Hotel Dispenser Systems

Hotel Chatter: To dispense or not to dispense? We're talking about hotel toiletry dispensers, that is. We (and a few of our readers) have said before that dispensers are cool so long as there are some good products in them. Fortunately, if you are visiting these hotels along the West Coast, you'll be encountering some good "tropical" stuff from Tommy Bahama.

The Acqua Hotel, Hotel FIVE, The Maxwell Hotel, University Inn, and Watertown Hotel have all added gallon dispensers of Tommy Bahama toiletries to their guestrooms in an effort to be eco-conscious. But Kurt Helmke, the general manager of the Acqua Hotel, outside of Marin in California, knew that not any old brand would work in the dispenser.

A lot of hotels have started moving to dispenser systems, but the Tommy Bahama products make us stand out.

Tommy's amenity line, distributed by Pineapple Hospitality, includes the Exotic Coral Shampoo, Protective Conditioner, Liquid Soap, Hand and Body Lotion and Bath and Body Gel. The amenities are all natural, have never been tested on animals and exude a clean, fresh aroma. No Hawaiian shirts needed!

Hotels Serving Up Their Own Honey

Los Angeles Times: Thanksgiving dinner guests at Carmel Valley Ranch can expect the Central California resort to serve a honey of a meal.

The great bird will be basted to a rich golden brown in a glaze of honey, apple cider and butter. And there will be honey corn muffins and an elegant ice cream that's a delicate mix of honey scented with lavender.

Guests can give thanks for these sweet dishes to the bees of Monterey Peninsula, most specifically the 70,000 Italian bees of Carmel Valley Ranch (www.carmelvalleyranch.com), which work overtime to provide honey for the upscale 500-acre resort.

The ranch's four colonies of bees are part of a new trend swarming across North America and Western Europe. It's accompanied by the buzz of millions of bees, many of them living on the rooftops of urban American hotels.

From Honolulu to Paris and from Vancouver, Canada, to the Florida Keys, honeybees have taken up residence on hotel ledges, rooftops and balconies and are busy doing what they do best: pollinating plants and making honey.

The hives are part of a beekeeping movement that has a two-fold purpose: to save the species, which has been decimated by colony collapse disorder; and to bring hyper-local honey to guests staying at these hotels.

Urban beekeeping has been growing in popularity for several years. Opéra Garnier, the Paris opera house, has kept hives humming on the roof for more than a quarter of a century.

The Obamas hopped on the bandwagon earlier this year when they served White House Honey Ale, home-brewed by their chefs with honey from the White House beehive.

But the loudest buzz comes from the hospitality industry, where hoteliers have found on-site beehives another prong in the movement to localized sourcing. Hotels are adding beehives to their properties to produce organic honey for use in a variety of areas, from spa treatments to cocktails.

At the Montage Deer Valley in Park City, Utah — the Beehive State — dandelion and lavender honeys are popular and are served at Buzz, the resort coffee shop (www.montagedeervalley.com).

Eighteen Fairmont Hotels have added apiaries, mostly on rooftops. At the Fairmont Washington D.C., the hives are named Casa Blanca, Casa Bella and Casa Bianca; at the Fairmont Newport Beach, executive chef Chad Blunston works with beekeepers to extract honey for use in Bambu Restaurant; and at the Fairmont San Francisco, 50,000 honeybees produce honey to be used at the afternoon tea service.

Last month I stayed at the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver, British Columbia, where I could look down from my 20th-floor room and see six hives — and about half a million bees — in the center of a third-floor balcony herb garden. The bees quietly went about their business within 20 feet of the hotel pool and within 50 feet of the mammoth Vancouver Convention Centre. Meanwhile, I snacked on a selection of the hotel's delicate honey truffles, Bee's Knees. In the dining room, I found a small jar of honey on the table at breakfast.

Despite the interest in saving bees, their numbers continue to dwindle.

In March, the United Nations sounded the alarm, seeking international efforts to save bee colonies, which have declined as much as 85% in some areas, particularly the industrialized Northern Hemisphere, according to a report by the U.N.'s environmental agency.

The causes: pesticides, air pollution, parasites, the loss of flowering plants and a decline in beekeepers in Europe.

"The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations' Environment Programme.

"The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90% of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees."

In the greater scheme of things, the hoteliers' beekeeping efforts probably aren't "a blip on the radar for honey production or pollination input," said Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture magazine.

"But the promotional value far outweighs the practical application value," he added. From the standpoint of the beekeeping community, the hotel trend is appropriate because "it keeps honey bees in front of people all the time, and featured in a very positive light."

