A news release landed on my desk a while back touting the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong as the world’s highest hotel. Not the tallest, mind you. The highest, occupying the 102nd through 118th floors of the International Commerce Centre.
Kind of an odd distinction and one of those facts I imagine would come in handy during a sports bar trivia contest. Given that I’ve never actually won a sports bar trivia contest, I thought it would be in my best interest to dig up some other not-so-obvious hotel facts. (If you have any disputes with the following records, please bring them up with the good people at Guinness World Records.)
If any of the factoids below end up winning you first place in a trivia contest, I expect to receive my share of the take. You’ll find my contact information here.
• The largest hotel is the 6,118-room First World Hotel in Makmur, Malaysia.
• The largest hotel suite (4,131 square meters) is the Royal Suite at the Grand Hills Hotel & Spa in Broummana, Lebanon.
• Operating since 705 A.D., the Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Yamanashi, Japan, is the world’s oldest hotel.
• The largest hanging paper lantern can be found at the Regal Airport Hotel Spa in Hong Kong. It measures 25 feet 3 inches tall and 9 feet 5 inches in diameter and weighs in at 313 pounds.
• The most expensive omelet (the Zillion Dollar Lobster Frittata), is on the menu at Norma’s Restaurant at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in New York for US$1,000.
• The farthest distance anyone has ever squirted milk from their eye was 9 feet 2 inches. The stunt happened at the Armada Hotel in Istanbul in 2004. Congratulations Ilker Yilmaz!
• The highest library is on the 60th floor of the JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square. It is 757 feet 6 inches above street level.
• The tallest revolving door (15 feet 9 inches) is at the Novotel Hong Kong Citygate.
• Most expensive cocktail? The “27.321”, which costs US$7,439 and is on the menu at The Skyview Bar of Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
• The tallest curtains can be found on the façade of the Radisson Blu (SAS) Plaza Hotel, Oslo in Norway.
• The longest marathon karaoke by multiple participants happened at The Castle Hotel in Ladybank, Staffordshire, United Kingdom and lasted 781 hours, 31 minutes between 30 December 2009 and 1 February 2010. (This is one record I have zero interest in ever trying to break!)
• The most people to “disappear” during an illusion (100) was at the Luxor Las Vegas on 26 May 2010 at the hands of Criss Angel.
• The largest wooden chest measures 13 feet 1 inch long and 6 feet 6 inches tall and was made for the Strand Hotel Fevik in Norway.
• A 2010 survey of 452 Travelodges in Great Britain revealed that the most frequently abandoned book left behind by hotel guests is “Simon Cowell: The Unauthorized Biography.”
• And last but not least, the Hotel Ibis Earls Court in London had the honor of being the site of the most eggs crushed with the toes in 30 seconds. Sebastian Terry smushed two dozen eggs on 13 March 2010.
