Courtyard Hotels In San Diego | "NYC's 'Hotel Week' Offers Rooms As Low As $100 A Night"

Source           :     usatoday.com
Category      :     Courtyard Hotels In San Diego
By                :     Nancy Trejos
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Courtyard Hotels In San Diego

For eight days in January, it will be very possible. The third annual Hotel Week NYC kicks off Jan. 3 and runs until Jan. 12. This time, 30 hotels will participate. The deal works like this. Hotels will offer fixed rates of $100, $200 or $300 a night, taxes not included. Some of the hotels typically charge up to $500 a night. For $100, you'll find such hotels as the Affinia Manhattan and Pod 39. For $200, you can get a room at the uber trendy Ace Hotel and the new Jade Hotel in Greenwich Village. On the higher end, you can book a room at The James New York and Thompson LES. Here's what you need to know: Be sure to mention "Hotel Week" when you call to book. But some hotels will let you book through their website. And, of course, the deal is subject to availability.For eight days in January, it will be very possible. The third annual Hotel Week NYC kicks off Jan. 3 and runs until Jan. 12. This time, 30 hotels will participate. The deal works like this. Hotels will offer fixed rates of $100, $200 or $300 a night, taxes not included. Some of the hotels typically charge up to $500 a night. For $100, you'll find such hotels as the Affinia Manhattan and Pod 39. For $200, you can get a room at the uber trendy Ace Hotel and the new Jade Hotel in Greenwich Village. On the higher end, you can book a room at The James New York and Thompson LES. Here's what you need to know: Be sure to mention "Hotel Week" when you call to book. But some hotels will let you book through their website. And, of course, the deal is subject to availability.

Source : usatoday.com/story/dispatches/2013/10/24/new-york-hotel-week/3157329/

Luxury Hotels In San Diego|"Hotels Groups That Span The Seasons"

Source           :     telegraph.co.uk
Category      :     Luxury Hotels In San Diego
By                :     CLAIRE WRATHALL
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Luxury Hotels In San Diego

There is a school of thought that if you find an ideal holiday destination – a hotel or a villa that comes close to your idea of perfection – you should put from your mind the fact that there’s a whole world out there to explore, and keep going back year after year. Indeed, small exclusive hotel companies are developing property collections to nurture this very concept – to provide a hotel to meet their clientele’s every holiday desire, whether it’s for sun and sea, skiing or sightseeing – each, of course, in the same signature luxurious surroundings. Spend a few days at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc near Antibes, for instance, and I’d challenge you not to want to return as often as you could. It’s hard to pinpoint quite what gives it its allure. It goes without saying that the 19th-century villa, all tall mansards, oeil-de-boeuf windows and wrought-iron balconies, is beautiful; that its sumptuous rooms are supremely comfortable; and that the avuncular staff will treat you like royals. Perhaps it’s the view from the veranda, down the central allée that bisects with immaculate gardens, out across the glittering Bay of Cannes. Or the complete sense of bien-être that sipping a Bellini here engenders after a day spent lazing by the huge heated saltwater infinity pool or lunching languorously in one of the secluded waterfront cabanas, followed by a bracing swim out of one of the sunbathing pontoons.

Chat to your soigné fellow guests – French, American, German or British – and you’ll find many who came here as children and who return annually. They’re mostly au fait with the hotel’s sister establishments – in Paris, Provence and Baden-Baden. And such is their loyalty to the Oetker Collection of hotels, a still small privately owned company, that this winter, my hunch is they’ll be spending New Year in the Seychelles, on Frégate Island. If they are skiers, I’d hazard that they’ve also made bookings at L’Apogée in Courchevel. For the Oetker Collection is expanding at some speed. Until last year it consisted of just four hotels. By Christmas there’ll be nine. All hoteliers love return guests; there is no greater compliment or endorsement. But though of course loyalty to a single hotel doesn’t guarantee loyalty to a brand, there is a good chance that if you love a hotel, you’ll also find content at its sister establishments. Hence Oetker’s ambition to create a collection of hotels that cater to all its core clientele’s key travel needs – summer, winter, long haul, short haul, rural and city – and engenders the same loyalty. "Next we’d like to complement our current portfolio with two or three key city destinations: New York and London, for example," says its CEO, Frank Marrenbach. His plan is have 15 to 20 hotels under Oetker management by 2020. "Beyond that there’s a limit to the number we would want because individuality is important to us, and we don’t want to go beyond our ability to run complex distinctive hotels," he adds, stressing that each hotel needs a particular identity, its own look and feel.

L’Apogée – its name as redolent of its high-altitude ski-in, ski-out location in Courchevel 1850 as its lofty ideals of sybaritism – is a chalet built from scratch with 33 suites, 20 rooms and a spectacular penthouse, decorated by Joseph Dirand and India Mahdavi (she of the seductively stylish Coburg Bar at London’s Connaught). All the usual hotel attributes pertain: Yannick Franques, who holds two Michelin stars at Château de Saint-Martin, is overseeing the kitchen. The spa contains not just the usual pools and gadgets but an authentic Russian banya. And of course it practically goes without saying that the hotel has its own private ski lift. In light of this, one might assume a certain nervousness on the part of its chief rival in Courchevel 1850, Cheval Blanc, the first venture into hotel-keeping by Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which opened in 2005. Mais au contraire, for LVMH is not just confident that what it has to offer is at the acme of style, comfort and attentive service, but it too is building a hotel brand to cater for every sort of holiday, hence its first tropical resort, Cheval Blanc Randheli, which opens in the Maldives on November 1.  Last summer LVMH also acquired the Hotel Saint-Barth Isle de France on St Barts in the Caribbean, until then part, as it happened, of the Oetker portfolio.

Another small French independent, Maison & Hotels Sibhuet, best known for its flagship five-star Les Fermes de Marie in the ski resort of Megève, continued the trend this summer when it opened the every-bit-as-alluring Domaine de la Baume, a summer hideaway near Tourtour in Provence. And the trend is not restricted to France. Take the Marbella Club in southern Spain, which opened in 1954, making it the most venerable, not to mention the grandest hotel on the Costa del Sol. Like the Hôtel du Cap, the archetypal jet-set haunt became a magnet for the glitterati. Cast your eye over the hotels’ guest books and you’ll see several names duplicated: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Grace of Monaco, James Stewart, Gina Lollabrigida, Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot, Sean Connery… And like the Hôtel du Cap, it knows its guests like to ski in winter. Its founder, Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe, a German artistocrat drawn to that coast by his passion for powerboat racing, was a keen skier. "He always wanted a Marbella Club in the Sierra Nevada so that he and his friends could ski and play golf the same day, or the same weekend," says the hotel’s general manager Franck Sibille.

Last winter that dream became a reality when El Lodge opened, a two-hour drive away in the ski resort of Monachil. Though its core standards, values and many of the staff remain the same, it’s an entirely different proposition from the Marbella Club. Where the Marbella Club is very much a beach resort, El Lodge is the quintessential wooden chalet, its 20 guest rooms and public areas furnished (by the British designer Andrew Martin) with antler chandeliers, faux-fur throws, sheepskins and cowhide rugs. Not that this means they’ve taken their eye off the mother hotel, as it were. In anticipation of next year’s 60th anniversary, there is an ongoing major overhaul of all 121 rooms and suites by Jean Pierre Martel and Kamini Ezralowl; its already exemplary spa has been redesigned and refitted and in August the €30,000-a-night Villa del Mar opened after a wholesale renovation right on the beach. Perhaps inevitably all this has whetted an appetite for further expansion, to which end the Marbella Club’s owner, Daniel Shamoon, now has Bora Bora, Ibiza and London in his sights. An eclectic range of destinations, perhaps, but one that ensures whether it’s skiing, winter sun or a city break its clientele has in mind, it will have that option covered.

