Hotel Exhibit on in New York
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Here is a look at hotel heaven, where you can check out stylish rooms without having to check in. CNN's Jeanne Moos takes you on a tour.</s>JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And you thought your last hotel room was cramped.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a television and a mirror and a little futon and a blanket.</s>MOOS: From Japanese capsule hotels to utter opulence.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a hotel in Dubai that's a kind of Arabian fantasy meets James Bond.</s>MOOS: 007 has dallied in lots of hotels, but none like this. The ruler of Dubai built Burgell Arab (ph) on its own manmade island. The exterior is Teflon coated, the interior gold leafed. Rooms here start at about $1,000 a night. No wonder it gets its own room at the Cooper Hewitt Hotel Exhibit. This is the age of the boutique hotel.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who would want to walk around saying, oh, they stayed in a Best Western?</s>MOOS: The W in Times Square is just the latest in a wave of high style hotels.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I think it's pretty swanky, you know?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You feel like you've been somewhere.</s>MOOS: These days there are hotels that mimic pyramids, hotels that mimic New York, hotels that mimic Paris. And those are just in Las Vegas. Designers are trying to get a foot in the door.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is the foot of the designer.</s>MOOS: It's used as a table in the bathrooms at The Standard Hotel in Los Angeles. The St. Martin's Lane is one of this guy's favorites.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when you walk in, you can turn any color you want in your room. So if you want it be fuchsia, it can be fuchsia.</s>MOOS: At a Swiss hotel called The Hotel, sexy scenes from famous films adorn guest room ceilings. It sure beats a mirror. From lux hotels like The Plaza to the lowliest flea bag, hotels have always been fodder for filmmakers. (</s>CLIP FROM "PSYCHO") UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Sam, I hate having to be the you in a place like this.</s>MOOS: Hitchcock's "Psycho" starts in a hotel and climaxes in The Bates Motel shower. Motels get short shrift at the Cooper Hewitt Exhibit, where even the sky's not the limit.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a proposed hotel for the moon.</s>MOOS: Called The Lunatic. The Japanese seem to have the quirkiest hotels.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even married people will oftentimes go to these love hotels to get privacy.</s>MOOS: Since they often live with their parents, love hotels feature reception desks where you get your key without being seen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even the room service is done by a kind of a two way door.</s>MOOS: The opposite of a love hotel is the $40 a night capsule hotel.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's wonderful.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very cozy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Embryonic.</s>MOOS (on camera): And then this thing kind of goes down somehow?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>MOOS (voice-over): There is one thing missing at the hotel exhibit, the roach motel, where no one cares if the guests never check out. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.