Tag Archives: Hotels

by | March 13, 2014 · 8:43 am

Hospitality Industry Risk Management Update: “NWC Student Dies in Fall at Denver Hotel”

“…Thamba’s death remains under investigation, according to Sonny Jackson, a spokesman for the Denver Police Department, but foul play is not suspectedImage….Thamba fell from a balcony at the Holiday Inn Denver East at 3333 Quebec St. between 3-4 a.m. Tuesday, Jackson said. How far he fell, and what caused the fall, have not been determined, Jackson said…”

An international student attending Northwest College died early Tuesday morning when he fell off a balcony at a Denver hotel.

Levy Thamba, of the Republic of Congo, Africa, began attending Northwest in late January. He apparently traveled to Denver during the college’s spring break.

For more: http://www.powelltribune.com/news/item/12164-nwc-student-dies-in-fall-at-denver-hotel

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by | February 18, 2014 · 8:43 am

Hospitality Industry Liability Risk: “Carbon Monoxide Leak At Westin Sends 9 To Hospital”

“…A total of 20 guests and employees were evaluated by paramedics, resulting in the transport of nine people to the hospital.  Four employees who worked in the area of the hotel’s laundry roomImage were transported by paramedic unit to the Hyperbaric Chamber at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.  Five additional patients, four employees and one guest, were transported to local hospitals…”

For the second time in as many months, Anne Arundel County paramedics were alerted to the presence of dangerous levels of carbon monoxide on the scene of a call by carbon monoxide detectors carried on their medical equipment.  On Sunday February 16th just after 1:30 p.m., paramedics responded to the Westin Hotel, located at 1110 Old Elkridge Landing Road in North Linthicum to assist an employee who felt faint.  While assessing and treating the patient, the paramedics were alerted to the possible presence of carbon monoxide by their CO alarm.  They immediately requested additional assistance to the scene and began to evacuate the patient and others in the area.

Additional responding units checked other areas of the hotel and found excessive levels of carbon monoxide in various locations in the hotel.  Some levels were in excess of 700 parts per million- levels capable of causing serious injury with just two hours of exposure.  The seven story hotel was evacuated by firefighters going room to room on each floor to ensure all employees and guests had been evacuated.

For more: http://www.eyeonannapolis.net/2014/02/17/carbon-monoxide-leak-at-westin-sends-9-to-hospital/

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by | February 13, 2014 · 9:01 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “The Hotel of the Future”

“…’The cookie-cutter in-room experience has to die,’ says internationally recognized keynote speaker Dr. Lalia Rach, associate dean, UW-Stout School of Hospitality Leadership, Menomonie, WI…timthumb‘We’ve talked about customization for a long time now,’ she notes. ‘We’ve talked about the colors of the room changing, about what’s on the walls changing to be more reflective of the person who is in the room. But it’s not just the physical, it’s the intangible.’…”

At the YOTEL New York, a towering robotic arm takes guests’ luggage and stores it in bar-coded storage bins. The Nine Zero Hotel in Boston uses iris-scan technology that opens the door to its presidential suite, while the Hotel Éclat in Taipei, Taiwan, has toilets with lids that open automatically. The hotel experience is changing, and the future will be here faster than you think. We asked planners, hoteliers, and hospitality experts to make some predictions on what the guest experience will be like; what follows are 20 features that are already here, or will soon be here before you even know it.

For more: http://www.successfulmeetings.com/Event-Planning/Technology-Solutions/Articles/The-Hotel-of-the-Future/

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by | February 12, 2014 · 8:30 am

Hospitality Industry Guest Safety Update: “Placing Guests at the Heart of Safety”

“…Risk, along with return, is perhaps the most important part of any business calculation. Risk has to be managed correctly and one way of doing this is to have a risk strategy. A risk strategy helps everyone understand the importance of risk awareness.  It is useful because it sets down in black and white the kind of things you will and won’t do. It’s always difficult to look away when there is an opportunity to make more money and in the heat of the moment one can throw caution to the wind…”

When one purchases a high-priced item, it is natural and reasonable to expect a high-quality of performance. For most people, cars and holidays count as the two highest priced items of regular expenditure. People save money to take their annual holiday and also put aside money to be able to purchase a newer car.
During the past two to three decades, the automobile industry has made vast strides towards improving the quality of their products to the extent that faults on new cars are now a rarity. Yes, occasionally, manufactures ‘recall’ certain models owing to production defects, but the percentage of recalled cars is a tiny fraction to that of the thousands of cars that are globally sold daily.

