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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...)
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The Blackstone Hotel is a historic 290-foot (88 m) 21-story hotel on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Drive in the Michigan Boulevard Historic District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1908 and 1910, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Blackstone is famous for hosting celebrity guests, including numerous U.S. presidents, for which it was known as the "Hotel of Presidents" for much of the 20th century, and for contributing the term "smoke-filled room" to political parlance. (Full article...) -
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The Palace Hotel in Perth, Western Australia, is a landmark three-storey heritage listed building located in the city's central business district. Originally built in 1897 as a hotel during the gold rush period of Western Australia's history, it was converted to banking chambers and offices in the 1980s and now accommodates the Perth headquarters of Woods Bagot, Adapptor and Hatchd. The building is located on the most prominent intersection in the financial district of the city, at the corner of St Georges Terrace and William Street.
When the hotel opened for business on 18 March 1897 it was, although slightly smaller than some of its contemporary buildings in other capital cities in Australasia, described as "... one of the most beautiful and elegant hotels in Australasia". Other praise included: "... redolent of the bourgeois luxury and splendour of the Paris of Napoleon III" and later "... in its day, as sumptuous a hostelry as any in Melbourne or Sydney." It operated as licensed premises from 1897 until 1981. (Full article...) -
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The New York Marriott Marquis is a Marriott hotel on Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Designed by architect John C. Portman Jr., the hotel is at 1535 Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets. It has 1,971 rooms and 101,000 sq ft (9,400 m2) of meeting space.
The hotel has two wings, one on 45th Street and one on 46th Street, connected by a podium at ground level. The first two stories contain retail space, while the Marquis Theatre was built within the building's third floor. The hotel's atrium lobby is at the eighth floor and also includes meeting space and restaurants. Thirty-six stories of guestrooms rise above the lobby, overlooking it. The top three stories contain the View, one of New York City's highest restaurants. An architectural feature of the hotel is its concrete elevator core, which consists of a minaret-shaped structure with twelve glass elevator cabs on the exterior. (Full article...) -
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The Ryugyong Hotel (Korean: 류경호텔; sometimes spelled as Ryu-Gyong Hotel), or Yu-Kyung Hotel, is an unfinished 1,080 ft (330 meter) tall pyramid-shaped skyscraper in Pyongyang, North Korea. Its name ("capital of willows," 柳京 in Hanja) is also one of the historical names for Pyongyang. The building has been planned as a mixed-use development, which would include a hotel.
Construction began in 1987 but was halted in 1992 as North Korea entered a period of economic crisis after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After 1992, the building stood topped out, but without any windows or interior fittings. In 2008, construction resumed, and the exterior was completed in 2011. The hotel was planned to open in 2012, the centenary of founding leader Kim Il Sung's birth. A partial opening was announced for 2013, but this was cancelled. In 2018, an LED display was fitted to one side, which is used to show propaganda animations and film scenes. (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 Manila Hotel is a 550-room, historic five-star hotel located along Manila Bay in Manila, Philippines. The hotel is the oldest premiere hotel in the Philippines built in 1909 to rival Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines and was opened on the commemoration of American Independence on July 4, 1912. The hotel complex was built on a reclaimed area of 35,000 square metres (380,000 sq ft) at the northwestern end of Rizal Park along Bonifacio Drive in Ermita. Its penthouse served as the residence of General Douglas MacArthur during his tenure as the Military Advisor of the Philippine Commonwealth from 1935 to 1941.
The hotel used to host the offices of several foreign news organizations, including The New York Times. It has hosted world leaders and celebrities, including authors Ernest Hemingway and James A. Michener; actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and John Wayne; publisher Henry Luce; entertainers Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Jackson and The Beatles; Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles III); and U.S. President Bill Clinton. (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 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11 attacks) were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Islamist organisation from Pakistan, carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai. The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday 26 November and lasted until Saturday 29 November 2008. A total of 175 people died, including nine of the attackers, with more than 300 injured.
Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, the Leopold Cafe, the Cama Hospital, the Nariman House, the Metro Cinema, and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College. There was also an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle. By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj Hotel had been secured by the Mumbai Police and security forces. On 29 November, India's National Security Guards (NSG) conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining attackers; it culminated in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Taj Hotel and ended the attacks. (Full article...) -
Image 9Pikes Hotel, now known as Pikes Ibiza, is a luxury hotel in Ibiza, in the Balearic Islands of Spain. It is located in the countryside, 1.6 miles (2.6 km) to the northeast of the town of Sant Antoni de Portmany, and 10.2 miles (16.4 km) to the northwest of Ibiza Town. A 15th-century stone mansion which was a finca (farm estate), it was converted into a hotel in 1978 by British-born Australian Anthony Pike.
The hotel, cited as one of the most famous or infamous hotels on the island, developed a notorious reputation for hedonism in the 1980s, and is associated with being a playground for the rich and famous. It is best known for being the location of filming for Wham!'s 1983 hit "Club Tropicana" and for Freddie Mercury's 41st birthday bash in 1987, cited as one of the most lavish parties ever to be held on Ibiza. (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 Monbar Hotel attack was carried out by the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL), a Spanish state-sponsored death squad, on 25 September 1985 in Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. The targets were four members of the Basque separatist terrorist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), whom the Spanish government believed to be senior figures in the organization, itself proscribed as a terrorist group in Spain and France. All four people were killed, with a fifth person, apparently unconnected to ETA, injured in the shooting. This represented the deadliest attack carried out by the GAL. Although two of the participants were apprehended shortly after the shooting, controversy surrounded the possible involvement of senior figures in the Spanish police.
This attack, and similar attacks carried out by the GAL, became a major issue during the 1996 Spanish general election after a supreme court trial established that the Spanish Interior Ministry had provided clandestine funding for the GAL. Spanish Interior Minister José Barrionuevo and his security chief, Rafael Vera, were jailed for ten years for sanctioning a kidnapping and misappropriation of public funds to finance the group, and the GAL scandal is seen as a key factor in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) losing the election, though more senior figures in the PSOE, such as Felipe Gonzalez, denied knowledge and involvement. (Full article...) -
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The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story 625 ft (191 m) Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze and Weaver and completed in 1931. The building was the world's tallest hotel until 1957, when it was surpassed by Moscow's Hotel Ukraina. An icon of glamor and luxury, the Waldorf Astoria is one of the world's most prestigious and best-known hotels. Once owned by Conrad Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, a division of Hilton Hotels, operates under the name of the original hotel in locations around the world. Both the exterior and the interior of the New York's Waldorf Astoria are designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as official landmarks.
The original Waldorf-Astoria was built in two stages along Fifth Avenue and opened in 1893; it was demolished in 1929 to make way for the construction of the Empire State Building. Conrad Hilton acquired management rights to the hotel on October 12, 1949, and the Hilton Hotels Corporation finally bought the hotel outright in 1972. It underwent a $150 million renovation ($555 million in 2023 dollars ) by Lee Jablin in the 1980s and early 1990s. The Anbang Insurance Group of China purchased the Waldorf Astoria New York for US$1.95 billion in 2014, making it the most expensive hotel ever sold. The Waldorf Astoria closed in 2017 for renovations; the upper stories were converted into 375 condominiums, while the lowest 18 floors will retain 375 hotel rooms. Dajia Insurance Group took over the Waldorf Astoria when Anbang went bankrupt in 2020, and, after several delays, the hotel is not expected to reopen until 2025 at the earliest. (Full article...) -
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The Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan (originally the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Manhattan) is a hotel at 1601 Broadway, between 48th and 49th Streets, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The hotel is operated by third-party franchisee Highgate and is part of the Intercontinental Hotels Group's Crowne Plaza chain. It has 795 guest rooms.
