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Mother Claims Hotel Pool Got Her Daughter Pregnant

Where: Poland
July 9, 2009 at 1:12 PM | by Jenna | 2 Comments

Oh noes. A mother in Poland is suing a hotel in Egypt. Why? Because she thinks her 13-year-old daughter got pregnant from swimming in the hotel's pool. Seriously.

According to the Daily Mail:

Magdalena Kwiatkowska says the 13-year-old conceived after coming into contact with 'stray sperm' in the water of an Egyptian resort.

'The mother is adamant that her daughter didn't meet any boys while she was there,' a travel industry source said. 'She is determined to go ahead with the case.'

You know, little things like this serve as a reminder that the world is a lot different than we all like to think it is.

You know what else? We know for sure that stray sperm in a hotel pool can't get anyone preggers. If that were possible, everyone who has ever attended Sunday Rehab at the Hard Rock (the hot mess pictured above) would be knocked up. Zing!

[Photo: TedMurphy]

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Stealing Shampoo From Hotels is Fine; Stealing a Parrot is Not

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: One South County Road [map], Palm Beach, FL, United States, 33480
June 16, 2009 at 9:37 AM | by Jenna | 1 Comment

Yeah, we'll confess: sometimes we steal stuff from hotels. Like the little baby soaps and shampoos and things (which are ours for the taking), and one time we swiped a monogrammed washcloth and a tea packet and the binder that held the roomservice menus because we thought it looked nice. But do you know what we have never stolen from a hotel? A bird.

Though this is not as bad as the time some guy ripped the head off of one of the ducks in a hotel lobby (and yes, that really did happen), this is still sort of sad and mean: someone stole a couple of parrots from The Breakers.

According to the AP, police are charging a man with trespassing (and also "violating an ordinance declaring the island town a bird sanctuary") after he stole two baby parrots from the hotel and then left them in a pet store yesterday after trying to sell them to the pet store owner. But, uh, they don't know who the guy is.

Per the report:

The chicks were part of a flock of more than 100 wild birds at The Breakers resort in Palm Beach. Biologists monitor the birds with cameras aimed at their nests in hollowed-out trees. That's how authorities learned the two chicks were missing.

No, but seriously: who does that? Kimpton, you need to start keeping close watch on your pet concierges now. Oy.

[Photo: sgrace]

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Zermatt Resort Asks Facebook Fans to Help Name Their Goats

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 784 West Resort Drive [map], Midway, UT, United States, 84049
May 27, 2009 at 10:34 AM | by globetrotting gourmet | 0 Comments

More Swiss Family Robinson meets Sound of Music than stereotypical Utah ski lodge, Zermatt Resort in Midway, UT (about 50 minutes from Salt Lake City International airport and minutes from Park City and Deer Valley) is multi-tasking with its social media efforts. The Rocky Mountain resort has a blog and posts regularly to Flickr, Twitter (@Zermatt_Resort) and Facebook.

We especially dig the resort’s creative use of Facebook. The photo and event updates and frequent comments are well worth a look see for curious travelers, but unlike a lot of Facebook pages that are skewed to a strictly out-of-town market, Zermatt Resort’s efforts also appeal to the local clientele.

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Harboring Stolen Candy in Your Hotel Room Will Get You Arrested

April 30, 2009 at 11:30 AM | by Jenna | 2 Comments

Let this be a lesson to all of us: stealing a barrel of candy and then hiding it in your hotel room will get you in serious trouble with the law.

A young lady in Wyoming has found her name splashed across headlines today after she was arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property because she "had a pilfered barrel of cinnamon bear candies" in her hotel room. Headlines. This has made headlines today.

And the worst part? Police had come to her hotel room because of an accidental 911 call when they noticed the stolen cinnamon bears in question:

Investigators said they responded to a 911 call from a Days Inn hotel room in Casper [Wyoming] at about 8:20 p.m. Saturday and noticed the large barrel of candies after determining that the call was an accident, the (Casper) Star-Tribune reported Wednesday.

A police affidavit said the officers recognized the barrel from Poor Boys Steak House and contacted the manger of the restaurant, who confirmed a candy barrel was missing.

High drama on the high plains!

