Why sex is better in hotels -- and other confessions of a constant traveler

[Syt]

One of the rare cases where the news comments section is actually restoring (some) faith in humanity ...

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/30/travel/sex-better-in-hotels/index.html?sr=fb100113sexhotels1p

Why sex is better in hotels -- and other confessions of a constant traveler

(CNN) -- Hotels have been a large part of my domestic life.

I met my husband, who travels constantly for work, in the lobby of a hotel -- the Chateau Marmont, in LA.

Our first, second and third dates were all in hotels: the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur and the Gran Hotel de Milan in Italy.

He first told me he loved me in a hotel (again the Chateau Marmont); I realized I loved him at the Peninsula in Hong Kong.

We had two years of a blissful home life -- all in hotels.

The next time we were at the Chateau Marmont it was for our wedding.

After we married, we tried to settle down.

It should have been a happy time evolving from hotel-skipper to homemaker -- decorating, co-mingling our things, arguing over couches, cooking, cleaning and entertaining friends and family.

But the more we nested, the more I yearned for the freedom of hotels.

They had become my habitat, with an internationalized culture that feels more like home than my actual home: an idealized, perfectly run household.

Houses are so complicated, so full of banal details.

Hotels are carefree, above all trivialities

Life is the same -- sleeping, waking, working, eating, sex -- but at a hotel everything is touched with novelty.

Here's why everything in life is better in a hotel.

More: 7 hotel restaurants you'll be talking about for years

1. Wild sex

Sex requires surfaces, and if the surface of your partner never changes, the location can add the variety you crave.

At The Ring Hotel in Vienna we were once given a magnificent suite with an enormous dining table that we eyed lustfully.

If we were at home, such escapades never would have happened: naked on the table where we'd eat Thanksgiving dinner?

In a hotel, anything goes.

Once, when we were checking into Shutters in Santa Monica, a famous Hollywood actor was checking in beside us with two women. Ever since, we've nicknamed it "Slutters."

All hotels have a hint of mystery, like the best sexual relations, they are exotic places unable to be possessed.

It's no wonder they're popular for affairs and clandestine adventures. Just try not to think of all the other people that have had them there too.

2. Perfect sleep

Outside of hotels I'm a restless sleeper; only in hotels can I find oblivion.

The curtains shut to an absolute black. There are freshly laundered and ironed sheets.

The rooms are quiet; the walls are solid; the world is distant.

Hotel beds are where sleep is soundest; they are palaces constructed for a pure, perfect night of sleep.

More: 15 unusual places to spend a night

3. The morning after

Even better than sleeping in a hotel is waking in one.

My favorite is the Beau Rivage in Geneva. It has a bedside remote control that opens the blackout shutters, so one can lie in bed watching the slow reveal of a sunny Swiss morning looking out over Lake Geneva.

Hotels are built with location in mind, and always a few of the rooms have desirable views.

I prefer arriving at hotels in the middle of the night -- that way the morning parting of the curtains exposes an entirely new twinkling city before me, its new adventures beckoning.

4. Dignified breakfasts

For me, the wildest luxury is to ring for breakfast.

"Cut-up pineapple and a double latte, please."

It's a ritual that's surprisingly easy to keep.

Hotel breakfasts are sublimely elegant, arriving on silver trays with china; white, ironed linens; a budding rose in a crystal vase.

There might be edible flower garnishes on your pineapple, or flourishes in the latte foam.

More: World's least romantic hotels

5. The lobby

My favorite place to work (that is, write novels) is the lobby of a luxury hotel.

I'm at my most productive surrounded by that dignified, hushed bustle.

Hotel lobbies are filled with exotic strangers. As someone who met her husband in such circumstances, I can attest to the life-changing power of that.

You never know when a handsome man will send over a drink that possibility changes everything.

6. Domestic harmony

My husband and I have a domestic routine in hotels.

He goes to work; I eat breakfast in bed and then work in the hotel lobby. In the afternoon I go for a run around the city while the room is made up.

There's nothing like coming home to a perfectly clean hotel room: a pleasure of a 1950s husband, along with the higher-order pleasure of not being the 1950s housewife producing it.

The chore-less evening stretches before you. My husband listens to classical music and reads. I sit on his lap and we talk about the day.

Soon, we dress for dinner.

Hotels now all have good restaurants.

There's little better than going downstairs to a fantastic meal with bottles of red wine, then reeling back upstairs like two drunken sailors (see #1).

We repeat this routine in new cities, new hotels, without it ever losing its appeal. It's the most banal of routines, but it never bores.

Hotels have a blank domesticity; they are homes to inhabit, and then leave. They have all the pleasures of domesticity, with none of its burdens, and in this, they make me feel free -- and at home.

john anderson • 15 hours ago −
This is so incredibly out of touch, privileged, and just creepy enough to force me to leave this comment...please stop writing. I mean completely. Just stop. You're truly a vapid, spoiled individual.

Einstein758  john anderson • 14 hours ago
I can't say it any better than you did, John. Seriously, CNN, did you have NOTHING else to jam into this spot? The premise was a good one, but c'mon...how often do you think your typical reader is visiting Geneva, or Vienna, or Bern. I've traveled quite a bit and stayed at some really nice places, and I make a very good living as well. And I STILL found this creepy and vapid.

Kenny Delgado  Einstein758 • 9 hours ago −
Sarah Cone sounds like a slut-dog millionaire. She should give it a go at a Motel 6 and see how the other half travels.