The bottom line, Flottum said: "The hotel wins, the bees win, beekeeping and beekeepers win, the local flora thrive, folks who never thought about where their food comes from get a little insight into that side of the business. It's all good."

John Russo, the beekeeper at Carmel Valley Ranch, couldn't agree more. He runs a program there called the Bee Experience that introduces guests to beekeeping. "When people get enthused about the bees, and want to have their own hives, I feel like I've made a few more converts," he said. "That's a terrific feeling."

Ultimate Techie Hotel Room Available in Paris

Smart Planet: Novotel and Microsoft have teamed up in Paris to create the ultimate techie hotel room. The room “3120” has been outfitted with the latest technology including a digital mirror and Xbox consoles. The prototype will only be available temporarily at the Novotel Vaugirard-Montparnasse location and visitors can book the room through February 14^th. 

Novotel is a chain of hotels present in 40 countries attracting a mix of family and business clients. This high tech room is the first collaboration with Microsoft since the partnership formed in 2008.

The project is only meant to last three months, but could be prolonged according to Marine Todesco, communications chief at Novotel’s parent group, Accor. “If this room fulfills expectations and if reservations are in demand, it could be prolonged,” she said.

The room is a techie dreamland. It has an Xbox Kinect for game lovers. The SENSORIT digital mirror allows guests to check news while checking their reflection. The Windows Phone 7 and the Nokia Lumia are also available, though they won’t be commercially available in France until the end of the year.

Todesco said that the Surface interactive table is among the most surprising feature. Guests can use it to browse the Web, play online games, or even use interactive maps to plan the next day’s adventures. “Its applications are basically unlimited,” she said.

The features are largely experimental in the hotel. “It’s important to note that the innovations in the rooms are pilot versions; some of them, if they are very successful with clients, could be deployed on a larger scale,” Todesco said.

The room “3120″ is available for 199 euros a night and is located in Paris’ 15^th arrondissement, with a view of the Eiffel Tower. While details aren’t available yet, Todesco said that another Novotel-Microsoft project will be unveiled next year in a to-be-announced European capital.

Video:

New Website Lets Hotel Workers Complain

CNN: With so many means for guests to leave feedback on hotels worldwide, it's easy to take those opportunities for granted. But what would workers in the hospitality industry say if they were asked to comment on their employers?

We'll soon find out, thanks to a new Tumblr page that lets hotel employees share stories of demanding bosses, long shifts and finicky guests.

The inspiration for "Joey Quits" comes from a likely source: Joey DeFrancesco, who became a viral video sensation and working-class hero in October for posting a YouTube video of him resigning from his hotel job accompanied by a marching band.

With more than 2.8 million views in just over a month, the YouTube video generated more than 4,000 comments and even more e-mails, Facebook messages and cell phone texts, DeFrancesco said. Much of the response came from current and former hotel workers who said they related to DeFrancesco's complaints of struggles with management.

"We did not expect to get all this attention. But when we did, we knew we had to do something with it," the 23-year-old Rhode Islander said.

Websites such as Hotel Workers Rising are backed by unions and address conditions from a labor standpoint. But "Joey Quits" appears to be one of few forums dedicated exclusively to letting individuals air grievances.

The site's masthead bears a screen grab from the YouTube video of DeFrancesco's triumphant face next to messages in Spanish and English urging users to submit stories about their hotel workplace.

"Inspired by the success of the 'Joey Quits' video and responses to it from other hotel workers, we created this site to collect stories about unjust working conditions in the hotel industry," the site says, also in Spanish and English.

The feed, which launched this week, had 10 entries as of Tuesday morning, including videos of DeFrancesco and other former employees of the Renaissance Providence, the site of DeFrancesco's famous resignation. The rest are anonymous or come from users claiming to be former hotel industry employees. CNN could not verify their claims.

The goal is not to encourage boycotts of the accused hotels but to hold them accountable by raising awareness of undesirable conditions, hopefully paving the way to stronger labor laws, DeFrancesco said.

"The site is intended for workers so they can read it and know they're not alone, that others are experiencing the same things as them, creating a sense of working-class identity and hotel worker identity that's crucial to transforming the industry and forming unions," he said.

"The other audience is the public that's visiting the hotels, so they know how bad conditions are and let their disapproval be known with their wallets until things change."

New York To Have 90,000 Hotels Rooms by 2012

NY Daily News:  New York is on its way to having a record number of hotel rooms this year — and a good many of them will be in the outer boroughs.