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Zero Desire to Stay at Switzerland's Zero Star Hotel

January 20, 2009 at 10:15 AM | by Jenna | 0 Comments

Well, we suppose this is cool and ironic in the way that wearing a 4-year-old's Puff the Magic Dragon t-shirt is ironic: two brothers in Switzerland have built literally a "zero star" hotel, the most bare-bones of bare-bones hotels, and are touting it as an "anti-luxury hotel" and selling nights for less than the cost of most cheap motels.

From the Dwell blog:

The Null Stern ("Zero Star") Hotel occupies a subterranean Swiss air raid shelter outside Zurich, which has served little purpose since the Cold War. Few updates were made to the place in order to ready it for guests. It costs less than a room at a Motel 6 (around $25/night), and you certainly get what you pay for: Rooms are arranged dormitory-style, with no walls between beds, a shared bath, and limited hot water.

No joke: instead of heaters, there are rubber hot water bottles hanging from clotheslines up along the windowless walls to provide "low-tech personal heat systems." Oh, and there are no windows.

The brothers who came up with (and run) the hotel are actually artists, and the place is actually described as an art installation on its official website. Can we start up a cheapo hotel here in the States and call it art? Because we could probably convert our windowless basement with a bit of paint and a quickie trip to IKEA.

Check out a video about the Null-Stern and a full description of the place here.

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WTF Hotel News :: Jason Kidd Gives Elaine Wynn His Gold Medal

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 3131 Las Vegas Blvd S [map], Las Vegas, NV, United States, 89109
August 27, 2008 at 11:50 AM | by juliana | 0 Comments

USA b-baller Jason Kidd is fresh off his gold medal win in Beijing and guess what he's doing? No, he's not going to Disney World. He's going to give his gold medal to Elaine Wynn, wife of Steve Wynn.

Since we could not do this sort of explanation any justice, we're giving you Kidd's own words:

"Last summer, we stayed at the Wynn for (what seemed like) a lifetime, close to three weeks," Kidd said. "We met at a banquet, we got to talking, and she really understands the game.

"I told her I'd make a deal with her, that if we won the gold medal, I'd give it to her. She thought I was kidding. But I told her I had one already, and the way they treated us at the Wynn, it was the least I could do."

While some folk might think this idiotic, we say, "Brilliant." Kidd will always have a VIP room and service awaiting him at the Wynn Las Vegas. And that will probably be comped. Man, it's genius. So genius we feel like training for the Olympics now.

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Breaking News: CNN Reporting Live on Bigfoot from Cabana Hotel

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 4290 El Camino Real [map], Palo Alto, CA, United States, 94306
August 15, 2008 at 3:32 PM | by juliana | 1 Comment

Bigfoot hunters are speaking live in Palo Alto at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel about their Bigfoot discovery. We just started watching and one of the guys is saying that all the disbelievers are just "jealous." Also, the Bigfoot corpse smelled "like something dead." We'll be updating. Again...let's hope the Bigfoot DNA is kept away from the kitchen.

Update: No DNA evidence was presented. That's good news for hotel guests...bad news for Bigfoot hunters trying to attain credibility.

Update, 8.21.08 Just a joke! Like, duh.

If anyone is on the scene at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel let us know what's going on.

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WTF Hotel News:: "Bigfoot" DNA Analysis at The Cabana Hotel

Where: 4290 El Camino Real [map], Palo Alto, CA, United States, 94306
August 15, 2008 at 9:15 AM | by juliana | 0 Comments

Guess what folks--people have found the elusive Bigfoot! And he's totally dead! And some guys in Georgia who found him in the woods are holding a press conference in California today to announce their discovery!

Yes, that is all true, according to Searching for Bigfoot.

The creature was found by Matthew Whitton (AKA Gary Parker) and Rick Dyer (residents of Georgia) in the woods in northern Georgia. (The exact location is being kept secret to protect the creatures.)

DNA testing was done on the body of Bigfoot, which looks like "it is part human and part ape-like." Bigfoot also walks upright. Apparently, the Bigfoot hunters spotted several more creatures on the day that they found this dead Bigfoot. (So do we call them Bigfeet?)

