Wynn fights demand for return of gambling debt payments

The bankruptcy liquidator for an Illinois company tainted by fraud is encountering resistance in his efforts to recover millions of dollars he says was wrongly sent to Las Vegas casinos to cover gambling debts.
The liquidating bankruptcy plan administrator for Equipment Acquisition Resources Inc. of Palatine, Ill., William Brandt Jr., filed suit in October in bankruptcy court in Illinois against Wynn Las Vegas, the Luxor, the Rio and Harrah's hotel-casinos — all on or near the Las Vegas Strip.

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CCTV cameras to monitor Nassau streets next year

Image via WikipediaAN INTEGRATED network of CCTV cameras will start to monitor the streets of Nassau next year in the first wave of a new initiative to assist police in the fight against crime.
Plans formulated by the National CCTV Steering Committee with guidance from American consultants Hudson Sterling LLC are expected to be implemented in six to nine months time as 85 cameras across New Providence are linked by a national control centre.
The network funded and operated by a public-private partnership effort has been spearheaded by the committee formed two years ago by the Ministry of National Security.
And once the first phase has been launched in Nassau next year, it is expected to roll out across the country as it expands technologically and geographically to cover Grand Bahama and the Family Islands in future.

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Accor to Become N.Z.’s Largest Hotel Group, Adds Pullman Brand

Accor SA, Europe’s largest lodging company, will become New Zealand’s biggest hotel operator after adding two properties and announcing plans for two more.
Accor will take over Auckland’s Hyatt Regency hotel from Jan. 20 and brand it as a five-star Pullman hotel, the Paris- based company said in a statement today. The site will have 267 rooms, suites and apartments, it said. Accor has already taken over Hotel So in Christchurch, on New Zealand’s South Island, which will be managed under the All Seasons economy brand.
The two properties increase Accor’s New Zealand business to 29 hotels. It plans to open Novotel and Formule 1 hotels at Auckland Airport next year, making it the country’s largest hotel group, according to the statement.

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iPad POS use rising among restaurants

A growing number of operators, from independents to franchisees of major chains, are using Apple's iPad as part of their point-of-sale systems.
Restaurant operators recently shared how they've incorporated iPads into their ordering process, from arming servers with the handheld devices to installing them on the counter.
Configurations vary
iPad users are running the terminals in a variety of POS system configurations, including those centered around remotely hosted software running at so-called “cloud” data centers, to which store-level devices communicate via wireless Internet connections. Such users include Trio Restaurant & Bar in Mount Airy, N.C., which runs Lecere Corp.’s FIRMS POS software, and Fish and Chips Restaurant in Sausalito, Calif., where Revel Systems is the software-as-a-service POS supplier of choice.

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Interstate Hotels & Resorts to Manage Shanghai Tower J-Hotel

(Hospitality Business News)  SHANGHAI, Dec. 20, 2010 Today, Interstate (China) Hotels & Resorts Company Limited ("Interstate China"), a wholly owned subsidiary of a joint venture between Thayer Lodging Group ("Thayer"), a US-based private equity real estate firm, and Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels (Group) Company Limited ("Jin Jiang Hotels") China's leading hotel group, has been appointed by Shanghai Tower Group to manage the world's highest luxury hotel – Shanghai Tower J-Hotel.
Due to open in 2014, the new Shanghai Tower J-Hotel is the centerpiece of the stunning Shanghai Tower being constructed in the hub of the central business district of Lujiazui, Pudong, neighboring the Shanghai World Financial Center and Jin Mao Tower. Upon completion, Shanghai Tower will be China's tallest building and the second tallest in the world rising 121 stories (2,073 feet) with a GFA of more than six million square feet.

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New Restaurants Lift Darden Profits

Darden Restaurants Inc.'s fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 24% on new-restaurant growth and moderate gains at existing locations for its casual-dining chains.
However, the company's lead over competitors seemed to narrow. Through the close, the stock has risen 44% since the beginning of the year. Earlier this month, it hit its highest level ever.
The owner of the Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse chains said its consolidated same-restaurant sales increased 1.4% in the most recent period, compared with a 1% increase in the benchmark Knapp-Track index. It had led the index by 1.1 percentage points in the previous quarter.

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Man falls from roof of Marriott

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—Authorities say a trespasser trying to get into a Massachusetts hotel's penthouse suite through a window fell 10 stories and was seriously hurt.

Police in Springfield say the man was on the roof of the Marriott Hotel and tried to shimmy down a holiday star decoration on the outside of the building when he fell more than 70 feet Saturday night. Capt. William P. Collins says the man landed on a ledge on the sixth floor.

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NYC-area hotel portfolio sells for $164M

Updated 12:39 p.m.] MCR Development has acquired a portfolio of 10 Marriott and Hilton hotels for $164 million, marking one of the largest hotel deals in the country so far this year, according to commercial real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis, which brokered the deal. The collection of mostly extended-stay hotels, include 1,100 rooms across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

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Three-hour standoff at Long Beach hotel ends in homicide suspect's arrest

A man suspected of fatally shooting a family member in the San Fernando Valley was arrested Monday after a three-hour standoff at a Long Beach hotel.
[Updated at 12:15 p.m.: Authorities identified the suspect as 58-year-old Antonio Meza. They had previously said he was 60 years old.]
The man barricaded himself inside a room at the Luxury Inn as police evacuated part of the hotel and negotiated with him to come out peacefully, said Officer Sara Faden of the Los Angeles Police Department.

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Jay-Z's Chelsea hotel site goes back to lenders

Jay-Z has reached a settlement with his lenders over the site of a planned boutique hotel near the High Line and has deeded the property back to them for the value of the senior mortgage, according to recently-filed public documents.

The hip-hop mogul, whose given name is Shawn Carter, had partnered with real estate investors Charles Blaichman and Abram Shnay to purchase the site, a former Time Warner Cable warehouse at 511 West 21st Street, in 2007. The property was to become the first of many J Hotels, but the plan was foiled when the partners defaulted on their $52 million senior loan in August 2009, prompting a legal battle over their interest payments.

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Starwood CEO: Can too many hotel brands confuse consumers?

Hotel Check-In sat down with Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen last week at Le Meridien Philadelphia, where Starwood was showing off the chain's new direction to developers and a few reporters.

Starwood for the last five years has been busy overhauling the brand by, among other ways, infusing the hotels with art, focusing on design, refining the chain's service culture and ditching the lowest-quality properties. (I'll take you on a tour of the 38-year-old hotel brand's revamp and new direction another day.)

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