Want to be a hotelier for one night? The Curtis - a 330 room boutique hotel in Downtown Denver – has come up with an easy way to fill up the place for New Year’s Eve 2010. They’re auctioning off the entire hotel on eBay. 

Curtis Hotel, Denver - Won Night Only

For Won Night Only – the ultimate hotel package because for one night, New Year’s Eve 2010, the Curtis Hotel Denver becomes your personal party palace. 330 guest rooms at your disposal, plus the grand ballroom complete with live music, Champagne & caviar, not to mention your own private restaurant and a staff to help create unbelievable memories.

The eBay auction ends on Oct 11. As of now, there are 4 bids and the top bidder has agreed to pay $51,100.00, which doesn’t meet the hotel’s reserve price, but there’s still 4 days still to go. Want to take a guess about the hotel’s reserve price? We’ll let you know after the auction ends.

Winner and his 600 guests (only 2 people per room allowed) check in at 3pm on Dec 31, 2009 and check out at 2pm on Jan 1, 2010. And the hotel’s Rock Star suite is set aside for you and a guest. You also get a personal limo so you can explore Downtown Denver in style.

Food and drinks for everyone include cocktail reception & canapés, dinner, New Year’s Bash including an open bar, late night munchie bar and champagne brunch.

Photo courtesy The Curtis Hotel Denver

Info: 1405 Curtis Street Denver CO 80202; (303) 571-0300; www.thecurtis.com/

Deniver Colorado

The Warwick Denver Hotel , a luxury hotel in downtown Denver, Colorado, is offering to match the price of a hotel room to the price of a hotel guest’s airfare, starting at $89 for the Classic Rooms. The struggling economy has resulted in airlines continuing to offer terrific airfare opportunities, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to take advantage of this deal. All guests have to do is present their ticket receipt displaying the flight cost at check-in. More expensive rooms are available at an additional cost.

The Warwick Denver is located in downtown, and it’s a beautiful luxury hotel. The property is in the final stages of a $25 million renovation to the guests rooms with amenities including 32″ flat screen tv’s and 200 thread count satin stripe sheets. Comfy! Most of the rooms already have balconies and lovely floor-to-ceiling windows with picturesque views of either the Denver downtown skyline or a beautiful park.

You’ll be very close by to some of Denver’s most popular attractions including the 16th Street Mall, the Pepsi Center and the Colorado Convention Center. You’ll even have access to a complimentary car service on a first-come basis.

Call the hotel directly to book this deal at 800-525-2888 or 303-861-2000 or by emailing res.denver@warwickhotels.com.

This deal is good through January 23, 2010.

Photo Credit: respres

A few months back, the Warwick Denver and the Warwick San Francisco launched an innovative airfare ‘Farematch’ package, where your rates were tagged to the price of your airline ticket into the city, beginning at $79. The Warwick Denver has now extended that offer until Jan. 23, 2010.

Warwick Denver Hotel

Rates are based on Classic Room accommodations and upgrades to a Junior Suite or a corner one-bedroom suite are available. The “Fare Match” package can be booked by calling the hotel (800-525-2888), or by email res.denver@warwickhotels.com.

Guests must present a copy of the ticket receipt with the price, showing travel into Denver International Airport, upon check-in.

Scott Ostrander, general manager of the Warwick Denver Hotel, explains that “Many airlines are offering great discounts right now for travel, and the Warwick’s ‘A Fare Match’ program is an easy way to pair inexpensive airfares with a significant savings on exquisite lodging at one of Denver’s best hotels. Put the two together, and a wonderful late summer, Labor Day or fall getaway is well within reach.”

Situated in the heart of Denver’s trendy Uptown neighborhood, Warwick Denver Hotel is within minutes of the State Capitol, 16th Street Mall, the Colorado Convention Center, Pepsi Center, the Cherry Creek shopping district and other Denver attractions.

Each of the hotel’s guest rooms offer private balconies with floor to ceiling glass windows that offer spectacular views of the city and the front range.

Info: 1776 Grant Street Denver, CO 80203; (303) 861-2000; www.warwickdenver.com/; Photos courtesy Warwick International.

Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado

For some reason, I don’t always think of the West as having as many “historic” buildings or events as the East Coast. It’s silly, really, because the Western U.S. easily has as much history to it as does the East, even if the history is a little more recent (though not by much). I remember being shocked when I traveled to Denver, Colorado a few years back and saw how many Victorian buildings are in the area; it’s a beautiful city.

This week’s Historic Hotel is the Strater Hotel located in Durango, Colorado, and it’s a huge, four-story brick structure dating from 1887. Most sites attribute the word “Victorian” to the hotel, which is correct based on the time it was built – but to me, the word “Victorian” conjures up images of Queen Anne architecture. Regardless, this hotel is gorgeous, and it’s steeped in interesting history to boot!

I like the history of the Strater because it was started by a really enterprising young man who had to lie about his age in order to sign a contract to get the project off the ground. Never mind that he had no money and he had absolutely no experience in the hotel business (he was a pharmacist, what he he know about hotels?) He had a vision though, and passion to go with it, and so he just plugged along until his dream came true. Pretty cool. Durango was pretty much a big, messy mining camp at the time, but Strater realized that building a grand hotel would help transform the camp into a nicer city, and it worked.

Strater Hotel

Here’s where it gets kinda funny. Young Strater put his pharmacy in the bottom of the hotel, and he had mind to simply run the pharmacy, not the hotel itself. So, he leased it to this proprietor named Rice. Well, Strater had forgotten to exempt his pharmacy from the lease, and Rice soon began to charge exorbitant sums of money for him to set up shop there. If you can imagine, this really made Strater mad, so he decided to build another hotel down the road to compete with his own hotel, the Strater, and to try and put it out of business. The two hotels were very competitive until about 1895, when the silver panic took them both out.

The hotel was saved, thankfully, and over the years it was outfitted with more “modern” looking conveniences and amenities. However, newer owners have decided to return to the hotel to its Victorian splendor, and that’s how it is today – a lovely time capsule to the Victorian era.

Basic rooms start at about $180/night. Durango is a very nice, historic town with lots of cute restaurants and shops and nightlife options. It’s about seven hours Southwest of Denver and four hours Northwest of Santa Fe, NM.

Photo Credits: Psuhockeychick, redlioness