Hotels busted for fake online reviews

The hotel review may sound too good - citing obscure details like the type of faucets - or perhaps one stands out as the only negative rating of an otherwise popular location.
The influential travel website TripAdvisor has been quietly posting disclaimers to warn customers of hotels writing fake reviews to improve their popularity rankings or hurt competitors.
The red disclaimers near the names of hotels show that TripAdvisor has a problem with fake reviews, travel bloggers and industry experts say. One blogger, Jeff Tucker, warned that without changes to restore credibility to the reviews the site is "going to come crumbling down behind them."

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/2599530/Hotels-busted-for-fake-online-reviews

MGM Mirage Says Las Vegas ‘Bouncing Along a Bottom’

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- MGM Mirage, the biggest casino owner on the Las Vegas Strip, said business in the largest U.S. gambling city appears to be “bouncing along a bottom.”
“The tone of business feels like we saw the worst late last year, early this year, and we appear to be kind of bouncing along a bottom,” Chief Financial Officer Dan D’Arrigo said today at an Oppenheimer & Co. conference in Boston

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601205&sid=a2wiuI3.YBo8

Enterprise Inns Falls as Pub Owner Pays More to Support Tenants

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Enterprise Inns Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest pub owner, fell as much as 9.7 percent in London trading after it said the company increased the amount of support it gives to pub tenants amid the economic slowdown.
Direct financial support climbed to about 1.7 million pounds ($2.8 million) a month, Solihull, England-based Enterprise said in a regulatory statement today. The pub owner said May 12 it was giving about 1.4 million pounds a month.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601205&sid=aukXqmwRMYXw

Hotel’s offer hit by glitch

The Copley Square Hotel crashed its own birthday party.
A promotion to celebrate the hotel’s 118th year - offering $200-a-night rooms for as cheap as $18 - left thousands of would-be guests frustrated as the hotel’s online reservation system was overloaded by the response yesterday.
“Any time you’re offering a limited number of room nights for such a low price, some people will be disappointed,” said John Maibach, general manager of the 143-room boutique hotel.

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http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20090715hotels_offer_hit_by_glitch_thousands_race_for_18_rooms_in_birthday_sale/srvc=home&position=recent

Dunkin' Donuts Adds Nontraditional Florida Sites

[2009-07-15] Dunkin' Donuts announced the addition of 24 nontraditional locations across Florida: six locations in Florida Turnpike travel plazas; 14 locations at airports, including nine at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, two at Southwest Florida International Airport, two at Miami International Airport, and one unit at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport; and one unit on the Palm Beach Community College campus, with additional locations planned to open at Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University by 2010.

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http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/news/story.phtml?id=8966&utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication

Hotels in Construction Cycle Peak

There’s been much ado about something in the hotel industry. With funding scarce and demand down the new construction pipeline has been retracting. It’s a concern scaring suppliers and buyers who worry that shrinking numbers will affect the ability for these folks to do business. Another predominant fear is the recent spate of new hotel project cancellations and postponements. Combined, industry insiders are nervous there isn’t enough business out there to keep everyone flush. It’s giving even the most experienced hoteliers pause and creating irrational anxiousness.

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http://www.hotelinteractive.com/article.aspx?articleid=14260

For Las Vegas Chefs, the Odds Grow Longer

IN the late, lamented boom, waiters at luxury restaurants here could make $150,000 a year and more thanks to the electrifying arrival of high rollers renowned as “the whales.”
Robert Martinez, a 33-year-old waiter at Rao’s in Caesars Palace, said these heavyweights “had wads of $100 bills and gave them to everyone on the staff, and tipped generously on $12,000 to $15,000 checks.”

Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/dining/15vegas.html?_r=1&hp

Paws up: All-pet airline hits skies

NEW YORK (AP) - One trip for their Jack Russell terrier in a plane's cargo hold was enough to convince Alysa Binder and Dan Wiesel that owners needed a better option to get their pets from one city to another.
On Tuesday, the first flight for the husband-and-wife team's Pet Airways, the first-ever all-pet airline, took off from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, N.Y.
All commercial airlines allow a limited number of small pets to fly in the cabin. Others must travel as checked bags or in the cargo hold—a dark and sometimes dangerous place where temperatures can vary wildly

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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99ECQSG0&show_article=1

Hersha Hospitality Announces Sale of Non-Core Properties

Hersha Hospitality Trust (NYSE: HT), owner of select service and upscale hotels in major metropolitan markets, today announced the sale of three properties. The properties include a Mainstay Suites and a Comfort Inn in Frederick, MD and a Four Points in Revere, MA.On a trailing twelve month property-level earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (“Hotel EBITDA”) basis, the Company sold the Frederick properties for 12.3 times and the Revere property for 12.4 times.