Source:telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/11557/sister-act-hotels-groups-that-span-the-seasons.html

Rancho Bernardo Hotels|"Arrest In Attack & Robbery At Gold Coast Hotel"

Source           :      chicagotribune.com

Category      :     Rancho Bernardo Hotels

By                :     Rachel Cromidas

Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Rancho Bernardo Hotels

A West Englewood resident was arrested Tuesday morning at his home and charged with robbing a man in his luxury Gold Coast hotel room last summer after the man called a massage service, county prosecutors said. Jherrell McMahan, 25, of the 6600 block of South Bishop Street, was brought to the Cook County Criminal Courthouse Thursday afternoon and ordered held on $150,000 bond. The 70-year-old robbery victim was staying at the Whitehall Hotel, 105 E. Delaware Place, on Aug. 23 when he returned to his hotel room, called for a massage service and unlocked the door, prosecutors said. Instead of a masseur, McMahan came into the room with an unnamed co-offender and knocked the hotel guest to the ground, prosecutors said. McMahan and the second attacker beat the man, stole his iPad and ripped his pockets open to retrieve his wallet, credit cards and cash, according to court records. They also threatened to hit him with a bottle of whiskey and a bike pump that were both in the hotel room before they fled in a getaway vehicle that was registered in McMahan's mother's name. McMahan has previous misdemeanor convictions for theft and prostitution, according to court records. This is at least his third arrest this year, but charges in the two other cases have been dropped. his home and charged with robbing a man in his luxury Gold Coast hotel room last summer after the man called a massage service, county prosecutors said. Jherrell McMahan, 25, of the 6600 block of South Bishop Street, was brought to the Cook County Criminal Courthouse Thursday afternoon and ordered held on $150,000 bond. The 70-year-old robbery victim was staying at the Whitehall Hotel, 105 E. Delaware Place, on Aug. 23 when he returned to his hotel room, called for a massage service and unlocked the door, prosecutors said. Instead of a masseur, McMahan came into the room with an unnamed co-offender and knocked the hotel guest to the ground, prosecutors said. McMahan and the second attacker beat the man, stole his iPad and ripped his pockets open to retrieve his wallet, credit cards and cash, according to court records. They also threatened to hit him with a bottle of whiskey and a bike pump that were both in the hotel room before they fled in a getaway vehicle that was registered in McMahan's mother's name. McMahan has previous misdemeanor convictions for theft and prostitution, according to court records. This is at least his third arrest this year, but charges in the two other cases have been dropped.

Source:chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-prosecutors-arrest-in-attack-robbery-at-gold-coast-hotel-20131024,0,374597.story

Affordable Hotels in San Diego|"Italian Restaurant Will Have Rooftop Hotel"

Source           :      kansascity.com
Category      :     Affordable Hotels in San Diego
By                :     JOYCE SMITH
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Affordable Hotels In San Diego

When Hotel Sorella Country Club Plaza opens on Nov. 6, its crowning glory will be a rooftop restaurant overlooking the south Country Club Plaza area on one side and the hotel’s rooftop pool on the other.Rosso (pronounced ROHS-soh), or red in Italian, will be a 4,000-square-foot modern Italian influenced restaurant — with a touch of Mediterranean.Starters such as the foie gras torchon (cherry, cacao, burnt basil brioche, candied fennel and duck fat ice cream), steeped black mussels (garlic, baby tomatoes, goat cheese, Peroni beer and fresh herbs), and Kansas wagyu beef Carpaccio.Antipasti including parma prosciutto, duck breast prosciutto, marinated artichokes, and grilled baby fennel.

Pizza/flatbreads including the Kansas City (barbecue beef brisket, smoked cheddar and spring onions), the salsiccia (house-made wild boar Italian sausage, roasted peppers and pecorino romano) and the funghi e prosciutto (Missouri harvested forest mushrooms, parma prosciutto and parmigiana reggiano).Pasta including gnocchi (grilled wild boar Italian sausage, roasted peppers and garlic, broccoli rabe, eggplant garlic chips and salami powder) and pescatore (spaghetti, clams, mussels, prawns, sea scallops, squid, garlic, red chiles and tomato fresca).Desserts will include house-made Nutella Moon Pie with hazelnut textures and bourbon.

Rosso also will have dry-aged Kansas City strip steak, citrus braised veal short ribs, pan roasted striped bass, cold water lobster cakes, baby chicken wrapped in house pancetta with grappa soaked apricots, and even “pork and beans” — made with pork belly and shoulder and braised butter beans.

Executive chef Brian Archibald studied at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and has worked at Daniel restaurant in New York, the Phoenician in Scottsdale, Ariz., and most recently at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel. Thomas Gagliardi is the hotel’s corporate chef. Gagliardi has worked at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in California. He also has opened two five-star hotels in Dubai. Rosso will be open 6:30 to 10 a.m. for breakfast and 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch daily, and from 5:30 to 10 p.m. for dinner Sunday through Thursday, and from 5:30 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The red/black/gray decor has floor-to-ceiling windows, cushy club-style banquettes and a bar area with white chandeliers and mosaic tile. It also has a more private dining area seating about a dozen people by its wine wall. As for the hotel, it has 132 luxury units, including nine suites and a presidential suite with a private terrace. Hotel Sorella Country Club Plaza is part of the Plaza Vista development. The office-hotel-retail project also includes the Polsinelli law firm, which has been moving 450 employees to the complex from its former downtown and Plaza offices this month.

Source : kansascity.com/2013/10/23/4572482/plaza-area-hotel-will-have-rooftop.html

Affordable Hotels in San Diego|" New Hotel In L.A. Celebrates Its Koreatown Surroundings"

Source           :      tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com
Category      :     Affordable Hotels in San Diego
By                :     MATT TYRNAUER
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Affordable Hotels in San Diego

A stately yet unstuffy hotel injects style into the vibrant Los Angeles neighborhood. In L.A.’s golden age, when streetcars clanged past urban orange groves and Carmen Miranda was Hollywood’s nod to ethnicity, the high life thrived on a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard near Vermont Avenue. Today, a generation after gang wars and riots sapped the life out of this district, it has re-emerged as the lively epicenter of the city’s Koreatown, bustling with restaurants, nightclubs and shops. The area has long been off the tourist map, but this is about to change with the opening of the Line in November.

The hotel’s creator, Andrew Zobler, is the man behind the Beaux-Arts-style NoMad Hotel in Manhattan and the cheap-chic Freehand Miami hostel. But the Line, designed by Sean Knibb, is something different for both Zobler and Los Angeles. Korean-American culture — or at least a high-end permutation of it — is the 388-room establishment’s organizing theme. ‘‘There is so much good stuff coming out of Korea today, and nobody has really captured that in a hotel,’’ Zobler says. Setting out to educate himself on Korean culture, he encountered the celebrated chef Roy Choi, who will preside over the hotel’s two restaurants: Pot, which serves a new take on hot-pot cuisine, and Commissary, a vegetarian eatery. The 24-hour thrum of the neighborhood inspired Zobler to make the hotel an all-hours social hub. There will be a late-night bakery, a newsstand that never closes and a nightclub that stays open until the wee hours, called Speek, created by the twin brothers Mark and Jonnie Houston, who grew up just four blocks from the hotel.