The city will have 90,000 rooms by the end of 2011, Mayor Bloomberg said Monday, as tourism continues to grow despite a weak economy. The number of rooms in the city has grown 24% since 2006, according to City Hall. New York is also set to surpass last year’s record of 48.8 million visitors.

Speaking at the opening of the Z NYC Hotel in Long Island City, Queens, Bloomberg said the record number of rooms show how the city’s tourist trade is expanding beyond Manhattan.

“Our tourism sector employs 323,000 people, and those jobs are now increasingly located outside Manhattan as tourists want to visit all of the city’s great neighborhoods,” Bloomberg said.

About 40% of new hotel openings will be in outer-borough areas including trendy hotel-hotspot Long Island City, which now boasts 17 properties and has another five on the way.

Hilton Announces Soap Recycling

Business Green: Many of us may feel a twinge of guilt at swiping soap from hotels, but it turns out that this petty theft may be the greener option.

US hotels throw out an estimated 2.6 million bars of soap every year, most of which ends up in landfill. But unused soap represents a waste mountain that global hotel chain Hilton Worldwide is now committed to tackling.

The company has agreed to collect used soap to donate to the Global Soap Project, a non-profit organization that reprocesses used soap from hotels into new bars that can then be distributed to vulnerable populations in developing countries at risk of disease related to poor sanitation and hygiene.

Hand washing with soap is among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrhea and pneumonia, which together are responsible for more than 3.5 million child deaths each year.

The Global Soap Project was founded by Derreck Kayongo and his wife Sarah in 2009, and has distributed more than 25 tons of soap to communities in 20 countries across four continents. Kayongo had the idea when he was a refugee in Kenya and found that access to soap was extremely limited.

"Even when available, those living on less than $1 a day had to choose between buying food or soap," he said. "People were suffering from illness simply because they couldn't wash their hands."

Hilton Worldwide said that the new partnership will produce more than a million new soap bars for the Atlanta-based project, and that the company will take a seat on the board to help guide its growth.

"We are proud to invest in the Global Soap Project and are excited to leverage our expertise to support their organization, while simultaneously solving critical social needs," said Christopher Corpuel, vice president of sustainability at Hilton Worldwide.

'Hotels for Heros' Will Help Wounded Warriors

MSNBC: For people thinking of ways to give back on this Veterans Day, there is a new program in the works to help wounded warriors and their families by providing free hotel stays.

Hotels for Heroes, a program that would allow consumers to donate hotel reward points to injured service members who are traveling to receive care through the military health system and to their families, was recently announced by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, both Maryland Democrats.

"It's really about Americans helping other Americans," said Susan Sullam, communications director for Senator Cardin. Federal legislation was introduced in both the Senate and the House last week, she said. "It is the ideal time, as people are focused on veterans because of Veterans Day."

As of Nov. 10, 31,921 members of the U.S. Armed Forces have been wounded in Iraq and 14,793 wounded in Afghanistan, according to Department of Defense statistics.

If the legislation is passed, Hotels for Heroes would be an expansion of the national Hero Miles program that provides free round-trip airfare to wounded warriors recovering at military or Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers as well as to friends and family visiting them. Flights are made possible by airline passengers who donate frequent flier miles.

"We are thrilled to be able to help these soldiers heal with their families at their side by helping to reduce travel expenses," Ruppersberger said in a statement. Ruppersberger introduced legislation for the Hero Miles program in 2003.

The Hero Miles program is administered by the Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides accommodations to military families visiting injured troops at hospitals.

"To date, over $35 million worth of tickets have been donated by Americans, that’s more than 25,000 tickets that have allowed military families get to the bedsides of their loved ones," said Cindy Campbell, vice president for community relations and media affairs for Fisher House, and a retired naval officer.

Fisher House, which will administer Hotels for Heroes if the proposed legislation passes, has a network of 54 houses in the U.S. and Germany on the grounds of major military hospitals and VA medical centers.

Earlier this year, Staff Sergeant Chaz Allen was injured in Afghanistan, and lost both legs. Once back in the U.S., his wife Jessica Allen flew back and forth regularly to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington from Tennessee. Hero Miles provided most of the tickets for Allen, and also provided tickets to other family members, according to the foundation.

The U.S. government pays for the immediate family to fly to visit their wounded loved ones, but there is a cap on how many flights can be taken, and many family members are not eligible, Campbell said. The goal is that no family member will ever have to worry about how to afford tickets, she said.

