Indiscreet butlers such as Paul Burrell 'should be shot', says Savoy Hotel's head servant

Sean Davoren, the luxury London hotel’s head butler, criticised the behaviour of Diana, Princess of Wales’ former servant for divulging details of her private life in the years following her death.

Instead, butlers should be the epitome of class and discretion, generally be seen and not heard and be available at a moment’s notice for even the most bizarre of requests without “batting an eyelid."

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California Pizza Kitchen Opens First Company Owned Restaurant in China

Los Angeles-based California Pizza Kitchen Inc. announced today the opening of the first company-owned and operated restaurant in Shanghai, China.

The company has also opened its first international office to assist CPK franchise partners and support the company growth in China, as part of a long-term expansion strategy to broaden the company's presence in Asia.
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Producers Guild Pulls Show from Century City Hyatt

The PGA announced that it will hold the 2011 Producers Guild Awards in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. On Wednesday, the Directors Guild of America announced that it was moving its ceremony from the Century Plaza to the Hollywood & Highland Center.

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Aspen Hotel Management Group and AEW Capital Management Acquire Three San Francisco Hotels

Aspen Hotel Management Group (Aspen) in partnership with AEW Capital Management, L.P. (AEW) is pleased to announce the acquisition of a portfolio of three boutique hotels in San Francisco. AEW acquired the assets on behalf of AEW Partners VI, L.P., the sixth of a series of real estate opportunity funds managed by AEW.

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Exploding Escargot case goes to Court

SAN RAFAEL -- In the face of perceived injustice, few individuals have the gumption to fight for social reform. But two men are determined to make Marin County a safer place for escargot consumers, their families and generations of snail eaters to come.

Comes now in Marin Superior Court, small-claims division, the case of Chadwick St.-OHarra and Steve Righetti, who are suing the Seafood Peddler restaurant in San Rafael over an alleged incident of what their lawsuit called "exploding" escargot that marred Righetti's birthday dinner in June.

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Philadelphia Restaurant settles race-bias suit

McFadden's Restaurant & Saloon has settled a lawsuit filed by a bartender who claimed that the establishment was racially biased, and has agreed to take steps to prevent discrimination.
As part of the settlement, the bartender, Michael L. Bolden, will receive no financial compensation, both sides said in a joint statement Tuesday.
Bolden filed a lawsuit last month against the popular Old City bar and East Coast Saloons, which the suit described as McFadden's parent company. Bolden alleged that McFadden's and East Coast Saloons had a national policy of discrimination against nonwhite employees and customers.

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Hyatt Regency Greenville Trades Hands

JHM Hotels, Inc. has purchased the Hyatt Regency Greenville, located at 220 N. Main St. in Greenville, SC from Hyatt Hotels Corporation for an estimated $13.725 million, or $41,800 per key.

The six-story, 328-room, 444,150-square-foot hospitality building was delivered in 1984 on four acres in the Greenville Central Business District at Route 183.
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Channings and The Howard in Edinburgh put up for sale

One of Scotland's leading hoteliers has put up for sale the first properties he bought when he founded the boutique Town House chain, The Scotsman can reval. Both Channings and The Howard in Edinburgh have gone on the market just months after Peter Taylor finished work on a troubled five-star hotel in Glasgow.

The asking price for the two Town House hotels has not been disclosed, although they are expected to command several million pounds each. They are being marketed privately, and Mr Taylor has revealed they have already attracted significant interest.

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Pocmont Hotel Corp files for bankruptcy liquidation

Weeks after a New Jersey group bought a closed Poconos resort, the hotel's former corporate parent filed for bankruptcy liquidation protection.
Pocmont Hotels Corp., which operated Pocmont resort in Bushkill for decades until it closed abruptly in November 2009, filed recently for Chapter 7 liquidation protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
In October, an investment group headed by a New Jersey caterer bought the 155-acre property from a division of First National Community Bank of Dunmore for $2 million.

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Biltmore Hotel To Receive $1.5 Million In Bond Money For Restoration

When Miami-Dade voters approved a $2.9 billion general obligation bond program six years ago, the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables was not among the list of projects slated to receive funds. Today, county Commissioner Rebeca Sosa aims to change that. She is sponsoring a resolution on the December 7 county commission agenda that would grant $1.5 million in bond money to pay for the Biltmore Hotel's restoration.
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Former Delray Beach hotel manager charged with grand theft

DELRAY BEACH — A 39-year-old hotel manager was charged Tuesday with grand theft and organized scheme to defraud after she took the meaning of customer service to another level.
Britt Stefanowicz began working at the Residence Inn on Atlantic Avenue in 2003, a Delray Beach police report says. She became general manager of the hotel about three years ago and started conducting fraudulent transactions to help a guest not have to pay his balance throughout 2009.

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Shanghai's Housing Rents, Hotel Rates Fall Up to 50% After World Expo Ends

Shanghai’s apartment rents and hotel room rates near the World Expo site fell as much as half as China’s biggest international event this year ended.

Rents on a two-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood, which fetched from 6,000 yuan ($900) to 10,000 yuan a month during the showcase that ended Oct. 31, have fallen 50 percent, said Chen Yi, manager of the Expo branch of Centaline Property Agency Ltd. Hotel rates declined as much as 47 percent last month from October, according to Qunar, China’s largest travel website tracking the city’s 2,000 hotels.

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President of RAI Hotel Acquisition, Inc., charged with fraud

(Hospitality Business News)  NEW YORK December 2 2010 - The President of RAI Hotel Acquisition, Inc., ("RAI, Inc."), was arrested and charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud in connection with a $1.5 million scheme in which Robert McDonald falsely told an investor that the investor’s funds would be used towards the purchase of more than $100 million worth of hotels. Instead, McDonald spent the investor’s funds on, among other things, a variety of personal expenses. McDonald was arrested Wednesday morning in Brooklyn, and appeared before a U.S. Magistrate in Manhattan federal court.

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Mass Mutal puts 6 hotels up for sale

Three San Diego hotels that fell into foreclosure earlier this year are now up for sale as part of a portfolio of six bank-owned properties located in Southern California and Utah. The three local hotels -- the Courtyard by Marriott San Diego and Holiday Inn Express San Diego, both in Old Town, and the Holiday Inn in downtown San Diego -- account for a little more than 500 rooms out of the 1,245 being marketed for sale.

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Hyatt Announces Sale and Franchising of Three Chicago Area Hotels to Area Property Partners and Aimbridge Hospitality

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today that a Hyatt affiliate sold three Chicago area hotel properties to a joint venture of AREA Property Partners and Aimbridge Hospitality and entered into long-term hotel franchise agreements with the buyers for each of the three hotels, Hyatt Lisle, Hyatt Deerfield, and Hyatt Rosemont. The combined sale price of the three properties was $51 million, and the AREA/Aimbridge joint venture plans to invest $13.5 million in capital improvements at the three properties.

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