One of the most important things about booking hotels anywhere is the location. The hardest thing in any city you have never been to before is visualising the location of all these hotels in such as large space. This is where google maps comes in as it allows you to zoom in and out in a very unique way that we have never seen before. This map can be quite daunting as it features so many hotels so the important thing is to pick an area and zoom in to find only hotels in that sector. The bigger dots represent bigger hotel chains by the way.

Think the teetering state of the commercial real estate market has put a premature end to the trend of building owners paying for facade face-lifts? Heck, that’s what we thought, especially after the strange debacle that is 3 Columbus Circle, and the fact that the re-cladding of 1095 Sixth Avenue actually may have harmed the building rather than help it. So along comes the Observer to inform us that Vornado Realty Trust, owner of the 39-story office building at 330 Madison Avenue, is set to sink $100 million into a glassy new exterior and interior modifications for the tower. In addition to the new curtain wall, 330 Madison (at 42nd Street) will also get an enlarged lobby and a new storefront. The work is expected to begin within three months.