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Hotel Hell
Shoot Out at the Waldorf-Astoria
November 17, 2008 at 8:45 AM | 1 Comment
Major dramz at the Waldorf-Astoria flagship hotel in New York yesterday. A security guard was shot as a robber attempted to heist the jewelry store in the historic hotel's lobby in the middle of the day. Right at check-in time as a matter of fact. The NY Times reports:
A gunman dressed in black burst into a jewelry store in the ornate lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel on Saturday afternoon, announced that he was robbing the store and began smashing display cases with the butt of his gun, the police said. As the store security guard, a retired police detective, tackled the gunman, shots were fired, striking the guard and sending panicked hotel guests scattering for cover.
Police who arrived on the scene described the scene in the hotel's grand lobby as "pretty chaotic" with guests "screaming." The Times article actually recaps several of the guests' reaction as the whole shoot-out when down.
Hotel News Briefs
The Original NYLO Gets Another Review
October 29, 2008 at 5:00 PM | 0 Comments
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.
· Daily Danny Does Nylo: Blogger Daily Danny spent a night at the NYLO in Plano for work. Bottom line: "The NYLO TRIES a bit too hard to be too trendy...but they do get an A+ for the rooms!" [Daily Danny]
· Rooms for One Euro at the Hoxton Hotel: This London hotel is once again running its One Euro Hotel Room promotion. Let's hope it works! [Gadling]
· Courtyard by Marriott Gets LinkedIn: Marriott continues social-networking by sponsoring the ads on TripIt, the travel application on LinkedIn. [Marriott]
· Worst Hotel Hell Ever: In Australia, hotels are usually the same thing as pubs, meaning no rooms. But this hotel actually has accommodations attached. Not like we would EVER stay here after this event. [SMH]
· Nobu Hotel No-Go in NYC: Surprise, surprise. Hotel projects are getting cancelled or delayed in NYC, including DeNiro's planned Nobu Hotel. But what about the Jay-Z Hotel? We really hope that one goes up. [Curbed]
Halloween Hotels
Ghosts and Bedbugs at Hawaii's Kona Beach Hotel
October 28, 2008 at 10:12 AM | 0 Comments
The Shadowlands, one of the internet's creepiest compendiums for real-life haunting stories, has a thumbnail listing in its Haunted Places list of King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel, located on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Footsteps. Apparitions. Hauntings. Ancient Polynesian warriors. The pissed off bones of the Hawaiian King himself, buried at an undisclosed location someplace beneath the hotel, that only his ancestors know about. A portrait of Queen Lilliuokalani, that glares at you and breathes.
It turns out this place is indeed haunted by more than just Hawaiian royalty, but by dozens of angry, restless spirits. You can even see them during daylight hours -- their hair-raising reviews on Tripadvisor will surely have you heading for the rolling green hills of The Big Island -- or flinging yourself into the nearest live volcano.
Hotel News
Texas Sues Hotels For Raising Rates During Ike Evacuations
October 3, 2008 at 12:43 PM | 1 Comment
Ugh. Two hotels in Texas -- the Hotel Nacogdoches and a Super 8 west of Katy -- jacked up their rates during the Hurricane Ike evacuations.
Yes, for real: they tried to make a little extra cashola off of people fleeing from the storm. Ew.
Nacogdoches boosted its rate of $49.99 (the advertised rate on the marquee) to $109; the Super 8 jacked their $99 rate up to $125 (sidenote: Super 8's are $99 to begin with? Wow). Also, both hotels charged evacuees both state and local hotel and motel taxes even though Texas governor Rick Perry waived them during the storm.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is suing both hotels to ensure that any hotels never try to pull shizz like that during a declared disaster again -- which is, by the way, against the law.
Chris Elliott
Sheraton Can't Be Bothered With Your Erroneous Bill Or Your Silly MSNBC Friend
September 25, 2008 at 2:30 PM | 4 Comments
Our buddy Chris Elliott is a columnist at MSNBC and also has his own site at Elliott.org. Most of the time he acts as a mediator for travel disputes between customers who have been wronged one way or another by airlines, car rental companies, airlines, hotels, airlines, online booking sites, oh yeah, and the occasional complaint about an airline.
We travel a lot too - so naturally we keep an eye on his site, but we have to say -- most things he writes about doesn't really surprise us, since people do dumb things and some companies are even dumber. Particularly airlines.
Until this week's post about a customer (Mike Black) who reserved and then canceled a room at the Four Points by Sheraton Pleasanton in CA and was assured by the hotel that there would be no charges for the room or cancellation.
Hotel News Briefs
Hotel News Briefs :: Meth Backpack Falls From Hotel Ceiling
August 19, 2008 at 5:00 PM | 0 Comments
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.
· Ultimate Meth Hotel Hell: A woman in Pensacola, Florida had a black backpack fall from the ceiling of her hotel room. Inside it? A portable meth lab. Oy. [AP News]
Beijing Hotels Still Empty: While swimming and NBC Olympics ratings probably had their best Olympics ever, Beijing hotels still are suffering. [BusinessWeek]
· Excalibur Goes Electronic: While the outside of the Excalibur Hotel & Casino still looks like bad interpretation of medieval fantasy, inside the poker rooms are going electronic! [Fox Business]
· Hotel Dorms Get Student Desks: Colorado State University has a shortage of housing for its frosh class so it's putting a few of them in hotels and giving them student desks. [Pueblo Chieftain]
· Element Heads to (Outside of) LA: An Element hotel will open in Palmdale, Calif. Yeah, we'll never go there either. [Green Meeting]
Flight Attendants
Drunken Qantas Flight Attendants Cause Trouble at a Crowne Plaza in New Zealand
August 12, 2008 at 10:46 AM | 5 Comments
Uh-oh sounds like someone had too much fun raiding the mini-bar at the Crowne Plaza in Queenstown, New Zealand.