"Americans have been extremely generous, and we hope they will be just as generous when it comes to hotel points," she said. The new program, if passed, would allow veterans and military families to utilize hotels when the Fisher House homes are full.

Legislation is still in the proposal stage, but early feedback from representatives in the hotel industry is positive.

"As an industry, we are very interested," said Joseph A. McInerney, president and chief executive of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, a hotel industry trade group. "Even if it doesn’t get passed, maybe as an industry we need to step up and do something. The military is like motherhood and apple pie. Why wouldn’t you want to do something for people who defend our country every day?"

Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, said: "My understanding is that U.S. lodging industry owners, managers and brand executives embrace this is as a great idea and look forward to this and similar programs."

Occupancy for 2012 will be around 60 percent, Hanson said, "so in many markets on many nights there are rooms available, and that availability can create opportunities for our industry to be helpful and say 'thank you' to troops and their families."

More information about the Hero Miles program can be found here.

Hotel points cannot currently be donated, but people interested in voicing support for Hotels for Heroes legislation can contact their congressmen or senators, Sullam said.

Obscene Photos Found in Myrtle Beach Hotel

WMBF: One Myrtle Beach hotel found itself covered with obscene photos Friday morning and no known suspects.

At approximately 9 a.m. Friday morning, Myrtle Beach Police responded to a hotel on South Ocean Boulevard to find pornographic and obscene materials that had been placed in the common areas.

According to a police report, security at the resort had begun to find these materials beginning at 10 p.m. Thursday night in various locations throughout the building, including door frames, elevator doors and stairwells. The photos were collected by security and turned in to Myrtle Beach Police.

The photos collected were found in areas of the hotel not under the surveillance of video cameras, and appeared to be removed from an old photo album. The police report stated that the photos were old polaroids, possibly taken in the early 70s of adults engaged in "various sexual acts."

Anyone with information about this incident should contact Myrtle Beach Police.

'X Factor' Contestants Report Bed Bug Infestation

TMZ: Several "X Factor" finalists claim they were nearly eaten alive at their L.A. hotel this week, TMZ has learned -- after a swarm of bloodthirsty bed bugs feasted on their flesh ... while they slept.

Sources close to the contestants tell TMZ, the unidentified singers in question were staying at the Grafton Hotel ... and when four of them woke up in the morning, they were covered in bites.

We're told the contestants did a little digging and claim they discovered the hotel had a massive bed bug infestation -- so they bailed asap, and notified "X Factor" producers ... who then dealt with the hotel and found new digs for the singers.

Sources connected to production say the hotel acknowledged the bed bug problem. A rep for the Grafton had no comment when we called.

Sleep tight.

Changing the Game for Hotel Rooms

Room 77 Website

Business Insider: The latest industry to see the rise of a potential game changing start-up is the Hotel Biz. A little known startup called Room 77 was profiled today by Nick Wingfield in the Bits Blog of the New York Times.

Earlier this year Room 77 launched a web site that allows its customers to select specific rooms in hotels instead of just “Types” of rooms.

With a very clean interface that enables a consumer to study the layout of rooms in the hotel and even see the view from the hotel window for that room, Room 77 allows a traveler to check out things that may be important to them, like distance from elevators or stairs. In the beginning not a lot of hotels will be able to offer the information needed for this product, so getting the exact room will be difficult for a while.

But when they do start offering this service, they will be embarking on a new world for hotel operators: transparency.
Most hotels aren’t thrilled about the idea of a consumer knowing exactly what he or she wants. The problem is obvious: Hotels haven’t been particularly good at giving people what they want, so they use their own judgement frequently to give the potential customer something close to what they really want, but not the exact room type because it may not be available. That process becomes much more complicated if the requests are for specific rooms.

The hotels worry that they will lose customers who can’t get the specific room they want. There is a legitimate question as to whether or not the hotel managers really want to see this kind of information out there in real times.

But the fact is, if you can give the consumer something he or she wants, you are doing the right thing. One way or another they will get the information they want, so if you are a hotel owner/manager, you would be better off embracing this technology and running to be up first and best with it.

On top of that, this opens the door for a new pricing model. The very “best” rooms, based on the demand from customers, could cost more. Think of the airline seats with more space that now sell that added space for more.

No matter what, this is the case of technology improving the relationship between the customer and the company.

Man Trashes Hotel Room Over Lack of Toilet Paper

CBS Charlotte: One man made sure a Charlotte motel was going to pay for him running out of toilet paper.

