Tag: Hotel Woes
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Say, Who's Been Ripping The Sheets In Our Hotel Bed?
Over the weekend, a friend sent us this snapshot from a Sheraton Hotel near San Diego, saying " Apparently, this sheet is in Sheraton's "still usable" category." Sheet! That ain't good. And it kinda takes the excitement out of sleeping on that Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed, right?
Sadly, we've seen tears like this rather frequently on hotel sheets. We *think* it's due to the giant machines that press the sheets after they are laundered. Inevitably a corner gets stuck in the machine and is accidentally ripped. It definitely doesn't look like a guest made such a clean tear, unless they we're just goofing off with a pocket-knife while in bed. And that's possible, given this list of shameful hotel habits.
But is there another explanation? Does anyone know what else might be causing such a sheety disaster? And should a hotel discard an otherwise perfectly good sheet? Tell us in comments below!
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Morgans Hotel Group is Getting Sued...Again
Update 11:50AM, 6.14.13: The board has voted! See results below!
Man, the Morgans Hotel Group cannot catch a break.
The parent company to such hip hotels like the Delano South Beach and The Hudson in New York has been sued again. This time, the lawsuit's been filed in Istanbul by a company called JMJ Development, LLC who is claiming Morgans Hotel Group, its CEO and a property owner engaged in "breach of contract, tortuous interference with existing and prospective contracts, intentional misrepresentation, conversion, fraud, and conspiracy." That's some serious stuff. You can read all the nitty gritty accusations on the press release but here's a snippet:
Without JMJ's knowledge or participation, Morgans and Coruk created a new Turkish company to own and develop the hotel, Morbel Hospitality, in which Michael Gross and Richard Szymanski, CFO of Morgans, are directors. According to a December 2011 press release, Morgans released $10 million to the new company under terms remarkably similar to the terms negotiated by JMJ. The parties conspired to circumvent the agreements to JMJ's detriment.
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What All Hotel Guests Should Know About Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
A tragic story emerged this week about the death of an 11-year-old boy due to carbon monoxide poisoning in his Best Western Plus hotel room. Unfortunately, it was made even more tragic when authorities revealed that the same exact room had been responsible for killing another two guests—also from carbon monoxide poisoning—back in April.
(TIME magazine's 'Hotel Horror' headline was pretty spot on, if you ask us.)
Tests confirmed an "elevated level of carbon monoxide in the room," and the hotel has been shut down for the time being—but the question that keeps circling in our head is: could we be susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning in our hotel room, too? How would we even know if the levels were high? After all, carbon monoxide is deadlier than other gases because it can't be seen or smelled.
So, to ease our anxiety, we've done a little research that ought to help us (and you) sleep peacefully next time you check into a hotel room. Here are five facts about carbon monoxide poisoning all hotel guests should know:
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Will The Mondrian Soho Be No Mo'?
On Friday, a letter sent to shareholders of Morgans Hotel Group detailed some frightening behind-the-scenes financials for the uber-trendy Mondrian Soho Hotel as well as other key Morgans properties.
To quickly get you up to speed, OTK Associates (one of the largest shareholders of the Morgans stock), has sued fellow board members to stop them from doing a deal with Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa company and from recapitalizing assets. It’s an extremely complicated situation but a Delaware court recently ruled in favor of OTK, who is now trying to replace the exist boardmembers with picks of their own.
In their recent letter to shareholders with their boardmember suggestions, OTK Associates revealed that foreclosure proceedings began in January for the Mondrian Soho. But that's not all:
In February 2013, the owner of Mondrian SoHo, a joint venture in which Morgans Group owns a 20% equity interest, gave notice purporting to terminate our subsidiary as manager of the hotel. It also filed a lawsuit against us seeking termination of the management agreement. We intend to vigorously defend our rights to continue managing the property under our management agreement and related agreements, but we cannot assure you that we will be successful.
Ouch.
Hotel Industry News / Hotel Woes / Hotel Lawsuits / Delano Hotels / Morgans Hotel Group / Ron Burkle / → All Tags
And The Morgans Mess Gets Messier
The hotel that launched a thousand ships pages of court filings
Last month, things were getting down and dirty with Delano Hotels. This month things are getting even messier with the Delano's parent company, Morgans Hotel Group.
According to Bloomberg News, investor Ron Burkle threatened to "crater" some of the hotel group's other deals (like in Moscow and Las Vegas) if the Morgans board members did not approve the Delano South Beach buyout bid from his Yucaipa companies as well as his proposed recapitalization plan.
One of Morgan's largest shareholders, OTK Associates, has already filed a lawsuit against other Morgans board members to stop this arrangement. OTK also wants to overhaul the board and in effect, the company. Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reports that Morgans with its 13 hotels has lost money in every quarter since 2007.
If this sounds terribly confusing, it is. Essentially two board members are fighting each other over direction of the company and who gets most of its assets. Like we said last month, this may not immediately affect your experience at a Morgans Hotel right now, but it certainly could in the future.
More importantly, if the hotel group hasn't turned a profit since 2007, we're not so sure how many of their new hotel projects will actually come to life. To be continued....
[Photo: HotelChatter]
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"Terrorism Insurance" a Hot Debate as Boston Hotels Still Struggle
The hotels located on or near Boylston Street are still trying to get their feet back under them after the tragedy in Boston, reeling from the lack of business associated with the incident's aftermath. Hotels are looking to their insurance companies to cover their losses, but, interestingly enough, the payout depends upon whether or not the government officially declares the marathon bombings an "act of terror."
