Woman Dies After Fall Inside Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor

A young woman whom witnesses said plunged from a mezzanine level at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center  in Oxon Hill around 2:30 a.m. New Year's Day has died of her injuries, Prince George's County police said.

Witnesses told police the woman jumped, acting Major Paul Cruz said in a press release.
The woman had entered a closed off lounge area before falling 18 to 20 feet  to the atrium level inside the hotel, said Amie Gorrell, a spokeswoman for the hotel.

Read More:

Man killed outside Cosa Mesa Hilton

A Dana Point man was in custody Saturday on charges of homicide and attempted homicide after a knife fight left one man dead outside the Hilton hotel in Costa Mesa early New Year's Day, police said.
The fight occurred about 2 a.m. near the valet parking area of the hotel at 3050 Bristol St. after a New Year’s party that had drawn more than 1,000 people, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Bryan Glass said.

Read More:

New Hampshire Bill would allow bars, restaurants to advertise happy hour

DOVER — The words, "Happy Hour," could once again be advertised by local restaurants and lounges if a recently elected state senator gets proposed legislation through.

Newly-elected New Hampshire State Senator Nancy Stiles is planning to introduce a bill that would let bars and restaurants advertise a happy hour outside their establishments.
Read More:

Majority Owner of Budget Portfolio Properties files for bankruptcy

A joint venture with a majority stakeholder based in Pittsburgh has filed for bankruptcy protection to avoid a $69 million foreclosure filing by Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. Downtown-based FFC Capital Corp. is the portfolio manager and has a 90 percent stake in Budget Portfolio Properties LLC, a venture that owns 22 hotels in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois and Texas.

Crain's Chicago Business reported this week that Citizens Bank had filed foreclosure cases for properties around Chicago seeking a return on a loan of nearly $66 million with accrued interest and late fees, according to filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sherman, Texas.

Read More:

Kerzner upset with Baha Mar hotel deal

Kerzner International executives and the Prime Minister are remaining tightlipped for the time being on the outcome of a meeting recently held between Atlantis owner, Sir Sol Kerzner, and Mr Ingraham in which the hotelier's concerns about the $2.6 billion Baha Mar development were discussed.
 
Confirming that a "closed door" meeting did take place recently between Mr Ingraham and Sir Sol, senior vice-president of public affairs for Kerzner International (Bahamas), Ed Fields, said the company had no comment it could offer on the outcome at this time.

Meanwhile, pressed about the result of the Sir Sol meeting and the Government's response to his concerns over the Baha Mar project - including the alleged breach of contract perpetrated by the Government through giving the Baha Mar developer a "more favourable" agreement than Kerzner International got when building Atlantis - the Prime Minister told this newspaper on Wednesday: "Stay tuned!".

Read More:

New Brunswick Canada government looking to sell off hotel assets

For sale: Larry's Gulch, an exclusive salmon fishing retreat located on an eight-kilometre stretch of the Restigouche River. The property includes a series of cedar-shingled buildings and access to a famed fishing hole, where former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former U.S. President George Bush Sr. each dipped a line. Asking price: $1.2 million. Potential buyers should contact David Alward, premier of New Brunswick.

At this point, the Alward government fervently insists there are no plans to sell Crown-owned corporations and properties. But recent actions reveal the Conservatives are at least curious about the public's appetite for privatization.

Read More:

Creditors turn $555m Dubai Holding debt into new loan

Dubai and its government-linked companies have notched another in a series of financial restructurings, with a division of Dubai Holding agreeing with creditors to convert US$555 million (Dh2.03 billion) of debt into a new five-year loan.

Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group (DHCOG), a unit of Dubai Holding that owns the Burj Al Arab hotel and the free-zones operator TECOM, reached the accord after months of negotiations with banks. The deal was announced in an e-mail late on Thursday. Dubai Holding is owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The $555m revolving loan was originally due last July. With banks reluctant to refinance after the global financial crisis and DHCOG short of cash to repay the debt on schedule, however, the division received a two-month repayment extension as talks began about a restructuring. DHCOG lost about $6.2bn in 2009.

Read More:

Las Vegas hotel sued over harassment complaints

A Las Vegas hotel is being sued by a federal agency after multiple female employees complained that a male supervisor groped them.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas against the JW Marriott Las Vegas resort.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that the lawsuit says the supervisor rubbed against the female employees, placed his tongue into their ears and regularly made offensive remarks to them starting in 2003.
The lawsuit claims the hotel permitted the harassment.

