In one of the odder news stories about new hotels, the Hayden Ferry Lakeside development in Tempe, Ariz., which was to include condos, a hotel, retail and office space, has told Starwood's Le Meridien to take a hike.

The Valhalla Development Group, the developers of the project, are ready to have a groundbreaking in December, but Le Meridien isn't ready to commit to the project yet - so the developers decided to go with another 4-star hotel brand which has not yet been announced.
]]> AndrewC 2008-08-28T16:00:18-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/8/15/162547/253 <![CDATA[<p><img align="right" src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3/hc_reader_deals.jpg">Yikes. No wonder New York is the self-professed city that never sleeps: At an <a href="http://www.nysun.com/new-york/hotel-occupancy-rate-rising-data-show/83685/">average of $350 a night</a> in a hotel room, who can afford any shut-eye?</p> <p>That figure spiked $50 in May from a year ago, according to figures released this week by the official marketing and tourism organization for the Big Apple. And even though 90 percent of all those spendy rooms were filled (that's some 2.05 million rooms), we're still betting the $99 rooms at the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/The%20Jane%20Hotel">Jane Hotel</a> couldn't come any quicker for travelers en route to New York.</p> <p>Speaking of which: for a visual dose of depressing hotel rates, search for Manhattan on <a href="http://hotelmapsearch.com/">Hotel Map Search,</a> a handy guide to KatieK 2008-08-26T12:10:02-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/8/21/141552/592 <![CDATA[<p><img align="right" src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/1425/kevinbaconwhist.jpg" class="imgborder"><i>There's tons of hotel news flying around this week and we don't have time to give each and every story the love and attention it may deserve, so you will have to settle for some news briefs.</i><p>&#183; <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D92MPSD00.htm"><b>Room Rates May Decrease</b></a>: Occupancy in U.S. hotels fell in the first half of August, leaving some industry analysts to think that room rates might get reduced. Yay! [BizWeek]<p>&#183; <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/hotel-rooms-still-available-democratic/story.aspx?guid=%7BA2030172-5C69-4389-A373-15296A473430%7D&amp;dist=hppr"><b>Still Need a Room for the DNC?</b></a>: This site is advertising business-class hotel rooms for $279 a night. [MarketWatch]<p>&#183; <a href="http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1997&amp;EM=VTY_WI_1997_VERASANAPA_PROP_OVERVIEW"><b>Westin Napa Valley Is Taking Reservations</b></a>: The Westin Verasa will open on September 18th at $289 a night. But Starwood never makes it easy on us. The website is juliana 2008-08-21T17:43:57-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/8/11/3911/67093 These days you can't take a quoted room rate at face value. Before making a decision you must estimate the taxes and fees that will inevitably be added to your bottom line.

With the travel industry struggling, more and more surcharges are sneaking into our bills.

The National Business Travel Association recently conducted a study ranking cities in the United States by hotel and other travel taxes.]]> abigailmschilling 2008-08-19T16:00:13-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/6/9/164221/5928 <![CDATA[<p> <img align="right" src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/3/hc_reader_deals.jpg">For spontaneous travelers and hotel geeks like ourselves, there is some good news in all of this recession and economic woes talk: hotels won't be raising room rates as much or as frequently in the near future. In fact, there may be some discounts abound!<p>Many hoteliers and CEOs sounded off at the NYU Tisch Hospitality Center conference last week, which <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/6/5/1813/47620/hotels/Inside_the_30th_Annual_NYU_International_Hotel_Investment_Conference">Andrew Gindy dutifully reported on</a> for us.<p>According to <a href="http://www.btnmag.com/businesstravelnews/headlines/frontpage_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003813531">BTN Online</a>, <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/bill%20marriott"><b>Bill Marriott</b></a> even said that discounting will probably start happening. Yet it was <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/barry%20sternlicht"><b>Barry Sternlicht</b></a> who seemed to have the bleakest outlook on the hotel market:<blockquote><p>Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, said to expect the softening to continue for at juliana 2008-06-09T16:48:56-05:00 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/