Wingstop Reaches 25 Consecutive Quarters of Positive Comp Sales

DALLAS – Wingstop, the nation’s fastest-growing chicken wing chain, has announced positive comparable store sales for the 25th consecutive quarter, dating back to July 2003.

Wingstop ended the most recent quarter with a 1.6 percent increase and is up 3.8 percent for the year. The company predicts the positive trend to continue into the fourth quarter, when sales are typically the strongest due to the popularity of wings during the football and holiday seasons.

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Tootsies set to close as diners lose taste for burger chain

Tootsies, the family burger chain, has become the latest victim of the recession, after Clapham House Group, its quoted owner, pulled the plug on the loss-making business.
Administrators from BDO yesterday announced the sale of 11 of the 21 outlets for £2.5 million to Giraffe, the restaurant group backed by Giraffe chairman Luke Johnson’s Risk Capital Partners, and 3i.

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Fairmont Chicago off the block

After fielding bids for the Fairmont Chicago, Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. has taken the 687-room hotel off the market. Under pressure to raise cash and lower its debt level, the Chicago-based hotel owner put the property at 200 N. Columbus Drive up for sale in May

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Carly Simon sues Starbucks after 2008 album under coffee chain's label performed poorly

SEATTLE (AP) — Singer Carly Simon is suing Starbucks Corp., saying the coffee company's now-defunct music venture didn't adequately promote her 2008 album, dooming the record before it was even released.

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Vail Resorts Announces it Will Not Continue Purchase of Wind Credits

BROOMFIELD, COLO.—Vail Resorts announced that concurrent with its announcement of its leadership role in the Hayman Restoration Partnership, the company would not be renewing its three-year commitment to purchase wind energy offset credits.

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Whitbread PLC interim results for the six months ended 27 August 2009

Financial Highlights
-Total revenue up 3.1% to £703.3 million (2008/09: £682.2 million)
-Group like for like sales down 2.7%
-Underlying profit1 before tax of £118.2 million down 2.7% (2008/09: £121.5 million)
-Profit before tax and exceptional items down 10.4% to £110.5 million (2008/09: £123.3 million)
-Underlying diluted EPS 47.33p (2008/09: 49.14p)
-Pre-exceptional diluted EPS 44.17p (2008/09: 49.89p)
-Half year net debt at £606.6 million (versus £623.1 million at 26 February 2009); current facilities of £1.16 billion
- Interim dividend 9.65p (2008/09: 9.65p)

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Las Vegas Fontainebleau a symbol of bad timing

Of all the buildings under construction nationwide left unfinished because of the recession, the Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort, which analysts say may be nation’s largest and most expensive stalled construction job, might be the poster child for badly timed development.

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RAK Plans to Halt Parts of $3.3 Billion Project

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- RAK Properties PJSC, the developer that built Ras Al Khaimah’s first man-made islands, is halting parts of a 12 billion-dirham ($3.3 billion) project until market conditions improve, the chief executive officer said.
Parts of Mina Al Arab, a beach resort in the northern part of the United Arab Emirates, that haven’t been sold will be halted, Mohammed Sultan Al Qathi said in an interview last week. The developments on hold include a marina, a shopping center and seven hotels, Al Qathi said.

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Punch to cut value of estate by £600m

Punch Taverns, the pubs landlord, is expected to slash the value of its estate by more than £600m when it unveils its annual results this week.
The indebted leisure group, which owns 8,300 pubs, will be forced to write down the value of its portfolio because of a combination of the falling property market and a decline in takings at its outlets

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Lagos yacht hotel creates turbulence

A year after the luxury Sunborn Yacht Hotel berthed at the Lagos Marina, it sits in complete disrepair on the quay of the Army Officer's Mess Headquarters, a mockery of what it was a year ago when it was received in Lagos.

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Cheap rooms and coffee help Whitbread through worst of hospitality slump

Premier Inn, the UK’s biggest hotel chain, will claim it is winning a cut-throat price war raging across the hospitality industry when its owners at Whitbread check in with trading results on Tuesday.
Chief executive Alan Parker will say that heavy promotional activity, spearheaded by comedian Lenny Henry, has helped it to increase its share of the key business market while attracting new custom from the tourist trade in the opening months of the year

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Swiss Surprise: Forte puts Le Richemond on the block

The veteran hotelier Sir Rocco Forte is sounding out potential buyers for the Le Richemond hotel in Geneva, one of 13 upmarket properties owned by his company, writes Matthew Goodman.

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California Pizza continues rally

On Wednesday, the casual dining chain lifted its third-quarter profit outlook. The company now expects to report earnings of 22 cents to 24 cents per share for the quarter, up from prior guidance of 19 cents to 21 cents per share.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast a profit of 23 cents per share for the quarter.

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Hilton sees new Waldorf resort as investment in Orlando

When Hilton Worldwide opened the Waldorf Astoria and adjoining Hilton Bonnet Creek resort here this month, it introduced a unique, non-Disney product right next door to Disney World.
It also opened 1,500 new rooms, bringing to more than 4,000 the number of rooms Hilton has added in the last two months to a market that has been battered this year by a sharp drop in meetings and business travel.

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Hyatt Regency loan a 'concern' for mortgage holder

The company that holds the mortgage for the Hyatt Regency in downtown Milwaukee has seen its mortgage pass-through certificates downgraded by Fitch Ratings, which lists the Milwaukee property as one of the largest contributors to losses for the mortgage holder

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