NEW BOUTIQUE HOTEL:
‘ACE HOTEL’

The hotel of choice for some of the hippest of travelers is now the Ace Hotel. It's a unique new boutique hotel chain of four locations in New York, Palm Springs, Portland, and Seattle. Ace has been called “the country’s most original hotel by the New York Times and a “mega-chain waiting to happen” by Wallpaper magazine.

Now this hotel chain has just announced a partnership with The Impossible Project, the group creating instant film for Polaroid cameras. They're encouraging guests to capture the spontaneous moments of their experiences at the hotel's four locations so Ace is stocking each guest room with a refurbished Polaroid camera and custom packs of instant black and white film in the mini-bar.

The Ace Hotel's New York branch is hosting a gallery show at the hotel. It began September 12 and it goes until October 14. It includes work from artists. Hotel fans and Polaroid enthusiasts also have the chance to exhibit. They can contribute their own photos for a second show in 2012.

If you can't make it to one of Ace Hotel's four destination cities, The Impossible Project kit ($150) including a camera and film, is available for purchase. The first Ace Hotel opened in 1999. Three friends purchased and transformed a Seattle halfway house into an affordable hotel that would appeal to the creative class.In 2007, another friend joined the team, and a second hotel was opened in Portland, followed by Palm Springs in 2009 and New York in 2010. The style and furnishing of each Ace property is designed to reflect its location, with an eye towards re-imagining properties that are “challenged.”

DUBAI HOTEL:
NASA-TEST BED SHEETS

Dubai’s fanciest hotel has sheets tested by NASA and the biggest Turkish bath in the Middle East. Inspired by the extravagant Ottoman Empire, hand painted frescoes adorn the walls and ceilings of the recently opened Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel in Dubai. The luxurious hotel has NASA-tested bed linen and suite baths big enough for 12.  Developed by Zabeel Properties, the five-star hotel on Dubai's Palm Jumeirah has 42 individual spa rooms, three Turkish Hammams (or baths), 38 villas situated on the beach and two bars fully equipped with cognacs, cigars and chocolates paired by an in-house sommelier.

Prices start at $227 per night.

HOTEL TREND:
SNORE FREE ZONES

If you’re going on a business trip, here’s some news you might want to  know about. There is now a hotel chain that is introducing snore free zones: The Crowne Plaza. The international chain has introduced snore absorption rooms and snore monitors. Half of couples, they say, lose between one and five hours of sleep per night due to snoring and three in 10 couples have come close to splitting up because of snoring. The people in the next room are often the problem they say. Snorers will stay out of the so-called quiet zones. The snore-proofed rooms are currently being tested at 10 hotels in the Middle East, and Europe while the sleep police are walking the halls of hotels in the United Kingdom.

BUSINESS TREND:
CANADIAN HOTEL INDUSTRY DOWN

In year-over-year measurements, the Canadian hotel industry is down 1.7-percent in occupancy. Now it’s at 68.9 percent at an  average daily rate of CAD$129.46. Among the provinces, Quebec reported the largest occupancy increase, rising 7.6 percent to 75.1 percent, followed by Nova Scotia (6.2 percent to 75.3 percent) and Manitoba (+5.3 percent to 73.1 percent). Ontario fell 7.3 percent in occupancy to 64.9 percent, reporting the largest decrease in that metric.

HOTEL TREND:
LINEN TECHNOLOGY TRACKING

Hotels everywhere are finding up to 20 percent of their towels missing because people are taking them to the beach and leaving them there or simply taking the towels home.The solution being used in many hotels now is
“Linen Technology Tracking.” It tracks the location of the towel using a chip. The chip triggers an alarm if you leave the premises with the towel. The reason for this trend is that cotton prices have gone up, which means the price of linens are up. Some hotels have seen up to $15,000 savings since last summer and monthly towel theft less than a quarter than it was before.

TRAVEL OPPORTUNITY:
JOIN STING IN TUSCANY

Want to party with celebrities? How about in Tuscany in a couple of months? Trend setting companies are now putting together trips to intriguing destinations with iconic hosts. The trips deal with wine, sports, entertainment and global culture.So how about partying with Sting in Tuscany? AuthentEscapes has a vacation vineyard wine trip June 2 - June 6 at his villa in Italy.

Travel designer with national travel agency, The Travel Network, Eirini Demetlin says 300 people can go. Yes, Sting can have 300 people in his backyard at his villa. The trip is called Vino Paradiso.

