American Sociological Association pulls meeting out of Chicago

The American Sociological Association said today it plans to move its 2011 meeting out of Chicago because a hotel labor dispute could disrupt the event.

The Washington, D.C.-based association was scheduled to meet Aug. 13 through 16 at the Hilton Chicago and the Palmer House Hilton. The group said it is negotiating to hold the event in mid-August in another city.

The Unite Here Local 1 union, which represents hotel workers, is negotiating a new contract with the Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood chains. Its contracts with about 30 Chicago-area hotels expired last Aug. 31 and a deal with the major chains could set a pattern for agreements with other hotels.

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Showboat Casino Hotel fined $20K for allowing underage gambling

ATLANTIC CITY — The Showboat Casino Hotel has been fined $20,000 for allowing underage gamblers to place bets.
The casino also forfeited $2,315 it had seized from people who had signed up for New Jersey's self-exclusion list but who entered and played anyway before being discovered. The list is intended to keep compulsive gamblers from being allowed into the casinos.

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FelCo Lodging Trust sells Sheraton for $84.5M

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Real estate investment trust FelCor Lodging Trust Inc. said Wednesday it has sold a 443-room hotel in Virginia to JBG Cos. for $84.5 million in cash.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts will continue to manage the Sheraton Premiere Hotel at Tysons Corner in Vienna, FelCor said.
The property was owned in a joint venture between FelCor and Starwood. FelCor received $42.3 million in gross proceeds, and there was no debt associated with the hotel, the company said.
Shares in FelCor slipped 7 cents to close at $6.67 on Wednesday.

CityCenter sees year of ups, downs

It's the largest private development ever built in the United States, and a year after its opening, CityCenter still holds an outsized sway over the Las Vegas hospitality market.
It has been an adventure: From opening a passel of boutiques and earning more than 20 industry awards to scrapping an unfinished tower and writing down the property's value, CityCenter, which turns 1 on Thursday, has provided its share of ups and downs for local gaming observers to follow. Both its successes and its stumbles offer important lessons and indicators as the city prepares to welcome yet another megaresort in The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which is scheduled to open Wednesday.

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Chef’s survey reveals 2011 menu trends

The National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot” survey of more than 1,500 professional chefs has revealed that local and hyper-local sourcing, healthy children’s meals, sustainable seafood and gluten-free cuisine will be among the hottest menu trends in 2011.
“The top trends identified by these culinary professionals for 2011 are reflecting larger societal trends, underscoring that American diners are becoming more and more interested in what’s on their plate. Sustainability and nutrition are becoming key themes in our nation’s nearly one million restaurants.” Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of Research and Knowledge Group for the NRA, said in a survey release.

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Priszm fund sells 232 YUM brand restaurants in Canada

TORONTO - Units of Priszm Income Fund (TSX:QSR.UN) fell by a third Monday after it announced the sale of all its 232 restaurants in Ontario and British Columbia to a numbered company for about $46.4 million.
The operator of most of Canada's KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants, said the decision to sell was made in order to meet liquidity needs and assist with franchise upgrade requirements.
The buyer is a numbered company owned by a European franchisee of Yum! Restaurants International. Yum! operates franchises and handles licences for various fast food restaurants around the world.
The purchase price is subject to various adjustments based on assets and other factors. The deal is expected to close on Feb. 28.
Priszm units fell 9.5 cents to 19 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with almost 308,000 units changing hands, more than eight times the usual volume.

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Wells Fargo mobile payment pilot ready for roll out

Wells Fargo & Company is rolling out a Visa microSD mobile payment pilot that will include 200 Wells Fargo team members who are users of specific BlackBerry and iPhone models. The pilot features DeviceFidelity's In2Pay technology.
BlackBerry smartphone users will directly insert the In2Pay microSD card into the slot in their device, while iPhone users will receive the protective In2Pay Case for iPhone with the In2Pay microSD card. To make payments, users open the Wells Fargo Mobile Banking application, select "pay with phone" and wave the phone in front of the contactless reader at the point of purchase. The reader will light up and beep, indicating that the payment has been received.