Source:tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/accommodations-a-new-hotel-in-l-a-celebrates-its-koreatown-surroundings/?_r=0

Weddings Hotels In San Diego|"Australia's First Tune Hotel"

Source           :     smh.com.au
Category      :     Weddings Hotels In San Diego 
By                :     Robert Upe
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Weddings Hotels In San Diego 

You'd expect some jitters when checking into a brand-new hotel on its opening day, but the young reception staff at the low-cost Tune Hotel are well rehearsed and oh so polite. There's no indication of stage fright from them at all. If I closed my eyes, I could be checking into one of Melbourne's finest and most seasoned hotels, such is the greeting at the counter.It's a budget property but everything is new and spotless. With brave colours of red and white, modern minimalist furniture and groovy music playing, this could be the deal of the year with an introductory rate of $39 a night, plus extras, almost in the middle of town.But the question is whether the rooms stack up to the excellent first impression.The Tune Hotel in Swanston Street, Carlton, is the first in Australia. It opened on October 21 with 225 rooms including twins, doubles and family size. The Tune Hotel Group is an offshoot of budget airline AirAsia and has a payment model similar to budget airlines.

Hotel guests initially pay a minimal room rate and then add on extras such as towels, toiletries, Wi-Fi and satellite television.

There's a downstairs lounge with sofas, tables and chairs, computers and even expensive fresh flowers neatly arranged in vases. When Melbourne heats up, there is also a sizeable and inviting courtyard scattered with chairs and tables. A restaurant and a cafe are scheduled to open. Car parking is available, but trams conveniently and constantly rattle by the front door into the CBD and there are bike racks close by where you can rent one of the city's blue bicycles.Now, for those rooms. They are small and basic and the bed almost fills the space that I pace out as nine steps by five steps on the vinyl flooring that looks like floorboards. There's also a small desk with lamp, a red moulded plastic chair, a luggage rack and a safe under the bed. There's a flat-panel TV on the white wall, a floor-to-ceiling mirror and digitally-controlled air-conditioning and heating. The bathroom with charcoal floor tiles and white wall tiles is tight but the actual shower space is large.A cafe serving wraps, sandwiches, pastries and coffee is scheduled to open on October 23 and a restaurant serving buffet breakfasts and Malaysian cuisine is scheduled to open in 6-8 weeks.

Just two blocks away, is Lygon Street with its Italian restaurants, pizzerias, cafes and bars. The street is book-ended by two Italian institutions - Toto's Pizza House at the city end and Tiamo towards North Carlton. But anywhere in between, there are countless touts willing you to pull up a chair inside or outside under the heaters and umbrellas that line the footpath on both sides of the street. Toto's, with its classic red-and-white checked tablecloths, was the first pizzeria in Melbourne (opened in 1961) and a large pizza costs about $17.90. Service great, portions large, but pizza quality could improve. Others to try include University Cafe and Papa Gino's.Melbourne's key city attractions - including its bustling lanes, Chinatown, Old Melbourne Gaol, Melbourne Museum, Queen Victoria Market and even the City Baths - are just a few tram stops away.

Source : smh.com.au/travel/review-australias-first-tune-hotel-20131022-2vy4r.html

Weddings Hotels In San Diego|"Nordic Hotel Billionaire Returns To Scene Of Biggest Failure"

Source           :     bloomberg.com
Category      :     Weddings Hotels In San Diego 
By                :     Saleha Mohsin
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Weddings Hotels In San Diego

Billionaire Petter A. Stordalen, Scandinavia’s biggest hotel owner, says the one time in his career that he did everything wrong ended up being a lesson in how to protect his fortune. The Norwegian national, who won a reputation for building his hotel empire at breakneck speed last decade, learned his lesson after rushing into the Danish market. He lost 800 million kroner ($133 million) from 2000 to 2011 following a property bust that forced him to sell all 12 hotels there. He has now returned to the scene, cherry picking two hotels in Copenhagen. “Last time we did business in Denmark we did everything wrong,” Stordalen, 50, said in interview over breakfast at The Thief, his newest six-star hotel in Oslo. “I expanded too fast. This time we do it differently with brands that are better defined, stronger management and a plan to stay only in Copenhagen.” The lessons are helping Stordalen build his empire, and his personal fortune, even as much bigger competitors including Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and InterContinental Hotels Group Plc (IHG) sell properties.

For the former triathlete, the trick is to make every hotel opening a lavish event that dazzles guests and steals newspaper headlines. In the past, that’s included arriving on a hotel roof by a bright blue helicopter. He’s even descended from a ceiling with a disco ball while playing drums for an opening in Gothenburg, Sweden. At a hotel opening outside Oslo, he set fire to a guitar for dramatic effect.“He’s untraditional in the way he communicates,” said Torgeir Silseth, chief executive officer of Nordic Choice Hotels AS, which has 171 hotels in the Nordic and Baltic regions. He’s worked with Stordalen since he entered the hotel business in 1996. “He talks about his kids, his worries when he wakes up at 4 a.m. and his worst fears. He’s much more open and sharing, way beyond what is normal in business -- a bit eccentric.” The approach has worked. Stordalen is now Norway’s ninth-richest man worth 10.2 billion kroner ($1.7 billion), according to an annual ranking by Norway’s Kapital magazine. The native of Porsgrunn, a small town about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Oslo, runs his business through the Home Invest Group, a private company which includes Nordic Choice Hotels, a property business and an investment firm. Stordalen’s companies had sales of 6.2 billion kroner in 2012.Stordalen became manager of a shopping center in Trondheim, northwest of Oslo, at the age of 24, before he finished college. Then in 1992, when a financial crisis in Norway pushed the shopping center operator Steen & Stroem ASA into bankruptcy, Stordalen rallied investors to save the business.

By selling off the individual stores and inventory, Stordalen said it took him and his two business partners 48 hours to transform a company with 45 million kroner in annual losses into a profitable enterprise. In 1996, Stordalen was fired as chief executive officer of Steen & Stroem after falling out with fellow billionaire, Stein Erik Hagen, one of the company’s largest shareholders. Stordalen sold his shares in Steen & Stroem to buy what was then called Choice Hotels, which had 40 hotels. During the first three years he bought one new hotel every other week, folding in on average 50 more employees with each purchase.“It was a time of a lot of commotion,” Silseth said. “It was mostly frustrating because so much happened and there were so many changes but the system, structure and organization was always behind. Speed is his strongest asset and is what built the company, but it’s also what could be dangerous.” Stordalen took Nordic Choice public in 2000, holding on to 40 percent to finance an expansion. By 2005, he was fed up with investors who couldn’t look beyond the next quarter’s bottom line and bought out the company for 462 million kroner.

Today, he doesn’t need help financing his business. “Cash flow is the most important thing,” Stordalen said.

Home Capital, the investment arm of Home Invest, has 1 billion kroner in bonds and shares. That, combined with returns in property business and his model of only borrowing up to 65 percent of the value on his properties, gives Stordalen the cash flow to expand his business. Over the next five years, he wants to add 29 hotels to the Nordic Choice chain. Last year he returned to the shopping center business, buying Sektor Gruppen AS and its 13 malls in Norway with a partner for 7 billion kroner.Stordalen’s next big thing is turning his entire empire into an environmentally friendly enterprise. He spent 20 million kroner on getting a green certificate on a recent hotel and his business is ranked the third most sustainable in Norway, according to the Sustainable Brand Index. “I want to show that it’s possible to do things differently -- to be environmentally and socially responsible and still earn money,” he said. “Tax is the cost of civilization and there can be no business on a dead planet.”

