Wyndham Drake Hotel to close in October

(Crain’s) — The Wyndham Drake Hotel is scheduled to close next month after an opportunistic investor gained control of the 160-room property, which has lost its luster in recent years but was once one of the suburbs' best-known hotels.

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Jamaican Resort Sues Marriott's Ritz Unit

Ritz-Carlton Hotels, a unit of Marriott International of Bethesda, was sued by the owner of a luxury resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, that claims the company mismanaged the property and should pay $145 million in damages.

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Court orders banks to freeze Hilton accounts

The Hilton Pittsburgh is facing more financial woes after attorneys for a union health and welfare fund garnished the bank accounts of the hotel's owner and its top officer in an effort to collect a $1 million debt.

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Financial controller of The Stafford hotel jailed for stealing £350,000

The financial controller of The Stafford hotel in Mayfair has been jailed for two years after stealing more than £350,000 from his employer as his gambling debts spiralled out of control.

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Wynn Resorts to raise up to $1 bln in HK IPO on Oct 9

HONG KONG, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Las Vegas casino operator Wynn Resorts (WYNN.O) plans to raise up to $1 billion by listing its Macau assets on the Hong Kong stock exchange, two sources with direct knowledge of the deal said on Friday

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The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited Assumes Full Ownership of The Peninsula Chicago

Following the completion of the agreement in Chicago, HSH Chicago, Inc. now assumes full ownership control of The Peninsula Chicago. HSH has opted to pay for the US$11.7 million purchase price in full with surplus cash.

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Detroit MGM taken off market

Detroit --The city's largest casino is no longer being shopped to buyers.
MGM Grand Detroit's chief executive told The Detroit News that while a number of interested buyers had been "kicking the tires" at the casino earlier this year, activity from interested parties has waned.
"While every casino in America is for sale for the right price, we haven't had any buyers actively courting us for a while," Lorenzo Creighton, chief executive of the MGM Grand Detroit, said Wednesday

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PwC expects higher hotel cccupancy, on discounts

Hotel occupancy will likely gain strength in late 2009 and 2010, but profit will remain elusive as hotels continue to use heavily discounted rates to draw in more travelers, according to a revised U.S. lodging forecast from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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Landry's Restaurant CEO Tries Again to Take Company Private

The chairman and CEO of Landry's Restaurants (LNY) is making another attempt at taking the company private. Honestly, I say let him take the shares off your hands. If he liked the stock in the mid-teens last summer I'm sure he still likes it at ten

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N.Y. hotelier prepares to sell Raleigh (South Beach)

Andre Balazs expects to sell his Raleigh Hotel soon, parting with one of the most high-profile boutique properties in South Beach.
The New York hotelier behind The Standard hotel chain said he has a buyer for the 104-room Raleigh and that both sides are all but agreed to a price. He expects the deal to become official within four weeks.

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Travern on the Green Goes Bust!

Now that the city has picked a different operator to run Tavern on the Green once the lease runs out this December, current operator Jennifer Oz LeRoy has decided to file for bankruptcy. She sites the city's decision and the bad economy, but let's not forget all those vendor lawsuits and that $2.2 million discrimination settlement. The filing listed over 20 creditors, including the New York Hotel Trades Council ($1,778,764), the New York Tent Company ($104,156), and American Express ($79,096).

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IHG Merges its Latin American, Caribbean Region Under One Leadership Team

MIAMI - IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON: IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)], the world's largest hotel company by number of rooms, has combined its Latin America and Caribbean regions under the leadership of Alvaro Diago, now Chief Operating Officer (COO), Latin America and Caribbean. Diago was most recently Area President for Latin America.

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Irish Hotel sector negotiates overtime pay cut

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) has negotiated a deal with the unions to cut Sunday pay rates for new hotel workers from double time to time and one third as the industry goes through the worst financial crisis in recent history.

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Wyndham Worldwide hires former DineEquity exec as CFO

NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Wyndham Worldwide Corp (WYN.N) on Tuesday announced the appointment of a former DineEquity Inc (DIN.N) executive as its chief financial officer, effective immediately.
Thomas Conforti replaces former CFO Virginia Wilson, who said in June that she would leave the hotel operator in the third quarter to pursue other interests

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Hyatt's IPO: Bad Timing or Family Necessity?

That's the question industry observers are asking as hotel powerhouse Hyatt Hotels prepares to jump into the public markets at a time when the lodging sector has spiraled to lows not seen since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Hotels are highly sensitive to economic conditions, labor, cost of living and consumer confidence. So, when times are at the lowest like this, it's probably not the best time to go to the market and expect to get a huge payoff," says Mark Lunt, a principal in Ernst & Young's hospitality advisory practice. "It would appear that this is early in the cycle to have a hotel IPO."

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