hotel

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Extra Room at the Inn as Hotel Biz Slows Down

Demand may be checking out as new rooms keep opening

(Newser) - The hotel business is heading for a downturn just as thousands of new rooms are about to open, the Wall Street Journal reports. One expert sees a .9% fall in demand for hotel rooms this year as the slowing economy keeps travelers at home—the first significant slump since 9/11....

Get Creative at Top Artsy Hotels
Get Creative at Top Artsy Hotels
TRAVEL

Get Creative at Top Artsy Hotels

Pitched tent, disco balls enliven lodgings on Budget Travel list

(Newser) - A good hotel provides comfort; a great hotel ... inspiration? Artists touched up the staid look of these hotels, selected by Budget Travel for their fake-fur tapestry, psychedelic mazes, and speckled French graffiti:
  1. The Winston, Amsterdam: This avant-garde hotel once displayed dead leaves; check out the Playnation room's trippy ceiling mural
...

Hotel Pays Staff to Sniff Out Smoking Guests

Chicago's Swissotel turns its housekeepers into detectives

(Newser) - That chocolate on your pillow may be a bit of a Judas kiss: Chicago's Swissotel isn't the first hotel to fine sneaky smokers who break its puff-free policy, but it is the nation's first to pay staff to sniff out offending guests, reports the Chicago Tribune. Spraying air freshener won't...

Guests Want It All at Lux Hotels
Guests Want It All at Lux Hotels

Guests Want It All at Lux Hotels

Rising prices, competition, encourage heroic feats of service

(Newser) - Luxury hotels don't bat an eye at charging $500 a night, and guests are responding with increasingly zany requests, W reports. Concierges, once downright neglected by the average customer, are now routinely tasked with the impossible: Deliver an unspecified amount of breast milk, or procure a rub-down for a dog....

Travel Costs Rise, But for What?
Travel Costs Rise, But for What?
OPINION

Travel Costs Rise, But for What?

2008 is the 'year of the fee,' but one writer demands more in return

(Newser) - We can't duck travel fees imposed by air carriers, hotels, and Uncle Sam, so let's demand more in return, Christopher Elliott writes on MSNBC. Airlines are adding $25 baggage fees and "probably illegal" fuel surcharges, and the TSA will add a “temporary” bump in security fees—so can't...

Beatles Hotel Opens in Liverpool
Beatles Hotel Opens in Liverpool

Beatles Hotel Opens in Liverpool

'Interest has been unbelievable,' says manager

(Newser) - Move over, Penny Lane: Liverpool’s latest draw is the Hard Day's Night, a Fab Four-styled hotel that boasts 110 rooms and two swanky penthouses near the fabled Cavern Club, the BBC reports. The hotel also displays rare band photos and art by Beatles painter Shannon. “The bookings are...

Saudis to Let Women Behind the Wheel

Driving ban lifted to pre-empt growing protest movement

(Newser) - Saudi Arabia’s Royal Court has decided to allow women to drive. The move is calculated to stem growing activism, including protest convoys of women drivers, reports the Daily Telegraph. "If girls have been in schools since the 1960s, they have a capability to function behind the wheel when...

Your Hotel Bill? That'll Be $18K, Please

10 celebs who wreaked historic havoc on innocent rooms

(Newser) - No bad-boy or bad-girl celeb's resume is complete without a trashed hotel room, and Budget Travel has checked into 10 wrecked rooms:
  1. London's Sanderson hotel: Amy Winehouse and her husband did $18,000 in damage and left behind blood-splattered walls.
  2. Flint, Mich., Holiday Inn: Keith Moon instigated $24,000 worth
...

9 Hotels With Incredible Perks
9 Hotels With Incredible Perks
TRAVEL

9 Hotels With Incredible Perks

At these lodgings, you can expect more than a mint on your pillow

(Newser) - Some hotels will go out of their way to guarantee guests a memorable experience. Forbes Traveler picks nine that break into "outrageous" territory:
  1. Helicopter transfers, Hilton Sao Paulo Morumbi, Brazil
  2. Sleep concierge, The Benjamin, New York City
  3. Custom scents, Palazzo Magnani Feroni, Florence

8 Hotels With Fab Room Service
8 Hotels With Fab Room Service
TRAVEL

8 Hotels With Fab Room Service

Delicious food means you don't have to leave the hotel

(Newser) - With this sort of room service, why leave the hotel at all? Forbes lists eight hotels that are stand-outs for room service offerings:
  1. Four Seasons Washington, DC: Gourmet in-room dinner for two served by personal butler.
  2. Ritz-Carlton Chicago: Get whatever you want, whenever you want from the kitchen—prepared to
...

