Local Attraction At Virginia Beach|"A Room With 140 Characters: Hotels Embrace Twitter"

Source              :    seattletimes.com
Category         :    Local Attraction At Virginia Beach
By                   :    STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
Posted By      :    Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach

First there was vacation. Then came the “digital detox” vacation — the no-cellphones, no-Internet-allowed response to increasingly inescapable and seemingly addictive technology. Now comes the backlash (or at least the appearance of one). The first “Twitter experience hotel” (aka Sol Wave House) was introduced this summer in Majorca, Spain, where guests can ping requests to a “Twitter concierge” using hashtags like #fillmyfridge; flirt from poolside Bali beds by tweeting numbers printed atop the beds, like “How’s it going #balibed10?”; and sip cocktails while checking their smartphones for a live feed of virtual conversations bubbling up from every corner of the hotel. Meliá Hotels International, which owns more than 350 properties, including Sol Wave House, is pioneering the concept amid the still rising popularity of smartphones and social networking. The Internet is in more pockets today than ever before. In July the International Data Corp., a research group, said the worldwide smartphone market experienced 52.3 percent year-over-year growth. (In the United States, 56 percent of adults own a smartphone, up from 35 percent in 2011, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project surveys.)

The number of people on social networking sites is also growing. About 1.3 billion people worldwide are now using social networks (that’s about 82 percent of the global Web population), up from about 1.2 billion last year, according to comScore. Sol Wave House was refurbished two years ago, but the Twitter theme — the “share the love” signs at the front desk, the Twitter suites and concierge — is new. “The social night-life scene is significant, so we already had a ripe environment that we were looking to augment,” said Tony Cortizas, vice president for global brand strategy of Meliá, which is based in Palma de Mallorca. The hotel itself is shaped somewhat like an amphitheater, with rooms and balconies that allow guests to peer down at public areas with pools, daybeds, wave machines and DJs. “The clientele coming in are younger,” Cortizas said.

And according to the Pew Research Center, which has been conducting one of the more thorough studies of Twitter, Internet users ages 18 to 29 in the United States are the most likely to use the network, making a Twitter theme hotel a distinct way to speak with that demographic. Cortizas said he marvels at how young people are living today. “It’s so completely normal for someone to be looking down on the street and walking into people because they’re looking at their device,” he said. “For the generations that are literally growing up that way, it’s really normal.” Sol Wave House is striving to “bring what is normal and every day for these guys and give them a sandbox to play in.” That sandbox includes a Twitter concierge that guests can instruct via tweet to “Get the Cava on ice” followed by “1 bottle, 4 glasses to the solarium,” as one visitor did last month. There are images of mustaches on mirrors in the rooms, encouraging guests to tweet goofy selfies. And on Friday afternoons at the height of the season, the concierge uses a pool party hashtag (#twitterpoolparty) to summon sun worshippers.

To create a measure of privacy, all virtual interactions take place within an internal community available only to guests through an app and the hotel’s free Wi-Fi. “In our business,” Cortizas said, “rooms are rooms and suites are suites, but in the end it’s always about what you are doing to deliver an experience to a customer. We were looking to try and do something that would differentiate us, and we were trying to do something that would be kind of fun.” The hotel bills itself as the first to create such an immersive Twitter getaway, putting it among a handful of properties that are embracing glued-to-your-smartphone experiences. At the moment, it’s still far more common for travel professionals to peddle digital detox vacations. Among the first to do so was the St. Vincent & the Grenadines Tourism Authority, which created a digital detox campaign last year to lure travelers afflicted by an “addiction to gadgets.” The tactic has mushroomed, with hotels as varied as the Westin Dublin in Ireland and the Lake Placid Lodge in New York offering digital detox packages. Some hotels, like the Quincy in Washington, offer perks like bookstore gift cards for those who lock their phones in a safe during their stay.

As if one needed further evidence of the trend, last month “digital detox” was added to the Oxford Dictionary Online. But resistance may be futile. Even spots that have been digital black holes — subways, safaris, airplanes — are adopting Wi-Fi. “There’s two sides to this story, and we’re definitely playing one side of it,” Cortizas said. “But the environment is such and the destination and the energy of the destination is such that it’s appropriate.”

