Yotel is bringing its tiny rooms to New York City. They will be opening a location in New York City featuring 669 cabins. This will mark the first Yotel opening outside of its current international airport locations. Yotel Times Square, located at 42nd Street and 10th Avenue will be part of Related Company's new complex which will include residential units and the Frank Gehry designed Signature Theatre. The flagship Yotel property is being co-designed by The Rockwell Group and Softroom and will feature a restaurant, bar, meeting rooms, a Club Lounge and a large outside terrace space.
Yotel Time Square will offer customers a 170 square foot space in which to relax, refresh, connect and sleep. The Yotel rooms can be rented hourly or overnight. The Yotel rooms include luxury bedding, rejuvenating monsoon rain showers, purple mood lighting and a "techno wall" with flat screen TV and complimentary WiFi. The rooms were inspired by first-class airline cabins.
Westin Hotels & Resorts has announced the launch of a branded storefront on Amazon.com. Westin Hotels has curated a collection of wellness focused products including merchandise from lbrands such as Gaiam, Kate's Paperie, Tea Forte and Riedel. The digital storefront will also retail signature Westin products including the 10-layer Heavenly Bed, Heavenly Bath amenity collection and signature line of White Tea scented candles and diffusers. Westin started selling product in 2000. To date, nearly 40,000 Heavenly Beds, 100,000 pillows, more than 32,000 sheets, and more than 10,000 signature Heavenly spa amenities have been sold.
CBS Newsreports that hotels are offering lots of unusual perks to get people to book rooms. Some of the perks offered include Harley Davidson motorcyles, surfing lessons, roller coaster rides, tattoo services and the use of a luxury car. The main reason for the perks is the hotel industry is struggling because of the weak economy and they need to do whatever they can to get more guests. Hotel occupancy rates have been falling despite falling room prices. Take a look:
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts is promoting recent renovations at its hotels by offering consumers the chance to win free rooms for one night only at 86 of its hotels throughout North America. Consumers can visit sheraton.com/freenight on October 6-9 to register for a chance to book a free room on October 23rd at its renovated flagship hotels including the Sheraton Waikiki, Sheraton Boston, Sheraton Kauai, Sheraton Dallas and Sheraton Phoenix Downtown.
Sheraton says it has invested more than $4 billion in new hotels, renovations and signature brand initiatives in North America and another $2 billion in new hotels overseas as part of a three-year overhaul. Highlights include 70,000 new or newly renovated guestroom, 300 new lobbies and 100,000 new Sheraton Sweet Sleeper high thread count beds.
Conde Nast Traveler has announced its 2009 Gold List. The list is the publication's guide to fine properties and cruise lines based on feedback from 32,000 Conde Nast Traveler readers. Conde Nast Traveler has posted the list online here on the concierge.com website. The list can be browsed by location, alphabetically and by award type. Each property listing includes a description, photo slide shows, location details and cost information. The listings also have a score using the following methodology..
W Hotels is launching a fashion line. Now why would a hotel chain launch a fashion line? WWD reports that it's not that strange of an idea for the chain.
The hospitality chain on Sept. 10 will introduce an extensive collection of apparel and accessories designed by 34 new and better-known talents such as Alex and Ani, Armand Diradourian, David Aubrey, Foley + Corina, Lauren Merkin, Sibilia, VIX and Wink. That evening, which is Fashion's Night Out, designers Rachel Leigh, Sandy Hyun, and Amy Vennema of A.V. Max will visit W Hotels the Store locations in Times Square and 541 Lexington Avenue.
This isn't W's first brush with fashion. To underscore its synergies with style, W has sponsored the Backstage VIP lounge at New York Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week for several years. "W is a design-led brand, therefore fashion is a tool to engage our guests in design," said Eva Ziegler, global brand leader of W. "The people we're after are trendsetters and fashion-forward. We have a passion for fashion."
The collection will be called Global Glam and has items priced from
$50 to $500. The hotel chain, which is owned by Starwood Resorts, is so serious about fashion that it is currently seeking to hire a fashion director for the W brand in the near future.
Bloombergreports that luxury hotels including Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Hilton Hotels and InterContinental Hotels Group are sacrificing stars in order to conserve cash. Hotel owners say maintaining stars is a huge financial burden.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., the U.S. owner of luxury brands including St. Regis and W Hotels, will let some of its properties reduce their level of service -- and number of stars -- until the industry begins to recover, spokeswoman K.C. Kavanagh said. Hilton Hotels Corp. and InterContinental Hotels Group Plc have already cut the ratings for some locations.
