Coushattas plan $60M expansion at resort

KINDER, La. (AP) - The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana says a new $60 million hotel will add 401 rooms and 18 luxury suites to its casino resort.
General Manager Conrad Granito says many people drive three hours or more, and more rooms are needed. He says the hotel also will include a lobby bar, coffeehouse care and retail shop.
Groundbreaking is scheduled Jan. 26.
The announcement was made at the casino's 16th anniversary celebration Friday.

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Fire at Vegas resort sends person to hospital

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A mattress fire at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has sent one person to the hospital.

Clark County Fire Department spokesman Dan Kulin says the blaze was confined to a room on the 25th floor of the hotel.

KLAS-TV reports the fire was put out by the hotel sprinkler system, and that guests reported hearing a fire alarm accompanied by a voice that informed them to evacuate the hotel.

Authorities told KLAS that an adult male, believed to be in his 30s, was transported to an area hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.

Rio ordered to return $471,000 in gambling losses

The administrator of a bankrupt Illinois company won a $471,250 judgment Thursday against a Las Vegas casino after complaining officials at the firm used company funds to pay gambling debts while it was insolvent.

The judgment was entered against Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s Rio hotel-casino in favor of William Brandt Jr., liquidating administrator of Equipment Acquisition Resources Inc. of Palatine, Ill.

Equipment Acquisition Resources (EAR) collapsed in October 2009 after it “engaged in a massive fraud by which it sold equipment at inflated prices and leased the equipment back from various lenders,” Brandt said in court papers.

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Millionaire’s $500,000 gambling debt before bankruptcy was fraud

Caesars Palace is suing the millionaire who owns the famed Beverly House estate in Beverly Hills, Calif., charging he fraudulently ran up $500,000 in unpaid gambling debts before filing for bankruptcy.
An attorney for Caesars Palace last week filed an adversary complaint in the Los Angeles bankruptcy case of businessman Leonard M. Ross.

Ross is known for owning the Beverly House, formerly known as the Hearst-Davies estate that was named for publisher William Randolph Hearst and actress Marion Davies.

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Los Gatos Hotel Corp. Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

SUMMARY: On Monday, Los Gatos Hotel Corporation voluntarily filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in San Jose, California. The company was formed in 2000 to develop the Hotel Los Gatos, a 72-room boutique hotel located in Los Gatos, California. The property, which was built in 2002, also contains 2,000 square feet of meeting and conference space, Dio Deka (a Michelin star greek restaurant), and a 3,600 square foot spa and fitness facility. A courthouse auction of the hotel property had been scheduled to occur on December 7, 2010, but was delayed until January 31, 2011 at the last minute. According to bankruptcy court filings, the property was managed by Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Inc. prior to the chapter 11 filing (although the property is still listed as a Joie de Vivre hotel on its website). Los Gatos Hotel Corp. has now retained Folio Hospitality Management to manage the hotel.

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Dispute over former Hilton going to mediation

A New York lender and the owner of the former Hilton Pittsburgh will try mediation to resolve their differences.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jeffery A. Deller approved the request for mediation by Shubh Hotels Pittsburgh LLC at a hearing Tuesday.

The mediation will attempt to resolve disputes between Shubh, which filed for bankruptcy in September, and its lender, BlackRock Financial Management Inc., as well as the claims of creditors owed money by Shubh.

It also will try to come up with a "consensual" plan of reorganization that would allow the prominent

Downtown hotel to emerge from bankruptcy, said David Rudov, an attorney for Shubh. Both BlackRock and Kiran Patel, the Tampa cardiologist who is now equity owner of the hotel, have filed plans.

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MGM reinvents loyalty program

M Life is MGM Resorts International's answer to Marriott Rewards, Hilton Honors, Caesars Entertainment's Total Rewards and other hotel or casino customer reward programs.

But it's more than a slot club with loyalty incentives.

Let's say you're planning a guy's weekend in Las Vegas. On the M Life website you can develop the entire weekend itinerary, all within the confines of MGM Resorts' 10 Strip hotel-casinos.

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Kids in India trained to steal at posh weddings

Six children were trained for over a year -- their looks groomed and language skills brushed up -- so that they would go unnoticed at weddings in five-star hotels from where they stole money and ornaments. While two of these children, nine year-old Palak and 11 year-old Neha (names changed), were arrested on December 25, the cops arrested 60 year-old Jashoda Harijan and 21 year-old Mandakini Sisodiya along with three other men on December 31. Their interrogation led the cops to Kadia village in Rajgarh district in Madhya Pradesh, where the remaining accused live.

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Union changes coming to Freeport Bahamas

FREEPORT - The joining of the re-established Commonwealth Union of Hotel Services and Allied Workers Union with the Trade Union Congress represents the beginning of "something very unique" for the umbrella union, officials said.
 
The formerly defunct Commonwealth Union (CUHSAW), which was revived in late 2009 announced on Thursday that it will be joining the ranks of the Trade Union Congres (TUC).
 