Source:bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-20/nordic-hotel-billionaire-returns-to-scene-of-biggest-failure.html

San Diego Vacation Hotels|"Burma Hotel Bombing"

Source           :     theguardian.com
Category      :     San Diego Vacation Hotels 
By                :     Associated Press
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

San Diego Vacation Hotels 

A man arrested over a hotel bombing in Burma in which an American woman was injured had been under surveillance for alleged involvement in the planting of a second device found at a restaurant the next afternoon, police said. Authorities moved in on Saw Myint Lwin, 26, after matching his photograph with images captured on the Traders Hotel CCTV, according to a statement issued by Mon state police on Tuesday. The 26-year-old rode his motorcycle through a barricade set up to apprehend him in Belin township, it said, but police caught up with him following a chase. It was not immediately clear if he had been charged. The explosion at Traders Hotel, one of Burma's ritziest, occurred in the heart of Rangoon. It was the most high-profile in a series of bombings that the government alleges is an attempt to tarnish the state's image as it emerges from decades of oppressive military rule. Officials said the attacks, which reportedly left two dead and several others wounded, appear to be organised, with a restaurant, two bus stops, Buddhist temples and a market all targeted. No one has claimed responsibility.

The homemade bomb, which went off just before midnight on Monday, was hidden in the bathroom in an American family's room on the ninth floor. There was no indication they had been targeted. On Tuesday afternoon, authorities safely detonated a bomb found at Western Park restaurant in Rangoon. Saw Myint Lwin was suspected of playing a role in that foiled plot, the Mon state police statement said, without elaborating. The government speculated the recent bombings were being organised by individuals or groups who want to smear the country's image as it prepares to take leadership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional grouping in 2014. Others have speculated the campaign was part of a backlash launched by Islamists in retailiation for anti-Muslim violence in the Buddhist state.

A US state department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said on Tuesday in Washington that she could not comment on any motive behind the bombings. She said the embassy released a security message to alert US citizens who reside in or are traveling to the country to the recent bombings. "While there is no indication at this time that any of these IEDs were specifically directed toward US citizens, the embassy asks that all US citizens exercise an appropriate level of caution," she said.

Source : theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/16/burma-hotel-bombing-second-device-rangoon

Weddings Hotels In San Diego|"AC Hotels By Marriott Will Open First U.S. Hotel In Miami Beach"

Source           :     hotelchatter.com
Category      :     Weddings Hotels In San Diego 
By                :     Collins Avenue
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Weddings Hotels In San Diego

Earlier this summer we were crazy excited about Marriott's plans to import their Spanish design hotel collection, AC Hotels by Marriott, into the U.S. The stateside version of the brand plans to keep its design-forward integrity as well as remain affordable. Oh and have free WiFi too. (Yes, a Marriott hotel brand with totally free WiFi is happening.) Now the Miami Herald reports that the first hotel will open in Miami Beach. Claro. Looking at the developer's Robert Finvarb Companies website, the address for the 150-room hotel is listed as 2912 Collins Avenue which puts it right across the street from the Edition Miami Beach, opening sometime next year. Interestingly, this developer is the same one behind the new Hyatt South Beach in the 1600 block of Collins Avenue. 

While detes are scant on the developer's site, you can expect the following from the hotel:

• The design influence of AC--Antonio Catalan which Marriott's Brian King described in June as "sleek sophistication." 
• "An unusual bath experience" whatever that may be. 
• The AC Lounge in the lobby which will offer guests a selection of wines, tapas and other shared plates, as well as a full breakfast buffet. 
• The AC Library also in the lobby which will have wide communal tables for working and socializing along with locally relevant reading materials.

No word on the price point but we hope Marriott will make good on their promise of "affordability" and keep rates somewhere around $150-$200. This is still a select-service brand, after all. Meanwhile, we found mention of another AC Hotel by Marriott for the U.S. in Tuscon, We're guessing New York and Chicago are in the mix as well.

Source:hotelchatter.com/story/2013/10/8/18912/3661/hotels/AC_Hotels_By_Marriott_Will_Open_First_U.S._Hotel_in_Miami_Beach_%28Across_From_The_Edition%21%29

San Diego Vacation Hotels|"Where The Walls Still Talk"

Source           :     vanityfair.com
Category      :     San Diego Vacation Hotels 
By                :     Nathaniel Rich
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

San Diego Vacation Hotels 

Today the halls of the Chelsea Hotel are salted with dust. The hundreds of paintings that adorned its walls have been locked away in storage. The doors to abandoned apartments are whitewashed and padlocked. Hotel operations ceased in 2011 for the first time in 106 years, and now the few remaining residents roam the echoing corridors like ghosts. They have watched workers haul out antique moldings, stained glass, even entire walls. Ancient pipes ruptured during renovations, flooding apartments, and neighbors returned home from work to find their front doors sealed in plastic wrap. The Chelsea’s new owners say that the building had fallen into dangerous disrepair, and they are restoring it to its original condition. Some residents believe that they are being forced out, and that the Chelsea as they know it—and as it was known to residents from Sherwood Anderson and Thomas Wolfe to Sid Vicious and Jasper Johns—will soon vanish before the city’s merchant greed.

Dystopias always begin as utopias, and the Chelsea is no different. Though in its current state it bears an unfortunate resemblance to Los Angeles’s Bradbury Building as transfigured in Blade Runner, the Chelsea was originally conceived as a socialist utopian commune. Its architect, Philip Hubert, was raised in a family devoted to the theories of the French philosopher Charles Fourier, who proposed the construction of self-contained settlements that would meet every possible professional and personal need of its inhabitants. After the stock-market crash of 1873, Hubert decided New York was ready for its own Fourierian experiment and devised a plan to build cooperative apartment houses in New York City. Tenants would save money by sharing fuel and services. Hubert’s creations—New York City’s first co-ops—were tremendously successful, and none more so than the Chelsea, which opened in 1884. Keeping with Fourier’s philosophy, Hubert reserved apartments for the people who built the building: its electricians, construction workers, interior designers, and plumbers. Hubert surrounded these laborers with writers, musicians, and actors. The top floor was given over to 15 artist studios. Hudson River School paintings hung in the common dining rooms, and the hallways and ceilings were decorated with natural motifs. At 12 stories, the Chelsea was the tallest building in New York.

But Hubert’s grand experiment went bankrupt in 1905, and the Chelsea was converted to a luxury hotel, which was visited regularly by guests such as Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and the painter John Sloan. After World War II, as the hotel declined and room prices fell, it attracted Jackson Pollock, James T. Farrell, Virgil Thomson, Larry Rivers, Kenneth Tynan, James Schuyler, and Dylan Thomas, whose death in 1953 further enhanced the hotel’s legend. (“I’ve had 18 straight whiskies,” said Thomas, after polishing off a bottle of Old Grandad on the last day of his life. “I think that’s the record.”) Arthur Miller moved into #614 after his divorce from Marilyn Monroe. Bob Dylan wrote “Sara” in #211; Janis Joplin fellated Leonard Cohen in #424, an act immortalized in “Chelsea Hotel #2” (“you were talking so brave and so sweet/giving me head on the unmade bed”); Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy Spungen to death in #100. Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Chelsea, William Burroughs wrote The Third Mind, and Jack Kerouac had a one-night stand with Gore Vidal. In 1966 Andy Warhol shot parts of Chelsea Girls at the hotel. In 1992, Madonna, a former resident, returned to shoot photographs for her Sex book. Christo and Jeanne-Claude once stole the doorknob from their bathroom door for an art project; the doorknob is now in the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum.