For more: http://www.dailymirror.lk/business/features/43010-placing-guests-at-the-heart-of-safety.html

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by | February 6, 2014 · 8:33 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Update: “Plaza Hotel Using Noise as Legal Reason to Remove Bike-Share Rake”

“…Steven Sladkus, attorney for the luxury hotel and condos, told The Post when he first filed the case last fall, Image “The public should enjoy unobstructed or unblemished landmarks. This isn’t just for the ‘wealthy’ in The Plaza. This is for the benefit of everyone. Don’t mar it.” He declined to comment on the city’s response…”

A city attorney blasted The Plaza hotel for using “red herrings” such as traffic, noise and historical import in its legal quest to remove a bulky bike-share rack near its entrance.

“It is clear that this proceeding is motivated instead purely by The Plaza hotel’s aesthetic concerns,” Nicholas Ciappetta, a lawyer for the city, said in a Jan. 28 court filing revealed Tuesday. “In other words, The Plaza hotel does not want the station anywhere in its vicinity,” Ciappetta added, asking a judge to toss the “meritless” case.

Ciappetta called the high-priced hotel “self-serving” for trying to oust one of the city’s most popular kiosks.

For more: http://nypost.com/2014/02/05/plaza-hotel-using-noise-as-legal-reason-to-remove-bike-share-rake/

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by | January 31, 2014 · 9:00 am

Hospitality Industry Guest Health Risk: “The Bed Bugs Rise Again”

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by | January 28, 2014 · 8:38 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risk: “Woman Forced to Cut Dreadlocks After Bedbugs Found in Suburban Chicago Hotel Room: Lawsuit”

“…Harder to explain is the trauma affecting travel for me now. I travel a lot for work, and every time I stay at a hotel I just get filled with anxiety…”453857859

“…Brumfield claims that on the second day of her stay at the hotel in Oct. 2012 a manager said an inspection of her room was needed after the bloodsucking Cimex Lectularius insects were found next door…”

A tennis coach was forced to cut off her waist-length dreadlocks after finding bedbugs in her suburban Chicago hotel room, a lawsuit claims.

Donna Brumfield alleges she had to hack off the cherished mane she’d been growing for 13 years after the creepy critters set up home on her head.

For more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/woman-forced-cut-dreadlocks-bedbugs-found-hotel-room-lawsuit-article-1.1590046

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by | January 27, 2014 · 9:04 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “Smartphones to Open Doors at Some Hotels”

“…Guests at these properties will receive a message on a Starwood app containing a virtual key, which will unlock the door with a tap or twist of their phone through the use of Bluetooth technology.Image The company says the iPhone 4s or newer models and the Android phones running 4.3 or newer will be compatible…”

“…Nevertheless, many hotel operators have been searching for ways to eliminate the bottlenecks that can form at a hotel’s front desk. The delays are the bane of many a road warrior’s travel experience…”

Guests arriving at the Aloft Hotel in Manhattan or one in Silicon Valley will soon be able to do something hotels have dreamed about offering for years: walk past the check-in desk and enter their rooms by using a smart phone as a room key.

The boutique hotel brand from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to offer this feature at two hotels, in the Harlem neighborhood and in Cupertino, Calif., before the end of the quarter.

For more: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304856504579339130820876304?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304856504579339130820876304.html

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by | January 22, 2014 · 8:42 am

Hospitality Industry Business Practices: “Bitcoin To Be Accepted For Food and Lodging In Two Las Vegas Hotels”

“…Using bitcoins for the casinos itself won’t be happening anytime soon. State regulators, particularly the Nevada Gaming Control Board, are being more cautious about acknowledging and accepting the new type of currency.Image The gaming industry isn’t particularly keen on pushing for it either. This is almost in contrast to the government of Singapore who just recently recognized Bitcoin as a valid, and therefore taxable, currency…”

Bitcoin has been making waves across the world, and now the cryptocurrency craze has reached the good city of Las Vegas. Starting Wednesday, two hotels in Las Vegas, including the The Golden Gate, the city’s oldest casino, will start accepting Bitcoin payments but only for hotel expenses.

Four years have already passed since Bitcoin came into being, but this new kind of currency only truly exploded last year, sometimes to rather insane heights. While it still mainly remains an oddity and curiosity for many, it has started to be become quite literally a serious business for others, including some governments.

For more: http://www.slashgear.com/bitcoin-to-be-accepted-for-food-and-lodging-in-two-las-vegas-hotels-21314010/

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by | January 21, 2014 · 8:02 am

Hospitality Industry Maintenance Update: “Hotel & Building Maintenance Tips”

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