HOTELS

Right out of the gate in what should be a landmark year for the hotels (for better or worse) comes some potentially major news about one of the industry's biggest players.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has agreed to give right of first refusal to minority stakeholder Sam Zell's Equity Group Investments in the event that Starwood should pursue a company sale or merger.

Zell—a Chicago resident whose portfolio includes the foundering media conglomerate Tribune Co.—already controls about 8% of Starwood, but has been a mostly passive shareholder until now. 

Analysts aren't sure exactly what to make of this news, but it would seem at first blush to be a winner for Starwood, at least in...Read More

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While traveling the country over the past year, the cocktail columnist for The Wall Street Journal (who knew?) sampled the bartending prowess at many of America's great classic hotels. At each hotel bar he visited, Eric Felten ordered the old-school (and delicious!) Sidecar, along with the more obscure Americano Highball.

So who earned Felten's nod as America's best hotel bartender? That would be veteran Gus Tassopulos of The Champagne Bar at Hotel Bel Air, Los Angeles. "...Read More

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Hilton Hotels Corp.'s highly anticipated lifestyle brand will "probably" be called The Quinn. At least, that's according to a completely anonymous tip reported this morning by HotelChatter. 

Take the report with a huge grain of salt, for sure, but unlike other potential brand names being floated—for instance, the clearly tongue-in-cheek yet highly hilarious "H" suggested in the comments section of my previous post on the topic—The Quinn is so out-of-left-field that it seems at least plausible.

Anyone out there know of the origins of the Quinn name, or even what it refers to? And...Read More

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The industry's largest extended-stay hotel portfolio, Extended Stay Hotels, may be on the verge of being turned over to the banks, according to a scoop in this morning's Wall Street Journal. The newspaper reports that The Lightstone Group, which acquired the brand from The Blackstone Group last year in a highly leveraged deal, is in danger of defaulting on its loans.

The Journal ominously calls this "a sign of the deep trouble awaiting the commercial real-estate business."

Real estate blogger (and HotelChatter contributor) Andrew Calvo has a nice summary of the Extended Stay Hotels situation, including his belief that th...Read More

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Hilton Hotels Corp. has announced a press conference for January, during the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, to unveil the company's "new development concept."

The press invite reads in part: "One of HHC's core objectives is global growth; the news shared at this ALIS press event will outline impetus for growth and an exciting new product concept designed to meet the needs of an underrepresented segment of the market."

Brad Carmony, director of brand communications for Homewood Suites by Hilton, admitted to me this morning that the forthcoming announcement may be "the worst-kept secret in the industry."

Since Chris Nassetta came on board as president and CEO of Hilton a year ago, the company has been talking openly about its plan...Read More

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Street wanderers in New York, Los Angeles and London this weekend were treated to a guerrilla promotional campaign from Morgans Hotel Group, touting the company's new microsite, RecessIsOn.com. The campaign featured projections onto buildings of a video of edgy images interspersed with a three-word tagline. The last two words were "the recession"; I can't tell you what the first word was, but it wasn't "buck."

The video is at RecessIsOn.com, if you're curious, and here's the press release from Morgans touting the campaign.

I think the unabashed vulgarity is a bit much, but honestly, in my opinion, it's not even the most off-putting thing about this campaign. 

That woul...Read More

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A commenter took issue with my blog post yesterday that praises Hotel Mela's effort to encourage guests to make TripAdvisor reviews, in exchange for discounted future stays.

Commenter "Stephen Dutton" writes: you are not going to give a negative review now are you!, its close to bribery to get your Tripadviser rating higher, and more exposure for your Hotel by using this sort of Blog remarks, Is it distorting the idea of a fair review and that future guests need a fair comment...not paid comment

The commenter raises some legitimate ethical questions. Let's examine them.

Argument 1: Guests are not going to post a negative review if a discount incentive is dangled in front of them. I think this argument is wrong on its face. ...Read More

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It's refreshing to stay at a hotel that gets Web 2.0 because, as a Millennial myself, it makes me feel like the hotel gets me.

So, I was immediately excited about New York City's Hotel Mela when, upon arriving in my room, I found the scratch-off card below that encourages guests to leave a review on TripAdvisor.com in exchange for a discounted stay next time around (10%, in the case of my card).

My first thought? "Hey, cool, I know that Web site!"

But this was my second, far more meaningful thought: "If this hotel is actually reminding me to go on TripAdvisor, it must be confident that I'll have a positive experience, and that's a ...Read More

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Back in 2005, when I was a lowly newspaper reporter making barely enough to pay the rent, my Chicago White Sox were in the midst of what would prove to be the greatest season in the franchise's 108-year history. Determined not to miss out on witnessing an ultra-rare Chicago World Series, I set about frantically seeking ways to circumvent ticket-scalper markups that I just couldn't afford.

I came upon a Web site that let users buy and sell "options" on future sporting events—you'd pay market price plus a commission for the right to buy tickets at face value for postseason games involving your chosen team. The catch was, if your team failed to make the playoffs, you were out the cash. You could also resell the options at a later date for a profit (or loss).

The concept has now been extended ...Read More

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Fresh on the heels of the Hotel Evolution guest services application for the Apple iPhone comes news from the tech vendor Docomo interTouch of prototype software that would enable guest mobile phones to become comprehensive guestroom automation devices.

Among the capabilities of Docomo's tentatively named hYspace technology is control of room lighting, temperature and television channels. hYspace will get its public unveiling at the upcoming Equip'Hotel exhibition in Paris.

From the press release: "hYspace has been developed with the objective of becoming the ultimate convergence solution for hotels by serving as the centralised man...Read More

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A couple months ago, news out of Germany reported that some 5-star hotels there were intentionally skimping on services and amenities in order to get official government ratings agencies to demote them to 4-star properties. The thinking was that in an economic downturn (can we just call it a recession at this point?), travelers in general and business travelers in particular would be dropping down a star level to feel slightly more frugal.

My initial reaction was to find the German ratings manipulation a little bizzare; the hotels weren't dropping their prices, only their service, so it seemed to me the strategy would drive away both luxury clients and folks actually searching by rack rate.

...Read More

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Malibu Beach Inn is piloting what is probably my favorite piece of guest-facing technology I've heard about all year.

The California software firm Runtriz has created an application for the iPhone, called Hotel Evolution, that literally puts the hotel's guest services menu in the palm of your hands. 

Here's a summary from the gadget blog MobileCrunch: 

"Once you&rsq...Read More

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