"Maintaining stars requires enormous capital investment," said Stephen Bollenbach, who retired as Hilton's chief executive officer when Blackstone Group LP bought the company in 2007. "Ratings aren’t based on making good returns on your investment."
The hotels must need the cuts in order to stay profitable. Maintaining a 5-star hotel requires a very high level of attention to customers and to detail. There are specific rules for welcome gifts and the type of ice buckets that must be used. There are even snack requirements.
To qualify for five stars, the highest rating, hotels must provide "an exceptionally distinctive environment offering consistently superlative, personalized service," according to Mobil Travel Guide, which lays out specific requirements. There should be a welcome gift and "something noteworthy and thoughtful" should be left on the pillow during turndown service, while ice buckets need to be glass, metal or stone and there have to be tongs.
Room-service customers who order wine by the glass should be presented the bottle as the wine is poured in the room, and bar or lounge customers must be automatically offered "at least two types of premium quality snacks," according to the guide. If the hotel has a pool, guests arriving for a swim should be escorted to their chairs and offered refreshment.
The Bloombergarticle quotes luxury hotel owner Lewis Wolff, co-chairman of Martiz, Wolff & Co., as saying, "If a five-star hotel was downgraded to a four star, most people would be just as happy."
"A lot of things we all got drunk over can be eliminated and reduced to being less intrusive and hence more economical,” said Lewis Wolff, co-chairman of Martiz, Wolff & Co., owner of luxury hotels including the Ritz in St. Louis, Missouri, a Four Seasons in Toronto and Houston and the Carlyle in New York. "If a five-star hotel was downgraded to a four star, most people would be just as happy."
They may be "just as happy" but they won't expect to pay a 5-star price.
Photo of the lobby of the Hilton Plaza in Vienna which already abandoned its 5-star rating drop to a 4.
Hotels Near Neverland Ranch Hope Michael Jackson Fans Keep Coming
Michael Jackson fans have been flocking to see the pop star's old home, Neverland Ranch, since his death several weeks ago. Some hotels in Santa Barbara area are hoping that Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch continues to draw curious tourists. The Union Hotel in Los Alamos, California is one such location. Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson filmed the video "Say, Say, Say" in the Union Hotel. Take a look:
The Standard Partners With Quiksilver for Boardshorts
The Standard hotels have partnered with Quiksilver for a line of boardshorts. Inspiration for the boardshorts was taken from The Standard's four locations. WWDreports that the boardshorts are sold from a vending machine at The Standard's hotels.
"The Standard came to Quiksilver because they were looking to extend their brand and work with like-minded brands," said Joshua Katz, director of marketing and communications at Huntington Beach, Calif.-based Quiksilver Inc. "We decided to collaborate and make something cool as well as useful for Standard guests. Our core product is boardshorts, and The Standard hotels have pretty notorious pool scenes, so swimsuits made a lot of sense."
There are four men's designs in the first batch of boardshorts, which harken back to the fits and looks of Seventies and Eighties styles. Each one is inspired by The Standard's four locations in downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Miami and New York. The $75 boardshorts are made in Quiksilver's ultralightweight, "diamond dobby" stretch material, which prevents rashes, with a retro scalloped leg and packaged in a waterproof travel bag.
The boardshorts can also be purchased at here from The Standard's online store, shopthestandard.com, for $75 each.
Here are some of the top hotels in different categories:
Luxury: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Upscale: Embassy Suites Hotels (for a third consecutive year)
Mid-Scale Full Service: Hilton Garden Inn
Mid-Scale Limited Service: Drury Inn & Suites (for a fourth consecutive year)
Economy/Budget: Microtel Inns & Suites (for an eighth consecutive year)
Extended Stay: Staybridge Suites
Here were some other findings from the luxury hotel study:
Guest awareness of property-initiated "green" programs has increased significantly in 2009, with 66 percent of guests stating that they were aware of their hotel's conservation efforts, compared with 57 percent in 2008. Among these guests, 72 percent say they participated in their hotel's conservation programs.
Awareness of "green" programs has a strong impact on overall hotel guest satisfaction. On average, satisfaction is more than 160 points higher among guests who report being aware of their hotel's green programs, compared with guests who are unaware of them.