Top 10 Hidden Hotel Fees
Top 10 Hidden
Hotel Fees

Top 10 Hidden Hotel Fees

Secret ways hotels gouge you when you're not looking

(Newser) - If you're hurrying to catch a plane, you might sign that hotel bill without a second glance.  Avoid unpleasant surprises by looking out for Forbes Traveler's list of hidden fees:
  1. Resort fee: Some resorts tack on a $10 to $25 fee per day for use of their facilities... even
...

World Gets Wise to Jetsetters
World Gets Wise to Jetsetters

World Gets Wise to Jetsetters

Hotels, airports, work to please mobile businessmen

(Newser) - With laptops roughly as common as toaster ovens, business people are ready to work anywhere. Now, hotels and airports are scrambling to make sure anywhere is ready for them, the Times reports. Studying jetsetter habits, hotels are putting outlets in easy reach, attaching desks to beds and chairs, and most...

World's Best Green Hotels
World's Best Green Hotels

World's Best Green Hotels

Leave a footprint as small as your carry-on at a luxurious eco-hotel

(Newser) - Solar-heated pools, energy-conserving lights, composted food scraps . . . hotels aren't all bastions of consumption and waste. Travel+Leisure teamed up with Conservation International to assemble a list of 20 eco-friendly hotels:
  1. Spice Island Beach Resort, Grenada
  2. Soneva Fushi Resort & Six Senses Spa, Maldives
  3. Heritance Kandalama, Sri Lanka

Seriously Spooky Hotels
Seriously Spooky Hotels

Seriously Spooky Hotels

Brave travelers can bed down with ghosts at these creepy locals

(Newser) - These hotels are known for more than complimentary breakfast. Tripso.com gets in the Halloween spirit with its rundown of haunted accommodations:
  1. The Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville, La.: An abused slave poisoned her master with oleander cake; a host of ghosties now appear at guests' bedsides.
  2. Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans:
...

Sofitel to Go (Even More) Upscale
Sofitel to Go (Even More) Upscale

Sofitel to Go (Even More) Upscale

Owner Accor will take top properties into luxury market

(Newser) - Add Sofitel to Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Hermès—France's most luxurious brands.  At least that is what its owner, Accor, wants to do.  Accor plans to take the best of its 182 Sofitels up market, dumping 35 of the less felicitious Sofitels into a new brand called...

Luxury Hotels for the Fiscally Challenged

Even a pauper can feel pampered at these posh getaways

(Newser) - Even upscale chains like Ritz-Carlton will rent you a room for a reasonable price—if you seek out a favorable exchange rate, an independent hotel, or an off-the-beaten-track domestic destination. Forbes finds 10 luxury lodgings that are affordable even in peak season:
  1. Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  2. Domaine Des
...

Plaza Hotel Celebrates 100 Years
Plaza Hotel Celebrates 100 Years

Plaza Hotel Celebrates 100 Years

Fireworks and giant cake honor renovated icon

(Newser) - New York's iconic Plaza Hotel overlooking Central Park threw itself 100th birthday party last night, complete with fireworks and a one-ton, scale-replica cake. The celebration comes as a $400-million renovation to the dowager hotel, home to the fictional Eloise and star of  dozens of movies, is nearing completion.

10 Hotels With a Wild Streak
10 Hotels With a Wild Streak

10 Hotels With a Wild Streak

(Newser) - For travelers bored with the conventional comforts of most hotels,  MSNBC offers some more creative choices:
  1. Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa, Dubai—desert conservation preserve
  2. Anatolian Houses, Turkey—five adjoining volcanic caves
  3. Baron Island—nature reserve on volcanic island

10 Most Expensive Hotel Suites
10 Most Expensive Hotel Suites

10 Most Expensive Hotel Suites

Where you can shell out $53K a night (breakfast not included)

(Newser) - When New York's Four Seasons opened a new penthouse suite costing a cool $30,000 a night, they boasted that it was the world's most expensive hotel room. Think again. The Times of London lists the world's most astronomically priced hotel rooms.
  1. Royal Penthouse Suite, Hotel President Wilson, Geneva ($53,
...

It Really Is Too Good to Be True
It Really Is
Too Good
to Be True

It Really Is Too Good to Be True

When is an online review the real thing, and when is it a plant?

(Newser) - You want to find a new place to stay/eat/visit, but how can you trust the online reviews when they could be faked by the owner? Travel + Leisure has a few suggestions for filtering out the self-interested imposters:
  1. Ad copy clichés like "affordable elegant serenity."
  2. Vague praise
...

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