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 flat-screen 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 Ritz Paris is a hotel in central Paris, overlooking the Place Vendôme in the city's 1st arrondissement. A member of The Leading Hotels of the World marketing group, the Ritz Paris is ranked among the most luxurious hotels in the world.
The hotel was founded in 1898 by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz in collaboration with the French chef Auguste Escoffier. The hotel was constructed behind the façade of an eighteenth-century townhouse. It was among the first hotels in Europe to provide an en suite bathroom, electricity, and a telephone for each room. It quickly established a reputation for luxury and attracted a clientele that included royalty, politicians, writers, film stars, and singers. Several of its suites are named in honour of famous guests of the hotel including Coco Chanel, and the cocktail lounge Bar Hemingway pays tribute to writer Ernest Hemingway. (Full article...) -
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The Hôtel d'Alluye is an hôtel particulier in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, France. Built for Florimond Robertet when he was secretary and notary to Louis XII, the residence bears the name of his barony of Alluyes. On Rue Saint-Honoré near Blois Cathedral and the Château de Blois, it is now significantly smaller than it was originally as the north and west wings were destroyed between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.
Built between 1498 (or 1500) and 1508, the hôtel particulier is one of the first examples of Renaissance architecture in Blois. Its façades consist of Gothic, French Renaissance and Italian Renaissance architecture. The Hôtel d'Alluye was owned by the Robertet family from 1508 until 1606 before undergoing frequent changes in ownership; since 2007, it has been divided into ten apartments and a large office. (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...) -
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The Trump International Hotel and Tower, originally the Gulf and Western Building, is a high-rise building at 15 Columbus Circle and 1 Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was originally designed by Thomas E. Stanley as an office building and completed in 1970 as the headquarters of Gulf and Western Industries. In the mid-1990s, a joint venture composed of the General Electric Pension Fund, Galbreath Company, and developer Donald Trump renovated the building into a hotel and residential tower. The renovation was designed by Philip Johnson and Costas Kondylis.
The Trump International Hotel and Tower is 583 ft (178 m) tall and has contained 44 physical stories since it was built. The building originally had an aluminum-and-marble facade and was surrounded by a public plaza on Broadway and Central Park West. There was a theater and shops in the basement as well as a restaurant on the top floor. After the building was renovated, a glass facade was installed. The lower portion of the tower is used as a hotel, while the upper floor is a residential condominium. (Full article...) -
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The Trump International Hotel and Tower is a skyscraper condo-hotel in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The building, named for Donald Trump, was designed by architect Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Bovis Lend Lease built the 100-story structure, which reaches a height of 1,388 feet (423.2 m) including its spire, its roof topping out at 1,171 feet (357 m). It is next to the main branch of the Chicago River, with a view of the entry to Lake Michigan beyond a series of bridges over the river. The building received publicity when the winner of the first season of The Apprentice reality television show, Bill Rancic, chose to manage the construction of the tower over managing a Rancho Palos Verdes based "Trump National Golf Course & Resort" in the Los Angeles metro area.
Trump announced in 2001 that the skyscraper would become the tallest building in the world, but after the September 11 attacks that same year, the architects scaled back the building's plans, and its design underwent several revisions. When topped out in 2009, it became the second-tallest building in the U.S. It surpassed the city's John Hancock Center as the building with the highest residence (apartment or condo) in the world, and briefly held this title until the completion of the Burj Khalifa. (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 is in 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...) -
Image 7The Shamrock was a hotel constructed between 1946 and 1949 by wildcatter Glenn McCarthy southwest of downtown Houston, Texas next to the Texas Medical Center. It was the largest hotel built in the United States during the 1940s. The grand opening of the Shamrock is still cited as one of the biggest social events ever held in Houston. Sold to Hilton Hotels in 1955 and operated for over three decades as the Shamrock Hilton, the facility endured financial struggles throughout its history. In 1985, Hilton Hotels donated the building to the Texas Medical Center and the structure was demolished on June 1, 1987. (Full article...)
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The Brinks Hotel in Saigon, also known as the Brink Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ), was bombed by the Viet Cong on the evening of December 24, 1964, during the Vietnam War. Two Viet Cong operatives detonated a car bomb underneath the hotel, which housed United States Army officers. The explosion killed two Americans, an officer and an NCO, and injured approximately 60, including military personnel and Vietnamese civilians.
