Portal:Hotels
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The Hotels Portal


A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator, and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities.
Hotel operations vary in size, function, complexity, and cost. Most hotels and major hospitality companies have set industry standards to classify hotel types. An upscale full-service hotel facility offers luxury amenities, full-service accommodations, an on-site restaurant, and the highest level of personalized service, such as a concierge, room service, and clothes-ironing staff. Full-service hotels often contain upscale full-service facilities with many full-service accommodations, an on-site full-service restaurant, and a variety of on-site amenities. Boutique hotels are smaller independent, non-branded hotels that often contain upscale facilities. Small to medium-sized hotel establishments offer a limited amount of on-site amenities. Economy hotels are small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer basic accommodations with little to no services. Extended stay hotels are small to medium-sized hotels that offer longer-term full-service accommodations compared to a traditional hotel. (Full article...)
Recognized articles - load new batch
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Image 1
The Desert Inn, also known as the D.I., was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, which operated from April 24, 1950, to August 28, 2000. Designed by architect Hugh Taylor and interior design by Jac Lessman, it was the fifth resort to open on the Strip, the first four being El Rancho Vegas, The New Frontier, Flamingo, and the El Rancho (then known as the Thunderbird). It was situated between Desert Inn Road and Sands Avenue.
The Desert Inn opened with 300 rooms and the Sky Room restaurant, headed by a chef formerly of the Ritz Paris, which once had the highest vantage point on the Las Vegas Strip. The casino, at 2,400 square feet (220 m2), was one of the largest in Nevada at the time. The nine-story St. Andrews Tower was completed during the first renovation in 1963, and the 14-story Augusta Tower became the Desert Inn's main tower when it was completed in 1978 along with the seven-story Wimbledon Tower. The Palms Tower was completed in 1997 with the second and final renovation. The Desert Inn was the first hotel in Las Vegas to feature a fountain at the entrance. In 1997, the Desert Inn underwent a $200 million renovation and expansion, but after it was purchased for $270 million by Steve Wynn in 2000, he decided to demolish it and build the Wynn Las Vegas resort and casino where the Desert Inn once stood, and later, Encore. The remaining towers of the Desert Inn were imploded in 2004. (Full article...) -
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The Waldorf-Astoria originated as two hotels, built side by side by feuding relatives, on Fifth Avenue in New York, New York, United States. Built in 1893 and expanded in 1897, the hotels were razed in 1929 to make way for construction of the Empire State Building. Their successor, the current Waldorf Astoria New York, was built on Park Avenue in 1931.
The original Waldorf Hotel opened on March 13, 1893, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street, on the site where millionaire developer William Waldorf Astor had previously built his mansion. Constructed in the German Renaissance style by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, it stood 225 feet (69 m) high, with fifteen public rooms and 450 guest rooms, and a further 100 rooms allocated to servants, with laundry facilities on the upper floors. It was heavily furnished with antiques purchased by founding manager and president George Boldt and his wife during an 1892 visit to Europe. The Empire Room was the largest and most lavishly adorned room in the Waldorf, and soon after opening it became one of the best restaurants in New York, rivaling Delmonico's and Sherry's. (Full article...) -
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The Virgin Hotels Chicago (formerly Old Dearborn Bank Building or 203 North Wabash Avenue) is a historic building in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, that has been converted from use as an office building to use as a hotel run via a mobile app-based business model. The 250-room hotel was the first of Richard Branson's Virgin Hotels brand boutique hotels geared toward the female business traveller. (Full article...) -
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The Blackstone Hotel is a historic 290-foot (88 m) 21-story hotel on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Drive in the Michigan Boulevard Historic District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1908 and 1910, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Blackstone is famous for hosting celebrity guests, including numerous U.S. presidents, for which it was known as the "Hotel of Presidents" for much of the 20th century, and for contributing the term "smoke-filled room" to political parlance. (Full article...) -
Image 5The Hotel Polen fire occurred on 9 May 1977 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The conflagration destroyed the Hotel Polen (Hotel Poland), a five-story hotel in the centre of the city which had been built in 1891, as well as the furniture store on the ground level and a nearby bookstore. Many of the tourists staying at the hotel (of whom the majority were Swedes) jumped to their deaths trying to escape the flames. Upon their arrival, the fire department used a life net to help people escape, but not everyone could be saved. The incident resulted in 33 deaths and 21 severe injuries. The cause of the fire is unknown. In 1986, the Polish-born artist Ania Bien created a photographic installation based on the fire which compared it to the Holocaust.