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http://www.pr-inside.com/hersha-hospitality-announces-sale-of-r1390369.htm

FBI probes PrankNET over thousands of dollars in damage caused to hotels and restaurants

Dex, the pseudonym for the group's purported leader, has claimed credit for various expensive scare calls, although others have been attributed to "copycats".
The former include one in February to a branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Manchester, New Hampshire, in which Dex pretended to be a company boss.
He convinced the staff to douse the restaurant with fire-suppressing chemicals, evacuate the building and strip off their clothes in the freezing cold .

Read more:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologynews/5829770/FBI-probes-PrankNET-over-thousands-of-dollars-in-damage-caused-to-hotels-and-restaurants.html

Hard-up Britain loses its appetite for eating out

It has been one of Britain’s most successful industries for the past four decades, but the recession has finally brought the phenomenal growth in informal dining to a halt.
A report published yesterday by Allegra Strategies, the analysts, revealed that the amount Britons spend on informal eating out — where a meal costs £15 or less — has fallen for the first time in 40 years.

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http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article6710949.ece

Yum! Brands Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2009 EPS of $0.63

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
• International development continued at a robust pace with 328 new restaurants including 118 new units in mainland China and 193 in Yum! Restaurants International (YRI).
• Worldwide system sales growth prior to foreign currency translation of +3% including +8% in
mainland China, +6% in YRI, and a 1% decline in the U.S.; after foreign currency translation,
worldwide system sales declined 4%.
• Worldwide restaurant margin improved 1.7 percentage points driven by the combination of prior year pricing, flat commodity costs and refranchising; all three divisions improved margins.
• Worldwide operating profit growth of 11%, excluding foreign currency translation, driven by new unit development, improved restaurant margins, and proactive cost management. Each of our divisions generated profit growth: +11% in China, +8% in the U.S. and +6% for YRI. Including foreign currency translation, worldwide growth was +4%, China increased +14% and YRI declined 15%.
• EPS growth was negatively impacted by foreign currency translation of approximately $0.03 per share partially offset by the benefit from last year’s substantial share repurchases which reduced average shares outstanding by 3%.

Earnings Release : http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MTAyMjJ8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

Restaurant Units Activity Summary: http://investors.yum.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=117941&p=irol-newsearnings

Yum! Brands Full-Year 2009 Detailed Guidance Update: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MTAyMjR8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

Son of Fontainebleau Creator Found Dead

Ben Novack, Jr., son of the storied developer and long-time owner of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, was found dead over the weekend in a suburban New York hotel room. According to press reports, Novack’s wife found the body in their Rye Town Hilton guestroom when she returned from breakfast on Monday morning.Police suspect foul play but so far have released no details regarding motive or suspects in the death.

Read more:
http://lhonline.com/realestate/Fontainebleau_Novack_Miami_Beach_0714/

Wynn Resorts files suit over 'XS' trademark

Wynn Resorts Holdings LLC filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court against Atlanta-based NYLO Hotels, an operator of boutique hotels, after NYLO asserted rights to the trademark "XS" and offered to let Wynn pay a licensing fee to use the name for the club at Encore.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/14/state/n154804D67.DTL&type=business

Interstate Hotels & Resorts Extends Senior Credit Facility to March 2012

ARLINGTON, Va., July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Interstate Hotels & Resorts (OTC Bulletin Board: IHRI), a leading hotel real estate investor and the nation's largest independent management company, today announced that it has extended the maturity of its senior credit facility to March 2012 by converting the facility's outstanding balance of $161.2 million to a new term loan. The agreement also provides the company with an $8 million revolving credit line. The revised facility carries an interest rate of LIBOR plus 550 bps, with a 2.0 percent LIBOR floor plus additional PIK interest (payment-in-kind) of 2.0 percent through March 2011 and 3.0 percent thereafter. The accrued PIK interest is payable at maturity.

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http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/07-14-2009/0005059899&EDATE=