Upset about the lack of toilet paper that was available in his room, a man destroyed $2,090 worth of hotel property on Monday, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police report. The identity of the man remains unknown.

The incident, which happened at the Charlottetown Manor, happened around 10 a.m. Monday. According to the report, the man grew irate after learning he didn’t have toilet paper and proceeded to walk upstairs to a vacant room that was being renovated. Upon entering the room, he proceeded to clog the toilet, causing water damage to the room, totaling about $2,000 in carpet and ceiling charges.

The man would go on to break a blow dryer and several lights, accounting for an extra $90 in charges.

The suspect returned to his room and damaged more property using physical force, according to the report.

The suspect faces vandalism charges.

NYC Hotels Offer SAD Packages

Gansevoort Hotel

Hotel Chatter: This winter, both Gansevoort Meatpacking and Gansevoort Park Ave are battling Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) with a new promotional package that includes things like a duplex penthouse suite, a tropical cocktail, vitamin D-infused facial, and beach attire for hanging out in your room. For many people, this might just be enough to lift the heavy winter blues. 
 

But Gansevoort's not stopping there. Taking all precautions, the hotel has also decided to photoshop pictures of you with Santa Claus. And provide you with a "friend for the day" (it's exactly how it sounds). Or, even, if that glum mood just won't pick up, to offer a Compliment Concierge that will shower you with praise throughout your entire stay—by the end of which, no doubt you'll be positively elated.

If not slightly stuck-up.

The "SAD" package, which was announced earlier this week, isn't cheap. Those who are truly on board with the idea of pay-per-ass-kiss ("You're so pretty," "I wish I had as much style as you," "My, your houndstooth coat perfectly matches the furniture in our lobby!") will have to cough up $10,000 a night at either property.

No fair! When The James hired a tanning concierge over the summer, that service was completely free of charge, so long as you were actually a guest of the hotel.

Of course, there are some for whom a simple Vitamin D facial would suffice. If that's the case, save your credit card and just book a treatment at the spa ($100-$300).

Or just stare at the sun for a while. It won't tell you how good you look, but it'll probably do the trick.

Thanksgiving Packages With Something Extra

MSNBC: While many travelers will head over the river and through the woods to eat big meals and sleep them off at grandmother’s house this Thanksgiving, others will spend part of the holiday hanging out at an inn.

Many hotels will be offering special holiday rates and, in their restaurants, serving up traditional Thanksgiving meals. But we found a few hotels that have cooked up holiday packages that include some offbeat or unusual extras.

Room with a parade view
In New York City it can be difficult for out-of-towners to find a warm, comfortable spot to watch the marching bands, the performers, the celebrities and the giant helium balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

That’s why some hotels along the route put together special room-with-a-view packages. For example, in addition to an upgraded Central Park View room and a welcome amenity (pumpkin biscotti, a mug and a sachet of mulling spices), the Mandarin Oriental, New York’s “I Love a Parade” package includes parade-day access to the hotel’s ballroom, which offers a great viewing perch and activities such as cookie decorating, face painting and photos with (people dressed up as) turkeys. Rate: $1,155 per night, Nov. 22 – 25.

Sleep or shop?
For many people, Thanksgiving has become a day to map out a shopping strategy for Black Friday. For those intent on being first in line at the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets in Massachusetts, the Hampton Inn in nearby Franklin is offering a Midnight Madness Thanksgiving Shopping Special. Stores open at midnight and this Nov. 24-only package includes a $50 outlet center gift card, complimentary hourly shuttle rides beginning at 11 p.m., coffee-to-go, snacks and a bargain hunter’s early bird breakfast buffet. Rates start at $199.

In California, the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco is offering a Bloomingdale’s Luxe Holiday Package that includes a $100 Bloomingdale’s gift card, spiked hot chocolate cocktails and a 25- minute head, neck and shoulder post-shopping massage. Rates start at $595 and are available through Jan. 31, 2012.

Sip and smile
For guests attending family get-togethers that may stray to the stressful, the Hotel Palomar San Francisco is offering a Pie + Family + Booze = Splendid Holiday package that includes a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon and a choice of pie or cranberry preserve to bring along as a contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. Rates start at $229 and are valid through Dec. 29.

For families that think they can make it through the holiday intact, The Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C., has a package that includes a suite that can accommodate four people, a four-course Thanksgiving dinner with Virginia wine pairings for eight and a professionally photographed family portrait taken in the suite. Rates start at $799 a night. (Promotional code: Turkey Day).