In its last half-century, the Chelsea was run as an informal artists’ colony. Artists traded paintings for rent, or lived for free, subsidized by the exorbitant rates paid by the troubled children of the hyper-rich—another demographic that has historically been drawn to the hotel. Tourists from all over the world paid for cheerless rooms and the opportunity to sit in the moldering lobby and gawk. The curator of this living museum, the gatekeeper responsible for deciding who should be allowed admittance and for how much, was Stanley Bard. His father, David, had been one of three partners who bought the declining hotel in 1943; Stanley assumed management in the early 1970s. An institution himself, he’s been called everything from “the best loved landlord in history” to “the biggest starfucker of all time.” But six years ago, he was forced out by the heirs of the other two ownership families, who wanted to sell the hotel against his wishes, and two years ago the Chelsea sold to the real-estate magnate Joseph Chetrit for approximately $80 million. Chetrit, who refused to talk to the press, has recently sold the property to King & Grove, a boutique-hotel chain, which is currently overseeing a $40 million renovation.

So far, the promised “re-invention” of the Chelsea has not gone well. Some of the building’s remaining tenants, alleging that Chetrit had tried to bully them into vacating their apartments, filed a lawsuit alleging hazardous living conditions and intimidation. The tenants’ efforts drew the support of former residents, architectural historians, and local politicians. That suit settled two weeks ago, but the building still resembles a construction site, and tenants who did not receive a settlement complain that little has changed. I set out to chronicle its history in the words of those who have lived, worked, caroused, and died there. This is the story of the Chelsea Hotel as told by its past and future ghosts.

Source : vanityfair.com/culture/2013/10/chelsea-hotel-oral-history

San Diego Vacation Hotels|"Hotels Go to Extra Lengths For The Repeat Customer"

Source           :     nytimes.com
Category      :     San Diego Vacation Hotels 
By                :     HARRIET EDLESON
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

San Diego Vacation Hotels

When Leslie Ciminello arrives at the Hotel 1000 in Seattle, she knows milk and cereal will be waiting in her room’s refrigerator. Lactose-free milk and gluten-free cereal, that is.It’s one of the small but significant ways the hotel has kept her coming back. Ms. Ciminello, 33, is on the road almost half the time as part of a sales team for a Boston-based technology company. How far will a hotel go to attract and keep a business traveler like Ms. Ciminello? Pretty far, say industry experts and business travelers who reap the benefits of the competition. As hotel occupancy rebounds from the depths of the recession and room rates increase, hotels across the country are increasingly emphasizing personalized services that do not show up on any list of amenities. The goal is to win the battle for the repeat customer. “The loyal, engaged guest is driving large amounts of revenue,” said Casey Ueberroth, senior vice president for marketing at Preferred Hotel Group. “If you take care of that guest, he keeps coming back.”

Ten percent to 15 percent of companies make up as much as 60 percent of the revenue, he said. The repeat customer is the one who stays at the same hotel 15 to 20 times a year. “That’s family,” he said. As a result, he said, hotels now must “do more, more, more to engage those travelers.” Ms. Ciminello, for example, has stayed at Hotel 1000 in Seattle, a member of Preferred Hotel Group, 130 times in six years. It took some effort to win her repeat business. After 25 visits, the hotel rewarded her, and it was not with loyalty points. “You’ve been here 25 times, here’s a free massage,” she recalled being told. “You’ve been here 60 times, here’s a facial or a spa pedicure. Sometimes they’ll let me choose what I want. You could never get that kind of attention anywhere else.” A Deloitte survey released in January showed that only 8 percent of respondents said they always stayed at the same brand of hotel. “People want to get things that are important to them,” said Adam F. Weissenberg, vice chairman for the hospitality and leisure practice at Deloitte.

For hotels, the target customers are business travelers who are on the road up to 50 percent of the time because they can keep rooms full. They typically pay more because their dates are not flexible. “It is about capturing that guest who is going to be loyal to your hotel,” said Scott D. Berman, a principal at the accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Hotels are expanding loyalty programs, expanding product offerings to satisfy what the most loyal guests want.” Despite the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, hoteliers realize that they must use technology without losing track of the personal interactions and amenities needed to attract travelers. “It’s a very competitive landscape,” said Paige Francis, vice president for global marketing at Aloft Hotels, which is owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts. “There are a lot of options for travelers to choose from.”

Before, hotels were competing “on some of the basics — a great bed, free Wi-Fi, a great shower,” she said. Now, they are competing on amenities and services that are far beyond the basics — live music from emerging artists, interior design, personalized service based on knowing the individual guest — essentially differentiating the product and the service. “In a hotel, you’re only as good as your last guest,” said Tawny Paperd, director of sales and marketing for Hotel 1000 in Seattle. Hoteliers say marketing dollars tend to be a relatively small percentage of total revenue or total spending, typically 6 percent to 9 percent, and what falls into marketing varies. In short, the intangibles — including human interaction — are a large part of what makes one hotel different from another. To win repeat customers, hotels aim to create environments that will substitute for family or home for business travelers. “We create social engagement: taking care of people one-on-one,” said Eric Jellson, area director for sales and marketing at Kimpton Hotels/Epic Hotel in Florida. “We believe that there is still room for that personal engagement and personal relationships.”

For example, he said: “When you are not feeling good, someone sends up some soup. They may be missing their family so the hotel becomes their family.”Besides personalized service, hotels have added amenities to help business travelers maintain their regular routine as much as possible while they are on the road. They aim to create places that will draw travelers as well as local residents, and create word-of-mouth referrals.“People want to feel like they’re part of a community and want to interact with each other,” said Paul Pebley, director of sales and marketing at JW Marriott Marquis in Miami. “If you’re a good hotelier you’re talking to your guests all the time.”

The hotel, which opened in fall 2010, has a yoga studio, an indoor golf school, billiards, a bowling alley and a basketball court. The aim is to create activities “that your competition doesn’t have,” Mr. Pebley said. “Because you’re traveling doesn’t mean you have to miss your yoga class.” When Chad Mann, 41, a senior field pricing analyst with Terremark, a subsidiary of Verizon, travels from Herndon, Va., on business, he said he preferred an environment that is both a quiet place to work and a lively place to interact with others. More times than not you’re governed by your corporate travel policy,” he said. Having lived in Miami from 2007 to 2011, he watched the JW Marriott Marquis being built. “There’s so much to do and you can go up to your room and it’s quiet.” As a frequent traveler, he is recognized by name, and, sometimes, upgraded to the concierge level where breakfast and an evening snack are available on the 39th floor.

Believing that amenities also attract travelers, in the summer, Kimpton Hotels began providing free use of three-speed cruiser bikes for hotel guests nationally. Last spring, the chain added in-room yoga mats. “We’re all working smarter to ensure we look after each and every guest,” said Jonathan Raggett, managing director for Red Carnation Hotels, whose hotels include some in London, the Channel Islands, South Africa and Geneva. The hotel knows a guest’s preferences and needs down to a favorite drink and any allergies. “You need a brilliant stay, an excellent stay to get repeat travelers,” he said.

