Hilton

Waldorf=Astoria plans New Location in Tel Aviv

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments

The Waldorf-Astoria is a veritable New York City landmark. But what was once a single establishment has since grown, under the direction of Hilton Hotels, into The Waldorf=Astoria Collection.

In addition to the flagship location in Manhattan, four more opened in the United States (including the Arizona Biltmore, La Quinta in California, the Dakota Mountain Lodge in Utah and the Grand Wailea in Maui), but the expansion isn't limited to America alone. The Calalieri in Rome joined the collection in 2008, which was preceded by the Qasr Al Sharq in Jeddah. The roster has since expanded to include dozens of locations, but Saudi Arabia isn't even the only country to put The Waldorf on the map in the Middle East.

Visitors to Jerusalem will invariably notice the construction of the latest location in the Israeli capital, opposite the boutique Mamila Hotel and the modern David Citadel, and just down the street from the historic King David. But soon that development is set to be joined by an additional location in Tel Aviv.

The Mediterranean development is planned for the Tel Aviv beachfront on a plot next to the expansive Tel Aviv Hilton. Although details of the project have yet to be confirmed, the Jerusalem location is set to feature 220 guest suites along with 30 residential condos.

[Source: Yedioth Aharonoth]

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Tags: hilton, hotel, israel, jerusalem, tel aviv, waldorf, waldorf astoria, waldorfastoria

Floating Hotel Opens in Thailand

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

The Hilton Pattaya in Thailand is a floating hotel.

Hilton Hotels & Resorts has opened a floating hotel in Pattaya, Thailand. Called Hilton Pattaya, the sleek and modern property offers a fresh, luxe beachfront experience to the heart of the international beach resort of Pattaya, which overlooks the Gulf of Thailand and is about 90 minutes southeast of Bangkok. Pattaya is a once-sleepy fishing village that first captivated Americans as a R&R destination during the Vietnam War era.

The cosmopolitan, full-service hotel rises above the new "Central Festival at Pattaya Beach" complex that is Southeast Asia's largest beachfront shopping and entertainment facility with more than 200 shops and restaurants, a 10-screen cinema and a 16-lane bowling alley. Guests will have direct access through an exclusive ground floor entrance, but the hotel's main lobby is on the 16th level.

Hilton Pattaya enhances its prime location on Pattaya Beach with 302 stylish, Zen-inspired guest rooms and suites located between levels 19 and 33 that offer panoramic ocean views from private balconies. Rooms are light and relaxing with elegant, modern furnishings done in whites, beiges and light woods, while spacious bathrooms come with separate a rain shower and deep soaking tub. Each room is also equipped with a Serenity Bed Experience, LCD TVs and high-speed internet service. Suites offer floor-to-ceiling windows and separate living and dining areas, while many feature outdoor bathtubs on private balconies. The hotel's infinity-edge pool, which is set amid lush, landscaped gardens, offers sweeping sea views from the 16th floor.

Gallery: Hilton Pattaya in Thailand

Tags: awards-main, floating hotel, Hilton, infinity pool, luxist-awards, Pattaya, restaurant, Serenity Bed, spa, Thailand

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Hilton Pittsburgh Loses The Hilton Name

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Earlier this week a press release announced that exterior renovations were underway at the Hilton Pittsburgh but that's not the only news from the hotel. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Hilton Hotels & Resorts has terminated its Franchise License Agreement with Shubh Hotels Pittsburgh LLC, the owner of the Downtown hotel, leaving it without the Hilton name. A Hilton spokesperson said that the owner had violated the terms of the franchise agreement.