The hotel was located between the Kalverstraat (no. 15–17) and the Rokin (no. 14), near the present day Madame Tussauds. Its place is now occupied by the Rokin Plaza, originally an office building, which today houses several fashion shops. (Full article...) -
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The Hotel Europa in Maracaibo, c. 1897
The Hotel Europa was a grand hotel located in Maracaibo, Venezuela. It opened in the late 19th century and served as the filming location for the first Venezuelan film, Un célebre especialista sacando muelas en el gran Hotel Europa, in 1897. Later, it was converted into other hotels with different names, most notably the Hotel Zulia, before being demolished in 1956 for the construction of the Maracaibo municipal building. (Full article...) -
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The Whitebrook, formerly known as The Crown at Whitebrook, is a restaurant with rooms in Whitebrook, 6 miles (9.7 km) south-south-east of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales, near the River Wye and the border with England. The building is thought to date from the 17th century and by the 19th century it was used as a roadside inn. Its restaurant was run by Chef Patron James Sommerin until 2013; it gained a Michelin star in 2007. It contains eight double rooms and a 2-acre (0.81 ha) garden.
On 7 March 2013, it closed because of financial difficulties; at the time it had the longest held Michelin star in Wales. Critics praised the food under Sommerin, but have criticised the difficulty in finding the restaurant. It re-opened in October 2013 under new chef and owner Chris Harrod, and regained the Michelin star in 2014. Harrod serves a menu using locally produced meat and vegetables along with foraged ingredients such as charlock, hedge bedstraw and pennywort. (Full article...) -
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The Royal Albion Hotel (originally the Albion Hotel) is a 3-star hotel, on the corner of Old Steine and Kings Road in Brighton, England. Built on the site of a house belonging to Richard Russell, a local doctor whose advocacy of sea-bathing and seawater drinking helped to make Brighton fashionable in the 18th century, it has been extended several times, although it experienced a period of rundown and closure in the early 20th century. A fire in 1998 caused serious damage, and the hotel was restored. However, another fire in 2023 seriously damaged the building to the extent that demolition of the western part of the building began on 19 July 2023.
The Classical-style building has three parts of different sizes and dates but similar appearances. Large pilasters and columns of various orders feature prominently. Amon Henry Wilds, an important and prolific local architect, took the original commission on behalf of promoter John Colbatch. Another local entrepreneur, Harry Preston, restored the hotel to its former high status after buying it in poor condition. The building took on its present three-wing form in 1963. The original part of the building was listed at Grade II* by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance, and its western extension is listed separately at the lower Grade II. (Full article...) -
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The residence of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was housed on the 42nd floor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, pictured here in 2012.
The official residence of the United States ambassador to the United Nations, established in 1947, was originally located in a suite of rooms that the U.S. Department of State leased on the 42nd floor of the Waldorf Astoria New York. Described in press reports as "palatial", the ambassadorial residence was the first one to be located in a hotel. The Department of State vacated the Waldorf Astoria shortly after the Chinese Anbang Insurance Company purchased the Waldorf-Astoria in 2015, raising security concerns. The United States purchased a penthouse apartment at 50 United Nations Plaza in May 2019 after initially renting a different penthouse apartment in the same building. (Full article...) -
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The W New York Union Square is a 270-room, 21-story boutique hotel operated by W Hotels at the northeast corner of Park Avenue South and 17th Street, across from Union Square in Manhattan, New York. Originally known as the Germania Life Insurance Company Building, it was designed by Albert D'Oench and Joseph W. Yost and built in 1911 in the Beaux-Arts style.
The W New York Union Square building was initially the headquarters of the Germania Life Insurance Company. In 1917, when the company became the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, the building was renamed the Guardian Life Insurance Company Building. A four-story annex to the east was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was completed in 1961. Guardian Life moved its offices out of the building in 1999, and the W New York Union Square opened the following year. (Full article...) -
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The Dorchester is a five-star hotel located on Park Lane and Deanery Street in London, to the east of Hyde Park. It is one of the world's most prestigious hotels. The Dorchester opened on 18 April 1931, and it still retains its 1930s furnishings and ambiance despite being modernised.