The Viet Cong commanders had planned the venture with two objectives in mind. Firstly, by attacking an American installation in the center of the heavily guarded capital, the Viet Cong intended to demonstrate their ability to strike in South Vietnam should the United States decide to launch air raids against North Vietnam. Secondly, the bombing would demonstrate to the South Vietnamese that the Americans were vulnerable and could not be relied upon for protection. (Full article...) -
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The Millennium Times Square New York (formerly the Hotel Macklowe and the Millennium Broadway) is a hotel at 133 and 145 West 44th Street, between Times Square and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Operated by Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, the hotel has 750 guest units, as well as a conference center with 33 conference rooms. The hotel incorporates a Broadway theater called the Hudson Theatre into its base.
The hotel is composed of two guestroom towers flanking the Hudson Theatre. The original 48-story tower west of the theater was designed by William Derman and Perkins & Will, while the 22-story annex east of the theater was designed by Stonehill & Taylor. The original hotel tower contains a lobby with a passageway connecting two entrances on 44th and 45th Streets. In addition, there is a bar, restaurant, and fitness center in the original tower. The conference center in the lower stories extended into the Hudson Theatre, which in 2017 became a Broadway theater. The 22-story annex is branded as the Millennium Premier New York Times Square. (Full article...) -
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The Landmark was a hotel and casino located in Winchester, Nevada, east of the Las Vegas Strip and across from the Las Vegas Convention Center. Frank Caroll, the project's original owner, purchased the property in 1961. Fremont Construction began work on the tower that September, while Caroll opened the adjacent Landmark Plaza shopping center and Landmark Apartments by the end of the year. The tower's completion was expected for early 1963, but because of a lack of financing, construction was stopped in 1962, with the resort approximately 80 percent complete. Up to 1969, the topped-off tower was the tallest building in Nevada until the completion of the International Hotel across the street.
In 1966, the Central Teamsters Pension Fund provided a $5.5 million construction loan to finish the project, with ownership transferred to a group of investors that included Caroll and his wife. The Landmark's completion and opening was delayed several more times. In April 1968, Caroll withdrew his request for a gaming license after he was charged with assault and battery against the project's interior designer. The Landmark was put up for sale that month. (Full article...) -
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The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic American hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent 56-foot (17 m) high sign, the Sands was the seventh resort to open on the Strip. During its heyday, it hosted many famous entertainers of the day, most notably the Rat Pack and Jerry Lewis.
The hotel was established in 1952 by Mack Kufferman, who bought the LaRue Restaurant which had opened a year earlier. The hotel was opened on December 15, 1952, as a casino and hotel with 200 rooms. The hotel rooms were divided into four two-story motel wings, each with fifty rooms, and named after famous race tracks. Crime bosses such as Doc Stacher and Meyer Lansky acquired shares in the hotel and attracted Frank Sinatra, who made his performing debut at Sands in October 1953. Sinatra later bought a share in the hotel himself. In 1960, the classic caper film Ocean's 11 was shot at the hotel, and it subsequently attained iconic status, with regular performances by Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., Red Skelton and others, who performed regularly in the hotel's world-renowned Copa Room. (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 is the first of Richard Branson's Virgin Hotels brand boutique hotels geared toward the female business traveller. (Full article...) -
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The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, 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, the 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 Ritz London is a 5-star luxury hotel at 150 Piccadilly in London, England. A symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel is one of the world's most prestigious and best known. The Ritz has become so associated with luxury and elegance that the word "ritzy" has entered the English language to denote something that is ostentatiously stylish, fancy, or fashionable.
The hotel was opened by Swiss hotelier César Ritz in 1906, eight years after he established the Hôtel Ritz Paris. It began to gain popularity towards the end of World War I, with politicians, socialites, writers and actors in particular. David Lloyd George held a number of secret meetings at the Ritz during the latter half of the war, and it was at the Ritz that he made the decision to intervene on behalf of Greece against Turkey. Noël Coward was a notable diner at the Ritz in the 1920s and 1930s. (Full article...) -
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Hotel Valley Ho is a historic hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona. Also called the Valley Ho and, for 28 years, the Ramada Valley Ho, the hotel was originally designed by Edward L. Varney. It first opened in 1956 with a forward-looking and futuristic design. Movie stars and famous baseball players stayed, and the building quickly became known for its trendsetting guests and its fashionable atmosphere. The success of the venture resulted in expansion in 1958, with two additional two-story wings of guest rooms extending to the north. Though initially proposed by Varney, a central tower of guest rooms, rising over the lobby, was not built.