No napkins needed
And then there’s the Thanksgiving without the Dressing dinner at the Terra Cotta Inn in Palm Springs, Calif. The popular nudist resort offers guests a free Thanksgiving dinner. “When you have Thanksgiving dinner dressed in your finest birthday suit,” said inn co-owner Tom Mulhall, “you don't have to worry about your pants getting too tight and having to loosen your belt buckle. You won't be wearing one.” 

Hilton Looks to Convert Old Post Office

NBC Washington: Hilton Worldwide has joined the list of companies that are hoping to redevelop the iconic 112-year-old Old Post Office pavilion in downtown Washington.

Hilton wants to turn the landmark building into a 245-room Waldorf Astoria hotel. It would also feature four restaurants and high-end retail shops.

Waldorf Astoria is Hilton’s top luxury brand.

"With our global headquarters in nearby McLean, Va., we are committed to the growth and vitality of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area while preserving this historic landmark," Hilton Worldwide President and CEO Christopher J. Nassetta said.

The Old Post Office is located on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the U.S. Capitol. Half a dozen companies have submitted proposals to the General Services Administration to redevelop the property, including Donald Trump Hotels.

The GSA is considering the proposals and is expected to make a selection by Nov. 17.

Ozzy Osbourne Once Trashed Hotel Room with a Dead Shark

Winnipeg Free Press: Ozzy Osbourne once soaked a room in shark's blood while on tour with Black Sabbath.

The singer's former bandmate Tony Iommi admits at the height of the band's hellraising days Ozzy decided to go crazy with a dead shark because the group weren't excited by drugs anymore.

Tony said: "With drugs always you get bored, so you must do something to one another. Like Ozzy hauling a shark through a window, dismembering it and soaking our room in blood."

The 63-year-old guitarist - who has just released his memoirs 'Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell With Black Sabbath' which details his life with the band - now accepts his own drug use caused problems in his life, but he insists he was able to get sober without going to rehab.

He added to the New York Post newspaper: "We had management problems, I married four times. Was a lousy husband. I suddenly didn't feel good, so I stopped drugs. No rehab. I'm a country squire I live on a farm with dogs and chickens. All I want is to work. I'm dedicated to working. Listen, I've set up equipment inside an enormous dungeon in a huge castle in Wales. And worked. I felt creative."

Tony is still in regular contact with Ozzy, 62, and insists the pair are good friends.

He said: "I talk to Ozzy couple times a week. He's up, down. I love him, although his attention span lasts three seconds."

The shark incident is not the only occasion where Ozzy has misbehaved with an animal.

On 20 January 1982, he bit off the head of a bat that was thrown on stage while performing at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa, a moment that has gone down in rock 'n' roll infamy.

In 1981, an intoxicated Ozzy bit the head off a dove and spat it out during a meeting with record executives in Los Angeles. He had planned to release the doves into the air as a symbol of peace.

Can You Pay for a Hotel Room in Bitcoin?

Hotel Chatter: For a brief moment this year, the Howard Johnson in Fullerton, Calif., near Disneyland, was taking an unusual form of currency--bitcoin.

Bitcoin is an electronic currency that's only accepted in the digital world. It's not recognized by any government, it's entirely unregulated and the only ways to get your hands on bitcoin is to either buy it with real cash or spend days "mining" for it on the internet. For more on how it works, you can (try to) read the bitcoin entry on Wikipedia.

Yet, Jefferson Kim, the owner and manager of both the Howard Johnson and the Red Roof Inn in Buena Park was eager to use bitcoin for hotel reservations saying that he would "personally like to see the BTC succeed." On the hotel's website, he detailed how to pay for a room with bitcoin.

One person who took him up on this? Wired contributing editor, Joshua Davis, who wrote about bitcoin for a piece in the New Yorker (the October 10th issue.) Davis booked a room at the hotel online for 10.305 bitcoins.

Kim explained that he had started mining bitcoins two months earlier. He liked that the currency was governed by a set of logical rules, rather than the mysterious machinations of the Federal Reserve. A dollar today, he pointed out, buys you what a nickel bought a century ago, largely because so much money has been printed. And he asked, why trust a currency backed by a government that is fourteen trillion dollars in debt.

So cool. And the Howard Johnson would have been at the top of our Geek Hotels list. However, we followed up with Kim last week and he told us the hotel is no longer accepting Bitcoin.

I haven’t received much other attention from normal customers and since the market essentially crashed it’s just not worth my time. Thanks for the interest!