The hotel is located at the gateway to Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle and has been a Hilton since 1959. The move comes less than two weeks after Shubh changed managers at the hotel, bringing in Prism Hotels and Resorts to replace Crescent Hotels & Resorts after a legal battle. The hotel has been facing problems for years. Workers stopped the plans for the exterior renovations after the contractor walked off the job. The new renovation called for the hotel's gold aluminum to be refreshed. The 712-room hotel already went through a $30 million interior renovation.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review also says that there has also been an ownership change with Tampa cardiologist and philanthropist Kiran Patel taking an 89 percent equity position under the name Black Diamond Hospitality LLC and Shubh Hotels owner Atul Bisaria retaining the other 11 percent share. There is a possibility that the Hilton name could return to the brand once whatever issues Hilton had with the hotel are resolved. Shubh Hotels has blamed the problems on the former managers, accusing Crescent Hotels of working with the property's mortgage holder, BlackRock Inc. to try and take over the property. Crescent has filed lawsuits saying it is owed management fees and a loan totaling $1.2 million.

UPDATE: The hotel has filed Chapter 11 following Black Rock's filing of foreclosure papers.

Tags: hilton, hilton hotels, hilton pittsburgh, pittsburgh steelers

Sleep Underwater in the Maldives

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Luxury Travel & Hotels

The world's first undersea restaurant opened 5 years ago this month at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, and to celebrate the anniversary the restaurant is offering guests the chance to not only eat under the sea but sleep under it as well. The 12-seat restaurant will be converted to a private bedroom suite for two, complete with private champagne dinner and breakfast in bed.

Ithaa sits five meters below the surface of the Indian Ocean, encased in plexiglass and reached by descending a spiral staircase. The restaurant offers breathtaking views and 'fusion Maldivian cuisine' (local cooking with a western twist), and rumor has it that over lunch the place is so bright that guests and staff have to wear sunglasses (they even keep spares on hand and offer a sunglasses cleaning service). Sounds wonderful, although I imagine seeing the sun rise while eating breakfast in bed is even better.

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Tags: hilton, hotels, ithaa, Ithaa restaurant, Maldives, restaurants, sleep underwater, underwater hotel suite, underwater restaurant

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Venezuelan Leader Seizes Luxury Resort

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has a habit of acquiring and nationalizing various businesses from gold mines to factories. This week he ordered the "acquisition by force" of a the Hilton Hotel on Venezuela's Margarita island. The resort hotel includes a 590-foot freeform swimming pool, casino, gym and a white sand beach.The hotel also includes the La Scala Restaurant and a bar. It has 280 rooms and 154 time-share suites. The hotel was recently the site of the Africa-South America Summit which was attended by Muammar Gadhafi (who set up his often controversial luxury tent on the beach), Robert Mugabe and others.

A few years ago, the government seized and rebranded a Hilton in Caracas. Now known as Hotel Alba it has been used to entertain Chavez supporters from around the world. The Wall Street Journal quotes Karla Visconti, a spokeswoman for Hilton Worldwide, who said the company "is evaluating how the Venezuelan government's action affects its interest in this hotel." While the Hilton manages the hotel, it does not own it. Last year, a law in Venezuela was passed which referred to the tourism industry as "public interest," setting the stage for nationalization efforts when it comes to hotels and resorts.

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Tags: hilton, hugo chavez, HugoChavez, margarita island, MargaritaIsland, venezuela

Did Corporate Spying Doom Denizen Hotels?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

It looks like corporate espionage has sunk the fledgling Denizen Hotels brand. Hilton Hotel Corp. has announced that it has received a federal grand jury subpoena for documents regarding two former employees of Starwood hotels who switched camps and brought their trade secrets with them. Starwood has sued Hilton saying that Hilton used privileged information in the development of the Denizen brand. The employees, Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani have been placed on paid administrative leave pending review. The Denizen Hotel website is down and Hilton has announced that the development of the brand has been "temporarily suspended." Will the brand be resurrected after the case sorts itself out? My guess is that Hilton will rebrand the hotels as something else.

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Tags: denizen, denizen hotels, DenizenHotels, espionage, hilton, hotels, starwood

Londoners Use Private Jet Service to Party Hop

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services, Wings

Wealthy socialites in London love to party just as much as those here in the U.S., but now it seems they've found a way to step things up by getting around that pesky "closing time" obstacle: they hop into a private jet and fly to a different time zone. What makes this interesting is that they aren't hopping into their own personal private jets, they're "jet-pooling" in planes operated by The Private Jet Club that are coordinated through Whisky Mist, a new club at Hilton's Zeta bar.