Throughout its history, the hotel has been closely associated with the rich and famous. During the 1930s, it became known as a haunt of numerous writers and artists such as poet Cecil Day-Lewis, novelist Somerset Maugham, and the painter Sir Alfred Munnings. It has held prestigious literary gatherings, such as the "Foyles Literary Luncheons", an event the hotel still hosts today. During the Second World War, the strength of its construction gave the hotel the reputation of being one of London's safest buildings, and notable members of political parties and the military chose it as their London residence. Queen Elizabeth II attended the Dorchester when she was a princess on the day prior to the announcement of her engagement to Philip Mountbatten on 10 July 1947. The hotel has since become particularly popular with film actors, models and rock stars, and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton frequently stayed at the hotel throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The hotel became a Grade II Listed Building in January 1981, and was subsequently purchased by the Sultan of Brunei in 1985. It belongs to the Dorchester Collection, which in turn is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), an arm of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei. (Full article...) -
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The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows,[full citation needed] is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. One of the world's best-known hotels, it is closely associated with Hollywood film stars, rock stars, and celebrities. The hotel has 210 guest rooms and suites and 23 bungalows and the exterior bears the hotel's signature pink and green colors.
The Beverly Hills Hotel was established in May 1912, before the city itself was incorporated. The original owners were Margaret J. Anderson, a wealthy widow, and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel. The original hotel was designed by Pasadena architect Elmer Grey in the Mediterranean Revival style. From 1928 to 1932, the hotel was owned by the Interstate Company. In 1941, Hernando Courtright, a vice president of the Bank of America, purchased the hotel with friends including Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, and Harry Warner. Courtright established the Polo Lounge, which is considered to be one of the premier dining spots in Los Angeles, hosting entertainers ranging from the Rat Pack to Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. The hotel was first painted its famous pink color during a 1948 renovation to match that period's country club style. The following year, architect Paul Williams added the Crescent Wing. (Full article...) -
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The Paramount Hotel (formerly the Century-Paramount Hotel) is a hotel in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, the hotel is at 235 West 46th Street, between Eighth Avenue and Broadway. The Paramount Hotel is owned by RFR Realty and contains 597 rooms. The hotel building, designed in a Renaissance style, is a New York City designated landmark.
The hotel is 19 stories tall and is H-shaped in arrangement, with light courts to the west and east. The north and south faces of the hotel contain numerous setbacks. The facade is made of brick, stone, and terracotta; most of the decorative detail is concentrated on the south facade, along 46th Street. The hotel building contains a double-height colonnade at street level, as well as several terraces above each of the setbacks. The building has a double-height hip roof flanked by mansard roofs. The basement contains an event venue named Sony Hall, which has historically been used as a nightclub and theater. The double-height lobby's design dates to a 1990 renovation by Philippe Starck. (Full article...) -
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The George Hotel, Crawley
The George Hotel, also known as the George Inn and now marketed as the Ramada Crawley Gatwick, is a hotel and former coaching inn on the High Street in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. The George was one of the country's most famous and successful coaching inns, and the most important in Sussex, because of its location halfway between the capital city, London, and the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton. Cited as "Crawley's most celebrated building", it has Grade II* listed status.
It is known that a building called the George has existed on the site since the 16th century or earlier, and many sources date the core of the existing inn to 1615. The George Hotel has three principal sections, facing east and running from south to north parallel with Crawley High Street. Nothing of the exterior is original, except perhaps for parts of the tiled roof. The hotel contains 84 rooms and 6 meeting rooms with a capacity of up to 150, regularly used for conferences, weddings, exhibitions, seminars and training sessions. The present structure is made up of disparate parts of various dates: the inn expanded to take in adjacent buildings as its success grew in the 18th and 19th centuries. Major changes took place in the 1930s, and the annex was knocked down in 1933. (Full article...) -
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John Plankinton (March 11, 1820 – March 29, 1891) was an American businessman. He is noted for expansive real estate developments in Milwaukee, including the luxurious Plankinton House Hotel designed as an upscale residence for the wealthy. He was involved with railroading and banking. The Plankinton Bank he developed became the leading bank of Milwaukee in his lifetime. He was involved in the development of the Milwaukee City Railroad Company, an electric railway.
