Analysis-Companies Boost Social and Climate Reporting Amid ESG Backlash
November 4th, 2024
Meeting Planners Complaining About Panhandlers in Downtown Atlanta; Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau Claims Panhandling Ordinance Not Being Enfo
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online News for the Hospitality Executive By Leon Stafford, The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionMcClatchy-Tribune Business News Aug. 11, 2006--Meeting planners, the people who decide whether big-money conventions will come to Atlanta, have made more complaints about panhandlers downtown in the last year than in the past -- despite a city law passed in 2005 to curb panhandling, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau said Thursday. Planners, in interviews with the ACVB's customer advisory board, said the city has improved drastically in its destination appeal but that begg...
Empresas Bern, a Panamanian Hotel Developer, Signs InterContinental to Operate The Holiday Inn Hotel and School at the City of Knowledge in Panama; Ho
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Empresas Bern, a Panamanian Hotel Developer, Signs InterContinental to Operate The Holiday Inn Hotel and School at the City of Knowledge in Panama; Hotel Will Feature State-of-the-Art Learning Spaces for the Hospitality Program InterContinental Hotels Group Signs Agreement with Empresas Bern to Open the First Holiday Inn Hotel and School in the Republic Of Panama MIAMI - Aug. 4, 2006 -- InterContinental Hotels Group signed a letter of understanding with Empresas Bern to open the Holiday Inn Hotel and School Panama Canal at the City of Knowledge in Panama. The hotel and scho...
Developer Beau King Teams Up with Kimpton Hotels for a Planned $100 million 230-room Palomar Hotel with 38 Condominium Units in Midtown, Atlanta / A
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online News for the Hospitality Executive The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionMcClatchy-Tribune Business News Aug. 25, 2006 - Young developer Beau King is adding another entry in Midtown's race for signature residential development. In his first venture without mentor Bob Voyles, King has teamed up with Kimpton Hotels for a 230-room luxury Palomar Hotel and 38 condominium units starting at $1 million. This would mark the local debut of a widely respected boutique-hotel chain. Generally smaller than chain brands, boutique hotels attract upscale guests looking for tre...
International Travelers to the U.S Increased by 6.7% in 2005; International Guest Room Nights Represent 10.3% of the U.S. Lodging Demand / August 20
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report New York, August 21, 2006 - International travelers to the U.S increased by 6.7 percent in 2005, according to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Excluding travelers from Canada and Mexico. During 2004 and 2005 international travelers to the U.S. increased by 20.3 percent, the largest two-year increase since 1996, but below 2000 and 2001 levels, the firm found. Following 10 quarter-over-prior-year quarter declines beginning the first quarter of 2001, international travelers increased during the fourth quarter of 2003 and have achieved robust gains since then. A number of factors, including l...
Peter Serena Named General Manager of the Vero Beach Hotel & Club, Vero Beach, Florida / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Peter Serena Named General Manager of the Vero Beach Hotel & Club, Vero Beach, Florida Naples, FL - August 9, 2006 - Coral Hospitality, a full-service hospitality management company based in Naples, FL has announced the selection of Peter Serena as General Manager of the Vero Beach Hotel & Club, a new 83-suite, luxury condominium hotel and beach club in Vero Beach, Fl, scheduled to open later this year. Peter has spent more than 25 years in the hospitality industry and brings with him a wealth of experience in luxury hotel management. Most recently Peter served as General Manager at the Eag...
Paul Pebley Appointed Director of Marketing for the Fontainebleau Suites and Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Paul Pebley Appointed Director of Marketing for the Fontainebleau Suites and Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach MIAMI BEACH (August 4, 2006) Paul Pebley was recently appointed Director of Marketing for the Fontainebleau Suites and Fontainebleau Resort in Miami Beach. In this position, Pebley will oversee advertising and public relations for the 37-story Fontainebleau Suites, which opened last year on the south end of the famed resort property. Hell also lead marketing efforts for Fontainebleau Resort, which is currently undergoing a $400 million expansion and renovation expecte...
PKF Consulting Hires Reed Woodworth; Opens Boston Office / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report PKF Consulting Hires Reed Woodworth; Opens Boston Office PHILADELPHIA, Pa., August 22, 2006 PKF Consulting (PKF-C), a management consulting firm specializing in the hospitality industry, has announced the hiring of Reed Woodworth as Vice President in the firms newly opened Boston office. Mr. Woodworth will work on hospitality consulting engagements throughout the New England region, as well as assignments in the public sector at the local, state, and national level. He will also assist with the operation of the federal government consulting practice headquartered in the f...
Walton Street Capital LLC, Known for Renovations, May Buy the 25 Year-old PGA National Resort & Spa, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online News for the Hospitality Executive By Pat Beall, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.McClatchy-Tribune Business News Aug. 3, 2006 --PGA National Resort & Spa, the centerpiece of the sprawling PGA residential community and one of the country's better-known golfing destinations, is being purchased by a Chicago investment firm. In a memo to employees dated July 28, PGA National developer E. Llwyd Ecclestone wrote that Walton Street Capital LLC will take over golf and hotel operations effective Aug. 16. Rumors have circulated for months that the sale of the resort in P...
