadiness. Modern luxury is less about what you add, and more about what you remove.

When a town becomes the Shock Absorber

When a town becomes the Shock Absorber

The closure of AKD’s Yarram mill is more than a job loss. It’s a systemic emergency that exposes how vulnerable small towns become when economic shocks arrive without a formal response system. Yarram’s community is already mobilising, but goodwill alone can’t carry what should be a structured, predictable framework for regional crises.