Source : seattletimes.com/html/travel/2021951133_twitterhotelxml.html

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach|"The World's Most Expensive Hotel Suites"

Source              :    foxnews.com
Category         :    Local Attraction At Virginia Beach
By                   :    Christian L. Wright
Posted By      :    Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach

This suite with two bedrooms (mirrored ceilings in both, of course) is designed as a palace in which to indulge the lower urges—and it’s a riot. You are greeted upon entry by black-vinyl walls and an S&M table. A dark anteroom between the foyer and the master bath features a cage big enough to hold a full-grown man and a set of manacles on chains (but no way to fasten them). The living room has an inlaid carpet made of old black-leather belts.The rumor last June was that Duran Duran had recently checked in.A tiled hot tub on a terrace, and planes flying by so close that they look like toys you could pluck from the sky.This four-bedroom, six-bathroom, two–dining room suite takes up the entire sixtieth floor and is so opulent that your eyes pop out on stalks—from the mounds of dates, cookies, and petit fours to the raised green marble tub in one of the bathrooms.The suite has been occupied so little since the marble-lined private ­elevator first opened into these filthy rich rooms that there’s barely a fingerprint on the many iPads that you can use to close the sheers or summon the butler.It’s like staying in a small wing of the Smithsonian. There’s the small, wooden rocking chair given as a gift by John F. Kennedy, between the fireplace and Eisenhower’s desk. In the bedroom—modest in size and somber in décor—you can draft a speech at General MacArthur’s desk, which dates back to the years when he lived at the Waldorf with his wife. Strangely, the windows, that look out onto unremarkable midtown scenes, are not state-of-the-art bullet-proof. The suite contains four bedrooms total, each with a separate key.There are so-called presidential suites all over the globe, but this is the only one where every US president since Herbert Hoover has spent the night.

The interior looks not unlike the Oval Office, decorated in creams and golds and blues, following the presidential seal—which you’ll find on plates in the dining room’s breakfront and etched into glass on the sconces in the living room.The hyper-selective booking process. The hotel will obtain background information on new guests to ensure that he or she is "well-known" through either frequency of previous stays and/or fame, and will treat the priceless property with respect. Those who've passed muster: J. K. Rowling, whose seven-volume Harry Potter series sits alongside works by Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon; a Chinese man of means who is obsessed with US history; and special friends of the Waldorf.This duplex with a golden curving staircase has three bedrooms, each with his-and-her bathrooms, 36-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, an iMac, a kitchen stocked with waters and juices, a gym with a steam room, and not so much space as acreage. The decor is exquisite and tasteful. Two full-time butlers will do everything from unpack your bags to rack up the balls on the Olhausen pool table.Popular with Chinese billionaires and Middle Eastern royalty. (A princess from Oman—with three daughters in tow—took up residence last spring for a week. All four had their hair done in the suite’s salon every day, to the tune of $220 a blowout.)

Source : foxnews.com/travel/2013/10/03/world-most-expensive-hotel-suites/

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach|"Northern Ireland Hotels Body"

Source              :    bbc.co.uk
Category         :    Local Attraction At Virginia Beach
By                   :    John Campbell
Posted By      :    Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach

The NIHF says the UK VAT rate of 20% puts Northern Ireland at a major disadvantage. The rate in the Republic of Ireland is just 9%. Last month the Treasury said it did not accept the case for a UK-wide VAT rate cut for restaurants and catering. A Treasury spokesman said: "A 5% reduced rate on catering services is estimated to cost around £9bn to the Exchequer." Janice Gault, NIHF chief executive, said as the matter is not devolved the executive should "make the issue a staple" in communication with the Treasury. The NIHF has launched a new report called Tourism 2020 that also calls on the Northern Ireland Executive to bring forward "an updated and more cohesive" tourism strategy.James McGinn, the NIHF president, said that while the industry had benefited from events and campaigns such as NI2012 and UK City of Culture, there needed to be "movement around the marketing of Northern Ireland".