The hotel was designed by Alan Lapidus and is 480 feet (150 m) tall with 46 floors. The facade was designed in glass and pink granite, with a 100-foot-tall (30 m) arch facing Broadway. The hotel was designed to comply with city regulations that required deep setbacks at the base, as well as large illuminated signs. In addition to the hotel rooms themselves, the Crowne Plaza Times Square contains ground-story retail space, nine stories of office space, and a 159-space parking garage. The hotel's tenants include the American Management Association, and Learning Tree International; in addition, New York Sports Club was a former tenant. (Full article...) -
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The Dorchester is a five-star hotel located on Park Lane and Deanery Street in London, to the east of Hyde Park. It is one of the world's most prestigious hotels. The Dorchester opened on 18 April 1931, and it still retains its 1930s furnishings and ambiance despite being modernised.
Throughout its history, the hotel has been closely associated with the rich and famous. During the 1930s, it became known as a haunt of numerous writers and artists such as poet Cecil Day-Lewis, novelist Somerset Maugham, and the painter Sir Alfred Munnings. It has held prestigious literary gatherings, such as the "Foyles Literary Luncheons", an event the hotel still hosts today. During the Second World War, the strength of its construction gave the hotel the reputation of being one of London's safest buildings, and notable members of political parties and the military chose it as their London residence. Queen Elizabeth II attended the Dorchester when she was a princess on the day prior to the announcement of her engagement to Philip Mountbatten on 10 July 1947. The hotel has since become particularly popular with film actors, models and rock stars, and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton frequently stayed at the hotel throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The hotel became a Grade II Listed Building in January 1981, and was subsequently purchased by the Sultan of Brunei in 1985. It belongs to the Dorchester Collection, which in turn is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), an arm of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei. (Full article...) -
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The 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...)
General images - show new batch
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Image 2The 4 Seasons Motel sign in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin is an excellent example of googie architecture. (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 9Motels frequently have large pools, such as the Thunderbird Motel on the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon (1973). (from Motel)
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Image 10An apartment hotel in Hammond, Indiana (from Apartment hotel)
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Image 12Holiday Inn's "Great Sign", used until 1982. Some remain in museums. (from Motel)
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Image 13Sign on Chicago motel (from Motel)
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Image 15Ithaa, the first undersea restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island resort (from Hotel)
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Image 17Abandoned Grand West Courts in Chicago, demolished in September 2013 (from Motel)
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Image 19The Waldorf Astoria New York, the most expensive hotel ever sold, cost US$1.95 billion in 2014. (from Hotel)
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Image 21Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden (from Hotel)
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Image 22Tremont House in Boston, United States, a luxury hotel, the first to provide indoor plumbing (from Hotel)
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Image 23The Harrison Hotel, an SRO hotel in Oakland, California. (from Apartment hotel)
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Image 26The Boody House Hotel in Toledo, Ohio (from Hotel)
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Image 32The Star Lite Motel in Dilworth, Minnesota is a typical American 1950s L-shaped motel. (from Motel)
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Image 33Wigwam Motel No. 6, a unique motel/motor court on historic Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona (from Motel)
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Image 34The Peninsula New York hotel, located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan (from Hotel)
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Image 35A typical hotel room with a bed, desk, and television (from Hotel)
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Image 36On top of the cliff, the Riosol Hotel in Mogán (from Hotel)
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The New Yorker Hotel is a mixed-use hotel building at 481 Eighth Avenue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1930, the New Yorker Hotel was designed by Sugarman and Berger in the Art Deco style and is 42 stories high, with four basement stories. The hotel building is owned by the Unification Church, which rents out the lower stories as offices and dormitories. The upper stories comprise The New Yorker, A Wyndham Hotel, which has 1,083 guestrooms and is operated by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. The 1-million-square-foot (93,000-square-meter) building also contains two restaurants and approximately 33,000 square feet (3,100 m2) of conference space.
The facade is largely made of brick and terracotta, with Indiana limestone on the lower stories. There are setbacks to comply with the 1916 Zoning Resolution, as well as a large sign with the hotel's name. The hotel contains a power plant and boiler room on its fourth basement, which was an early example of a cogeneration plant. The public rooms on the lower stories included a Manufacturers Trust bank branch, a double-height lobby, and multiple ballrooms and restaurants. Originally, the hotel had 2,503 guestrooms from the fourth story up. The modern-day hotel rooms start above the 19th story.
