Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s head of global policy, appeared on Thursday before hundreds of American mayors with an enticing pitch: Team up with us to collect millions of dollars in taxes for you.
On Wednesday, however, the head of the hotel industry’s lobbying group had sent the same audience a very different message: Airbnb isn’t a good partner; it is breaking your city laws.
The Canadian province of Quebec, with a population of some 8.2 million, is known as the last great bastion of the French language in North America. French Canadians, as they are better known, enjoy a joie de vivre unique to this continent – thousands of square kilometers of untouched wilderness, great skiing and cheeses that rival even that of their ancestral nation of France. While you’ve all marveled at pictures (or had the pleasure of visiting) the Fairmont le Chateau Frontenac, other visitors with more modest resources stay at smaller bed and breakfast establishments that the province is known for.
When guests stay at the Jefferson in Washington, the Peabody Memphis or Michigan's Grand Hotel, they know they are supporting a hotel of historic significance. Come Thursday night, they are also staying at a hotel that has won one of the Historic Hotels of America's 2015 Awards of Excellence, which were announced Thursday evening.
Hotel developers, city leaders and the Palm Springs tourism industry are keeping a tight lid on what a new mystery hotel might be, choosing instead, to speak in terms of what it might bring to the valley’s cachet of luxury accommodations.
Richard Louis Vilardo, 65, who served as founder and chief financial officer of Pinnacle Hotel Management, was found dead at his home near Rockville, Maryland, Sunday afternoon, according to published reports. Vilardo’s wife, Julianne "Jodi" Vilardo, 67, was also found dead at the home. A police department spokesman said the couple appeared to have suffered trauma to their upper bodies, but an autopsy would confirm a specific cause of death. Police said they do not yet know of a possible motive behind the deaths.
If you have ever glanced at your hotel receipt only to be stunned to see an unexpected $28 resort fee, help may be on the way. A Studio City man has filed a class-action suit against a Las Vegas casino, claiming that the resort is guilty of false and misleading advertising for failing to clearly disclose a mandatory resort fee at the time that he booked the room. The practice is not unique to Las Vegas
Christopher Nassetta, president and chief executive officer of Hilton Worldwide, and Elisabeth Gürtler, managing director of Sacher Hotels in Vienna, were honored Monday evening with HOTELS’ annual Hotelier of the World awards at a reception in New York City. Each year the award winners are chosen by HOTELS’ global readership.
The hotel industry is closely monitoring Airbnb, and a decision by the home-swapping company to turn over anonymous user data in New York could be the first step to tripping up one of the biggest players in the "sharing economy." Airbnb yesterday reached a deal with the New York attorney general that ultimately brings more regulatory scrutiny of the company, while at the same time raises concerns about how it handles the private data of its users.
Airbnb likes to say it reminds hosts that they must check local laws and leases before agreeing to rent out apartments. But after The Chronicle reported efforts by San Francisco officials and landlords to crack down on wayward hosts, the company is trying a little harder to remind people to play by the rules. Airbnb released revised terms of service that state many cities have laws restricting short-term paying guests, while many leases and condo agreements may prohibit the practice. It also advises that paying hotel taxes - something the company has said it will do in San Francisco by summer - is coming soon. The company e-mailed users about the changes this week and said all hosts must agree to them by April 30.
When you log on to Orbitz to find that perfect room for your next vacation, you may be thinking about the pool, or the view, or the chance to get away from it all. But the travel site you use and the hotel where you stay are thinking about something else: Who’s responsible for your taxes? Online travel providers and the hotel industry will clash next year over which side is responsible for forwarding taxes to state and local governments, setting up high-stakes battles in state capitals that are increasingly facing the question of how to tax Internet sales. In this case, the consumer’s bottom line may not change, but shifting the tax burden is a threat to travel providers still operating on narrow margins after a recession severely dented their balance sheets.
There was nothing dirty — or defamatory — about including a Tennessee hotel on an unflattering list on a travel website because it’s clear the inclusion was based on opinions, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a bid by the former owner of the Grand Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to reinstate a defamation lawsuit against the site TripAdvisor.
The U.S. Army wants its servicemembers and their guests to be all they can be in nicer hotels on bases across the country. Today, InterContinental Hotels Group will announce plans to take over hotels on 18 military bases in the next eight years, bringing the number of properties in its IHG Army Hotels program to 76 on 39 bases. The renovated or new hotels will replace Army-run lodging that a 2003 internal study deemed in desperate need of renovation.
A D.C. Superior Court judge has ruled that online travel firms should pay taxes on the full retail price of hotel rooms that they sell to consumers. In a filing released Monday, Judge Craig Iscoe said that the online travel companies, including Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline, must pay a 14.5 percent tax on the full retail price of hotel rooms. The travel companies have been paying taxes on the wholesale price, which is cheaper.
Jumeirah says it “remains fully committed to the US market” despite the sale of its only New York hotel, Essex House Hotel, which will be rebranded as the first JW Marriott in Manhatten. Jumeirah parent company, Dubai Investment Group (DIG), bought the Essex House in 2005 for $423.9m, according to real estate research and information company Real Capital Analytics. The 509-room Art Deco hotel at 160 Central Park South was sold to Strategic Hotels & Resorts for around $375 million. A DIG spokesperson told reporters the time had been right to sell the hotel.
If you use online travels sites like Orbitz or Priceline to shop around for the best hotel deals, you might be wasting your time. A number of these sites, including Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz and Hotels.com, have been accused of colluding with some of the country's largest hotel companies, including Hilton, Sheraton, Starwood, Marriott and Intercontinental, in a price-fixing scheme, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Monday.
On November 14th in New York City, HOTELS Magazine formally presented its 2011 Hotelier of the World awards to Katie Taylor, president and CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts,Toronto, and Geoffrey Gelardi, managing director of The Lanesborough in London. Marking the 31st year of the awards program, more than 200 industry luminaries were on hand to fete Taylor and Gelardi, who were voted by HOTELS readers for displaying leadership and setting the standard for global hotelkeeping excellence.
Host Hotels & Resorts Inc.'s second-quarter earnings surged as the lodging real-estate investment trust benefited from hotel acquisitions and higher average-room rates. Funds from operations--a key measure of REIT performance--and revenue were slightly higher than analysts' expectations.
Is an iconic Las Vegas hotel brand name looking for a new home? It was looking more likely Wednesday after Hilton Worldwide notified the owner of the famed Las Vegas Hilton that it plans to terminate its franchise license agreement by the end of the year.
Investors who bought condo-hotel rooms at downtown San Diego’s Hard Rock Hotel and now claim to have lost millions have sued the developer and operator, saying federal and state laws were broken because the investment contracts were never properly registered. The lawsuit, filed this week by former San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre, claims that Hard Rock Hotel principals never filed their offering of investment agreements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the California Department of Corporations because they wanted to avoid scrutiny of the deal.
The former general manager of Richmond's Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel, who was fired in October 2006 for insubordination, has successfully sued the company for wrongful dismissal. According to evidence, Adams was fired after she fought with company management over submitting a budget for 2007 showing a projected net profit (before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization) for the four-star luxury hotel of $6.7 million. At the time, Fairmont was in the process of selling its Canadian hotels to OMERS Realty Corporation. Adams and her staff had projected a net profit of only $5.8 million, which they were told would jeopardize the sale.