Here's what you get to do:

Day 1: Opening night concert with famous violist Joshua Bell, followed by a dinner at the Four Seasons.

Day 2: Gala dinner at a palace in Florence, Palazzo Orsini

Day 3: Tutored Tuscany winemaking class and wine tasting.

Day 4: Country lunch hosted by Sting and his wife TrudieStyler at their private estate.

To book, you could contact Eirini directly at 514.789.2146, or toll free at 1.800.731.2226. You could also contact her by email at eirinid@thetravelnetwork.com

HOTEL TRENDS:
FOUR SEASONS AT BEVERLY HILLS 'SUITE DRIVE'

Four Seasons Hotels, Inc., the luxury hotel management company continues to offer clients the best of the best and at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills they keep outdoing themselves. This hotel is still the place to be when in Los Angeles. Now you can enjoy a Suite Drive with Four Seasons Hotel at Beverly Hills', exciting new program that includes access to ultra-luxurious cars for suite guests in the City of Angels.

I sat down recently in a suite overlooking Beverly Hills with its elegant General Manager Mehdi Eftekari, in charge of one of the region's elite hotels. This Four Seasons serves business and leisure travelers but it's the magnet for show-biz types working in movies, television and music. The majority of press junket interviews are conducted there and I have spent much of my 15 years working and doing celebrity interviews at this hotel. It has been a home away from home and I have loved every minute of the serenity and superior service I have received upon every single visit. It’s truly amazing the standards that never waiver.

Hotel staff are taught to protect celebrities from intrusions and not ask for autographs, photos or otherwise fuss over the famous.

"We train our people to be friendly, not familiar" says Eftekari

The hotel is now setting trends with its new luxury car program called the “Suite Drive.” It gives guests exclusive access to ultra-luxurious vehicles such as a Bentley, Ferrari, Rolls Royce Phantom and Lamborghini during their hotel stays. When guests book one of the hotels 36 newly renovated suites, they can choose form a selection of exotic and luxury cars, depending on the suite category at no cost, other than fuel and insurance.

True luxury car aficionados who book the Royal Suite or one of the two Presidential Suites will be rock stars for the night with an exotic ride in a Rolls Royce Phantom, Ferrari F430, Ferrari California, Bentley Flying Spur, Maserati, Bentley GTC, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes-Benz SLS, Mercedes-Benz
S600 or Porsche 997.

Guests who book a One-Bedroom Suite, Luxury Suite, Premier Suite or Grand Luxury Suite will receive car options including a Cadillac, Mini Cooper, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Volvo.

Four Seasons can also arrange for guests to receive their cars at the airport at no additional cost, and valet parking is included throughout their stay.

Mehdi says that Four Seasons service is more than a philosophy, it’s a culture. It’s what they do in their 84 hotels in 34 countries. The company recently celebrated its 50th birthday. It is constantly thinking about the guests and how they could please them thus creating loyalty.

Travel + Leisure magazine and Zagat Survey rank their properties among the top luxury hotels worldwide and the company has been named one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" by Fortune every year since the survey's inception in 1998.

Presidential Suite West

Highlights of the 2,398-square-foot (223-square-metre) Presidential Suite West at five-star Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles include a black marble foyer, spacious living and dining rooms and an adjacent bedroom. The six step-out balconies offer views of Beverly Hills and the Bel Air hills.

1. The living area boasts a baby grand piano, a fireplace and a dining area.

2. Host a private dinner party for eight using the dining-room table and adjoining state-of-the-art kitchen.

3. Watch TV in the living area or the master bedroom on the 60-inch (152-centimetre) plasma-screen TV with home theatre surround-sound system, and enjoy a movie using the DVD player or NXTV system, which provides 50 television channels, pay-per-view movies and video games.

4. High-speed Internet is accessible through the phone or the NXTV system.

5. In the master bedroom's marble bathroom, enjoy the privacy of the walk-in closet, separate dressing area, large vanity, deep tub, shower, telephone and flat-screen TV.

6. A marble bathroom adjoins the second bedroom, and a guest powder room with shower is adjacent to the living area.

7. Take advantage of our exciting new Suite Drive with Four Seasons programme, which provides guests staying in one of our 36 newly renovated suites with access to ultra-luxurious vehicles during their stay – for no rental fee. Certain conditions apply. This offer is subject to availability and standard-rate bookings.

