A Pretty Cool Hotel Tour’s Margaret and Corey Bienert on kitsch, relationships, and heart-shaped tubs.
While there are lovely dress shop daub and nerveless little lodge all over the US , most hotel rooms are n’t particularly special . remember beds covered with neutral linens , a ( hopefully ) clean bath decked out with tiny toiletry , and maybe a desk if you ’re lucky .
But if you ’re looking for something a little more interesting , there ’s a whole earth oftheme and illusion hotelsout there , just waiting to be discovered . Often throwbacks to an era when more Americans were look for heart - shaped tubs , mirrors on ceilings , and bed that look like Cadillacs , these kitschy hotel make getting away a lot more sport . They launch the gamut in terminus of location and toll , and they ’re also — regrettably — more and more hard to find .
For Margaret and Corey Bienert , these little slices of Americana are liveable industrial plant of art , which they ’ve long been documenting on their Instagram accountA Pretty Cool Hotel Tour . In their unexampled bookHotel Kitsch , they take reader inside more than 30 of the state ’s quirkiest roadside getaway , from the delightfully pinkTrixie Motelin Palm Springs to theCove Pocono Resortsin Pennsylvania , which boasts bathtubs that look like champagne coupes . Below , the Beinerts separate Thrillist how they got start on their kitschy journeying , which hotel rooms are the coolest around , and whether heart - work vat are really comfortable .
Design by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist / Excerpted from Hotel Kitsch by Margaret and Corey Bienert (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2023. Photograph by Margaret and Corey Bienert / Photo by Jacob Boll, courtesy of Artisan Books
Thrillist : How do you define “ kitsch”?Margaret Bienert : The give-and-take has changed significance over the geezerhood , at least with our generation . I feel like it previously entail something was negatively tasteless or over the top . When I utilise it , multitude in the senior coevals might say , “ That ’s so rude , ” and I ’m a slight trance off guard . Because to me , it means playful . Sometimes a motel is literally copying the tone of a beach in a room , and that feels kitsch to me . They ’re take in inspiration from something real to make something fake .
How did you first get into the world of kitschy hotels?MB : We have a product company and we were traveling for workplace . We were remain at a ton of hotels , but they were always the same in every city . I desire to happen something that could be a little bit more fun , because it felt like we were n’t getting any new experiences . We ’d work , and then we ’d go back to the same old hotel rooms .
I set out search into weird things that were out there to experience , whether it wasAirbnb optionsorunique hotel . On a study trip , we stayed at the Cove Haven haunt in the Poconos , which have heart- and bubbly drinking glass - shaped tubful . That was the best experience I ’d ever had at a hotel . It was just so cool and uncanny . So that inspired us to start researching . There are 30 - plus locating in the book , but we ’ve been to well over 50 .
Photo by Jacob Boll, courtesy of Artisan Books
How do you decide which hotel to call in ( and when)?MB : For the first couple age , I had a list of hotels to visit . But because we were fund the task ourselves , we could n’t just on the spur of the moment go to all these hotels . It took us five years of locomote to make this Scripture because we have to pull in money for five months and then go locomote for a calendar month or two , then earn money for another five .
Corey Bienert : When we were first begin out , we were going to some of the belittled towns where the hotels were more set-apart and getting less interest . The longer we ’ve been doing the project , though , we ’ve broadened our hunt . Also , there are newfangled places that have open up and the market has change , which has been a positive thing .
megabyte : For us , a affectionateness - influence tub is enough to go visit a hotel . Because sometimes , if there ’s a nerve - forge bathtub , you ’ll find that there ’s really other stuff too , but they just do n’t advertise it . So if we can find a heart - shaped bathing tub , and we show up and ask for it , then we ’ll ask , “ Do you have any other subject rooms ? ” and that ’s how we ’ve found a raft of unique stuff .
Excerpted from Hotel Kitsch by Margaret and Corey Bienert (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2023. Photographs by Margaret and Corey Bienert.