Quick background: After September 11th kicked them in the face, insurance companies decided to exclude "acts of terror" from inclusion in policies. They made it an optional add-on that businesses had to purchase separately to have damage covered that resulted from officially declared acts of terrorism, meaning the government's categorization of the incident will determine who pays for what. According to ABC News, President Obama called the bombings an "act of terror," but the treasury secretary, attorney general, and secretary of state have yet to speak on the designation, and have set no time frame in which to do so.
"If there is no terror finding, damages would be covered in general under regular property-and-casualty policies," Robert Hartwig, president of the trade group Insurance Information Institute, told ABC News. If it's declared an "act of terror," however, only those who purchased the additional terrorism clause would have their losses covered by insurance.
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A New Low? Vikram Chatwal Gets Kicked Out Of His Own Hotel
The downstairs restaurant at Dream Downtown hasn't exactly had an easy run. First, it opened as the "theatrical dining" concept Romera, by neurologist-turned-chef Miguel Sanchez Romera. The NY Times panned it. Then, earlier this year, a BondSt sushi spin-off opened in the form of Japanese-French fusion joint Cherry.
And now, the NY Post reports that, after an "altercation" inside Cherry, hotelier Vikram Chatwal was thrown out of his own hotel. Yikes.
OpenThread / Hotel Bathrooms / Peekaboo Bathrooms / Hotel Woes / → All Tags
RANT: A Plea For Toilet Privacy
Where: Everywhere it seems
We’ve got to get something off our chest: we have officially, completely, and utterly maxed out on peek-a-boo bathrooms. They have gone too far, and we’re beyond done.
Yes, we’ve talked previously about how a wall of (smoke) glass between shower and bedroom is sexy to some and annoying to others. We also appreciate that hotel designers, in the case of bog-standard hotel room lay-outs, need and are trying to find ways to be creative with the space. We get it.
But what truly has us raising the red flag is a few recent experiences where the lack of privacy has, inexplicably and unforgivably, been extended to the toilet. The picture on the left is one of the worst we’ve seen yet, taken at an all-villa resort this past weekend where rates can easily run upwards of $700 a night. The thatch you see behind the wall on the right? The entrance to the villa and also the public footpath!
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Revel's Financing Approved as Summer Approaches the Jersey Shore
Last time we checked in with Revel, they were in the process of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Last week, a court judge approved a $250 million financing plan that will allow the hotel and casino to continue its operations, including employee wages, sustaining loyalty programs, and paying its bills.
That’s good news for visitors this summer, who, in theory, shouldn’t see any operational changes if they look to help Revel make a comeback. That said, Revel laid off 83 workers last Wednesday from a variety of positions, so it remains to be seen whether those cuts will have any noticeable effect on the consumer (they still have 3,217 employees, so we’re guessing they’ll be all right).
According to the Associated Press, Revel is also rumored to be considering whether to drop its non-smoking policy, which is thought by many, including HC, to be one of the reasons for the casino’s poor performance. It is one of the few Atlantic City venues to have such a regulation.
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Rocco Forte Hotels Struggles, Drops The Augustine Prague
Despite optimism and tons of hotel openings in some places, especially Europe, we all know the travel industry isn’t completely out of the water when it comes to the financial crisis.
One hotel group that's been feeling the squeeze is Rocco Forte Hotels, a small family-run collection of hotels across Europe, including Brown’s Hotel in London and Hotel de Russie in Rome. After a difficult few years, this month the group dropped both Rocco Forte Abu Dhabi, the first hotel to be introduced solely with the group name, and The Augustine in Prague.
OpenThread / Hotel Lobbies / Hotel Woes / Loews Hotels / Hotel Crime / → All Tags
Have You Ever Slept In the Hotel Lobby?
We came across an article published earlier last week on the Santa Monica Mirror that described a woman who showed up at the Loews Santa Monica at 1am, asking for a room. The hotel had availability, so they asked for a credit card, and the woman handed over (what she claims was) her credit card. Which was declined.
That's when things got strange. Apparently, instead of just walking away, the woman demanded a free room, and when that request wasn't granted, she simply went to sleep on one of the couches in the lobby.
Now, we've been through plenty of hotels where the lobby was big enough to house our apartment several times over. And we often thought, 'What if we just dozed off for a couple hours in the lobby a couple of hours, then set off on our way?' We'd certainly be saving ourselves lots o' cash, and the hotel would be none the wiser!
We're not saying what this (probably deranged) woman did was right—in fact, the hotel ended up calling the police and she was arrested and taken to jail. But we are wondering: have you ever slept in some part of the hotel that wasn't your room? Was it on purpose? Did you get caught?
We're open to hearing all your crazy stories: just drop a comment below, or, in the interest of anonymity, send us an email!
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Carlyle Hotel Tenant Gets Raided By FBI
FBI agent outside Helly Nahmad Gallery at The Carlyle Hotel
Looks like we've got another hotel heist on our hands, but this time it's of the legal variety instead of the unfortunate robbery that befell the Four Seasons. The latest target is the Carlyle Hotel, specifically the Helly Nahmad Gallery, which was raided by FBI agents on Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. The gallery, which is a separate business from the Carlyle, has been a tenant since the 90s, with an entrance on the hotel's Madison Ave and 76th Street side.
The historic Carlyle has other famous residents, including Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey. According to a New York Times article, the gallery,which was filled with multimillion dollars worth of art including masters like Picasso and Francis Bacon, had actually appeared closed before the raid--its windows covered with brown paper and a sign on the door reading “We are closed for renovation, please ring the bell or call.”
The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan is charging gallery owner, Hillel "Helly" Nahmad for racketeering, conspiracy, illegal gambling and money-laundering. Apparently the indictment details that Nahmad is behind a "high-stakes illegal gambling business run out of New York City and Los Angeles that catered primarily to multimillionaire and billionaire clients.” Nahmad surrendered to LA authorities yesterday.