To reserve this room:
- Contact the worldwide reservations office
- Call the hotel reservations department at 1 (310) 786-2227

*Photographs are an example of room quality only. Some items may have been rearranged or added, and views may differ. Please refer to the written descriptions for specific physical details and views.

HOTEL TREND:
ZERO CARBON HOTELS

There are zero carbon hotels opening in Europe. As governments introduce incentives for green businesses and pressure grows on the travel industry to green-up its act. Expect to see more travel businesses focusing on eliminating, reducing and measuring their carbonfootprint from 2011 and beyond.

In fact, there are even plans for positive-impacthotels in Asia. URBN Hotel announced plans for a new green hotel that will become the first positive-impact hotel in China. The hotel is slated to open Spring 2012 in Shanghai and will aim to go beyond sustainability. The hotel will increase the biodiversity of the site, and will discharge water that is cleaner than the water from the city’s water supply.

TRAVEL TREND: STASH HOTEL REWARDS

Now turning to travel trends.

Get acquainted with Stash Hotel Rewards - founded by former Expedia head.

The new service organizes lots of small, unconnected independent hotels into one big reward points network.

One hundred hotels have signed up since May with new properties inquiring daily. These are chic, historic, one-of-a-kind hotels, like the The Lenox in Boston, Little Palm Island in the Keys, and the Sunset Marquis in L.A.

You earn a free night for every five stays and never hear the phrase blackout datesapply, because there aren’t any.

RITZ CARLTON:
LISTENING TO ITS CLIENTS

Ritz Carlton is known as the best. How can you take an iconic brand and keep relevance with such changing customer interests and so many new hotels coming into the marketplace?

Simon Cooper, CEO of Ritz Carlton says he strives to be relevant. His customer base is really broad. He has those who enjoy more traditional settings but he also has a growing number of global customers whose lifestyles are very different.

He explains, “My job and the job of my team, I see it, is to continue to guide the organization through an evolution, not a transformation, there’s nothing broken, there’s nothing wrong, but our customers are changing. We have to continue to track that change or we will lose relevancy as a brand over time.”

HOTELS: HOW TO UPGRADE

Hotel upgrades and how you can get them:

Just because you booked a standard room, doesn't mean you have to stay in one. Experts say:

1. Go where there are empty rooms
During the economic downturn, certain destinations have had lower occupancy rates, particularly those with high room counts: Las
Vegas, San Francisco, New York, Hawaii and Orlando and Florida.
"Hotels that can't sell expensive suites bump people up so they can resell the standard rooms, which are in higher demand.”

2. Book the right way
A luxury travel agent who's affiliated with a network such as Virtuoso or Ensemble Travel can sometimes get you bumped up to the next room category.

3. Go standby
Hyatt recently partnered with e-Standby to allow guests booking on Hyatt.com to pay a small fee, as little as $30, for the chance at a space-available upgrade. Hilton Worldwide has a similar program.

4. Be card savvy, even savvier than you have been
At many hotels, booking with a Centurion or Platinum card from American Express (Travel + Leisure's parent company) can get you a better room, in some cases automatically. Charging everyday purchases on a hotel-affiliated credit card can help you earn upgrades too, regardless of whether you're actually staying at the hotel.

LAS VEGAS: CITY CENTER


Las Vegas now has its own urban core - a 67-acre city-within-a-city that's redefined the skyline and Las Vegas Blvd. As I drove in, my eyes opened wide as I tried to look high enough to see the sprawling development right in the middle of Vegas. Truly a city within a city.

It's called CityCenter™ and it's an 8 1/2 billion dollar development (1.2 billion dollar in debt) and there has never been anything like it.