TUC president Obie Ferguson said he is pleased with the Commonwealth Union's decision. He also noted that Customs and Immigration workers have also joined the organisation.

"I am satisfied that this is the beginning of something very unique," he said.

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Dubai’s Jumeirah Group slashes jobs despite expansion plans

Jumeirah Group, Dubai’s luxury hotelier, has confirmed it is slashing jobs despite an ambitious expansion plan that will see it roll out more than 35 hotels and resorts worldwide.

Jumeirah, which last week signed a deal to operate a resort in the British West Indies, said the job cuts were part of a company-wide shake-up put in place last year.

“In view of its international expansion, Jumeirah put in place a regional structure, which unfortunately involved a number of job losses in group and corporate positions,” said a spokesperson.

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Greyhound teams up with the Expedia Affiliate Network

Bus service provider Greyhound is teaming up with the Expedia Affiliate Network in a deal that will allow it to offer hotel rooms on its website.

Greyhound that customers will be able to book bus tickets and hotel rooms across the U.S. directly through Greyhound.com.

"This partnership with Expedia Affiliate Network makes it easy for our customers to book a complete trip with Greyhound transportation and lodging," Greyhound President and CEO Dave Leach said in a statement.

Greyhound serves more than 3,800 locations. Expedia Affiliate Network is part of online travel company Expedia Inc.

Foreclosure wave has big impact Tucson on commercial properties

More than 11,000 Tucson-area property owners received notice that they'd fallen behind on loan payments last year, numbers from the Pima County Recorder's Office show.

The bulk of those are residential delinquencies (see related story on Page D7), but the foreclosure wave has had a drastic impact on commercial properties as well. Affected properties run the gamut from luxury lots to master-planned communities to hotels and apartment complexes.

The forces that led to the money crunch are largely the same as those for homeowners: plummeting property values and a lack of financing options.

Take, for example, The Passages of Tucson, a giant mixed-use project planned in Vail, that recently defaulted on $7 million in loans.

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Australia's Four Posts Hotel becomes an island paradise

THE Four Posts Hotel had an unusual problem last night when the water flowed faster than the beer.

 The owners of the hotel, at Jarklin near Boort, were expecting a tense night as floodwaters rushed past the front door of the hotel.

Picture: Ben Swinnerton Source: Herald Sun

Owner Kellie Hare said when they woke up on Sunday there was a "bit of water about". But by 1pm the pub was surrounded and last night it was landlocked. The publicans and thirsty locals chipped in to sandbag the back corner of the pub, which is posing the greatest threat.

The hotel was hoping to get another 3000 sandbags last night to reinforce its protection against the murky brown water slowly descending on it.

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Brawl breaks out between "Elvis Imperonators" at Hilton Metropole

Image via WikipediaA singer allegedly had his nose and cheekbone broken by an Elvis Presley impersonator at alookalikes’ convention after he was found in his hotel room with the man’s wife.

Victim Jeff Burton – the son of Elvis’s guitarist – is said to have staggered downstairs to the hotel bar in the early hours, bleeding from the mouth.

Lookalike Michael Cawthray had apparently ‘assumed the worst’ after he discovered that Mr Burton, 48, had persuaded his wife Sioned to join him in his room for a nightcap.

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Jamaica Government to lend 'Butch' US$32.5m ... For Sandals Whitehouse acquisition

Butch Stewart

Gordon 'Butch' Stewart has agreed to surrender his 33 per cent stake in the management company for Sandals Whitehouse for US$1, but will then buy the hotel property outright from the Government in a deal that prices the resort at US$40 million (J$3.4 billion).

Under the sale deal announced by Prime Minister Bruce Golding last week, Stewart will upfront US$7.5 million in cash as down payment on the hotel, but will then receive a vendor's mortgage from the Jamaican Government for the remaining purchase price of US$32.5 million.

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RBS May Take Marriott Hotel Stake in Restructuring

(Hospitality Business News) According to the SundayTimes Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc is close to taking a stake in 42 Marriott hotels as part of a debt restructuring.

Quinlan Private, renamed Avestus Capital Partners, and a group of Israeli investors borrowed 900 million pounds ($1.4 billion) from banks including RBS in 2007 to buy the hotels, the newspaper said. After the investment defaulted, the banks are expected to swap around 200 million of debt for equity next month

Stewardess found dead at Amsterdam Radisson

KUALA LUMPUR: Mystery surrounds the death of a Malaysia Airlines stewardess who was found dead at a hotel car park in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Friday morning. Chin Swee Len, 35, was discovered at 9am by guests of the Radisson Hotel who alerted the police. A source from the airline said Chin was believed to have been assaulted and then thrown out of her hotel room window.

"Her fourth floor room was broken into and ransacked," said the source.

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Choice Hotels to open 20-30 hotels per year over next 2-3 yrs

Mumbai, Jan 16 (PTI) Banking on the growing economyand rapid infrastructure development in India, internationalmid-scale hospitality chain Choice Hotels plans to open 20-30hotels in the country every year over the next three years, atop company official has said.

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