Source:nytimes.com/2013/10/08/business/hotels-go-to-extra-lengths-for-the-repeat-customer.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0

Affordable Hotels in San Diego|"Makkah Hotels Not Losing Huge Money"

Source           :     arabnews.com
Category      :     Affordable Hotels in San Diego
By                :     JEDDAH
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Affordable Hotels in San Diego

An official from the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) has rejected claims that Makkah hotels are losing money this year because of the reduction in the number of local and foreign pilgrims. Abdullah Alsawwat, executive director of the SCTA in Makkah, said: “Indicators are refuting information being passed around by workers in hotels about the huge financial losses in the sector.” Alsawwat said the Umrah season was good this year. More than 5.3 million Umrah visas were issued, which meant a reduction of only 100,000 visas compared to last year. He said the government was considering demands from hotel owners to reduce the value of their contracts or cancel them completely. He said Makkah remains a promising city for the tourism sector and investors have operational and marketing plans to offset any financial crisis. “The SCTA is always working to develop tourism investment. It has opened 15 investment centers across the Kingdom,” Alsawwat said.

Officials at these centers guide investors to major tourism opportunities and discuss ways to make them successful. They also provide logistical and financial support. “The SCTA encouraged a number of investors after the last market crisis involving (swine flu) to move gradually from leasing to owning property, or sign new deals to share ownership,” he said. Alsawwat said there are 649 hotels with more than 135,000 rooms in Makkah. However, there are no accurate statistics about the location of many of these hotels. He said plans to develop the sector in Makkah are based on the directives of Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the SCTA. These steps include encouraging international companies to invest and employ Saudis. A hotel owner said earlier that Makkah hotels were forced to accept the 20 percent reduction in contracts this year. According to sources in the hotel sector in Makkah, around 90 percent of the hotels are leased. Many investors have not been able to keep up payments to hotel owners and are seeking a mediated solution, especially those with long-term leases.

Source : arabnews.com/news/466979

Affordable Hotels in San Diego|"Our Rooms Should Be Taxed Like Hotels"

Source           :     wired.com
Category      :     Affordable Hotels in San Diego
By                :     MARCUS WOHLSEN
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Affordable Hotels in San Diego

Airbnb — the company that lets you pay to stay wherever a stranger offers a room — is vowing to make nice with the tax collector, agreeing that its rooms in New York City should be taxed much like hotel rooms. It’s yet another step in the rocky evolution of the so-called sharing economy, where companies such as Airbnb attempt to facilitate a more fluid exchange of goods and services via the internet. Most of the clashes over what’s also being called “collaborative consumption” have taken place in the heavily regulated arenas of rooms and rides. Airbnb chalked up a victory in one of the most recent disputes. Instead of gloating, however, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky extended a self-interested olive branch. Following New Yorker Nigel Warren’s successful appeal of his $2,400 fine for renting out a room through Airbnb, Chesky said the company wants to work with New York City to create a clear legal framework for people to rent out their rooms and homes. “Our hosts are not hotels, but we believe that it makes sense for our community to pay occupancy tax, with limited exemptions for those who earn under certain thresholds,” he wrote. “We would like to assist New York City in streamlining this process so that it is not onerous.”

Chesky’s phrasing — “our hosts are not hotels” — is interesting because it frames the willingness to collect taxes as a concession. Sharing-economy businesses such as Airbnb tend to portray themselves as platforms for facilitating connections between private individuals. Airbnb isn’t running a hotel chain, the logic goes: it’s helping people extract value from an unused asset — in this case, an apartment that would otherwise sit empty while the tenant is away for the weekend. As such, Airbnb’s willingness to allow the collection of the city’s hotel occupancy tax is a way of making nice, versus an alternative approach such as, say, battling the city in court over the definition of “hotel.” If such a tax plan goes into effect, the money involved would probably be rather large. Airbnb says 15,000 people rent out their spaces through the company — 87 percent of them the homes in which they live, according to Chesky. In New York City, hotel rooms renting for $40 per night or more are taxed at a rate of $2 per day per room plus 5.875 percent of the rate. So, a one-bedroom apartment near Times Square listed for $139 with a minimum three-night stay would involve an occupancy tax of more than $36 total.

While that kind of extra charge might seem to cramp the sharing economy’s style, it’s the kind of compromise that seems inevitable. In California last month, the state’s public utilities commission passed the country’s first uniform regulations for ride-sharing, creating a legal framework for companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar. In effect, the rules require ride-sharing companies to follow the same safety and insurance standards as traditional taxi companies — standards the ride-sharing companies say they already exceed. Without such legal sanctions, however, the only other place sharing-economy disputes are likely to end up is in court. When it comes to who gets to share what with whom and who gets paid, conflict is inevitable. The only question is whether those conflicts get resolved through legislation or litigation.

Source : wired.com/business/2013/10/airbnb-taxes/

Weddings Hotels In San Diego|"US Parks Hotels Losing Millions"

Source           :     stuff.co.nz
Category      :     Weddings Hotels In San Diego
By                :      JENNIFER POLLAND
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Weddings Hotels In San Diego

Xanterra Parks & Resorts is the largest concessioner in the US National Parks system, operating hotels, restaurants, tours, and vendors in 21 national parks, including Yellowstone, Zion, Death Valley, Crater Lake, Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and Rocky Mountain National Park. Now, the company is losing millions of dollars thanks to the US government shutdown, which shuttered all "non-essential" federal services, including US national parks. Betsy O'Rourke, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Xanterra, said that this shutdown is costing Xanterra about a million dollars per day in revenue - and that's not including operating costs or the impact of future losses based on customers losing confidence in the company. "This is a busy time for us and has a huge economic impact," O'Rourke said. "Most of our lodges are sold out this time of year. It's a very very sad day with a significant impact. A lot of economic loss over politics."

By tonight, all guests who were staying inside a National Park hotel will be gone and the hotels will be officially closed. Guests who were already inside the hotels were given 48 hours to leave, while new arrivals were forced to find alternate accommodations outside the parks. O'Rourke said that the company is refunding customers on a day-by-day basis, since it's difficult to gauge how long the shutdown will last. They're making attempts to rebook customers but are finding that many people are hesitant to rebook since they don't know when the shutdown will end and parks will re-open. Even worse is the fact that many people's dream trips are ruined. People spend years planning their trips to national parks, travelling from all over the world to visit them.

And reservations at top lodges within some parks are hard to come by. Xanterra starts accepting reservations 13 months in advance at its hotels - a necessity in some of their most popular resorts, like the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park and El Tovar in the Grand Canyon. "When people come to our properties, these are bucket list trips," O'Rourke said. "They're once-in-a-lifetime trips. And it's not just people from the US. We have people who come in from all over the world. Right now we have calls coming in from travel agents in the UK, all over Europe, and Asia, asking about what they should do. It's terrible." And it's not just guests who are affected by the park closures. This time of year, Xanterra has about 3,500 employees working in the parks who are all forced to stay home.

But the Xanterra employees are lucky compared to National Park employees, who are going without pay during this time. Xanterra is continuing to pay its full-time salaried employees, despite the park closures. With a loss of a million dollars per day, there's no denying that Xanterra is feeling the devastating impact of the shutdown. "We're keeping our website up to date, so as we learn things we'll update our site," O'Rourke said. "We're doing that primarily so that anyone who had bookings with us can understand that they'll get refunds. But our phones are ringing off the hook and this is having a significant economic impact. Let's hope it ends soon."