In Vegas as a whole, overall, visitation is down about 3 per cent but the city expects to gain it all back by the end of this year. 36 million visitors came in 2009 and 37 and a half million are expected this year. Currently home to three luxury hotels, condos, world-class designer shopping and the Cirque Du Soleil Elvis Show - the greatest part about CityCenter™ is that it's one of the world's largest environmentally sustainable urban communities. Nowhere in the world does this exist. ARIA Resort & Casino™ is the focal point. Next door, Vdara Hotel & Spa is smoke-free, non-gaming and houses the spa. A very sleek all-suite boutique hotel with a sophisticated international flair and outstanding structure but financial troubles hit the entire complex, as it opened in the height of the recession December 2009. As far as the spa itself and what I thought of it, you know I love to bring you the latest spa news weekly but I didn't see it. The publicist told me it was nice. I also wasn't able to check out the rooms so it's not something I can tell you about - but - I can tell you the complex has to be seen. The fountains and water features are outstanding and the architecture striking. The Vdara structure is directly connected to Bellagio® and adjacent to the new, ARIA. Bellagio® is not attached but is an MGM property. In Vegas, the mother companies encourage tourists to visit all their establishments keeping it all in the family. I had a chance to take the tram, which connects the various buildings. It was great, felt very Jetsons and I wish the ride was longer, I could have just gone round and round looking up at the massive structures for an hour. CityCenter™ MGM MIRAGE™ earned six distinct Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council. Vdara used wood products from responsibly managed forests; high efficiency water use - both inside the building and outdoors; alternative fuel options for limousines; and an improvement of more than 30 percent in energy efficiency over standard building codes. Crystals, the shopping and entertainment district of CityCenter™ will have all its stores rented by the end of the year according to Farid Matraki - Vice President and General Manager of Crystals. He says each month another huge designer store is opening and by the end of the year, he says, the entire complex will be leased. Stores include a 15,000 square foot Gucci store, a 5,000 square-foot mens and ladies Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton has built one of the their biggest stores in North America here and Prada is opening a 17,000 square-foot store soon. Overall, my tour of CityCenter™ impressed me visually, as design elements are so original, there was nothing I could compare it to anywhere in the world. The views are beautiful and the choice of dining abounds (although I didn't try any of it) I did find the lighting in the casino to be dark and cavern-like, a distinct lack of benches for people to sit with bags and just bask in the beauty around them were non-existent other than one stone bench in the ARIA lobby, and without seeing the rooms and spa I can't recommend but it is something you have never seen before so walk through, the grandeur is spectacular. I had a chance to speak to the very personable Alan Feldman, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for MGM Resorts International. He said very urban CityCenter™ is very much a view of what Vegas will look like in the future, great architecture, walking paths, food and great art. He said it's a nice juxtaposition to what else Vegas has to offer. When asked how he felt about the recession hitting his development, he replied that they are there for the long haul and when things turn around, CityCenter™ be front and center.

TRAVEL TREND: VEGAS BEACHCLUBS


Visitors who haven't been to Las Vegas in a few years are in for a surprise: It's gone upscale. The city is now filled with posh hotels, restaurants and designer stores.

I just got back from a full week of working there and I had a chance to check out a few hotels in depth. The one that is the only Forbes 5 Star Diamond resort now is - Steve Wynn's Encore. Just when you thought he had reached great heights with Bellagio and then Wynn, he outdoes himself with Encore.

It truly can't be compared to anything else in Vegas.

Right now, the biggest trend in Vegas are the so called Beach Clubs. No beaches, but lots of pool parties, gorgeous people, DJ's, and sexy bodies parading the deck. Now, the party doesn't end when you leave the nightclub, it goes on right through the day.

Vegas' hottest pool party takes place at Encore Beach Club. The 60,000-square-foot venue features 40-foot palm trees surrounding three tiered pools. A more private Encore Beach Club experience can be had at one of the 26 cabanas outfitted with refrigerators and flat screen televisions.

At the center of the Las Vegas nightclub evolution is Sean Christie who, with his partner, has joined forces with Steve Wynn to operate Encore Beach Club and Surrender Nightclub. Christie started his Las Vegas club career at House of Blues in Mandalay Bay in 2000. He went on to open Light in Bellagio and then Blush in Wynn Las Vegas. Christie says "There's no one like Steve Wynn. He doesn't follow the trends, he sets them, always looking around the corner." He says "Nightclubs have kind of transcended being an amenity. For a lot of people, gambling was the No. 1 reason they came here…a restaurant or nightclub could be that No. 1 reason now."

When I spent the day at Encore Beach Club, it truly was a scene out of a movie, its opulent design, amenities in the cabanas and bungalows, has definitely raised the bar for pool parties.

TRAVEL TREND: ‘TOGETHERING'


Now turning to the latest travel trend called ‘togethering'. Multi-generational family gatherings are more popular than ever before. Unlike the typical vacation of the past that involved just Mom, Dad and the kids, older and younger generations are traveling together more. Sharing a vacation is a way for grandparents, parents and children to book some quality time and make memories especially when so many kids live away now. A recent poll of American Express travel agents found that 69% of them were booking trips for adults, children and their parents. The same percent saw grandparents traveling exclusively with their grandchildren, and 67% planned trips for family and friends traveling together as one large group.