HotelChatter

Tags: Industry News / W Hotels / Starwood Hotels / Four Seasons / Ritz Carlton / Luxury / → All Tags

Starwood Sells W San Francisco

Where: 181 3rd Street [map], San Francisco, CA, United States, 94102

News outta W Hotels today (well, news besides the opening of W Washington DC): according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Starwood has agreed to sell the W San Francisco to Hong Kong investment company Keck Seng Investments Ltd for $90 million. Per a statement made by Starwood, the sale was made to reduce the 'wood's debt — but never fear, the place will still operate as a W.

But the sale sort of sheds light on the sad-ish state of affairs in the hotel industry:

The high-water mark for San Francisco hotel sales was set around April 2007, when Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces based in Mumbai, India, bought Campton Place from Kor Hotel Group of Los Angeles for about $58 million. That amounted to more than $500,000 per room, nearly 60 percent more than the W's "per-key" price of less than $213,000.

Whew. That W had been for sale since the end of last year, though, so we guess it's good that someone bought the place.

Tags: Summer Reading / Hotel Books / Four Seasons / Isadore Sharp / → All Tags

HotelChatter's Summer Reading for Hotel Geeks

Summer is officially here and while the weather on the East Coast has taken its sweet old time warming up, there's still no better way for us hotel nerds to celebrate the hot days and long nights other than with a Summer Reading List of Hotel Books.

Once a week, we will review a book about hotels — whether it be fiction, non-fiction, historical, auto-biographical or even just a cool coffee table book with incredible photos. These could be the perfect books to kick back with while laying poolside, or while working the late-night shift at the front desk or while entertaining friends with your high-falutin' aspiring hotelier schemes.

First up, one for those aforementioned aspiring hoteliers: Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy by Isadore Sharp.

more ›

Tags: Walt Disney World Hotels / Hotel News / Four Seasons / → All Tags

Four Seasons and Mickey Mouse Making Rich Disney-philes' Dreams Come True

The news is a tad old but we just discovered that the Four Seasons hotel chain is pairing up with Walt Disney World to build a luxury hotel, residences and an 18-hole "championship"* golf course on the theme park's northeast border.

Finally, a luxury hotel in Disney World that isn't all about Disney characters or so we hope.

The Toronto-based luxury hotel chain is part of two expansion plans that will take eight to 10 years to fully develop and will include single- and multifamily vacation homes, fractional ownership homes and a 450-acre retail, dining and lodging district, said Meg Crofton, Disney World's president.

Yes, that's right. There will be two Four Seasons development in Disney World, to be completed after 2010. The second resort will actually be closer located to Disney World proper and will include (what else?) retail shops, restaurants and small-scale entertainment venues.

But what we are really curious about is whether or not there will be Mickey Mouse stickers on the toilet paper.

*--How come these are "championship" golf courses if they haven't even been built yet? Shouldn't they at least have a championship there before using that description?

[Photo: Burnsland]

Related Stories:
· Disney to team with Four Seasons on massive Disney World golf resort [PGA.com]

Tags: Miami Beach Hotel Reviews / Four Seasons / Luxury Hotels / Michael de Zayas / → All Tags

Miami Guidebook Piggyback: The Four Seasons Miami Review

Where: 1435 Brickell Avenue [map], Miami, FL, United States, 33131

Travel writer Michael de Zayas is in Miami on an assignment--30 Miami hotels in 30 Miami nights. You will be able to find his detailed travel musings in Miami and Miami Beach books later this year. HotelChatter asked Michael to let us know his minute-by-minute thoughts on the Miami hotel scene during his guide book mission, which he will be doing over the next two weeks. During the fortnight, Michael will share with us every bed, maid, drink, pool, henhouse and outhouse that comprise the Grove, Gables, Sunny Isles, North Beach, South Beach and the Key Biscayne hotel scene in 2007. If you wish to ask him a question during his jaunt, shoot it our way.

At a New Years Even party in New York I met a man who had just spent 100 days at the Four Seasons Miami. He was a lawyer who was tied up with a long case - which ended up, ironically, declared a mistrial.

One hundred days is enough to expose the flaws of any hotel. Not this one? Exactly right: he loved it. Its flaws? "Nonexistent," except for not too much to do around the neighborhood.

Seventy stories tall--the highest building south of Atlanta--my taxi seemed to have no problem locating it. Yesterday we zoomed to the middle of the hotel, pulling into the porte cochere cleverly hidden from the street. After signing over my bags I was greeted by an employee who welcomed me and escorted me past monumental bronze Botero sculptures (part of the Miami and Latin American art collection here) up elevators to the seventh floor lobby.

After check in, I was presented to a different employee who ferried me to the room elevators, pointing out Acqua, a bar, and the "two-acre pool terrace."

That's a lot of introduction. My guide book received a letter complaining about this double elevator system - a guest said it grew wearying after three days. I spent only one night, but I found it elegant and ceremonious. But I happen to equate ceremony with fun. I also liked being escorted, immediately initiated into the vaunted service experience of the famous Four Seasons mark.

More on the Four Seasons Miami after the jump.

more ›