The New Yorker was built by Mack Kanner and was originally operated by Ralph Hitz, who died in 1940 and was succeeded by Frank L. Andrews. Hilton Hotels bought the hotel in 1954 and, after conducting extensive renovations, sold the hotel in 1956 to Massaglia Hotels. New York Towers Inc. acquired the New Yorker in 1959 but surrendered the property to Hilton in 1967 as part of a foreclosure proceeding. The hotel was closed in 1972 and sold to the French and Polyclinic Medical School and Health Center, which unsuccessfully attempted to develop a hospital there. The Unification Church purchased the building in 1976 and initially used it as a global headquarters. After the top stories of the building reopened as a hotel in 1994, the lower stories were used as offices and dormitories. The hotel rooms have undergone multiple renovations since the hotel reopened. The New Yorker joined the Ramada chain in 2000 and was transferred to the Wyndham brand in 2014. (Full article...) -
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The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic skyscraper hotel in downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the 349 ft (106 m), 31-story, 453-room hotel includes 65 exclusive luxury condominiums and penthouses on the top eight floors. It reopened in October 2008, managed by Westin Hotels, after a $200-million restoration. (Full article...) -
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Gevora Hotel (Arabic: فندق جيفورا) is a 1,168 ft (356 m) tall hotel along Sheikh Zayed Road in the city Dubai, UAE. That height has given the skyscraper the title of tallest hotel building according to Guinness World Records. The four-star hotel opened in February 2018 after a construction period of twelve years. It has 528 rooms spread over 75 floors and a number of facilities including restaurants and a pool on top of its parking garage building.
Gevora Hotel is close to the Dubai International Financial Centre and its namesake metro station, the Rose Rayhaan by Rotana, and the Emirates Towers. (Full article...) -
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The Carrington Hotel is a heritage-listed former spa, hotel and power station and now hotel and public bar located at Katoomba Street, Katoomba in the City of Blue Mountains local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Kirkpatrick and Bosser in 1882; and by Edward Hewlett Hogben with Goyder Brothers in 1911–13; and built from 1882 to 1913 by F. Drewett in 1882; and by Howie, Brown and Moffit in 1912–13. It is also known as Great Western Hotel. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The Carrington is the only 19th century grand resort hotel still in use in New South Wales. It also retains much of the fabric of its major phases of development and continues to occupy the commanding position in Katoomba that it has done since its construction. It was built in 1883 by Harry George Rowell, a large hotel owner from Sydney, and was owned by a series of prominent families over the next century. Today it is still operating as a hotel. (Full article...) -
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Vail Resorts, Inc. is an American mountain resort company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. The company is divided into three divisions. The mountain segment owns and operates 42 mountain resorts in four countries, Vail Resorts Hospitality owns or manages hotels, lodging, condominiums and golf courses, and the Vail Resorts Development Company oversees property development and real estate holdings. (Full article...) -
Image 6Hotel del Luna (Korean: 호텔 델루나; RR: Hotel delluna) is a 2019 South Korean television series, starring Lee Ji-eun and Yeo Jin-goo as the owner and manager, respectively, of the eponymous hotel that caters only to ghosts. Produced by GTist, written by the Hong sisters and directed by Oh Chung-hwan, it aired on tvN from July 13 to September 1, 2019.
It was the most-viewed tvN drama of 2019 and is one of the highest-rated Korean dramas in cable television history. (Full article...) -
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The La Concha Motel was a motel that opened in 1961 and closed in 2004. It was designed by architect Paul Williams who was one of the first prominent African American architects in the United States and was also the architect who designed the first LAX theme building. It was located at 2955 Las Vegas Blvd South, on the Las Vegas Strip, in Winchester, Nevada, and was considered one of the best-preserved examples of 1950s Googie architecture. It is believed to be named after the Beach of La Concha in Spain. (Full article...) -
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The Fontainebleau Las Vegas is a resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Fontainebleau Development and is a sister property to Fontainebleau Miami Beach, and sits on the 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) site previously occupied by the El Rancho Hotel and Casino and the Algiers Hotel. Ownership and development has changed several times since the project was announced in May 2005. It was originally proposed by developer Fontainebleau Resorts, owned by Jeff Soffer.