Plankinton was a Milwaukee-based meatpacking industrialist. He started this trade as a butcher for his general store operating in the center part of the city. He was the city's leading meat packer after his first year in the grocery business. He expanded this industry and eventually became acquainted with the meatpacking industrialist Philip D. Armour forming a company with him that lasted for 20 years. (Full article...)
General images - show new batch
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Image 1Dutchmaid Motel, 10 miles north of Lancaster, Pennsylvania (from Motel)
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Image 2Tremont House in Boston, United States, a luxury hotel, the first to provide indoor plumbing (from Hotel)
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Image 3The Peninsula New York hotel, located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan (from Hotel)
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Image 4The Boody House Hotel in Toledo, Ohio (from Hotel)
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Image 6Abandoned Grand West Courts in Chicago, demolished in September 2013 (from Motel)
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Image 9An apartment hotel in Hammond, Indiana (from Apartment hotel)
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Image 10Wigwam Motel No. 6, a unique motel/motor court on historic Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona (from Motel)
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Image 11On top of the cliff, the Riosol Hotel in Mogán (from Hotel)
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Image 13Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden (from Hotel)
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Image 16The Harrison Hotel, an SRO hotel in Oakland, California. (from Apartment hotel)
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Image 17A typical hotel room with a bed, desk, and television (from Hotel)
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Image 19Motels frequently have large pools, such as the Thunderbird Motel on the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon (1973). (from Motel)
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Image 21Ithaa, the first undersea restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island resort (from Hotel)
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Image 23The Star Lite Motel in Dilworth, Minnesota is a typical American 1950s L-shaped motel. (from Motel)
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Image 26The 4 Seasons Motel sign in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin is an excellent example of googie architecture. (from Motel)
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Image 29Sign on Chicago motel (from Motel)
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Image 30The Waldorf Astoria New York, the most expensive hotel ever sold, cost US$1.95 billion in 2014. (from Hotel)
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Image 34Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island from Jumeirah Beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge (from Hotel)
In the news
- 29 April 2025 – 2025 Liaoning Liaoyang Hotel Fire
- Twenty-two people are killed and three others are injured after a fire breaks out in a restaurant in Liaoyang, Liaoning, China. (CNA)
- 29 April 2025 –
- Fifteen people are killed, including two children, and thirteen others are injured in a fire at a hotel in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. (Business Standard) (The Telegraph)
- 28 March 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- A Russian drone attack on Dnipro, Ukraine, kills four people and wounds 19 others. Multiple buildings in the city are reported to be ablaze, including a hotel, resort, a restaurant complex and numerous apartments. (Reuters)
Selected articles - load new batch
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Image 1
Room service with empanadas at Boon Hotel + Spa in Guerneville, California.
Room service or in-room dining is a hotel service enabling guests to choose items of food and drink for delivery to their hotel room for consumption. Room service is organized as a subdivision within the food and beverage department of high-end hotel and resort properties. It is uncommon for room service to be offered in hotels that are not high-end, or in motels. Room service may also be provided for guests on cruise ships. Room service may be provided on a 24-hour basis or limited to late night hours only. Due to the cost of customized orders and delivery of room service, prices charged to the patron are typically much higher than in the hotel's restaurant or tuck shop, and a gratuity is expected in some regions. (Full article...) -
Image 2The Hotel Inspector is an observational documentary television series which is broadcast on the British terrestrial television station, Channel 5, and other networks around the world.
In each episode, celebrated hotelier and businesswoman Alex Polizzi visits a struggling British hotel to try to turn its fortunes around by giving advice and suggestions to the owner. The current host, Alex Polizzi (since 2008), has featured in nineteen series of The Hotel Inspector, including four series of The Hotel Inspector: Returns and one series of Hotel Inspector: Checking In, Checking Out. Her predecessor, Ruth Watson, presented four series between 2005 and 2008, including the first and only series of The Hotel Inspector: Revisited. (Full article...) -
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The Midland Grand Hotel was the result of an architectural design competition. The winning design was a grandiose gothic revival style by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
Hotel design involves the planning, drafting, design and development of hotels. The concept of hotel design is rooted in traditions of hospitality to travellers dating back to ancient times, and the development of many diverse types of hotels has occurred in many cultures. For example, the advent of rail travel in the early 1900s led to the planning, design and development of hotels near railroad stations that catered to rail travelers. Hotels around Grand Central Terminal in New York City are an example of this phenomenon. Hotel interior design and styles are very diverse, with numerous variations existent. (Full article...) -
Image 4Travelodge or Travelodge by Wyndham (formerly branded TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. As of December 31, 2018, it had 435 properties with 31,005 rooms. (Full article...)
