In a neighborhood full of coffee shops, she had brought me to an empty room.

NEWYORKER: Mugglemarch

When the silence of an empty room ignites a visceral impending doom reaction, challenge why you shudder out of terror.

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Between television programmes, viewers can watch an empty room, into which a man walks, picks up a guitar, strums a few clumsy chords and walks out again.

ECONOMIST: Big Brother, big splash

His lunch, which he ate on his own in an enormous, empty dining room while reading a book under the absentminded gaze of the elderly maid, and the black-and-white gaze of his deceased wife looking out from photographs in ornate silver frames, was light: soup and a small portion of fish and mashed potatoes, some of which he would allow to go cold.

NEWYORKER: The Insufferable Gaucho

Add in a guarantee of fast, attentive service in an empty, beautifully minimalist dining room, and the place becomes an anti-destination destination.

NEWYORKER: Thirstbar��vin

For trips lasting more than three nights, a couple can save 40 to 60 percent booking an empty apartment or a condo with a kitchen, instead of a hotel room.

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Despite fears that Las Vegas would suffer from an excess of new hotels, a torrent of visitors left not a single room empty for a single day at MGM Grand's namesake casino-hotel in the second quarter.

FORBES: Follow through