Source : stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/9239577/US-parks-hotels-losing-millions

Affordable Hotels in San Diego|"Méribel: Hotels & Chalets"

Source           :     telegraph.co.uk
Category      :     Affordable Hotels in San Diego
By                :      Sophie Butler
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Affordable Hotels in San Diego

Méribel tends to be better known for its luxurious, catered chalets than for its hotel accommodation. There are more chalets offered here than in any other Alpine resort, and operators often offer in-house nannies and creches and free transfer services in and out of resorts – as few are within easy walking distance of the shops, bars and restaurants. However, Méribel and Mottaret offer a wide range of top-notch hotels, many with excellent spas and restaurants – the first five-star hotel, Le Kaila, in the centre of the resort, was added last season. Although not quite on a par with neighbouring Courchevel where huge Russian interest has caused rates to spiral, deep pockets are required here as prices are generally high.Unless otherwise stated, prices are per person per night, based on two sharing, half board. Hôtel Le Kaïla (lekaila.com) is Méribel’s first five-star hotel. It opened last season with 42 rooms, two suites and a ‘Nuxe’ spa with large pool, six treatment rooms, sauna, hamman and spectacular ice fountain. £180. Hotel Le Grand Coeur & Spa (legrandcoeur.com) had longstanding reputation as the resort’s top hotel, though recently usurped by new-comer Le Kaila. However its 34 rooms and five suites offer comfort by the bucketload and have superb slope or mountain views. £176.

Altiport Hotel (altiporthotel.fr) is situated above the resort at 1730m, at the foot of the Altiport lifts. It has a spa, brasserie and gourmet restaurant as well as 40 pine-panelled rooms. Its eight “chalet rooms” are good options for families with up to three children (under 12 years). £175 Hotel Mont Vallon (hotel-montvallon.com) has 92 rooms in an Austrian-influenced decor (wooden, carved furniture; pine-panelled walls; bold patterned fabrics), some with mezzanines, plus two suites and a four-bedroom penthouse. It also has two restaurants, a fitness room and indoor pool. £160 Hotel Les Arolles (arolles.com), although more modestly presented than its swishier counterparts in Meribel, lacks for nothing in terms of warmth and welcome. Staff are friendly and this 52-room hotel is found on the piste at the top of Mottaret. Food is good too and there’s a pool and sauna. £129 Hotel Allodis (hotelallodis.com) is a little off the beaten track, at Belvedere, but offers mountain views, a large terrace and an excellent restaurant. Also smartly presented rooms, good service and Spa des Neiges by Clarins. £125 Adray Télébar Hotel (telebar-hotel.com) is conveniently located by the Adret chair lifts at 1650m. This hotel has 27 rustic-style rooms and three lodges (exposed beams, rattan furniture, stone walls and large fireplaces) suitable for four people. Access by snowmobile, free to guests. £122

Le Merilys (merilys.info) is well situated at Rond Point. A b&b hotel with a selection of apartments alongside, the rooms are on the plain side but clean, comfortable and comparatively good value. Staff are friendly and expect a hearty breakfast. Doubles, with breakfast, from £70 per person.The French company, Pierre & Vacances (pv-holidays.com) offers two holiday apartment residences in the valley. These are Les Ferme de Méribel in Méribel Village and Les Crêts at Mottaret. For more options, the Uk self catering specialist Erna Low (ernalow.co.uk) can arrange accommodation in a wide range of privately-owned apartments and chalets in Méribel and surrounding villages.Meriski (meriski.co.uk) offers eight upmarket chalets that sleep six to 16 and caters particularly well for families with young children, providing nannies, creches and early teas. New this season is Chalet Tremblant, with five bedrooms, outdoor swimming pool and cinema room. Other good operators for families include Esprit Ski (espritski.com), which offers the large Chalet Hotel Alba (sleeping up to 66) next to the slopes at Rond Point, and Mark Warner (markwarner.co.uk), which has a choice of the six-bedroom Chalet Loden, 50m from the piste and ten minutes' walk to Chaudanne, and the larger Chalet-hotel Tarentaise, found by the green Perdrix piste at Mottaret.

Source:telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/france/meribel/6763516/Meribel-hotels-and-chalets.html

Luxury Hotels In San Diego|"Africa Becoming A Popular Market For Hotels"

Source           :     gulfnews.com

Category      :     Luxury Hotels In San Diego

By                :      Sarah Algethami

Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Luxury Hotels In San Diego

Africa is developing into a lucrative market for hospitality-related investments, according to industry experts at The Hotel Show in Dubai on Monday. Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to reach more than five per cent on average between 2013 and 2015, according to The World Bank. Guy Wilkinson, managing partner at Viability, a hospitality consultancy, pointed out that economists have said the region’s middle-class has grown and consumption is on the rise. Thus, there is potential for tourism to grow in Africa.“The total number of rooms [in the pipeline] is almost 40,000 [for Africa] at the moment, with just over 200 hotels — this is just from the chains and not all of them,” Wilkinson said, sourcing research by W Hospitality. He said that there are 5,000 hotel rooms that have been added to the pipeline over the last year. Some of the hotel operators that are present in Africa include Starwood and the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group.

Nairobi in Kenya is a popular destination for companies that want to operate in Africa due to its expanding business infrastructure, according to Wilkinson. He added that Kenya is known for leisure activities, including safaris. However, there are challenges to setting up hotels in the region. The cost of building a hotel in Africa is higher than in the Middle East. According to Steven W. Miller, senior Vice-President of business development at contractor Shapoorji Pallonji International, the cost is “15 to 20 per cent” more than what it costs to build a hotel in Dubai. Some of the reasons for this include the high cost of importing and storing supplies, as well as keeping expatriate staff, he said. Also, local banks have not developed a model to finance hotels, according to Meelis Kuuskler, managing partner at Hospitality Design Partnership.

Source : gulfnews.com/business/tourism/africa-becoming-a-popular-market-for-hotels-1.1237547

Weddings Hotels In San Diego|"Close Watch On Collapsed Hotel"

Source           :      tvnz.co.nz
Category      :     Weddings Hotels In San Diego
By                :      tvnz
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Weedings Hotels In San Diego

Engineers are closely monitoring what is left of the Copthorne Hotel in Christchurch following the building's collapse which forced demolition workers to run for their lives. The site has been closed down until a formal investigation is carried out into yesterday afternoon's collapse. Engineers were today combing the floors that pancaked so dramatically. They want to know why tonnes of concrete caved in unexpectedly with two demolition workers in close proximity. The collapse has triggered Health and Safety inspectors to launch a formal investigation. The driver of a nibbler was tearing away concrete on one of the floors when it happened. Scores of onlookers watched in shock. Eyewitness Ian Thornton said it looked to him "very much" like a close call. "I didn't know whether it was just dust hitting him or whether an actual building was coming down on him," he said, referring to one of the on-site workers.Barrier fences were hastily erected yesterday to keep motorists and pedestrians as far away from the building as possible.

And that was just as well because today a steady stream of Christchurch people headed down to take a look at the aftermath of the collapse. But the new barriers mean they can no longer get as close to the demolition site as they could yesterday. "It's quite dramatic, quite stark really," said John Warren, a Christchurch resident . "It happened so suddenly didn't it. And I'm just amazed that the workmen survived that." Despite hundreds of demolitions in the CBD since the February 2011 earthquake, there has only been one serious accident, a worker falling three metres during the massive Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition. Before starting work, all demolition companies had to sign a charter pledging to protect their workers. John Warren says the Copthorne Hotel collapse is "most probably a reminder there's still a danger in the city." Health and Safety inspectors have banned any further work on the hotel site until a new engineering assessment is complete.