John Gilson  Kenny Delgado • 8 hours ago −
HALF? How about other 99%

Kevin Stillwell  John Gilson • 3 hours ago −
She is going to tell herself after reading this comments 'wow these a-holes are really jealous of me' to make herself feel better.
When in reality, that is just a cheap trick used by sociopaths to try and avoid facing the truth...that people aren't 'jealous' of them, but rather completely dumbfounded by the sociopaths absolutely absurd stupidity.
They have a nearly impossible time dealing with criticism, even when they ask for it. And when it comes their way, they try their best to chalk it up as 'jealousy'.

AdamC  Kevin Stillwell • 2 hours ago
Read the comments? She's to busy jetting off to the next hotel to have a wild escapade with her husband.

Terry Dubay  john anderson • 14 hours ago −
I totally agree. Spoiled socialite. What possibly made you think any of this was news, CNN?

John Gilson  Terry Dubay • 8 hours ago −
The sex someone at CNN had with her, in a hotel of course.

Frank  John Gilson • 7 hours ago −
I'm guessing her husband is having more sex in hotels than she is. I can't imagine being married to this self centered trog let alone being faithful to her.

Kevin Stillwell  Frank • 3 hours ago −
Hahaha soooooo true. And when she finds out she's going to be like 'OooOOO EMMMM GEEEEEE, WHAT DID THOSE OTHER GIRLS HAVE THAT I DIDN'T BB???'

RR  Frank • 6 hours ago −
Leave the girl alone. The article is fine. Well written. I totally get her. I've traveled a lot on business. At some point you find your favorite hotels, your favorite rooms. It doesn't mean your wealthy, its more of a sign of the times. Part of life when your busy traveling and working.

cdef82  RR • 4 hours ago −
Most companies don't put people up in luxury hotels . This woman is not the average, and the entire article is nothing more than bragging and name dropping of hotels she's stayed in and places she's traveled to. She is obviously a snob.

Kelly  RR • 2 hours ago −
There's more to this than just being a business traveler. This woman basically lives in a 5 star hotel on someone else's dime and is bragging about her extravagant lifestyle.

sherri56  RR • 3 hours ago −
Doesn't mean you can spell either, does it RR?
When you use the contraction of 'you are' (as in "It doesn't mean your wealthy" it should be 'you're. Not 'your'. I hope you don't make your living writing for anyone.

Sheldor of Azeroth  RR • 4 hours ago −
Speaking of her husband...

Frank  RR • an hour ago −
Given your inability to correctly use 'your' and 'you're' I'm not surprised you find it well written. As per travelling on business I've done so for 30 years. I dare say the hotels she mentions are hardly 'business' traveler destinations; with the exception of those who are extremely highly placed or those who wish to be terminated for violating their fiduciary responsibilities. This was a feel good piece; but predominately for Ms. Cone I would conclude.

bee_lorange  John Gilson • 4 hours ago −
On a dining table. How special.

Frank  Terry Dubay • 6 hours ago −
People with real money don't expose their lives, especially their sex lives, on CNN. That's lesson one. This chick is a wannabe.

DeathByCactus  Terry Dubay • 4 hours ago
Really? So I am a socialite because my boss wants me to travel and stay in hotels at firm expense? Fool.

Sheldor of Azeroth  DeathByCactus • 4 hours ago −
Judging from your screen name, profile, and mannerism in your comment... you don't have a boss nor do you work, get back to your middle school computer lab.

Nana  Sheldor of Azeroth • an hour ago −
lmao

Tabitha24  john anderson • 14 hours ago −
... she's also pretentious, self-centered, sluttty, entitled and clueless.

Archman  Tabitha24 • 9 hours ago
Sarah Cone sounds like a luxury escort? The hotels named are a few of the best in the world.. including the exotic locations such as Hotel Cipriani in Venice which was in the bond movie . I'm all about 5 star hotels when I travel, but obviously someone is taking advantage of the company travel expense budget and spending
$600-$2000 a night at these hotels.

etc. etc.

[garbon]

I'm not sure I'd say it is better but certainly there are less practical worries.

[The Brain]

I am writing this in a hotel room.

[alfred russel]

 

Troll on, CNN.

[Syt]

JohnnyVoxx • 15 hours ago −
I can find no evidence of any published "novel" by a Sarah Cone. So she screws around on her computer in fancy hotel lobbies while her husband "goes to work?" Then she goes for a run later on the grounds and waits for him to get back to the hotel and bang her on the nearest table? I've heard of that kind of job before...

[DGuller]

I am writing this in a hotel room.

How's the sex?

[MadImmortalMan]

Those are some nice hotels. Chateau Marmont? 

[Jacob]

I enjoy staying in luxury hotels.

But I suppose that in the US environment of rampant class warfare against the poor, it's best not to flaunt your luxury consumption too much.

[The Brain]

I am writing this in a hotel room.

How's the sex?

Contrived.

[Admiral Yi]

But I suppose that in the US environment of rampant class warfare against the poor, it's best not to flaunt your luxury consumption too much.

[Jacob]

[Ideologue]

I enjoy staying in luxury hotels.

But I suppose that in the US environment of rampant class warfare against the poor, it's best not to flaunt your luxury consumption too much.

You suppose right, capitalist running Dane.

[Caliga]

On a related note, CNN has IMO gone downhill to such an extreme degree that it's little better than tabloid news now.

[DGuller]

On a related note, CNN has IMO gone downhill to such an extreme degree that it's little better than tabloid news now.

How is that related? 

[Admiral Yi]

On a related note, CNN has IMO gone downhill to such an extreme degree that it's little better than tabloid news now.

I think the broadcast version does a pretty good job.