According to reports, two Qantas flight attendants got wasted in their crash pad hotel room and set off the fire alarm at the hotel:
Many of about 200 guests at the Crowne Plaza hotel were dragged from their beds and sent into the street and two fire engines rushed to the hotel after a fire-alarm access point was smashed on July 31.
The false alarm cost the flight attendant $1500 to cover damages and the cost of the call-out.
But the next day when the hotel confronted the Qantas staffer they believed pulled the alarm, she apparently had no idea what she had done.
It was a fairly big stuff-up by the guest and when she was asked why she did it, she said she had no idea and she was upset and disappointed with herself. She left next day.
Needless to say the flight attendants have been suspended.
Hotel Hell
HuffPo Blogger's Wet and Wild Adventure at Avenue Hotel Chicago
August 4, 2008 at 9:00 AM | 0 Comments
We love us some hotel hell stories on Monday mornings -- if only because they serve to remind us that there are worse things in the world than facing the end of a weekend.
For example: HuffPo blogger Michelle Renee's little adventure at The Avenue Hotel in Chicago recently.
Formerly the Radisson, the property was recently reflagged as The Avenue, remodeled completely and decorated with a 'lil bit of zebra print. Michelle loved the stunning views from her room and really dug the beds -- but there was some trouble.
First, she heard "what sounded like a helicopter hovering outside her room" and had to invest in earplugs because she couldn't bear to part with the city view and swithch rooms. The staff, interestingly, did not seem to know the cause of the noise.
Armed with earplugs, the fun continued!
Antigua Hotels
Honeymooners Attacked at Antigua Hotel
July 28, 2008 at 2:51 PM | 2 Comments
This is one of the most horrific stories we've heard happening at hotels yet. Two honeymooners from Wales were shot at during a raid on their luxury hotel in Antigua yesterday. The bride was killed and her husband fighting for his life in a hospital's intensive care unit with a bullet wound in the neck.
The couple, Catherine and Benjamin Mullaney, were honeymooning at the Cocos Hotel when robbers burst into their cottage while they slept.
Tourism minister Harold Lovell said investigators will look at whether there were any lapses in security at the hotel, which employs guards. He said other hotel guests have been left traumatised by the murder and some have requested to be relocated. Speaking on Sky News, he said: "The police are still obviously trying to work out the motive, but they think robbery will be the motive."
The island of Antigua has had a spike in crime with 10 murders reported so far this year and a recent spree of shootings reported as well.
As for the Cocos Hotel, it certainly looks like paradise with all cottages promising sea views and beach access. On the hotel's website, Cocos promises: "an exclusive resort for those looking to escape to paradise. Cocos offers complete peace and tranquility, an abandon from the stress of life, where your every need is catered for." Sad.
Hotel Hell
Even More Drama for Gansevoort South
July 14, 2008 at 1:05 PM | 0 Comments
Since its opening earlier this year, there has been some drama over at the Gansevoort South in Miami: the first guest reviews were not exactly glowing -- well, at least not compared to the glowing fire that broke out on the rooftop in April. Yeah. Crap all around.
And on Friday, we caught wind of some really awful news involving the hotel: the Miami Herald reported that Arturo Ortiz Soto, a chef at the sushi bar on the Gansevoort's swanky rooftop, confessed to being a "serial rapist":
After his arrest Wednesday on a charge of attempted sexual battery, Ortiz Soto confessed to sexually assaulting two other women in Miami Beach, on June 24, 2008, and Nov. 2, 2006, police said. He told police he would lure the women into alleys, attack them and steal their cellphones so they couldn't call for help.
Ugh. What this means for the Gansevoort doesn't really matter -- we're just happy this dude is off the streets.
Hotel Animals
Cheap Motel Full of Venomous Snakes Could Make a Good Samuel L. Jackson Movie
July 14, 2008 at 9:35 AM | 1 Comment
Ew, ew, ew. This is gross and we're pretty sure we had a nightmare along these lines once, so we'll get right to it: police found 17 snakes (12 of which were venomous) hidden in a room at the cheap-o Hy-Way Motel in Fairfax City, VA. (Uh, we mean the reptile kind of snakes -- not the trouser kind).
The creatures weren't slithering around all Snakes on a Plane-style or anything; rather, a guest had apparently paid for a week in the room just to stash his snake friends temporarily.
At some point, two snakes died. Naturally, the god-awful smell of reptile corpse had started to stink up the whole place and police were called in to search the room.
Celebrity Scoop
When Hotel Managers Attack :: D-List Celebrity Edition
July 8, 2008 at 11:27 AM | 1 Comment
We're not quite sure what to make of these two "When Hotel Managers Attack" stories yet, so we'll just deliver what TMZ and Page Six report to be the, uh, facts.
Zachery Ty Bryan (a.k.a. Brad Taylor from Home Improvement) was staying at a Choice Hotels property in San Diego in April. He left the hotel to grab a Gatorade, and when he came back, the hotel allegedly refused to let him upstairs because the room wasn't in his name. Okay. Fine. But then:
Bryan's lawyer claims Zach tried explaining his wife was in the room, but the hotel refused to call her. He claims an off-duty manager, who was not involved in the initial argument, came out of nowhere and tasered Zach in the neck.
Wait. WHAT? A taser? For reals, people?