The property was bought by the Ramada hotel chain in 1973, and was redecorated to cover the 1950s design, seen at the time as outdated. No longer in vogue, but centrally located, the hotel remained prominent for years, and hosted conferences, business meetings, and vacationers. Under Ramada management, however, the property began to show a lack of maintenance, and its popularity declined. It closed in 2001 and its demolition was considered when no purchase offers were received. Admirers of the hotel's exemplary architecture and its local history rallied to save it, and it was placed on the Scottsdale Historic Register. (Full article...)
General images - show new batch
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Image 1Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden (from Hotel)
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Image 3The Star Lite Motel in Dilworth, Minnesota is a typical American 1950s L-shaped motel. (from Motel)
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Image 4Holiday Inn's "Great Sign", used until 1982. Some remain in museums. (from Motel)
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Image 6Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island from Jumeirah Beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge (from Hotel)
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Image 11An apartment hotel in Hammond, Indiana (from Apartment hotel)
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Image 12Sign on Chicago motel (from Motel)
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Image 14The 4 Seasons Motel sign in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin is an excellent example of googie architecture. (from Motel)
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Image 15Motels frequently have large pools, such as the Thunderbird Motel on the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon (1973). (from Motel)
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Image 17The Peninsula New York hotel, located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan (from Hotel)
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Image 18Ithaa, the first undersea restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island resort (from Hotel)
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Image 21The Boody House Hotel in Toledo, Ohio (from Hotel)
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Image 23The Harrison Hotel, an SRO hotel in Oakland, California. (from Apartment hotel)
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Image 24The Waldorf Astoria New York, the most expensive hotel ever sold, cost US$1.95 billion in 2014. (from Hotel)
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Image 25Tremont House in Boston, United States, a luxury hotel, the first to provide indoor plumbing (from Hotel)
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Image 28Wigwam Motel No. 6, a unique motel/motor court on historic Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona (from Motel)
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Image 33Abandoned Grand West Courts in Chicago, demolished in September 2013 (from Motel)
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Image 34A typical hotel room with a bed, desk, and television (from Hotel)
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Image 35On top of the cliff, the Riosol Hotel in Mogán (from Hotel)
Selected articles - load new batch
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Hotel Astor was a hotel on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. Built in 1905 and expanded in 1909–1910 for the Astor family, the hotel occupied a site bounded by Broadway, Shubert Alley, and 44th and 45th Streets. Architects Clinton & Russell designed the hotel as an 11-story Beaux-Arts edifice with a mansard roof. It contained 1,000 guest rooms, with two more levels underground for its extensive "backstage" functions, such as the wine cellar.
The hotel was developed as a successor to the Waldorf-Astoria. Hotel Astor's success triggered the construction of the nearby Knickerbocker Hotel by other members of the Astor family two years later. The building was razed in 1967 to make way for the high-rise office tower One Astor Plaza. (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...) -
Image 3The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) is a trade association that represents hotel owners. As of 2022, AAHOA has approximately 20,000 members who own about 60% of the hotels in the United States. AAHOA provides service and support for hoteliers through its educational offerings, policy and political advocacy for the interests of hotel owners, opportunities for professional development, and community engagement.
Indian Americans in the hotel and motel industry early on faced discrimination, both from the insurance industry and from competitors placing "American owned" signs outside their properties to take business from them. In 1985, a group was formed in Tennessee, the Mid-south Indemnity Association, which then grew nationwide and changed its name to the Indo American Hospitality Association.
Another group of Indian hoteliers was created in Atlanta in 1989 to address discrimination issues and increase awareness of Asian Americans working in the hospitality industry under the name Asian American Hotel Owners Association. In 1994, the organizations merged in order to work more efficiently to defend Asian hotel owners’ interests throughout the United States.