Noble House Hotels & Resorts Stays with Pegasus for Distribution and Reservation Services, Adds More Services / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Noble House Hotels & Resorts Stays with Pegasus for Distribution and Reservation Services, Adds More Services DALLAS and SEATTLE (August 28, 2006) Noble House Hotels & Resorts has renewed with Pegasus Solutions for distribution and reservation services to support the hotel companys 13 boutique properties nationwide. Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (www.pegs.com) is a global leader in providing technology and services to hotels and travel distributors. The new agreement extends Noble Houses use of the Pegasus HotelFactory central reservation system. It also includes voice reservation services through Pegasus...
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March 30, 2006
Grand Heritage Hotel Group Sets Itself Apart with GH Chain Code through Pegasus Solutions . Also Renews use of Pegasus HotelFactory CRS, Voice and Distribution Services DALLAS and PORTLAND (August 18, 2006) Grand Heritage Hotel Group has re-launched its Private Label booking code; GH. Grand Heritage will use the new code to increase brand awareness for its growing network of independent luxury hotels and resorts. A customer of the Unirez by Pegasus service since 2001, Grand Heritage will continue to use Pegasus HotelFactory central reservation system (CRS), Pegasus call center voice services, and online and GDS...
Paul DiNapoli Named Director of Rooms at the 891 room Westin Seattle / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report August 31, 2006 - The Westin Seattle, Seattle's premier convention, business, and leisure hotel featuring 891 upscale rooms, announced today they have hired Paul DiNapoli as Director of Rooms. DiNapoli brings nearly fifteen years of experience in the hotel industry to his new position where he oversees operations for the front desk, concierge, service express, and business center departments. He has recently held management positions for several properties owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which owns The Westin Seattle. Notable positions include Task Force posts at Westin San Franc...
Choice Hotels Adds to its Cambria Suites Brand Executive Team in the Areas of Brand Management, Design and Construction / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Choice Hotels Adds to its Cambria Suites Brand Executive Team in the Areas of Brand Management, Design and Construction . Silver Spring, MD (August 14, 2006) Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE:CHH) today announced the expansion of its Cambria Suites brand team in the areas of brand management and brand design and construction. The company hired Phil Beilke from Hilton Hotels and the Embassy Suites brand as senior director, Cambria Suites brand management. Cathy Poinsett, currently a senior director, marketing communications at Choice, will now assume the role of senior director, Cambri...
Marathon Real Estate Names Oxford Lodging the Asset Manager of 1,000-Room Grand Hyatt San Antonio / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report SAN FRANCISCO - Aug. 22, 2006 -- Oxford Lodging Advisory & Investment Group LLC has been named by Marathon Real Estate as the asset manager for the Grand Hyatt San Antonio, the 1,000-room destination property scheduled for completion in Spring 2008 on the banks of the city's Riverwalk and adjacent to the San Antonio Convention Center. The $285-million property - the largest hotel development in San Antonio's history and the country's largest public/private hotel venture in 2005 - increases Oxford Lodging's portfolio of upscale hotels and resorts in the U.S. and Japan to nearly $4 billion totali...
Omni Hotels Breaks Ground in Fort Worth, Texas on $170 Million Convention Center Luxury Hotel and Condominiums / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Omni Hotels Breaks Ground in Fort Worth, Texas on $170 Million Convention Center Luxury Hotel and Condominiums FORT WORTH, Texas, Aug. 21, 2006 - Omni Hotels is capturing the Fort Worth horizon as construction begins for the brand's newest luxury hotel and condominiums. Sculpted from native stone, rich hardwoods and wrapped in glass, the Omni Fort Worth Hotel will be the newest star in the Lone Star State. "The Omni Fort Worth Hotel will offer a bold taste of Texas hospitality with a personality that's as gracious and dynamic as Fort Worth itself," said Robert Rowling, chairman o...
Marriott Has 16 Reservation Centers Around the World; the Omaha Center Is "the Mother Church", Achieving 50% Conversion Rate / August 2006
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online News for the Hospitality Executive By Virgil Larson, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.McClatchy-Tribune Business News Aug. 17, 2006 - Agents at the Marriott Worldwide Reservation Center in Omaha left their phones Wednesday to lunch on hamburgers and corn on the cob in the parking lot with the hotel chain's chief executive. No calls were missed and no reservations went unmade, a testament to modern call center technology. The network routing operation in the Marriott center at 90th and Blondo Streets automatically switched the calls to some of the 15 other reservation of...
Empty Farmer's Field in Kansas May be Transformed into a Mega Tourism Attraction; $787 million Proposal Would Include Legoland Theme Park and R
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online News for the Hospitality Executive By Kevin Collison, The Kansas City Star, Mo.McClatchy-Tribune Business News Aug. 15, 2006 - An empty farmer's field near Kansas 10 in Olathe may be transformed by 2009 into a mega-tourism attraction anchored by a colorful Legoland theme park. The $787 million proposal would not only include the second Legoland theme park to be built in the U.S., but also a resort-style hotel; arena; soccer complex; indoor ski slope; private aquarium, and a half-million square feet of retail. "This would bring tourism in Kansas City to a ...
