Columbus Hyatt put up for sale

The 400-room Hyatt on Capitol Square has been put up for sale by its California-based owner, which bought the hotel in 2007, just before the recession hit. The hotel is expected to continue normal operations.
The property is valued at $30 million for tax purposes, but there is no set asking price for the hotel, which is listed with broker Jones Lang LaSalle.

Hertz Investment Group of Santa Monica paid $30 million for the hotel at 75 E. State St. in September 2007, according to the Franklin County auditor's website. Hertz also bought the office tower that is attached to the Hyatt for $42.5 million in August 2007. That building is not listed for sale.

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In Australia if you want a drink then give us your fingerprints

THOUSANDS of clubbers and pub patrons are being forced to submit to fingerprint and photographic scans to enter popular venues, seemingly unaware of the ramifications of handing over their identity.

Biometric scanners, once the domain of James Bond movies, are flooding the pub market as the fix-all solution to violence and antisocial behaviour. The pubs are exerting more power than the police or airport security by demanding photos, fingerprints and ID. Police can only do it if they suspect someone of committing a crime and they must destroy the data if the person is not charged or found not guilty.

Yet one company boasts that the sensitive information collected about patrons can be kept for years and shared with other venues in the country - in what appears to be a breach of privacy laws.

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Stylish thief hits top Melbourne hotels

A BRAZEN thief has fleeced wealthy guests at some of Melbourne's most exclusive hotels of $100,000 in jewellery and other items after posing as a member of staff.

Police fear the well-dressed conman, who is believed to have struck three times this month, is working his way through five-star hotels in a crime spree that has left some victims questioning security at Melbourne's high-end accommodation.

In one case at the Grand Hyatt in Collins Street, the thief claimed he needed to fix a couple's air conditioner and then moved a handbag into the outside corridor while the room was unattended.

He left the suite picking up the bag, which contained a Cartier bracelet and a diamond bracelet worth a total of $90,000.

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Can you trust those online hotel reviews?

It has become the traveller's champion, a first port of call for holidaymakers in search of the warts-and-all truth about hotels and a place where they can let off steam when things go wrong.
But the world's largest travel website, TripAdvisor, is facing a searing backlash from hoteliers who claim it is rife with inaccuracies and fraudulent claims about their properties concocted by phoney reviewers.

This week, it was slammed as "despicable and cowardly" by BBC Dragon's Den panellist Duncan Bannatyne after he complained that a "dishonest" review compared his Charlton House Spa in Somerset to Fawlty Towers. He demanded that it be removed.

The website has also incurred the wrath of a growing number of Irish hoteliers over claims that it refuses to remove dishonest and defamatory reviews from its pages.

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