The association's current President & CEO, appointed in May 2022, is Laura Lee Blake. An attorney with more than 25 years of experience, Blake most recently served as a partner at Connor, Fletcher, and Hedenkamp LLP in Irvine, California. Blake brings decades of experience in the fields of law, government, business, and academia to AAHOA. (Full article...) -
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Alfred Pisani (born 1939) is a Maltese businessman and hotelier, among the founders of the Corinthia Group of Companies, and its chairman and chief executive since the company's inception in 1966. (Full article...) -
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The Peninsula Paris is an historic luxury hotel, originally known as the Hotel Majestic, located on Avenue Kléber in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It opened in 1908 as the Hotel Majestic and was converted to government offices in 1936. The hotel served as a field hospital for wounded officers during World War I, staffed largely by British aristocrats. During World War II, it served as the headquarters of the German military high command in France during the German occupation of Paris. The building played a pivotal role in the deportation of Parisian Jews and the 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler. The building reopened as The Peninsula Paris in August 2014, following a complicated and costly restoration. (Full article...) -
Image 6The Hotel Australia was a former hotel in Melbourne, Australia. The hotel was built in 1939 on the site of the former Cafe Australia (which had opened in 1916), and was demolished in 1989.
Designed by Leslie M. Perrott, the Hotel Australia was a 12-storey building with 94 rooms, numerous private dining and function rooms, and was the most prestigious hotel in Melbourne in its day. The hotel included two small cinemas, a restaurant and bar in the basement, and a through-block shopping arcade on the ground floor which was touted as the largest in Australia, known as the Australia Arcade.
The site is now occupied by a Novotel hotel and the shopping arcade St. Collins Lane. (Full article...) -
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The John Jacob Astor Hotel, originally known as the Hotel Astoria, is a historic former hotel building located in Astoria, Oregon, United States, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is one of the tallest buildings on the Oregon Coast and is a "prominent landmark" in Astoria. Constructed in 1922–23, the hotel opened in 1924 and initially was the city's social and business hub, but soon was beset with a variety of problems, and struggled financially for years. It was renamed the John Jacob Astor Hotel in 1951, but a decline in business continued, as did other problems. The building was condemned by the city for safety violations in 1968 and sat vacant for several years until 1984, when work to renovate it and convert it for apartments began. It reopened as an apartment building in 1986, with the lowermost two floors reserved for commercial use. The building was listed on the NRHP in 1979. The world's first cable television system was set up in 1948 using an antenna on the roof of the Hotel Astoria. (Full article...) -
Image 8The Northern Hotel was a three-story hotel located in Ely, Nevada. Three businessmen from Goldfield, Nevada, including Tex Rickard, commissioned the building's construction in 1906. The building was initially proposed as a three-story business block, although a decision was made during construction to open the upper floors as a hotel. The Northern Hotel opened in January 1907, and was well received, although it later closed in 1932, because of a lack of business. The Northern Hotel reopened in 1937, and was later destroyed entirely in a fire on May 17, 1964. (Full article...)
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Howard Johnson's, or Howard Johnson by Wyndham, is an American hotel chain with locations worldwide, as well as a former restaurant chain. The chain began as a restaurant founded by Howard Deering Johnson in 1925; in the 1950s, the company expanded operations by opening hotels, then known as Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges, which were often located next to restaurants. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it was the largest restaurant chain in the U.S., with more than 1,000 combined company-owned and franchised outlets.
Howard Johnson's restaurants were franchised separately from the hotel brand beginning in 1986 but, in the years that followed, severely dwindled in number until eventually disappearing altogether. The last restaurant, in Lake George, New York, closed in 2022. The line of branded supermarket frozen foods, including ice cream, is no longer manufactured. Since 2006, all hotels and company trademarks have been owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. (Full article...) -
Image 10The Stanley Hotel is a 140-room Colonial Revival hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, United States, about five miles from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was built by Freelan Oscar Stanley, co-founder of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company, and opened on July 4, 1909, as a resort for upper-class Easterners and a health retreat for sufferers of pulmonary tuberculosis. The hotel and its surrounding structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the hotel includes a restaurant, spa, and bed-and-breakfast; with panoramic views of Lake Estes, the Rockies, and Longs Peak.
