Ace is The Place.

I just love the aesthetic of Ace Hotels. Clean, streamlined and sleek, not overly fussy, just simply elegant. I mean what’s worse than a hotel trying to look all posh and doing a really mediocre job of it? Either you are a posh hotel, or who are we kidding, you’re a motel. It’s like airline food – why try and be all fancy-pants and serve some kind of mystery chicken a la cordon blue…I think I may speak for many of us when I say, I’d just rather have a sandwich. At least, I have a pretty good idea of what I’m eating.

I don’t need fancy, just good design. Some hotel rooms make you want to jump out of your skin, but I think if I stayed in an Ace Hotel, there might be fear of me hanging out in my room a bit too much. But hey, that’s why they made room service! So I wrote to Ace and asked if I might share some of their room decor with you, and as I suspected, they couldn’t have been nicer, and more uncomplicated about it. Just like their lovely rooms. Ace has hotels in Portland, Seattle, Palm Springs and now in New York City. Hey guys, where’s the San Francisco hotel? I think we’d be a perfect spot for an Ace. The guys behind Ace had the idea to create a place their friends and acquaintances would want to stay – DJs, artists, magazine creators, graphic designers, musicians – the creative types who have been behind the evolving cultural renaissance of the Pacific Northwest of the last decade, and who aren’t, generally speaking, awash with cash, so the rooms are quite affordable, too. There’s even one with called the ‘Band Room’, with bunk beds should you need to buddy-up.

These are pretty hip hotels…some rooms feature turntables with a hand-picked selection of new and used vinyl for guests to enjoy during their stay. And the Portland Ace Hotel even has a photo booth! Now what grown person doesn’t enjoy a good photo booth? See, no reason to even leave this hotel. The lobby’s are pretty swanky yet comfy, too, and I love the found and re-purposed ‘hotel’ sign in the Portland lobby area, too. Pay-per-view TV? No thank-you. Free Wi-Fi internet access? Of course. Yipee! With all this going for it, Ace is definitely my kinda place.