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Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacation properties. Hyatt Hotels & Resorts is one of the businesses managed by the Pritzker family. Hyatt has more than 1350 hotels and all-inclusive properties in 69 countries, across South America, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
The Hyatt Corporation came into being upon purchase of the Hyatt House, at Los Angeles International Airport, on September 27, 1957. In 1969, Hyatt began expanding internationally.
Hyatt has expanded its footprint through a number of acquisitions, including the acquisition of AmeriSuites (later rebranded Hyatt Place) in 2004, Summerfield Suites (later rebranded Hyatt House) in 2005, Two Roads Hospitality in 2018, Apple Leisure Group in 2021, Dream Hotel Group in 2023 and Standard International in 2024. (Full article...) -
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The Ritz-Carlton Atlantic City, located at 199 S. Iowa Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, began as a hotel on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, built at the beginning of the Roaring Twenties and renowned for its luxurious decor and famous guests. It was used as an apartment hotel beginning in 1969, and then purchased in 1978 with the intention of developing it as a hotel and casino. The building was converted to The Ritz Condominiums in 1982. (Full article...) -
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The Crescent Hotel is a historic hotel at 75 Prospect Avenue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is billed as "America's most haunted hotel" and offers a ghost tour for a fee. The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. (Full article...) -
Image 8The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group is a San Francisco, California, based hotel and restaurant brand owned by IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) since 2015. (Full article...)
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Georges Panayotis (Georges Panayotis is a pseudonym for Georges Chatzipanayotis) is a French/Greek businessman and consultant for the tourism, hotel and hospitality industries. He has contributed to establishing more than 2,500 hotels (150,000 hotel rooms) in France and throughout EMEA, representing a global investment of over 10.5 billion euros. (Full article...) -
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Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orchestra in 1924. Will Rogers (standing right), Art Gillham, Wendell Hall, Carson Robison, the Eveready Quartet, Graham McNamee.
The Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra was an orchestra that played primarily at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, both the old and new locations. In addition to providing dinner music at the famous hotel, the orchestra made over 300 recordings and many radio broadcasts. It was established in the 1890s, and was directed by Carlo Curti in early 1900s, Joseph Knecht at least from 1908 to 1925, later by Jack Denny and others, and then Xavier Cugat from approximately 1933 to 1949.
Denny and the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra appeared in the movie Moonlight and Pretzels in 1933. Both Denny and Cugat had their own orchestras when they began playing at the Waldorf-Astoria, so the term "Waldorf-Astoria orchestras" might be an appropriate description. (Full article...) -
Image 11The Legends Resort & Country Club, often called simply Legends, was a hotel located on County Route 517 in Vernon Township in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. In the 1970s, Hugh Hefner built the facility as The Great Gorge Playboy Club Hotel, and it officially opened in 1972. The Playboy Club was sold in 1982 to the Americana Hotel franchise . The hotel was sold again to the Seasons Investment Corp. and reopened in 1991 as the Seasons Resort and Conference Center. The property was sold yet again to parent-company Metairie Corp (owned by Hillel A. "Hillie" Meyers with individual hotel rooms owned by Andrew Mulvihill), which reopened the hotel as the Legends Resort & Country Club. The hotel declined severely after 2000 and has been nearly derelict with the amenities all damaged and shut down. The hotel did stay open but mostly housed recipients since about 2005. After evicting long term tenants, the hotel finally closed to public operations in April 2018 with various plans to restore it for commercial use of some sort.
In July 2024 Mayor Anthony Rossi announced that the property had been sold to an affiliate of Lockwood Hotels. (Full article...) -
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La Mamounia (French: [la mamunja]; Arabic: مامونية) is a five-star hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco, opposite the Kutubiyya Mosque. Widely regarded as one of the best hotels globally, La Mamounia has been named the best hotel in the world by Condé Nast Traveler. It is marketed by The Leading Hotels of the World. "Mamounia" means "safe haven" or "reservoir" in the Arabic language.