Even if they're continuing to party on the planes I can hardly imagine still being up for more by the time the plane lands in New York or Rio (the most popular destinations), but then I'm not a wealthy socialite with nothing else to do but fly around the world looking for a good time!

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Tags: hilton, london, private jet, private jets, PrivateJet, PrivateJets, the private jet club, ThePrivateJetClub, whisky mist, WhiskyMist, zeta

Paris Hilton's Mom Is In The Fragrance Business Too

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping, Cosmetics and Fragrance

Usually children follow in the footsteps of their parents, but in the case of the Hiltons one parent is following in those of her children: Kathy Hilton has her own fragrance. Called "My Secret" it comes in a very pretty jewel-like bottle (a pink heart though? Come on) and has top notes of mandarin, freesia, and peony, middle notes of rose, jasmine, and apricot leaf, and bottom notes of sandalwood, vanilla musk, and sandalwood. Available at Macy's for $52-$68 (FYI this version of the bottle featuring Kathy's signature is a limited edition).

BONUS: Register at KathyHiltonFragrance.com to win one of 20 vintage roller-ball heart 1.0 fl oz bottles of the Eau de Parfum or the Grand Prize of a Mother's Day brunch for you and your daughter with Kathy Hilton and her two daughters.

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Tags: eau de parfum, EauDeParfum, fragrance, hilton, hiltons, kathy hilton, KathyHilton, my secret, MySecret, nicky hilton, NickyHilton, paris, paris hilton, ParisHilton, perfume, scent

Fly Above Boston Package

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Wings

While not as dramatic perhaps as other city skylines, Boston's view from above has its own charms. Experience them with the new Fly Above Boston package from Hilton hotels. The package is available through five different Hilton and Doubletree hotels in the Boston area and includes an overnight stay, transportation to the Aquarium for pick up, then a helicopter ride above Boston and an 11 Lighthouse tour for two followed by dinner for two at a hilltop golf club overlooking Boston. The package starts at $1,600 per couple.

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Tags: boston, helicopter, hilton, resort, vacation

Hotel Points Programs Offer More Than a Free Room

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

With airline miles the rewards are pretty clear, more miles generally equals free trips or the highly desirable first class upgrades, but what do you get for hotel reward points? The answer is more complex than you might think. The Wall Street Journal recently chronicled some of the more extravagant offers available to those with a large amount of hotel points. For example, Michael and Georgia Soares used their huge amount of Starwood Hotels & Resorts points to spend one night with John Travolta and the cast of the movie "Hairspray" at the film's New York premiere.

Loyal hotel chain customers sitting on a stack of points are in a good position as major hotel companies such as Starwood, Global Hyatt Corp., Hilton Hotels Corp., and InterContinental Hotels Group now offer customers enrolled in their loyalty programs the option to spend their points on "unique experiences" rather than just getting free nights or room upgrades.

Why are hotels offering these types of programs? One reason is that they want to create more loyalty and good publicity for their programs. Another reason may be that these once-in-a-lifetime offers often use up a lot of points. As customers rack up more points. hotels lose more money on points programs. As the WSJ article explains it, hotel companies often don't own many of their own properties, an independent party owns the building and manages the property under the hotel brand. The independent party must be paid for all of those free nights . A special fund is set up to pay the costs of potential redemptions of points and a hotel brand must make sure that the fund has enough money if all points get cashed in. Of course the VIP experiences also cost the hotels money.

The Starwood program is unique in that they have an online auction system that lets members to bid for experiences in online auctions. It's a pretty clever gimmick since it combines the "something for nothing" feeling of redeeming points along with the competitive thrill of online bidding. These types of experience trips also may help lure the traveler who earns his points on business travel into spending his points and his vacation time with the same hotel chain.

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Tags: busines travel, hilton, hotels, marriott, points, rewards programs, starwood, travel

Are Hotels Ditching the Bathtub?

