Hotel Girl

Red Carnation Hotels, one of my favourite luxury hotel groups, is offering exclusive deals on its London properties for its Twitter followers and Facebook fans.

Last weekend's offer was £235 a night, including breakfast, a £25 dining credit and free tickets to Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy.

This is a great saving on the usual rates. Although the deal is for an unnamed property, all the hotels are super luxurious so you can't go wrong.

And with a stroke of luck, you could end up in this glass-roofed conservatory master suite at 41 Hotel..

So what has really changed the hotel sector in the last ten years? If this is a question that keeps you up at night, check out Uberoom.com's 14 most influential game changes of the decade.

Rightly, top of the list is in-room Wifi. Just a few years ago Wifi were just two funny-sounding syllables - now it's one of the first things many of us check when choosing where to rest our weary legs for the night. Since some of the top hotel chains are still charging ridiculous rates for Wifi,  (I'm looking at you Four Seasons) here are some alternative uses for your laptop.

The United States has agreed to sell its embassy building in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair to Qatari Diar, a real estate investment company.

It hasn't been confirmed, but the group is expected to turn the building into a luxury hotel and apartments.

The building is Grade 2 listed so they will have to keep the facade, which includes the famous 35ft gilded aluminium eagle above the main entrance.

The Times predicts that this quirky look might fit Starwood's W brand or Rezidor's Missoni. The area's already packed with luxury hotels, from Claridges to the Dorchester, so whoever takes this project on will have a lot to live up to..

(pic: The Times)

The people behind the lovely Babington House - the home of Cowshed spa - opened a city pad in Soho today.

The Dean Street Townhouse has luxurious four-poster beds, stand-alone bathtubs and all the Cowshed goodies you can smuggle into your suitcase.

Built in a 39-room Georgian townhouse, rooms come in all sizes from 'tiny' to 'bigger'. Tinies start at £95 per night - perfect for a recession-chic mini break.

For us Londoners, it also has an all-day dining room serving British favourites - I've got my eye on the Bramley apple pie.

So now you have an excuse to be lazy cow in central London - as if you needed one.