Ok, we can't even believe we're writing this right now. But the press conference announcing the DNA findings will be held at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto from noon to 1pm today. Sadly, only credentialed members of the press are allowed.

It's been a busy summer for this hotel. This is also the hotel where a case of hotel sick struck in early July. Ew...let's hope they keep the Bigfoot DNA away from the guests.

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World's First Sand Hotel is a Giant Sandcastle You Can Sleep In

July 23, 2008 at 2:38 PM | by Jenna | 0 Comments

Today in TOTALLY AWESOME hotel news: someone built a hotel out of sand!

For £10 (about 20 bucks) a night, guests can sleep in a gigantic sandcastle in the UK from now until, uh...well, until it gets washed away.

On Weymouth beach in Dorset, four very ambitious sculptors took seven days and 1,000 tons of sand to create the sand hotel, which is (obviously) roofless, toiletless, and showerless.

But! The hotel offers a twin and double bedroom (the beds are made out of sand, people, let's not get too excited), and adventurous guests can wake up to the ocean when "tide laps through the door."

The sand hotel, orchestrated as a publicity thing by a hotel company, is the biggest sand structure ever built in the UK and BBC News has a cute little video tour of the place here.

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Seventeen Women Freed from 'Slavery' at Conrad Brussels

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: AVENUE Louise 71, Brussels, Belgium, 1060
July 3, 2008 at 2:15 PM | by Jenna | 2 Comments

Holy crap. Dozens of police raided the Conrad Hotel Brussels (which has been called the "most exclusive" hotel in the city) and freed 17 people who were being held as slaves by a royal family living in the hotel.

The Telegraph had the scoop:

The operation was triggered by the apparent escape of a maid who was among 20 servants working for the widow of a senior royal figure from the United Arab Emirates and her four daughters who have rented the entire fourth floor of the hotel for the last year.

The servants, dubbed "slaves" in the Belgian media, allegedly had to be at the service of the Arab royals 24 hours a day and had their passport taken away on arrival in Belgium. The women were reportedly not allowed to leave the hotel and their monthly salaries were as low as £80 a month.

Insane, right? The investigation is still going on, and no charges have been brought against the royal family yet.

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Calling All Crazy Cat Ladies :: Game Show Auditions at Hotel Palomar in Dallas

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 5300 E Mockingbird Ln [map], Dallas, TX, United States, 75024
June 24, 2008 at 5:04 PM | by Jenna | 0 Comments

Ah, those fine folks at Kimpton simply won't stop the animal-lovin': not only do they welcome kitties of all kinds with open arms, but now we've found out that they open their doors to even the craziest of fame-seeking cat ladies too!

According to the Dallas Morning News, Meow Mix has a game show in the works that challenges cat owners to "think like a cat" (yeah, ok). The traveling auditions are stopping at a Kimpton property Dallas:

Interviews are scheduled for July 5-6 at the Hotel Palomar (details here); you have to bring your cat. Finalists will be flown to L.A. to appear on TV.

That kitty right there can be a star -- and so can you, Crazy Cat Lady. God bless America.

[Photo: Caption My Kitten]

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Lawyers Act Like Bratz and Ban Mean Kids from Slumber Party

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 3649 Mission Inn Ave [map], Riverside, CA, United States, 92501
June 10, 2008 at 9:15 AM | by Jenna | 0 Comments

If you aren't up to speed on Doll Warz '08, here's a quick summary: the Barbie-making people (Mattel) are trying to nail the Bratz-making people (MGA) in court.

Mattel is claiming MGA essentially stole the idea for Bratz dolls from them. Bratz, if you haven't had the pleasure, are female dolls with big heads, nasty attitudes, liberally-applied eyeliner and sorta scandalously skanky clothes.

Since a former Mattel employee may or may not have thought of the idea for Bratz while still at Mattel, things are all messy and are even messier since the Bratz people are all like, "no way, and in fact, Barbie has been dressing like a hoochie lately because she is copying Bratz dolls so now we're gonna sue YOU." Okay.

According to the WSJ, things came to a head a couple weeks ago when the two opposing legal teams arrived in Riverside to duke out the whole thing -- and the Barbie people weren't allowed to stay in the Mission Inn with the Bratz team.

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