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March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Is Your Pet-Friendly Hotel Odor Friendly? . Dont let your hotel go to the dogs . . . Odorous hotel rooms are getting stinky reviews on travel sites By Dean Gruber, August 2006 With upwards of 36 million households traveling with their pets, taking at least 2 vacations per year, and spending an average of $1,000 or more per trip, pet-friendly hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, condos, cabins and resorts are popping up all over the globe. Hotel and motel brands such as Westin, LaQuinta, Best Western, Days Inn, Super 8, and Townplace Suites, and extended-stay brands such as Subu...
Nothing Happens in Hotels without Bob, Betty and Bryan, the Front, Heart and Back of the House / Joseph M Gravish / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Nothing Happens in Hotels without Bob, Betty and Bryan, the Front, Heart and Back of the House By Joseph M. Gravish, August 2006 As a hospitality professional you already know line-level employees make the (hotel) world go round. So how do owners, management company executives, property managers and department heads convert such verbalized mantras into truisms? A recent article in Lodging Magazine provides at least part of the answer, Wise holteliers focus on proactive rather than reactive service strategies as a means to drive guest loyalty (The Myth of Service Recovery, Ri...
Ossis Property Developers B.S.C. Names JAL Hotels Co., Ltd. to Operate Luxury Resort on the Amwaj Islands, the Man-made Islands Off the Coast of Bahra
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Ossis Property Developers B.S.C. Names JAL Hotels Co., Ltd. to Operate Luxury Resort on the Amwaj Islands, the Man-made Islands Off the Coast of Bahrain August 10, 2006, Tokyo - In a joint announcement with Ossis Property Developers B.S.C. (C), JAL Hotels Co., Ltd. announced that it will operate a new five-star luxury resort to be built in the Kingdom of Bahrain's Amwaj Islands under a management contract with Ossis, owner of the property. The resort, which will be the third property in the Middle East in JAL Hotels' Nikko Hotels International group, will be named "Hotel JAL Bahrain Reso...
Have You Listened To What Your Hotel Sales and Reservations Agents Are Saying To Real Customers? / Doug Kennedy / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Hotel Online Special Report Have You Listened To What Your Hotel Sales and Reservations Agents Are Saying To Real Customers? by Doug Kennedy, August 2006 In an effort to increase the sales effectiveness of their hotel sales and reservations staff, general managers have traditionally looked to outside mystery shopping companies to place test calls and then complete checklists that score an agent on their sales/service skills. Indeed, many hotels have benefited from such programs and increased their sales and service levels to new heights, especially when the mystery shopping is tied-in to an overall training a...
Your Hotel Parking Lot / Room With a View – a Column by Larry Mundy / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Room With a View by Larry Mundy August 2006 If you have a swank hotel in a dense urban area, dont read this column. You dont have a parking lot. Your guests all arrive in dented, smoking taxis, or are beamed directly into your lobby by Scotty from Star Trek. The occasional guest foolish enough to arrive in his own vehicle will pay more than your nightly room rate to have his car warehoused in a private garage three blocks away, run by grade-school dropouts idly playing with switchblades. You center-city people can go now, and design a ridiculous doormans uniform or something. Okay, now that those city ...
Room Service / Room With a View – a Column by Larry Mundy / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Room With a View by Larry Mundy August 2006 We have made our guestrooms so comfortable and luxurious guests dont want to leave them, and so well-equipped they dont have to. But sooner or later, everyone needs a bite to eat, so many of us offer room service. Most hotel operators pronounce these words with the same inflection otherwise reserved for phrases like root canal or colonoscopy. Of course, the guest could just pop down to the hotel restaurant. Weve taken great pains to make it attractive and comfortable, with smiling wait staff and tent-card photos of luscious desserts. But guests have t...
Redecorate Your Elevator Cabs, Every Fall / Room With a View – a Column by Larry Mundy / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Room With a View by Larry Mundy August 2006 Let me say this right up front: the number of people, on a daily basis, who plummet to their deaths in modern elevators, is statistically insignificant. You have a far better chance of being bit by a mosquito, or of being splashed with dirty water by a passing automobile, than of plunging at high speed toward certain death in a modern elevator. There. Now I hope all the elevator people out there will keep their nasty emails to themselves. If your hotel is taller than the average NBA small forward, you probably have an elevator or two. Even able-bodied Americans ...
The Basic Hotel Shower-Tub Combination, a Relic? / Room With a View – a Column by Larry Mundy / August 2006...
March 30, 2006
Room With a View by Larry Mundy August 2006 One thing is for certain, traveling is a dirty job even when a guest is just headed from Des Moines to Albuquerque to spend the night and attend a morning meeting. Airports, taxis, and subways are not held to the highest hygiene standards. And even a guest who arrives in his own car has probably been in a harsh environment, if his car is like mine and was last cleaned during the Eisenhower administration. Inevitably, your guests are meeting an important client, or hoping to get lucky in the bar. They want to change into clothes freshly wrinkled from being tossed...