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Preferred Hotel Group looks to Trump the competition

The Trump Hotel Collection has signed an agreement with Preferred Hotel Group to provide sales, marketing and technology support to the brand’s five current hotels, as well as two future hotels slated for early 2011 openings. Preferred Hotels and Resorts will represent the Trump brand’s flagship, Trump International Hotel & Tower New York, Trump SoHo New York, Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, Trump International Hotel Waikiki Beach Walk. The partnership will also see the brands collaborate on the future Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto and Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower Panama opening in early 2011. “This new partnership with Trump Hotel Collection strengthens our presence in several key markets, providing Preferred Hotel Group guests with exceptional new choices in leading urban and resort destinations,” said Lindsey Ueberroth, president of the Preferred Hotel Group. “We look forward to a long, and mutually beneficial relationship as the two companies continue to grow strategically and internationally.”

Club Med looks to profit from China's skiing craze

BEIJING: French leisure group Club Med formally opens its first resort in China on Tuesday in the icy northeast, cashing in on a newfound love for winter sports among an increasingly wealthy middle class.

Club Med is hoping to attract clients from across China, and even Southeast Asia, to its new village in Yabuli, which features 18 ski slopes -- and winter temperatures often below minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit).

"Most of the industry is in decline. China is really the only place where the industry is growing," Justin Downes, a Canadian from the ski resort of Whistler who advises investors on the winter sports sector in China, told AFP

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Club Med World Wide reports promising outlook

Positive figures released this week by Club Med in Paris, are being echoed in Australia with the General Manager for Australia, Mr Quentin Briard announcing “That 2010 has been a most positive year with clients travelling mostly to our up-market Resorts, and figures showing overall growth of 7.5% when measured against 2009.“
“The key drivers for positive growth were Bali with a 43% rebound; hardly surprising when guests visited the Island's recently renovated Resort in record numbers and Australians topped the global arrivals figures into Bali.”

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Cheesecake Factory hit with sexual harassment lawsuit

TAMPA - A former employee of the Cheesecake Factory in Brandon is accusing the company of subjecting him to a barrage of sexual harassment from other male line chefs and punishing him when he complained.
Michael Knight, 42, has filed a federal lawsuit against the company seeking compensation for "mental anguish (and) loss of dignity."
He says line chefs continually grabbed each others' buttocks and genitalia and simulated sexual intercourse in front of him in the restaurant's Westfield Brandon mall location. He contends he was mocked, punished and ultimately fired in September 2008 after he expressed his discomfort and complained.
The Brandon man's allegations are strikingly similar to those made by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the national restaurant chain in an Arizona case that was settled last year for $345,000. In that case, six male employees said they were subject to sexual harassment in a mall restaurant near Phoenix.

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Muslims criticize handling of Israelis' stay at D.C. hotel

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Muslim employees of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington said they felt discriminated against after being barred over the weekend from floors where an Israeli delegation was staying, a Muslim advocacy group said.

One hotel worker whose duties involve going to all the hotel's floors said he was preparing for his shift Friday when his supervisor told him to steer clear of the eighth and ninth floors, where Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his delegation had booked rooms.

"I said, 'Why?' " said the worker, who is Muslim and wanted to remain unidentified to protect his job. He said his supervisor told him, "They're Israelis there, and they don't want no face-to-face with Muslims."

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Hotel Plan Strikes Key Labor Deal

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Thomas Properties Group and Korean Air, developers of a planned $1 billion hotel and office complex that would rise where the Wilshire Grand now stands, today announced a pair of labor deals that will allow hundreds of workers to keep their jobs.

