Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) has awarded franchise agreements to Gulf Coast Hotel Management, Inc. to convert 15 MainStay Suites hotels in major markets across the U.S., the largest multi-unit transaction in the brand's history. These properties, which have already begun welcoming guests, significantly increase the brand's foothold in the midscale extended stay segment.
2020 was a bizarre year, to say the least. We rode the waves of a pandemic, a U.S. presidential election, protests, wildfires, social change marches, travel bans, and more. And while it's easy to remember all the hardships that came with 2020 (and the noticeable lack of travel), the past year was also full of truly good news.
I hear this now and then when a guest learns my fee, more often in the form of a hint ("I'll talk to my husband and call you back…").
This column gives the impression that I'm a skilled, caring physician.
Only half my callers require one. I'm happy to phone a pharmacy when guests forget legitimate medication: blood pressure pills, heart pills, contraceptives, etc. I don't do this for guests who tell me "I had the same thing last year, and my doctor prescribed……".
"A guest at the Century Plaza wants his Adderall refilled. Can you go?" asked someone from the office of a local concierge doctor.
The coronavirus will fundamentally alter the way people travel for and conduct business, even after the pandemic is over, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Tuesday.
People often ask what sort of contract I had with hotels. The answer is none. Staff called because I was easy to reach and quick to respond. Once they called a few times, they were not inclined to change.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates predicts that over 50% of business travel will disappear in the post-coronavirus working world. On top of that, he also predicts that "30% of days in the office will disappear." Gates made his predictions in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin during the New York Times' Dealbook conference on Tuesday. He added that from now on there will be a "very high threshold" for traveling to carry out business meetings.
With tens of millions of Americans expected to travel for Thanksgiving next week despite spiking COVID-19 infection numbers nationwide, the U.S. Travel Association on Thursday released an update to its guidance for healthy and safe travel—along with a plea for everyone to closely heed recommended best practices if traveling.
A lady had been vomiting for three days. She had felt better that morning but then relapsed. She sounded weary.
The Chateau Marmont is a funky art-deco apartment converted to a hotel in the 1930s with nine nearby cottages acquired during the 1940s. John Belushi died in a cottage in 1982, but that was a few years before I became its doctor.
United Airlines says the risk of COVID-19 exposure onboard its aircraft is "virtually non-existent" after a new study finds that when masks are worn there is only a 0.003% chance particles from a passenger can enter the passenger's breathing space who is sitting beside them.
Hearing my fee, the guest announced that he was on Medicare. I explained that I am not a Medicare doctor, so he would have to pay me up front. Unlike most elderly callers, he preferred another source of care, so I gave directions to a local clinic.
Support for the American Hotel & Lodging Association's (AHLA) Safe Stay initiative continues to grow with endorsements coming from leading scientists, physicians and public health experts in epidemiology and infectious disease. The new endorsements come from the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Association for Linen Management which represents the personnel involved in the textile care industry, as well as a certified industrial hygienist and former infectious diseases epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Murray Cohen.
The revision of cleaning standards in hotels had started immediately with the outbreak of the pandemic as some kind of panic erupted. Traditional cleaning methods and the way rooms are checked and released had to be looked at.Hotel Housekeepers who keep themselves in the loop on new hygiene practices and are pioneers in the testing and evaluation of new cleaning techniques surely could adapt quickly to new cleaning practices.In fact, infection control has been a subject for many years and should have been implemented in hotels a long time ago.
Housekeeping professionals always played an important role in delivering the guest journey: behind the scene and guest-facing. While the service delivered by housekeeping professionals in hotels is designed to be invisible - just as cleaning happens by magic, the presence of the housekeeping team as ambassadors of the hotel was always part of the role.
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Danielle, chief concierge of the Ritz-Carlton, called me when her allergies were acting up, but this wasn't the reason. It was an awkward situation, she explained, but she hoped I'd understand. A guest has complained, I thought. I racked my brain to think who it might be.
She Has a Deal, an education and investment platform for aspiring women hotel investors and developers, announced today its first annual hotel pitch competition taking place on October 24 at the Hilton McLean in Virginia. During the competition, the five finalist teams consisting of 12 women will pitch their strategic hotel projects to industry experts and investors as they vie for $50,000 in deal equity.
She had a fourteen hour flight to Australia, explained a woman with a French accent. Unfortunately, she had thrown her back out again. Would I come and give something to relax her muscles for that long journey? Her doctor always prescribed something that did the trick.