The project was designed by Carlos Zapata Studio with Bergman Walls and Associates as the executive architect. Construction began in February 2007, and the hotel tower was topped off on November 14, 2008. The tower rises 67 stories, standing 737 feet (224.6 m) high. As completed, it is the tallest occupiable building in Nevada.
A group of banks had agreed to finance the project, but was sued by Fontainebleau in April 2009, after it cut off funding. Construction was put on hold two months later, when the project entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Fontainebleau was 70-percent completed, and the opening had been scheduled for October 2009. Carl Icahn purchased the project out of bankruptcy in 2010, but never restarted construction. Seven years later, the unfinished resort was sold to investment firms Witkoff Group and New Valley LLC, which planned to open it as The Drew Las Vegas in 2022. However, construction stopped in March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nevada. (Full article...) -
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Roy's Motel and Café is a motel, café, gas station and auto repair shop on the National Trails Highway, the former U.S. Route 66, in the Mojave Desert town of Amboy in San Bernardino County, California. It has been defunct for years, but is now being restored. The historic site is an example of roadside Mid-Century Modern Googie architecture. The entire town of Amboy—including the Roy's complex—is owned by and under the stewardship of a private preservationist. (Full article...) -
Image 10The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and one of the wealthiest families in the United States (staying in the top 10 of Forbes magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the magazine began such listings in 1982). Its fortune arose in the 20th century, particularly through the founding and expansion of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation.
Family members still largely own Hyatt and, prior to its sale to Berkshire Hathaway, the Marmon Group, a conglomerate of manufacturing and industrial service companies. Their holdings also have included the Superior Bank of Chicago (which collapsed in 2001), the TransUnion credit bureau, Braniff airlines, McCall's magazine, and the Royal Caribbean cruise line.
The Pritzker family is of Jewish descent and based in Chicago, Illinois. The founder of the American Pritzker family, Yakov (Jacob) Pritzker (1831–1896), was the manager of a sugar factory in Kyiv Governorate, on the territory of modern Ukraine. At first he lived with his family in the village of Velyki Pritzky, then in Kyiv. At the end of the 19th century, escaping from Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, he emigrated to the USA with his family. (Full article...) -
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The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts brand was the first motel chain in the United States, founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929. By 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas across the southeastern U.S., most controlled by a loosely knit group of a half-dozen investors and operating using common branding or architecture.
Marketed as "Alamo Plaza Tourist Apartments" using distinctive Mission Revival Style architecture, each formed a U-shaped court with multiple buildings fronted by a distinctive façade which mimics the face of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. These properties attempted to distinguish themselves from other motels or cabins of the tourist courts of their era by introducing amenities such as telephones in each room (1936), Beautyrest mattresses on every bed and later swimming pools and televisions in rooms.
The roadside tactic of using distinctive, non-standard architecture to catch the attention of passing motorists would later be used by other chains, such as the Wigwam Motels which served U.S. Route 66 travellers or the easily recognised orange rooftops of the original Howard Johnson chain. (Full article...) -
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Ira Glenn Goodart (August 5, 1885 – November 8, 1948) was an American railroad conductor, hotel manager, county commissioner and county treasurer. Goodart was raised in Friendsville, Illinois, a small community outside of Mount Carmel, Illinois, in a German Catholic family. After trying a variety of menial jobs Goodart took a position on the New York Central Railroad as a conductor. He held the position with the New York Central until he lost his right leg during a violent train crash in the early 1920s.
After a period of joblessness and a period of time as an alcoholic, Goodart found employment as a hotel manager at the Grand Rapids Hotel and during his tenure he increased the hotel's notability. He stayed five years and much of the time the hotel was in severe debt due to unsuccessful events planned by Goodart and flooding. In 1929, Goodart burned down the hotel under suspicious circumstances. Earlier that year the United States Senate Committee on Commerce had decided to remove the dam at Grand Rapids, which attracted many tourists to the hotel.
