French hotel brand Sofitel has launched an ‘I Love Chocolate’ special. Yes, it involves a lot of free chocolate – Dark and milk chocolate, succulent confectionaries, precious cookies and hot chocolate drinks.

Sofitel Los Angeles & Chocolate

Since you’re already drooling, let’s bite into the details of this special. Between November 1, 2009 and January 31, 2010, anyone who books the ‘I Love Chocolate’ special gets a third night free at any of Sofitel’s over 85 participating hotels in 26 countries.

Participating Sofitel hotels in the US include the Sofitels in Chicago (Water Tower), New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco (Bay) and Washington DC (Lafayette Square).

Plus, you get a delicious breakfast served in the restaurant every morning, and an ‘all chocolate afternoon tea’ which includes hot chocolate, pastries and other delicacies. And also a late check-out.

If you’re looking for romantic hotels, you won’t get more amour anywhere else. All these Sofitels lean heavily towards a European experience – that means luxury, champagne, privacy, breathtaking views, fancy art on the walls…and chocolate.

For more details, visit www.sofitel-ilovechocolate.com

Chocolate photo by norwichnuts; Sofitel Los Angeles photo courtesy Accor Hotels

The Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square and French Champagne house Champagne Pommery have teamed up for a unique offer – buy a bottle of Pommery’s Cuvée Louise 1998 Champagne, and you get a free night’s stay at the sofitel.

Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square

They’re selling the bubbly for $299, and the hotel’s average rates are around $350, so it’s a good deal, even if you’re not that keen on the champagne.

And if you just happen to be a wine aficionado, well – Cuvée Louise was created as a tribute to Louise Pommery – an absolutely pure wine which quintessentially conveys the wine-making expertise of the Pommery champagne house. So that’s like getting a $350 luxury hotel room for free.

Sofitel is a luxury French brand, and so is Pommery. Apparently the hotel is celebrating it’s French ‘rendezvous’ roots, and together with Pommery, wants to show us that the French still know a thing or two about luxury living and the finer aspects of life.

The ‘Sparkling Sofitel Rendezvous’ offer is valid only at the Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square until Dec 31, with or without reservations. To make a reservation or for more informaion, call (202) 730-8800.

The Sofitel is situated at the corner of Lafayette Square, bordering the White House. You can get your bottle of Pommery’s Cuvée Louise 1998 Champagne at the hotel’s bar – Le Bar – located at the hotel’s entrance.

Info: 806 15th St NW Washington DC 20005; (202) 730-8800; website

Sofitel DC photo by dionhinchcliffe; Wine bar photo by Jing a Ling

If you’re a mini-bar connoisseur, you’re probably aware of the lack of premium wine found in most hotels. Heck, you’re lucky if you can find a cork screw and wine glasses in most places!

This is a huge tragedy for wine folk, and I just discovered that online Wine Super Hero Gary Vaynerchuk has started to do reviews of the wine found in hotels. What a fun concept!

He did the first one in LA at Hotel Sofitel, in Episode 625, Chardonnay from a Hotel in Los Angeles. There he found a Clos du Bois 2006 North Coast Chardonnay — half bottle with a screw top. Which was lucky because the room didn’t have a cork screw, and he wound up drinking it out of a tumbler. A nice tumbler, but still, for wine folk that’s a thing.

Nice, but unexciting rooms at Sofitel LA

It’s kind of surprising that the Sofitel doesn’t have fancier wine, because it’s a luxury hotel. Rooms start in the $250/night range and then so sky high. But maybe all of the rich, famous people who stay there go down to Rande Gerber’s Stone Rose Lounge to get liquored up. You know Rande is Cindy Crawford’s husband, right?

Where's Cindy Crawford?

In Episode 664, Hotel Wine Search in San Diego, Gary has better luck at the W Hotel in San Diego, finding two bottles in his room, a Coppola Merlot and a Root Cabernet Sauvingnon from Chile.

The seriously bright W San Diego room

The W is way more wine friendly, providing stemmed glasses, a cork screw, and smart marketing — there is a tag on the bottle of Cab recommending that you order a cheese plate to go with it!

Mmmm blueberry mojitos!

You can usually count on the W to be beautiful and well appointed, and the property in San Diego lives up to this. Rooms are bright and sunny, and when you finish all of the wine in your room, you can head down to the Magnet bar for a blueberry mojito.

Maybe that’s not what Gary would order, but some of us cannot live by wine alone! I will, however, be watching for Gary’s next hotel wine review. It’s good to know when you need to BYOB!