The Stanley Hotel served as the inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining and its 1980 film adaptation. It was also a filming location for the related 1997 TV miniseries. (Full article...) -
Image 11Hotel Impossible is a reality television program from Travel Channel in which struggling non-chain hotels receive an extensive makeover by veteran hotel operator and hospitality expert Anthony Melchiorri and his team. The show premiered on April 9, 2012, and ended on November 13, 2017. After airing seven seasons, the series launched a spin-off series called Hotel Impossible: Showdown in which four hoteliers of a pre-selected region that visit and judge each other's establishments for the highest ranking and a prize of $25,000. During season 8, another spin-off series called Hotel Impossible: Five Star Secrets began airing. In it, Melchiorri visits luxury resorts, learns what makes them special, and awards a $5,000 super tip to a deserving staff member. The show was not renewed for a new season in 2018 and is "no longer in active production". (Full article...)
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The Hotel Glória was a grand hotel in the Glória neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was built by entrepreneur Rocha Miranda for the International Exhibition of 1922 to commemorate the centennial of Brazil's independence. It opened on August 15, 1922. The hotel was designed by Joseph Gire, who also designed the Copacabana Palace. It was reportedly the first reinforced concrete building to be built in South America and was erected with the aid of German engineers.
Originally the hotel had a casino (closed in 1946, when gambling was prohibited in Brazil), a theatre, ballrooms, recreation areas, and only about 280 rooms but was later expanded to about 630. Due to its proximity to the financial and political centre of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Hotel Glória always harbored great movie stars, singers, politicians, and heads of state.
Hotel Glória was built with 180 rooms. It was expanded by 100 rooms with a wing to the southwest, and a 400-room addition was added at an unknown date. The hotel has a reinforced concrete skeleton, and each room had a bathroom and a telephone. It was later furnished with a swimming pool, a steam sauna, an automatic phone billing system, a meeting room and equipment for video-conferences, and a heliport. (Full article...) -
Image 13Uta Felgner is a German businesswoman. By the end of 2006 she was becoming known as the most high-profile hotel manager in the country. She was the manager of Berlin's luxurious Castle Hotel ("Schlosshotel") in Grunewald during June/July 2006 when all the hotel's 42 rooms and 12 suites were taken over to accommodate the Germany national team while it participated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Other well known guests of the hotel while she was its manager had by that time already included Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Henry Kissinger Vitali Klitschko, Uwe Seeler, the King of Spain and the Sultan of Brunei.
She hit the headlines three years later in November 2009 after journalists working for the Berliner Morgenpost (newspaper) revealed that during the 1980s she had operated as an unusually active Informal collaborator in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), working for the country's Ministry for State Security (Stasi / intelligence services). The starting point for the journalists' researches had been an originally secret file on Felgner held in preserved Stasi records, comprising approximately 3,000 pages. (Full article...) -
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The Corinthia Hotel Tripoli, originally known as the Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel, is a five star skyscraper hotel in Tripoli, Libya. It is located in the city center, near the central business district. It is run by the Maltese Corinthia Hotels International CHI plc hotels management company. The hotel was opened in 2003 by Prime Minister, Shukri Ghanem [More information required]. (Full article...) -
Image 15The General Walker Hotel was a hotel for US troops after World War II in the mountain (Alpine) retreat of Obersalzberg, Germany. The former Pension Moritz boarding house, boasting opulent accommodations and sweeping views of the Bavarian countryside and Alpine scenery, had been opened in 1878 and renamed Platterhof in 1928. After the Nazi seizure of power, it became a "people's" hostel for visitors to the extended containment area around Hitler's headquarters at the nearby Berghof residence. It was subsequently rebuilt into a luxury hotel for visiting dignitaries and in 1943 was converted into a military hospital.
Following World War II, the damaged building was restored as a United States Armed Forces Recreation Center (AFRC), and again renamed after US Army General Walton Walker (1889–1950), killed in action in the Korean War. The complex was demolished in 2001. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that the construction of the Erawan Hotel was delayed by so many mishaps that a shrine to Brahma was built to ward off ill fortune?
- ... 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?
- ... that New York City's Mansfield Hotel was developed by two neighbors from Vermont, one of whom later served as Vermont's governor?
- ... that in 1967 Hilton Hotels revealed plans for a 100-room hotel on the Moon?
- ... 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 the New Yorker Hotel once had the largest private power plant in the United States?
- ... that the wine cellar of New York City's Barclay Hotel is on the second floor?
- ... that in the 2000s, New York City's Benjamin Hotel offered a pillow menu and hired a sleep concierge?
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