The hotel has 135 rooms (with each room covering 30 to 45 square meters), 71 suites (with each suite covering 55 to 212 square meters), and 3 riads (with each covering 700 square meters) for rent.
Notable guests have included politicians such as Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan, and Helmut Kohl; entertainment industry stars include Kirk Douglas, Paul McCartney, Charlie Chaplin, and Omar Sharif; athletes such as Zinedine Zidane; fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper and artist Andy Warhol. (Full article...) -
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A refrigerated minibar in a Grand Hyatt hotel, filled with beverages. This minibar detects whenever an item is removed and charges the guest instantly, even if the item is not consumed.
A minibar is a small refrigerator, typically an absorption refrigerator, in a hotel room or cruise ship stateroom. The hotel staff fill it with drinks and snacks for the guest to purchase during their stay. It is stocked with a precise inventory of goods, with a price list. The guest is charged for goods consumed when checking out of the hotel. Some newer minibars use infrared or other automated methods of recording purchases. These detect the removal of an item and charge the guest's credit card right away, even if the item is not consumed. This is done to prevent loss of product, theft and lost revenue.
The minibar is commonly stocked with small bottles of alcoholic beverages, juice, bottled water, and soft drinks. There may also be candy, cookies, crackers, and other small snacks. Prices are generally very high compared to similar items purchased from a store, because the guest is paying for the convenience of immediate access and also the upkeep of the bar. Prices vary, but a common price for a can of a non-alcoholic beverage is US$6–10. Due to the convenience of room service and the minibar, prices charged to the patron are much higher than the hotel's restaurant or tuck shop. As premium bottled water has become popular with guests since the 2000s, there is "ambient placement" of such chargeable products outside the minibar and in the guests' line of vision; for example "by placing [bottled] water on bedside tables, during the night, people are more likely to grab it than get up to get a glass of water".
The world's first minibar was introduced at the Hong Kong Hilton Hotel by manager Robert Arnold in 1974. In the months following its introduction in-room drink sales increased 500%, and the Hong Kong Hilton's overall annual revenue was boosted by 5%. The following year the Hilton group rolled out the minibar concept across all its hotels. (Full article...) -
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Swissôtel The Stamford, formerly known as The Westin Stamford, is a hotel in Singapore managed by Accor. Designed by architect I.M. Pei, at a height of 226 metres (741 ft) it was the tallest hotel in the world when opened in 1986 and remains one of Southeast Asia's tallest hotels. It is part of the Raffles City complex comprising two hotels, the Raffles City Convention Centre, Raffles City shopping centre, and an office tower. Situated at 2 Stamford Road, the hotel sits above City Hall MRT station and Esplanade MRT station.
The 5-star hotel is a sister hotel of Fairmont Singapore and has 1,252 rooms and suites, 12 restaurants and bars, Raffles City Convention Centre, and one of Asia's largest spas, Willow Stream Spa. A major renovation of the hotel was completed in 2019. (Full article...) -
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Fairmont Le Montreux Palace is a luxury hotel located on the shores of Lake Geneva at Avenue Claude Nobs 2, in the city of Montreux in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and managed by Michael Smithuis. Built in 1906, the hotel is a member of the Swiss Deluxe Hotels and Historic Hotels Worldwide. The hotel is part of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. The Fairmont chain has been part of the AccorHotels group since 2016. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated)

- ... that in the 1980s, New York City's St. Regis Hotel was said to have hosted every U.S. president since its opening?
- ... that Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son Lee Hsien Loong donated the "unsolicited discounts" from their controversial purchase of condominium units to charity?
- ... that the Royal Manhattan Hotel, sold for $10 million in 1969, attracted no buyers when it was placed for sale at $1.8 million just six years later?
- ... that in the 1970s, the Shelton Hotel avoided demolition after seven elderly residents and a secretary refused to move out?
- ... that when part of New York City's Hotel Riverview became a theater, some people thought that the hotel's overflowing toilets and leaky ceilings were part of the show there?
- ... that the Algonquin Hotel keeps a cat in its lobby?
- ... that a restaurant in a Thai hotel serves "Chicken Volcano", a dish containing whiskey?
- ... that the Exchange Hotel, Montgomery, where Confederate president Jefferson Davis's inaugural procession started, also hosted Ku Klux Klan leaders, politicians, prostitutes, and two US presidents?
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