HotelChatter

Tags: Hotels Doing Good / Hotel News / Dallas Hotels / Hyatt Hotels / → All Tags

The Homeless Given Refuge at the Hyatt Dallas on Christmas

Where: 300 Reunion Blvd [map], Dallas, TX, United States, 75207

Here's a Christmas story to keep your heart warm even after the hot toddies and holiday cheer have cooled off: on Christmas Eve this year, the Hyatt Regency Dallas invited more than 400 of DFW's homeless to spend the night in the hotel.

As a part of an annual privately-funded charity event called the Christmas Angel Project launched by soup kitchen SoupMobile Inc., the hotel played a key role in the program by hosting more than 400 Dallasites who had no place to sleep on Wednesday night. According to the AP: Participants in the program were treated to an afternoon banquet Wednesday and some new clothes. They were allowed to spend Thursday at the hotel... Meals were provided by Pizza Hut and Chick-Fil-A.

We'd love to see something like this from other hotels in cities around the world during the holiday season, especially since so many hotel rooms go unoccupied on Christmas Eve.

Tags: Good Rate / Dallas Hotels / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags

Good Rate :: Marriott Suites in Dallas for the Texas State Fair

Where: 2493 North Stemmons Freeway [map], Dallas, TX, United States, 75207

[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same region and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on September 12, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]

They do things big in Texas and this includes the Texas State Fair, billed as "North America's largest annual expo." It runs September 28 to October 21 in Dallas.

If you're planning on checking out the Human Cannonball, the $5 million sky ride, or the giant "Big Tex" statue, get your hotel reservations now.

The Marriott Suites Market Center gets high marks for it spacious quarters (600+ square feet)and friendly service. Compared to a lot of the price-gouging going on during the state fair (see this week's Bad Rate), the suite prices here are a steal.

For $249 a night you get a separate living room, a mini-fridge, and a fitness center on site. The hotel provides complimentary transportation within a five-mile radius, so if you tip your shuttle driver nicely you could end up with a ride to the fair. Granted this is the AAA rate or the corporate rate, but hotel insiders tell us, "If you can fog up a mirror you can get the corporate rate."

Related Stories:
· Bad Rate: State Fair Gouging at Hotel Indigo Dallas [HotelChatter]

Tags: Celebrity Scoop / → All Tags

James Frey Still to Speak at Hyatt Regency

Where: 300 Reunion Boulevard [map], Dallas, TX, United States, 75207

[UPDATE: This event has been cancelled. Luckily, Dr. Drew Pinsky of MTV's Lovelines has managed to gracefully step in under such short notice. Thank god.]

James Frey, "the man who conned Oprah," and the fake author of the fake memoir "A Million Little Pieces" was humiliated by Oprah yesterday on her most amazing episode ever but he still plans on hitting up the Dallas Hyatt Regency Hotel for a speaking engagement next Friday.

The event is being sponsored by the Turtle Creek Manor, which "provides residential treatment to indigent mentally ill and chemically addicted adults."

Sadly, the group is still promoting Frey's appearance on their web site. More than 500 people are expected to shell out the $125 ticket cost to hear Frey speak, presumably about his addiction and the other stuff he "wrote from memory."

We sort of wish Bob Saget would show up and ask Frey what he's ever done for cocaine.

At this point, those poor people should just put their ticket money towards a hotel room, and use whatever is left over to raid the mini-bar and binge on in-room movies. Porn and overeating, now those are addictions worth writing a fake memoir about.

Related Stories:
·Oprah's couch turns hot seat [WFAA]
·The man who conned Oprah [The Smoking Gun]
·Dallas Hyatt Regency reviews [TripAdvisor]