Indeed, a single bitcoin over the summer was worth more than $29. Now, it's about $3. So it's unlikely many hotels will be jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon. But for you non-normal people still looking to spend your bitcoin, there's always The Silk Road.

Marriott to Let Guests Post Online Reviews

USA Today: A second hotel giant aims to give TripAdvisor a bit of competition. This time, it's Marriott, Hotel Check-In has learned.

Soon, you'll be able to submit your review of the Marriott Marquis in New York, the Marriott Courtyard near Orlando's convention center or a number of other Marriott-brand hotels - regardless of the quality of your experience.

You may recall Hotel Check-In's exclusive story recently about Starwood's plan to begin allowing Starwood Preferred Guest members and other customers to publish hotel reviews.

Well now, Marriott's taking a similar approach - and Marriott senior vice president Ed French told me about it during our chat Friday at Marriott headquarters.

Marriott will run the reviews on a separate site called Marriott Rewards Insiders, which currently has 25,000 members with profiles but is rapidly growing, says French, head of marketing platforms and Marriott Rewards.

Like Starwood, Marriott will confirm whether a review writer actually stayed in the hotel before publishing the review, eliminating skepticism that a bad review might come from someone looking to undermine a hotel's reputation for whatever reason.

Also like Starwood, Marriott does not plan to offer incentives to customers to write reviews.

Initially, travelers will be able to review about 280 properties in 11 of Marriott's top markets such as New York, Orlando, Atlanta, the Caribbean and Hawaii. Each property will get its own page, he says.

I asked him the obvious: Won't posting bad reviews be negative for the brand?

"We've probably all had those conversations," he says. "You can understand if there's a natural fear."

But he says the reviews - positive and negative - are out there anyway on the web on sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp.

Plus, he thinks that Marriott's most loyal customers will value hearing from other people like them - people who may stay in Marriott hotels 50, 70 or 100 nights per year.

Bad reviews that are posted will be read by staffers assigned to the site, as well as individual property staffers who will then follow up on an as-needed basis.

Bottom line, he says, is that allowing people to air their opinions will help create a more active fan base - something that hotels consider valuable in today's increasingly social-media-driven world.

"We want people to be more a engaged," he says. "And this is what people want to do."

Hospitality Industry Preparing for 2012 Olympics

Industry Leaders Magazine: The Summer Olympics in London are just six months away. What’s the hospitality industry in London and the rest of the United Kingdom doing to get ready for the half a million visitors (not including the athletes) projected to visit the city during the games?

First, businesses are evaluating their staffing needs, and the UK hospitality industry is seeing a major boom in the demand for jobs. The Hospitality Employment Index from Sector Skills Council People 1st and Caterer.com found that job vacancies have soared from 26,550 in the second quarter of 2009 to 45,000 new roles for the same period in 2011 for the UK hospitality industry. As a result, the number of job applications has grown by more than a third from 640,000 to 800,000 submissions in the past year, reflecting increasing competition in the jobs market. There is especially increased demand for skilled restaurant managers and chefs, highlighting the ongoing challenges of recruiting skilled staff, even in the wake of something as prosperous as the London 2012 Olympics. The index also found that:

● The most jobs were for restaurant management positions, with 7,740 vacancies – a growth of nine percent since the first quarter.

● Demand for head chefs grew by 34 percent; the number of posts for chefs de partie grew by 19 percent.

● London and the South-east proved to be the greatest job generators over the past year creating 12,770 and 13,606 new vacancies followed by the North-east where the number of job vacancies increased by a quarter to 821 new positions.

Second, a demand for hotel rooms and accommodations are also booming, as many tourists would like to get their London 2012 Olympics accommodations before they run out. 2012 is expected to be a record breaking year for growth in the London hotel market, with a projected 50,000 hotel rooms to be built between now and 2026. This demand for hotel rooms has also caused a boom in construction jobs, with over 6,000 people taking the chance to help build Olympic Park and other facilities for the London 2012 Olympics.

Another accommodation choice that’s particularly popular with American, Spanish and French visitors is renting a house. There’s a general trend for the French and Spanish to travel in large family groups and value the opportunity of cooking their own meals whilst sharing the communal benefits of renting comfortable homes for the games. Visitors from the United States are used to booking luxury homes for rent by owners, and enjoy the flexibility of self-catering and eating out combined with the extra facilities offered by renting a house for the London 2012 Olympics, such as satellite TV, fast broadband, and free parking. There hasn’t been any evidence of an increase in the construction or demand of rental and luxury homes.

