Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., the world’s biggest casino operator, terminated its $531 million initial public offering, the first private equity-backed company to pull its U.S. IPO in six months.
Harrah’s, taken private by Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital in a leveraged buyout in 2008, canceled its sale because of “market conditions,” according to the Las Vegas- based company’s statement today. The postponement was the first from a private equity-backed company since Americold Realty Trust, owned by billionaire Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos., shelved its offering in May, data compiled by Bloomberg and Greenwich, Connecticut-based Renaissance Capital LLC showed.
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Sunday, November 21, 2010
Pay-to-play infects Chicago beer market
The Wit Hotel in the Loop is a trendy hangout for the after-work and weekend crowd. Clubbers dressed to the nines party year-round on its 7,000-square-foot rooftop and, 27 stories below, in the State & Lake bar off the lobby.
The boutique hotel also is on the front line of Chicago's brutal—and at times illicit—battle over beer.
When the Wit opened in 2009, bar managers stocked State & Lake's 16 taps with an impressive selection of microbrews, including Stone, Anderson Valley, Two Brothers and Metropolitan, a new hometown brand.
Then, in June, most of the craft beers from smaller distributors disappeared,, replaced by 11 specialty brands carried by Chicago Beverage Systems LLC, a powerhouse distributor of Miller, Coors and other labels.
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The boutique hotel also is on the front line of Chicago's brutal—and at times illicit—battle over beer.
When the Wit opened in 2009, bar managers stocked State & Lake's 16 taps with an impressive selection of microbrews, including Stone, Anderson Valley, Two Brothers and Metropolitan, a new hometown brand.
Then, in June, most of the craft beers from smaller distributors disappeared,, replaced by 11 specialty brands carried by Chicago Beverage Systems LLC, a powerhouse distributor of Miller, Coors and other labels.
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Saturday, November 20, 2010
Hotel refuses to refund deposit after Dog eats passport
(Hospitality Business News - November 20, 2010) A honeymoon trip to Mexico planned by a Massachusetts couple went to “the dogs” recently when Mexican authorities refused to grant the couple entry into the country.
Two days before Eric Mann and Brooke Blew left on their trip the couples dog chewed Mann’s passport.
Although the couple made it through Boston’s tough security at Logan Airport, upon arriving in Cancun Mexico the Mexican immigration officials said that the condition of the passport was unacceptable and that they had to return to the USA
JetBlue refunded the couples airfare, but the Hotel said “No hablo Engles, que?”
Sleepwalking hotel guest awarded 10M Euros
A businessman was celebrating today after winning a €10m libel case following a bizarre naked sleepwalking incident.
The sum is more than five times larger than any previous Irish libel settlement. The court in Dublin ordered that only €500,000 be paid out pending an expected appeal.
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Donal Kinsella, 67, from Dunleer in County Louth, Ireland, took the case against his employer, Kenmare Resources, after the firm issued a press release that, he claimed, suggested he had made inappropriate advances to a female colleague while on a business trip to Africa in 2007.
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Super 8 Guest robbed of $350,000
(Hospitality Business News) Police are looking for two men they say pulled off one of the highest-dollar robberies ever to take place in the area after they stole $350,000 in jewelry from a guest staying at the Super 8 Motel in Dumfries VA.
Police said on Nov. 18 at 8:14 a.m. a 50-year-old man from Great Neck, N.Y., reported to police that two unknown men pulled up in a silver four-door vehicle and blocked him in while he was trying to get into his car parked at the hotel, located at 17416 Jefferson Davis Highway.
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The Power of a Brand
The Grand Pittsburgh Downtown hotel which used to be a Hilton, has been struggling since it lost its’ brand affiliation. It is laying off employees, drastically cutting the hours of others, and shutting down its bars and restaurants on some days as the bankrupt hotel struggles to make ends meet.
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Sheraton Room Attendants protest "Green Initiative"
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| Sheraton Toronto |
(Hospitality Business News - November 20, 2010) Is it a “Green Initiative”, a cost cutting program during tough times, or both? Room attendants at the Sheraton Centre in downtown Toronto think it’s a cost cutting move and is costing jobs.
According to a report by the Toronto Star about 20 hotel workers, politicians and labour leaders barged into a morning housekeeping meeting at the downtown Sheraton Centre on Thursday to protest a Green Choice initiative they say cuts jobs.
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Verdict - Hotel to Pay $4.5M
(Hospitality Business News) An Alabama jury rendered a $4.5 million verdict Thursday evening against the owners of an Oxford hotel where two people contracted Legionnaires’ disease in 2008.
According to an article in the Anniston Star, it took the jury less than an hour to reach the verdict in a civil lawsuit against Devi LLC, an Oxford-based company that owns the Oxford Fairfield Inn and Suites and Courtyard by Marriot. The Fairfield Inn, which was previously named Wingate Inn in 2008, was where the incident occurred.Read More:
According to an article in the Anniston Star, it took the jury less than an hour to reach the verdict in a civil lawsuit against Devi LLC, an Oxford-based company that owns the Oxford Fairfield Inn and Suites and Courtyard by Marriot. The Fairfield Inn, which was previously named Wingate Inn in 2008, was where the incident occurred.Read More:
New Wyndham inside Disney Orlando
(Hospitality Business News) Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, LLC, a subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:WYN), announced its expansion in the Orlando area with the addition of the full-service, 626-room Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Resort, an official Walt Disney World® hotel located inside the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
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Westin Hilton Head Resort Owner Files for Bankruptcy
(Hospitality Business News) -- The current owner of the Westin Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina and the Westin La Paloma Resort in Tucson, filed for bankruptcy court protection from its creditors.
According to a story filed by Bloomberg, Transwest Resort Properties Inc., which also owns the Westin La Paloma Resort and Country Club in Tucson, Arizona, listed assets of $10 million to $50 million and debt of $100 million to $500 million in documents filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tucson.
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Hotels Profit from Attrition and Cancellation Income
(by Robert Mandelbaum) One of the lessons learned by hotel management during the 2001 to 2003 industry recession was the importance of attrition and cancellation clauses in group contracts. Because of 9/11 air travel stigma and the ensuing economic recession, meetings were canceled and attendance dwindled. All of the sudden, those attrition and cancellation paragraphs in the group contracts that were frequently viewed as “boiler plate” were rediscovered and helped to salvage some degree of revenue.
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New DoubleTree in Norwalk CA
NORWALK, Calif., (Hospitality Business News) – Doubletree Hotels has announced the opening of the Doubletree Hotel Los Angeles-Norwalk in Norwalk, Calif. Located along one of Southern California’s busiest commercial business corridors at the crossroads of Interstate Highways 5 and 605, the upscale, full-service hotel is located in a fine, residential community that is just 20 minutes from Los Angeles, Long Beach or Orange County.
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Control your Hotel Recommendations
(Hospitality Business News - Berlin, 13 November 2010) Personal recommendations are becoming more and more important on the Internet. Buyer power is increasingly being strengthened through "Like" buttons and other recommendations. Guest reviews have become one of, if not the most important "web currency" for hotels. Now, with myHotelRank, the Berlin-based travel technology specialist GIATA has developed an innovative tool for the efficient managing of hotel reviews, which can also generate bookings from GIATA's partner sites.
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