A DETI spokeswoman said: "The tourism minister met with outgoing and incoming chairs of NIHF on Tuesday and discussed the issues raised in the Tourism 2020 document. "The minister notes that many of the points highlighted in the report fit with the overarching objectives of the Programme for Government and NI Economic Strategy and our specific commitment to grow tourism into a £1bn industry by 2020. "Our focus more recently has been on delivering the necessary tourism product, key events and global marketing campaigns to ensure that 2012 and 2013, which are crucial years for Northern Ireland tourism, are successful and bring maximum economic benefit to the local economy."

Source : bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24372175

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach|"Israel’s Hotels Finding A New Rival"

Source              :    haaretz.com
Category         :    Local Attraction At Virginia Beach
By                   :    Rina Rozenberg
Posted By      :    Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach

Reuven Elkes, the CEO of Fattal, Israel’s biggest hotel chain, is looking up and down the country for new properties to develop. But while he is eyeing sites in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, his worry is less about competition from his fellow hoteliers and more about the challenge from ordinary people renting out their homes to vacationers. “I see this as a genuine threat to the hotel industry,” he says. “An unfair market is being formed here because homeowners aren’t saddled with taxes, obligations or standards like hotels are. They are in fact competing head-to-head with us hoteliers, and we at the Hotel Association will fight to change this situation.” Elkes, 44, who also serves as chairman of the Israel Hotel Association's economic committee, assumes a fiery demeanor when the subject of home rentals to tourists is broached. In recent years Israeli hotels have been forced to contend with added competition for tourist dollars. as the practice of renting private homes to tourists has become widespread with the help of websites like airbnb.com, where the volume of reservations has risen 400% in the past year.

The number of Israeli homes registered on the AirBnB website alone, through which 80,000 overnight stays were booked in 2012, jumped from 3,000 in August 2012 to 7,000 in August of this year. Other popular vacation websites like booking.com also offer homes for short stays. With a 7% decline in the number of overnight stays by tourists in hotels in the first half of 2013 from a year earlier, it is apparent that the hotels are losing a significant portion of their clientele.Elkes: "At the association we are using all the means at our disposal and will do everything we can to put this issue at the top of the agenda. We are raising the problem with municipal authorities, the tax authority and the regulators and we trust that they'll act accordingly. It's the government that needs to stand the test, not us. I must say I'm optimistic, but it takes time.""It's hard to estimate the damage, but there's no doubt this has helped bring down the number of overnight stays by tourists. A living and breathing alternative has been born within the same marketing channels as hotels, and it isn't a coincidence that they've fought it in New York. A civilized country needs to fight for properly organized tourism. Heaven forbid if a disaster occur tomorrow in some makeshift apartment, harming the entire tourism industry – making us look like a two-bit country."

This week, however, the New York City Environmental Control Board overturned a fine that had been levied on a Manhattan apartment owner who had rented out his home using AirBnB. But the reversal was only on a technicality: The man’s roommate had been home during the time that he had rented out the apartment and New York’s illegal hotels law is still on the books. "We looked for a local authority that would go along with us on a trial model of charging taxes according to tourist tax as done abroad, and according to hotel occupancy. That's how it should be done. We need to move forward and not remain captive to outmoded paradigms. We approached the Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Eilat municipalities and still haven't found a partner. We are very hopeful that Netanya will go along with us. Our goal is to slightly lower the burden on hotels and place it on the tourist. The localities won’t be hurt, and in good years they will receive more money and more tourists – generating more income for local businesses. For tourists the sums are trivial." The Dan hotel chain netted NIS 138 million in earnings last year while the Isrotel chain finished the year with profits amounting to NIS 75 million. Elkes is only ready to state that Fattal's profit level is among the top in the industry."When you look at profitability on reports it doesn't attest to the net return on assets. The return on hotels is low. If someone builds a new hotel today it can reach a 6% to 6.5% return even if it's very successful, without taking into consideration the difficult years. And there are always difficult years in Israel's tourist industry."In the meantime, Fattal is expanding apace. In two months’ time, the doors will open to the 30th hotel in the Fattal chain - and the first addition to the chain since Elkes took over as CEO a year and a half ago.