Every once in a while , I ’ll extend to out to a hotel and say , “ We ’re doing this serial and we ’d love to snap your rooms , ” and they ’ll say , “ Oh , we ’re actually kick the bucket to be doing some updates next yr , if you want to come then . ” Then I ’ll tell Corey , “ We have to go now because if we do n’t we ’ll miss the weird ‘ fourscore or ‘ 90s interior decoration . ”
What are some of the more unique themed hotel room you ’ve seen?MB : There was one near Chicago where you could slumber in a bed that looked like a sandwich .
CB : We go away to this seam and breakfast in Idaho prognosticate theLions Gate Manorand they have aPhantom Of The Operasuite . It ’s almost an entire floor unto itself , and there ’s a spiraling staircase that leads down through a bookshelf doorway . It ’s extremely elaborated and very unexpected . We ’ve seen otherPhantom Of The Opera - theme rooms , but for sure not as elaborate as that one . It felt like you were on the solidifying of the movie .
Excerpted from Hotel Kitsch by Margaret and Corey Bienert (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2023. Photographs by Margaret and Corey Bienert.
MB : They even have a two - way mirror , and if you rick on the lighting behind the mirror , you see a mask man stand there . That was in reality really comic , because for age multitude have been like , " There are by all odds two - way mirrors in all these hotels , " and I ’d say “ No , there ’s not , ” but when we conk to that one , I got to do a video that was like , “ Oh my gosh , you hombre , we literally found a two - way mirror in this hotel . ”
What about thecoconut cream pie - themed roomon your Instagram?MB : Oh , my gosh , that was nuts . The Roxbury Motelhas been around for 10 years and that room still looks gorgeous .
CB : There ’s nothing cookie cutting tool about any of the way at that hotel . They ’re all custom - visualize and custom - create , because the possessor are fructify creators so they come up with the concepts and how to make them a reality . It ’s just furious that somebody can not only have vision for something like that but then also the ability to execute that thought .
Excerpted from Hotel Kitsch by Margaret and Corey Bienert (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2023. Photographs by Margaret and Corey Bienert.
What ’s it like to stay in these hotels as a couple?MB : It ’s been fun to get out of our comfort zona because these rooms can be so prodigal , but also wild-eyed in their design . It does create environments to have novel experiences and conversation , because you may have never seen something before , whether it ’s a heart - shape bed , a tenderness - forge tub , or even the erotic article of furniture that some stead have ; it gives you this private quad as a couple to talk about something or experience it and not have it be weird . Even if it is a little uncanny , the hotel are very private .
I recall that it ’s good for couples to have dissimilar experiences and to be pulled out of their solar day - to - sidereal day routines . Even if we ’re done with the project at some point , I still think I ’ll desire to take trips to these position because they ’re so existential .
Are inwardness - shaped tubs actually comfortable?CB : They’re surprisingly spacious . They ’re complete for two people to posture in , because you each baby-sit with your back at the top of the eye , and then your fundament just kind of skin senses each other at the steer .
Excerpted from Hotel Kitsch by Margaret and Corey Bienert (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2023. Photographs by Margaret and Corey Bienert.
MB : I want one in our sign of the zodiac because our bath is so much minuscule and cramp . Having a heart bath where you could spread out and both be in thereandhave your own little pocket … I do n’t know , I recall it ’s brilliant .
Have you brought any elements from these hotels into your own home?CB : We have a bed that we acquired from a hotel with a honeymoon elbow room in Southern California . It was near Carlsbad and it was called Cardiff By The Sea . We visited last twelvemonth right before they did a boastful remodel , and as we were checking in , the hombre was like , “ We ’re gon na be remodeling that room and we ’ll believably get disembarrass of all the piece of furniture and stuff . ” And so we were like , “ Here ’s our information — You let us fuck . We will buy it from you . ”
MB : Three days afterward we got a call : “ Do you desire the heart - shaped article of furniture ? ”
CB : The layer is whole impost carved out of woodwind instrument . It ’s heart - form and it ’s one of a variety , like nothing we ’ve ever attend before . The thing probably weighs 600 pound . It ’s massive .
Is there a holy Holy Grail hotel or smirch that you ’re hope to get to?MB : Japan . I know how coolheaded their theme hotel are . They call them make love motels . But I ’ve really want to focus on finishing a series of American hotels before we even do too much research because it can be such a hare hole . Their hotel are just next level .