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Services

When is the last time you took a bath in a hotel room? Not a shower, but a real down-in-the-tub bath? I appreciate a good soak as much as anybody, but with the busy schedules we all have, showers just make more sense. And when you're traveling, something most people don't have is all kinds of time to waste in the bathroom. The statistics agree, saying that for whatever reason, only 2% of people ever use the tub in hotels.

Now resorts are another story altogether, but I totally get why many hotels (the Hilton is one in particular) are looking at doing away with the bathtub altogether. What do you think, should high-end hotels continue to offer them just in case, or is it reasonable that they do away with them?

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Tags: bath, baths, bathtub, bathtubs, hilton, hotel, hotel room, hotel rooms, HotelRoom, HotelRooms, hotels, tub, tubs

Paris Hilton Paid $200,000 to Party on Her Birthday

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping

When most average people think about where they're going to spend their birthday it's usually about finding the right balance between somewhere special but still affordable. We all love to splurge and spend extra money on special occasions to have a great party, but what if the parties were offering to pay you to come celebrate with them? That would change things, wouldn't it?

Such is the life of Paris Hilton. For her 24th birthday 3 years ago she was reportedly offered $200,000 to spend her birthday celebration at PURE, a nightclub in Caesar's Palace. That offer trumped the deal she'd been taking advantage of in previous years to spend her birthday at a rival club in the Bellagio hotel-casino, where they provided her with free private jet transportation to and from, a free room, a free gourmet meal, and of course free drinks.

Must be rough.

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Tags: celeb, celebrities, celebrity, expire-images:2008-8-31, hilton, paris, paris hilton, ParisHilton, party

Paris Hilton Is in the Shoe Biz

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping, Shoes

So what hasn't Paris Hilton done yet? Designed her own shoe line! The heiress will soon be adding one more industry onto her "been there, done that" list (it's gotta be a novel if she actually has one), and that's footwear. Early next year Paris Hilton Footwear is scheduled to launch thanks to a recently signed licensing agreement with Antebi Footwear Group. Paris was quoted as saying "My goal is to create a stylish and fun fashion line from head to toe."

Alrighty then. I'm curious to see what she comes up with, although I'm sure they'll be cute and stylish. The Paris Hilton Footwear collection will supposedly include something for everybody, meaning everything from stilettos to wedges to flats.

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Tags: expire-images:2008-8-6, feet, footwear, hilton, paris hilton, paris hilton footwear, ParisHilton, ParisHiltonFootwear, shoes

Would You Pay Paris $1 Million to Teach?

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services

Whether she's doing it by accident or it's all part of some carefully calculated master plan I have no idea, but whatever Paris is doing it's working! She really has built herself an empire, and (gasp) now has the opportunity to teach others how she did it. The Learning Annex has reportedly offered Paris $1 million dollars to teach a 1 hour class called "How to Build Your Brand." That much money puts her behind only Donald Trump ($1.5 mil) in the company's history of paid guest teachers.

I guess here is where 'by accident' or 'carefully calculated' really becomes important -- can you tell us how and why you do what you do, Paris? I'll grab my notebook.

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Tags: 1 million, 1Million, expire-images:2008-6-27, hilton, million, one million, OneMillion, paris, paris hilton, ParisHilton, teach, teacher

Lake Las Vegas Gets New Timeshare and Fractional Options

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Luxury Travel & Hotels

The Lake Las Vegas Resort is expanding by leaps and bounds. Already home to a Ritz-Carlton, the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort and the charming MonteLago Village Resort, the resort will now have a 200-Unit Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare resort and a 50-Unit Waldorf=Astoria fractional project. The project will be developed on a 17.5 acre lakefront parcel overlooking the 17th hole and the 18th tee of the Jack Nicklaus-designed Reflection Bay Golf Course. The Waldorf=Astoria project at Lake Las Vegas Resort is the first fractional lodging product to be developed by Hilton (we mentioned the creation of this brand last year). Development of the project is currently in the design phase, with groundbreaking targeted for early 2008 and an opening date projected for fall of 2009.

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Tags: hilton, lake las vegas, LakeLasVegas, nevada, waldorf-astoria