Ashkelon’s 131-room Shirat Hayam Hotel, which is owned by real estate magnate Benny Baron, will be managed by Fattal under its Leonardo marquee. What most attracted Fattal is the hotel’s location on the Mediterranean shoreline, says Elkes, like those of Herods in Herzliya and another hotel in Netanya slated to open within two years under the chain’s management. Another 60-room, NIS 40 million hotel owned by Fattal is scheduled to open in a year and a half on the Sea of Galilee. Fattal is also exploring the possibility of developing a hotel in Jerusalem and a 100-room boutique hotel in Tel Aviv in addition to its hotel in the city’s bustling Ramat Hahayal business district. “There are several deals we’re considering in Tel Aviv and I believe the chain will soon expand there,” says Elkes. “The proposals are for converting office buildings into hotels in light of Tel Aviv’s office space glut.” Elkes was CEO of the Rimonim group of 10 hotels, principally owned by Israel Land Development Company, when he was tapped by David Fattal to take over as head of the chain, which has 8,000 employees, after Rafi Sade resigned. “ILDC has various holdings and is less attentive to the hotel business, so it goes without saying that the ability to develop the company in this field is limited,” says Elkes. “In contrast, Fattal is strictly hotel-related, which makes a huge difference.”

Source:haaretz.com/travel-in-israel/travel-news/.premium-1.549992

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach|"The Ultimate Hotel Horror"

Source              :    theguardian.com
Category         :    Local Attraction At Virginia Beach
By                   :    osundefender
Posted By      :    Hotels in Virginia Beach North Courtyard

Local Attraction At Virginia Beach

Think of it as the drip-drip effect of interior design. What started as a trend for freestanding roll-top baths in hotel bedrooms, all louche and decadent, has now morphed into a trend for whole hotel bathrooms that are open plan, or have glass walls. Not only do they allow your travelling companion to witness your ablutions but, in some cases, they give a view to lucky passers-by outside. Worryingly, as a recent piece on Slate noted: "Like many hotel trends, the open-plan bathroom layout has spread to the home."

The first time I came across this phenomenon was at a hotel in Austria with design pretensions. I could just about deal with the idea that the bath and basin had glass walls opening on to the room, but the separate loo also had a door made from glass – frosted, at least, but not (if you will excuse the phrase) flush to the frame – so there was a gap of around a centimetre all the way around it. I couldn't risk this in the presence of my beloved, a man from whom I have no secrets apart from the one where I have led him to believe my digestive biology is different from every other human's and I produce only cute, inoffensive pellets (a bit like an owl), and so I had to use the loos in the communal areas. Judging by the queues, I wasn't the only one who had a problem with the in-room version.

Other hotels don't even bother with the frosting – in some rooms at the Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel the lavatory is on show behind its clear glass walls. One suite at The Standard hotel in New York has an open-plan bathroom, right next to the bed, enclosed by floor-to-ceiling exterior glass walls (its public loos became famous for allowing people from the street a view). A huge number of luxury hotels have taken up the trend for glass walls, although some, such as the Ecclestone Square Hotel, which prides itself on being "London's most high-tech", will turn opaque at the touch of a button.

Juliet Kinsman, editor-in-chief of the boutique hotel specialists Mr & Mrs Smith, remembers her bathroom at the Hotel on Rivington in New York, which had a outside-facing glass wall: "I could see a guy standing in a building looking at me having a shower." For some hotels, an exhibitionist-friendly bathroom is a design statement; for others, she says: "It has a lot to do with the issues of converting properties that weren't traditionally hotels and adapting spaces to have a big, open-plan feel." "Some people might find it extra thrilling," says Kinsman but many won't. "Quite often, when people who go away to fabulous chic hotels together for a weekend away they haven't been together for that long." Where will it end if some hotels already have loos on view – will that ever become standard? Kinsman thinks not. "Well you're asking an arbiter of sexy hotels, and will it ever be sexy to watch someone go to the loo? I hope that will remain very niche."

Source : theguardian.com/travel/shortcuts/2013/sep/26/open-plan-bathroom-hotel-toilet