The developers hope to begin work on the hotel — phase one of the two-tower project — in December 2011. At that point, they will close the hotel, begin demolition of the 1952 structure and then, in Dec. 2012, break ground on the new building that includes 560 rooms and up to 100 condominiums. As soon as the hotel closes, management will enact the $10 million plan announced today to pay severance and healthcare benefits to workers.
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Ritz penthouse fetches $13 million

MONTREAL - The penthouse at Montreal’s Ritz Carlton Residences has sold for a whopping $13 million – taxes included – The Gazette has learned.
The 8,000-square-foot unit – which includes a terrace the size of a large three-bedroom apartment – is the most expensive condo ever sold in Montreal.
Despite expectations that a wealthy foreigner would nab the penthouse, the buyer is local, said veteran real estate broker JJ Jacobs.
Jacobs, of JJ Jacobs Realty Inc. wouldn’t disclose the name of the buyer, or divulge any more details about the penthouse.
“It’s a done deal, but it’s not signed yet,” she said.
Ritz Carlton Montreal CEO Andrew Torriani couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.

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Saudi King's Entourage Displaces NYC Waldorf Guests

When is a confirmed hotel reservation not confirmed? When the hotel has sold your room to someone else, as Linda and Michael Morgan learned over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The hotel, in this case, was the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, and according to Mrs. Morgan and some other would-be guests who were turned away over Thanksgiving, the “someone else” was a contingent of Saudi princes and officials who accompanied King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The king, who is 86 years old, was in town for surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital on Nov. 24.

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France's Versailles palace to host luxury hotel

PARIS — The Palace of Versailles is to transform one of its satellite buildings into a luxury hotel, paving the way for a series of French projects aimed at exploiting the economic potential of listed buildings while securing their renovation.
The Hotel du Grand Controle, the traditional home of the chateau's treasurers, is to be converted into a "luxury hotel," Jean-Jacques Aillagon, president of the Chateau de Versailles, said Tuesday.
"It's a pioneering initiative," he told reporters.
The opening of the 23-bedroom establishment, in which some rooms will look out onto the "Orangerie" -- the chateau's elaborate greenhouse -- or the Swiss ornamental lake, is planned for late 2011.
The palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site deemed one of the crowning achievements of 18th-century French art, is one of Europe's most popular tourist attractions.

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Balmoral Hotel 'will not tolerate prostitution'

THE Balmoral Hotel says it takes a "zero tolerance" approach to prostitution after the News revealed high-class call girls were using its rooms.

We revealed yesterday that prostitutes were using the five-star hotel to meet clients, as it was considered one of the safest places in Edinburgh.

A spokesman for the hotel said: "We are proud to be regarded as Edinburgh's leading luxury hotel, boasting one of the city's most celebrated fine dining restaurants, which is popular with guests and members of the public alike.

"However, should any individual behave unacceptably, then our staff would request that they leave the premises.

"We have never arranged prostitute visits, neither the hotel nor the staff would facilitate this type of request."

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Innkeepers Judge Says Best Western Can't End Agreement for Florida Hotel

Innkeepers USA Trust can keep an agreement to run the Best Western West Palm Beach Airport Inn in West Palm Beach, Florida, preventing a situation the bankrupt company said could harm its ability to reorganize.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman in Manhattan today barred Best Western International Inc.’s request to end its contract with Innkeepers at the hotel, saying that if she did, defaults could be triggered on Innkeepers’ loans.

“I believe the debtors are entitled to more time to determine what they want to do with this agreement,” Chapman said.
Best Western said the hotel doesn’t meet its requirements for design features such as mandated lobby size and exercise facilities, which it imposes on hotel operators that use its brand. It asked to end Innkeepers’ ability to use its logos, citing damage to its trademark.

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Marriott's Schrager leaves Gramercy and launches two hotel brands

Ian Schrager, who launched Edition boutique hotels for Marriott, has sold his share of Gramercy Park Hotel in New York and started Schrager Hotels, which encompasses two new, currently unnamed, brands.

 

Schrager sold his Gramercy share for a reported $20m (£12.8m) to developer Aby Rosen. His new hotel chains will be targeted at 'international gateway cities'.

 "It was a very good financial transaction for me," said Schrager. "I received an offer that was just too good to refuse. However, it is a bittersweet moment as well. I put 110% into that hotel as I do with all of my projects, but it was time to move on and seek new challenges. As always, I am committed to the idea that the future will always be better than the past."
One of his new brands will be targeted at luxury lifestyle while the other will be a less expensive, style-focused product.
The first hotel under one of these new brands is billed to open in Chicago in September 2011.
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