Following the hotel fire, Goodart entered politics and won seats in Wabash County's local government. Goodart served as an elected official for 19 consecutive years in various positions with the county and city of Mount Carmel. During his political career Goodart was a member of the Democratic Party and served as county treasurer, county commissioner, county assessor and ran multiple times, but was never elected, for constable and sheriff. Goodart died in November 1948, one year after reelection as county finance commissioner. (Full article...) -
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The Penhallow Hotel fire was a suspected arson attack that occurred in Newquay, Cornwall on 18 August 2007. Three people were killed and it was reported as the worst hotel fire in the United Kingdom in nearly 40 years. The hotel was a well-known hotel for holiday makers ranging from families to older residents. It had been built in Island Crescent between 1912 and 1917, and had been altered more than once. The building had a wooden fire escape at the rear, and a central light shaft running from the ground floor up to the roof in the centre of the hotel. Both of these aspects of the building played a dramatic role in the outcome of the fire. Many of those that escaped the fire were elderly holiday makers.
Police at the time concluded that the fire must have been started by an intentional act.
However the inquest returned open verdicts as the coroner said there was insufficient evidence to rule the victims were unlawfully killed. A link has been suggested between the fire and Karen Pedley, a serial arsonist at large in Cornwall at the time.
The remainder of the building was demolished, and the land has since been redeveloped as modern apartments. (Full article...) -
Image 14The Conrad Fort Lauderdale is a luxury condominium-hotel resort located on ocean-front property on North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The resort includes 181 condo-hotel units, as well as 109 condominium units in a separate building known as The Ocean Resort Residences. The project initially began construction in July 2005, as Trump International Hotel & Tower Fort Lauderdale. Donald Trump lent his name to the project through a licensing deal before being elected the President of the United States, with New York developer Roy Stillman and Bayrock Group as the project developers. The project's opening was initially scheduled for 2007, but was delayed several times.
Trump removed his name from the unfinished project in 2009, after the developer defaulted on the licensing agreement. By that time, lawsuits alleging breach of contract and misleading advertising had been filed against the project by several condominium buyers. Foreclosure for the project was filed in March 2010, and the building was sold in a foreclosure auction in March 2012. After several ownership changes and a $70 million renovation, the project opened in October 2017. (Full article...) -
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The King David Hotel (Hebrew: מלון המלך דוד, romanized: Malon ha-Melekh David; Arabic: فندق الملك داود) is a 5-star hotel in Jerusalem and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. Opened in 1931, it was built with locally quarried pink limestone and was founded by Ezra Mosseri, a wealthy Egyptian Jewish banker. It is located on King David Street in the centre of Jerusalem, overlooking the Old City and Mount Zion, and is named after the Biblical King David.
The hotel, owned and operated by the Dan Hotels group, has traditionally been the chosen venue for hosting heads of state, dignitaries, politicians and celebrities during their visits to Jerusalem.
It is also famous for the 1946 King David Hotel Bombing, when a terrorist attack by the Zionist organization Irgun targeted the hotel's southern wing, which contained offices for the British authorities during Mandatory Palestine, killing 91 people of various nationalities and injuring 45. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son Lee Hsien Loong donated the "unsolicited discounts" from their controversial purchase of condominium units to charity?
- ... that several murals from New York City's Hotel McAlpin were reinstalled in the subway after being found in a dumpster?
- ... that the Hotel Normandie supported the Leaders of the World?
- ... that the Algonquin Hotel keeps a cat in its lobby?
- ... that according to Jimmy Carter, "more of [Georgia's] business was probably conducted in the Henry Grady than in the state capitol"?
- ... that a restaurant in a Thai hotel serves "Chicken Volcano", a dish containing whiskey?
- ... that the Hotel Brexton in Baltimore was once home to Wallis Simpson, the American divorcée who married Edward VIII?
- ... that John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded Ono's song "Remember Love" in a Montreal hotel room that has been a tourist draw ever since?
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