The proportion of hotel guests making reservations online has decreased slightly in 2009, to 54 percent from 57 percent in 2008.
The St. Regis Monarch Beach resort has been foreclosed
upon by Citigroup after it defaulted on a $70 million loan and no buyer could be found. The St. Regis is best known as the luxury resort in Southern California where the AIG executives spent $440,000 on a vacation for its executives just after it got bailed out the federal government. It wasn't the hotel's fault, but it became known as the place greedy executives went on vacation. Occupancy rates fell and no corporation wanted to have a retreat there.
Just weeks after receiving its first $85 billion in federal funds, AIG shelled out more than $440,000 at the St. Regis for rooms, wining and dining, spa treatments and rounds of golf to reward 100 top salespeople.
"The property has already been nearly catastrophically damaged, through no fault of its own or the previous ownership, by the unwanted media exposure going back to when AIG held their conference," [investment banker Donald] Wise said.
The Makarechian development family of Newport Beach, which does business as Makar Properties, built the hotel and will continue to own adjacent land targeted for high-end residential development, a spokesman said.
"We are happy to say that Makar and Citi were able to reach an agreement that resulted in our continuing to own significant portions of the overall resort, while at the same time allowing for the public sale to be canceled," the family said in statement.
Analysts estimate that the hotel is worth around $100 million due to falling property values. It is carrying around $300 million in debt.
The St. Regis will continue to be operated by Starwood Hotels and is not expected to have any disruptions in service.
Earlier this week there were reports that the Ilikai hotel in Hawaii was closing. The Ilikai hotel is an oceanfront hotel situated on the Ala Wai Yacht Marina at the edge of Waikiki. The hotel is seen in the opening shot of the tv show, Hawaii Five-0. The hotel is not going to be closing permanently. The hotel was closed Thursday because of financial concerns and a contract dispute with a hotel labor union. Guests were moved out of the hotel to another Waikiki hotel. Hawaii Magazinereports that Ilikai's owner, iStar Financial, has resolved its labor union dispute and will reopen. However, it isn't clear when exactly the doors will reopen to guests.
Hotel operations at Waikiki's iconic Ilikai may resume again. But no one is saying when.
An agreement on a new labor contract between Ilikai hotel owner iStar Financial and the union representing hotel employees was reached last night, hours after guests had been packed off to other Waikiki lodging.
Ilikai employees are scheduled to review the agreement with union representatives this evening.
There's another article about the hotel's reopening here.
Omni Hotels Offering Complimentary Use of Flip Video Cameras
Omni Hotels has an interesting promotion this summer. They are offering visitors the complimentary use of a Flip Video camcorder.
This summer, you provide the memories and we'll help you capture and keep them. With so many unbelievable sights to see and places to explore, Omni Hotels has arranged for your complimentary use of a Flip Video camcorder - the pocket-sized video camera with shoot-and-share simplicity. No matter what Omni city you're exploring, just stop by the concierge desk and check out your Flip Video camcorder. Then just turn it on and turn yourself loose capturing keepsake videos that will be yours forever.
You can read more about the summer offer here. You can read more about Flip camcorders here.
Leeser's Helix Hotel Wins Luxury Hotel Design Competition
Design Boom reports that Leeser, an architecture firm based in New York City, has taken first prize in a competition for a five-star luxury hotel in the Zayed Bay in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Leeser's design is called the Helix Hotel. The hotel has 208 guest rooms and suites arranged around a helical floor. Design Boom says the floor "constantly shifts in width and pitch as it rises to the top floor, keeping public spaces always in flux." The hotel contains meeting rooms, lounges, cafes, an indoor health spa, running track and an indoor fountain.
The Greenbrier is a luxury resort located in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation (GHC), owner of the resort, has sought Chapter 11 protection to help ensure the viability of the resort.
GHC has asked for approval of financing from CSX Corporation to support the resort's ability to operate in the normal course in the near-term. GHC also announced that it has signed an Asset Purchase Agreement with Marriott Hotel Services, Inc. for the sale of The Greenbrier, subject to substantial conditions.
"A sale to Marriott would be a great outcome for everyone associated with The Greenbrier," said Michael Gordon, president and managing director of the resort.
26 presidents have visited the resort which is also home to a nuclear bunker. The New York Timessays the resort will remain in business while in bankruptcy.
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