A plan to berth an 1,100-room cruise ship in North Vancouver for use as a floating hotel during the Olympic Games appears to be in serious danger of sinking.
Edmonton-based Newwest Special Projects - which has marketed the Norwegian Star to Games visitors for the past nine months - said in a statement over the weekend that sales have been disappointing while expenses have increased beyond expectations. It said it is negotiating with its partners to try to lower costs and keep the project alive.
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Website's list of dirtiest hotels provokes anger
They are the grubby prison cells away from home, the matchbox-size rooms with the peeling wallpaper and foetid sheets – at least according to the on-line reviews. But how bad are they really?
The hotel industry is growing increasingly concerned at the power wielded by internet sites such as TripAdvisor, on which often excoriating – yet anonymous – notices are posted that can destroy an establishment's reputation. It comes after hoteliers reacted with fury, claiming their businesses were damaged, after being included in a list of the 10 "Dirtiest Hotels" in the UK, released to publicise the site.
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The hotel industry is growing increasingly concerned at the power wielded by internet sites such as TripAdvisor, on which often excoriating – yet anonymous – notices are posted that can destroy an establishment's reputation. It comes after hoteliers reacted with fury, claiming their businesses were damaged, after being included in a list of the 10 "Dirtiest Hotels" in the UK, released to publicise the site.
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Credit Suisse takes over Gansevoort South in Miami Beach
The owners of Gansevoort South lost the Miami Beach hotel to lenders on Thursday as the troubled condo-hotel conversion couldn't find a buyer for an $89 million loan.
An affiliate of Credit Suisse took possession of the 334-room hotel after no bidders stepped up at a New York auction to buy the debt.
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An affiliate of Credit Suisse took possession of the 334-room hotel after no bidders stepped up at a New York auction to buy the debt.
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Don't Use the R-Word: Hotels Find Trick to Business Bookings
To attract business conferences in these tough times, some luxury resort hotels have resorted to a sort of strategy of last resort: They're dropping the very word "resort" from their names.
The Ballantyne Resort in Charlotte, N.C., changed its name during the summer to the Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge after several corporate clients indicated it would have a better chance of landing their business if it weren't called a resort. Same for the Westin Stonebriar near Dallas, formerly the Westin Stonebriar Hotel & Resort. Ditto the Renaissance Orlando at Sea World, no longer the Renaissance Orlando Resort at Sea World.
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The Ballantyne Resort in Charlotte, N.C., changed its name during the summer to the Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge after several corporate clients indicated it would have a better chance of landing their business if it weren't called a resort. Same for the Westin Stonebriar near Dallas, formerly the Westin Stonebriar Hotel & Resort. Ditto the Renaissance Orlando at Sea World, no longer the Renaissance Orlando Resort at Sea World.
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7 things I hate about posh hotels
How did we get to this? How did it become acceptable for hotels to get away with all this without us complaining? Why do we fail to bat an eyelid? We’re the guests. We’re the paying customers. And, until Ryanair opens its first hotel, we should be afforded some respect. Here are the practices widespread in the hotel industry that need to change. If they don’t, we’ll revolt. Or, at the very least, we’ll fill out a customer-satisfaction form in a slightly negative way.
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Cybercrime Checks Into The Hotel Industry
Over the past year America's hotels have had some uninvited guests: a wave of increasingly sophisticated invasions by organized cybercriminals.
That's one finding of a report that cybersecurity researcher Nicholas Percoco plans to present Tuesday at the Black Hat security conference in Arlington, Va. His data shows a spike in hacking incidents that successfully targeted hotels and resorts, what Percoco describes as relatively unprotected sources of thousands or even millions of credit card account details.
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That's one finding of a report that cybersecurity researcher Nicholas Percoco plans to present Tuesday at the Black Hat security conference in Arlington, Va. His data shows a spike in hacking incidents that successfully targeted hotels and resorts, what Percoco describes as relatively unprotected sources of thousands or even millions of credit card account details.
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