Read More:

Fire breaks out in Seattle Crowne Plaza

A fire in a high-rise hotel in downtown Seattle was extinguished quickly Friday, and there were no injuries.
The fire in Crowne Plaza Hotel at 1113 Sixth Avenue began in a machine room. Flames shot from the 34-floor building and were visible from Interstate 5 about 4:30 p.m.

Seattle Fire Department Deputy Chief Earl Sodeman said the fire broke out on the 24th floor in an unoccupied room.

Read More:

Hotel employee jailed for having Sex with guest

(Hospitality Business News) December 30, 2010 - According to local reports a South African hotel employee who was working in Dubai was sentenced December 28, 2010 to six months in jail for having sex with a guest and getting an abortion when she became pregnant.

The woman was charged with committing zina, the Sharia offence of having sex outside of wedlock, and of aborting a 4 month old fetus. The maximum sentence is 100 lashes and five years in prison.

Read More:

Court detains three in hotel fraud

 (Hospitality Business News) December 30, 2010 - - - According to reports a Nigerian court has ordered three persons remanded in custody for their alleged involvement in a failed deal to construct a 5-star hotel in Minna.

The accused persons, Tanko Angulu, Mohammed Balaba, and Musa Wara, through SOCACIC West Africa Ltd, signed an MOU with the Niger State government to build a 5 star hotel with a total cost of N25 billion (US$ 165,000,000).

The Commissioner of Justice stated that once the MOU was signed the Government released it’s portion of the “counterpart fund” to the contractor. An amount of N500 million (US$3.3M). The Commissioner further explained that the contractors failed to start the project.

Read More:

Hard Rock Hotel hit with $500,000 fine over drugs

Even after Nevada casinos were warned that drug use and other illegal activity wouldn't be tolerated in nightclubs and other venues, Las Vegas Hard Rock hotel-casino employees and supervisors broke the law by selling drugs and providing private restrooms so patrons could have sex and take drugs.
That's according to the state Gaming Control Board, which filed a complaint against the hotel-casino Wednesday.

Without admitting or denying the allegations, the Hard Rock agreed to settle the matter by paying a $500,000 fine and paying $75,000 apiece to the Gaming Control Board and Metro Police to cover investigative costs.

Read More:

Police suspect a second case of arson in less than 24 hours

Police are investigating a suspicious fire at an Italian restaurant in Saint-Leonard, the second suspected case of arson at a restaurant in less than 24 hours.
The first floor of a commercial building housing Ristorante Rimi at 8760 Pascal Gagnon St was apparently set ablaze at around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday evening.
Firefighters found two broken windows in the rear and Montreal police say the back door of the building was broken into.
A resident saw smoke coming from the restaurant and called the fire department, allowing them to quickly get the fire under control before it spread to the second floor of the building.
The incident came one night after another suspected firebombing at Café Calypso in Montreal North just after midnight very early Wednesday morning.

Read More:

Primm hotel furnished from bankrupt Vegas casino

Dressers, chairs and night stands once destined for the Las Vegas Strip have been moved to a casino near the California-Nevada border after its owners bought the furnishings from billionaire Carl Icahn.

Furnishings sold from the shuttered Fontainebleau Las Vegas project are now in Buffalo Bill's, a casino-hotel along Interstate 15 in Primm. Even some of the carpeting intended for the Fontainebleau has been installed in the corridors of the 1,242-room hotel at Buffalo Bill's.

The furniture cost about $1.5 million, part of a nearly $3 million remodeling of Buffalo Bill's, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The casino about 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas shut down last month to remodel guest rooms, add a Denny's Restaurant and introduce an energy efficiency program. It reopened Dec. 23.

Read More:

Elbit Imaging sells stakes in 3 London hotels

Elbit Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT) today sold its holdings in three London hotels for ₤21 million to its partner in them, Park Plaza Hotels Ltd. (AIM:PPH). The deal comes a day after it bought seven shopping centers in the US.

Elbit Imaging, controlled by chairman Mordechai Zisser owned 45% of the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel and the Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes Hotel and 50% of the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel. Park Plaza, controlled by chairman Eli Papouchado, manages the hotels. Park Plaza will also assume Elbit Imaging's ₤11.9 million guarantees to Aareal Bank AG.

Read More: