A Star Without Soap
I stayed recently in the Meridien Etoile hotel for the first time in a decade and it was interesting to revisit the recently refurbished hotel.
The rooms are tiny but compact and have been given a bit of design buzz albeit with that infuriating form over function which is bizarrely prevalent in so many hotels today. It wasn't that the room was inhospitable (it was pretty cost for a contemporary look with a bit of retro-disco era feel) with some cute lamps beside the bed (above) and a Parisian illustration on the glass to the bathroom (top).
The television was neatly encased in a silver and black housing which was good if a bit infuriating insofar as maintaining a signal to change channels with the remote control...
However, the critical gaffe was to be found in the bathroom. Here, on the other side of said Parisian young lady, the hotel has headed into that irritating format of having lots of showers and no bathrooms (how very 2 star). Moreover, once in the shower it quickly became apparent that underneath the shower head surrounded by a profusion of jet black tiles...there was nowhere to actually set things like the soap.
Now call me old fashioned but I rather like soap in the shower while finding shampoo and suchlike can be rather useful in said environs too.
...thanks to design dimness such as demonstrated in the Meridien Etoile, it may suggests stars but there is a complete lack of soap and other practical facilities in the shower. This is one of the more scintillatingly stupid examples of design dimness where practicality is avoided for the sake of the look I have discovered in recent months. I do hope Starwood hotels didn't pay the designer for such a daft set-up.