Source : tvnz.co.nz/national-news/close-watch-collapsed-hotel-5592942

Weddings Hotels In San Diego|"100 Hotel Awards Winners"

Source           :     fodors.com
Category      :     Weddings Hotels In San Diego
By                :      Fodor's Editors 
Posted By   :     Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Weddings Hotels In San Diego

We are bursting at the seams with excitement—today is the day we reveal our carefully selected picks for our annual Fodor's 100 Hotel Awards! Chosen by our trusted travel experts on the ground and our Fodor's editors, these 100 hotels represent 2013's biggest global hospitality trends. This year, we chose eight unique categories—including Enduring Classics, Culinary Gems, Sleek City Addresses, and more—touching down in 43 different countries.

This list covers every corner of the globe, from Amsterdam to Zambia, and every type of hotel experience from sleek design-y hotels to exotic, secluded hideaways. From the best stays in perennial favorites like The Peninsula in Hong Kong and the Hyatt Union Square in NYC, to choice sleeps in new and emerging destinations, like Casa San Agustin in Colombia and Uma by COMO, Punakha, in Bhutan, this list not only spans the globe but speaks to all manner of themes and travelers' desires.

As Arabella Bowen, Fodor's Travel executive editorial director, remarks: "At Fodor's, hotels are more than our lifeblood—they're our passion." Since we're constantly researching and updating more than 7,500 destinations, we see new openings as they happen and trends as they emerge. Our founder, Eugene Fodor, believed that "you don't have to be rich to travel well." We take that mantra seriously. There's something for every budget here, from great values to once-in-a-lifetime splurges. Pick any of our Fodor's 100, and you will travel well.

Source : fodors.com/news/revealing-the-2013-fodors-100-hotel-awards-winners-7156.html

Affordable Hotels in San Diego|"The Big Bang Theory"

Source           :     au.ibtimes.com
Category      :     Affordable Hotels in San Diego
By                :      Anshu Shrivastava
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It is a rainy, stormy night at the North Sea and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) calls-up Leonard (Jonny Galecki). Leonard tells Sheldon that it is not the right time to call. "Hell to you, too," Sheldon says to him. Hello to the new season of "The Big Bang Theory" and the first episode of the seventh season, "The Hofstadter Insuffiency."Sheldon has called Leonard to complain about something important: "Back to the Future 2 was in the Back to the Future 3 case" and vice versa. Sheldon asks Leonard if he did that or if there is an intruder in the house who did that. Leonard gets knocked-down on the dock and tells Sheldon that he is going inside, while Sheldon thinks Leonard is dodging the question.  A dragon pops-out of the sea and pulls Leonard back into the sea and Sheldon gets-up with a scream. The conversation was Sheldon's dream and he bolts out of the bed and lands right in front of Penny's (Kelly Cuoco) door. "Penny (knock-knock) ... Penny (knock-knock) ... Penny (knock-knock)," Sheldon knocks at her door in his signature style."I was worried that you might be missing Leonard, Sheldon tells Penny when she opens the door with a big question mark look. "And that may be causing you to have bad dreams." Penny figures out that Sheldon had a bad dream. "Sweetie, did you have a bad dream." Sheldon confesses that he did have a bad dream and talk about "Back to Future 2" being in "Back to Future 3" case and Leonard doing that. He tells Penny, "Perhaps I should sleep here, so you don't miss Leonard this much. Cause you've been kind of baby about it." Penny says that it would make her feel better and Sheldon walks rights into her bedroom and closes it, saying "goodnight."

Raj (Kunal Nayyar) is missing his ex-girlfriend Lucy (Kate Micucci) and keeps talking about her, and that he sees her face everywhere and in everything. Sheldon tells him to get his mind back on the stars. Since Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) are at a neuroscience conference, Howard (Simon Helberg) offers to go with Raj to an event. Howard wants Raj to be happy, and Sheldon says that he also wants the same but not enough to do anything about it. Amy and Bernadette get calls from Sheldon and Howard, respectively. While Bernadette is having a romantic conversation, Amy is talking about bed-bugs and assuring Sheldon that she won't be bringing them (bed bugs) back. At Penny's place, Sheldon is arranging a 3D Chess set and Penny tells him that, "You always play with Leonard and you miss him." Sheldon replies: "You over-estimate his significance in my life" and goes on to talk about the things Leonard did for him. Penny agrees to play the game with Sheldon, but is eager to lose it as then the game will be over, while Sheldon wants to continue playing as he thinks it is too much fun. Penny is missing Leonard and wonders what he must be doing. Sheldon suggests that they should call him, but soon corrects himself and says that he is "an Island." Penny calls Leonard and keeps the speaker-phone on so Sheldon could also hear the conversation. Leonard is having a great time at the North-Sea. It is not at all a stormy night but he could be seen happily dancing with a group of girls when Penny calls him-up. Leonard tells Penny that he is having the best time of his life.

 "I can't believe we were missing that jerk," Penny says. Sheldon: "You were." Sheldon tries to comfort Penny in his Sheldon way. He asks Penny if she is worried that Leonard is having "drunken coitus with another woman" and reveals to her that Leonard asked him to take care of her. Penny puts forward the idea of sharing personal details that they don't know about each other. Sheldon talks about his nine pairs of pants and nine pairs of under-pants, and says that Penny must be having a thousand under-pants. Penny shares that she did a top-less scene in a low budget horror movie about a killer gorilla, and that she was ashamed about that. But, all was good as nothing ever came out. To her horror, Sheldon tells her that he has seen that movie as Howard found it out when they first met. Sheldon tells her about something that he would take to the grave. "A while back, you tube changed its user-interface from a star-base rating system to a thumbs-up rating system. I tell people I'm okay with it. But, I'm really not." Penny is disappointed to hear his big revelation. Sheldon tells her that "you just hurt my feelings" by treating the revelation as if it was nothing. Penny does not see why he must be hurt as it is no big deal. Sheldon tells her that it is a big deal to him and that is the point and Penny sees the point and hugs him.

Amy and Bernadette have their on and off moments, together. At the hotel's restaurant, two men send drinks to them and they are giddy about that as guys are hitting on them and not just Penny. Amy tells Bernadette she can have some fun with one of the men and no one would blame her. Amy is offended by that and asks whether she means that she "could do better than Sheldon.  "You're not married and your boy-friend is kind of Sheldon," Bernadette says. "And, your husband is extremely Howard," Amy replies. "What is your point?"

Later in the room, they share that it was flattering to see strangers send them some drinks and talk about the one they would pick out of the two men. They discover that Amy wants someone like the sex-crazy Howard, while Bernadette is picking the brainy-Sheldon kind. They switch-off the light and sleep-off.   

Raj is not making much head-way with the girls at the event despite his new-found ability to talk to them without the assistance of alcohol. Ms Davis (Regina King) from human resource is at the event, too.  Howard tells Raj that Ms Davis' husband left her for someone hotter and young. Raj tells Ms Davis about the infidelity among penguins and that they also get cheated on, but they are still adorable. Howard shakes his head and says, "It was better when you were not able to talk woman." Later, Raj approaches Ms Davis again and talks about his broken-heart and Lucy; and after a lengthy conversation, he tells her that it was good to connect with her at a human level. Ms Davis asks him, "Are you hitting on me." Back at the North Sea, Leonard is produdly showing the top-less scene of Penny to his ship-mates: "that is my girl-friend, I swear to god."

Source:au.ibtimes.com/articles/509469/20130927/big-bang-theory-season-7-premiere-episode.htm#.UkU3BtJi3-U