Any businesses in the UK hospitality industry needing help in getting ready for the London 2012 Olympics can check out the Olympics planning guide. The guide offers specific information in staff training, transportation, and marketing. The hope among leaders and officials in the UK hospitality industry is that this boom from the London 2012 Olympics won’t turn into a huge drop in demand and jobs.

Martial Arts Experts Foil Hotel Robbery

KABC: Martial arts experts acting as Good Samaritans foiled an armed robbery at a hotel in Los Angeles.

The incident happened at a Comfort Inn in the 300 block of North Vermont Avenue on Wednesday.

According to Los Angeles police, a man with a backpack walked into the hotel lobby at about 11:40 p.m. He approached the lone clerk, asked about the price of a room, and then pointed a gun at him and demanded money.

Fearing he may be shot, the clerk complied with the suspect's demands, opened the register and gave him money.

At that point, two martial arts experts, who were guests at the hotel, entered the lobby. They were visiting Los Angeles from Oregon for a martial arts tournament.

They heard the clerk's cry for help and immediately jumped into action.

"I hear 'Gun. He's got a gun, he just robbed me,'" said Brent Alvarez, an MMA fighter. "At that point I'd already stepped one foot off the elevator and the guy and the gun was on me. He's putting it in the back and thought he was going to be sneaky and escape."

"Bret was in front and he's trying to be the diplomatic guy, trying to calm the guy down, tell him, 'Hey, man. It was a bad decision. Let's make it right from here,'" said MMA fighter Billy Denney. "From there we disarmed him, we got the money."

The two grabbed the suspect, wrestled the gun away from him, took him down to the ground and held him until officers arrived.

The suspect was identified as 31-year-old Luis Rosales of Los Angeles. Officers found a loaded 9 mm handgun and cash taken from the hotel register in Rosales' backpack. He was booked for armed robbery with a firearm with bail set at $101,250.

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The Joy of Hotel Living

Democrat and Chronicle: I've just returned from a three-day business trip, and I miss my hotel room.

Don't get me wrong: It is great being home. Sleeping in my own bed. Cooking in my own kitchen. Seeing my children. Just being in my cozy, home sweet home.

But still, I want to go back to my hotel room.

In fact, I want to move into my hotel room, because this one was pretty darn special.

It was an enormous room with huge windows overlooking the city. There was a kitchen worthy of a great chef. But who needs to cook when there's room service? The bathroom had a TV in it.

Actually, even when I stay at a less ritzy location, part of me doesn't want to leave. Because there are things about all hotels, that no matter how hard you try, you just don't get at home.

At home, there's no one to make my bed in the morning.

My turn-down service at the end of the night is usually kicking the dog to the other side of the bed or "turning down" the husband. There are no little chocolates on my pillow, just grass stains from the dog's feet.

The lights aren't dimmed, accompanied by soothing music, and my slippers aren't at the side of the bed.

And there isn't someone calling you with a soothing voice to wake you up — twice (15 minutes apart).

Most important, at home there's no one magically doing the laundry — it's all me.

I know there are drawbacks to living in a hotel.

It isn't the real world. It is a hermetically sealed little bubble. The food is really salty, and the air is really dry. Often, you can go days without even getting a breath of fresh air. The workout rooms are too small and often don't work at all.

Oh, and it's really expensive. Luckily, this time someone else was footing the bill.

I have started to view my business trips as my own little spa vacations, even when the destination is Dayton, Ohio.

When you are on vacation, you forgive a lot of things, because, well ... you are on vacation.

So when you are traveling on business, and the flight is late, you don't complain. You'll get there when you get there.

Even if the hotel room isn't the best, at least it isn't home, where a lot more is expected of you each night — like cooking dinner.

I will confess, I'm not always the easiest hotel guest. Goldilocks has nothing on me. I need my pillows to be foam and my towels to be plentiful. And I always ask for the second room first so I don't have to move, for any number of reasons: the ice machine is too loud, the elevators are too loud or the room is just inexplicably, annoyingly loud.

The temperature also has to be just right. This summer, I arrived at my hotel in Florida at 2 a.m. after a hellacious flight. I was very cranky, and I had to be ready for an 8 a.m. meeting. I got into my room and realized the thermostat wasn't working and that the room probably wouldn't cool down until after I'd checked out.

They moved me, but I think to spite me the guy working the night shift put me into a room that could have been used as a walk-in freezer with a bed in it.

And yet, as I settled into the frozen bed with the extra blankets I'd ordered for warmth, I couldn't help but think: I even love this hotel room, because, no matter how cold it is, at least I don't have to wash these towels.