All articles tagged with #hotels
Italy's Court of Cassation ruled there is no legal obligation for hospitality venues to provide tap water, upholding a Dolomites hotel's policy of serving only bottled water and denying a tourist's claim for compensation.
A record 45 million Americans are traveling this holiday weekend despite gas prices rising and airfares up about 20%, with travelers adjusting by shortening trips, skipping hotel stays, or using airline miles to manage higher costs while overall travel demand remains strong.
Hotels say FIFA-blocked rooms for World Cup 2026 in major U.S. cities have largely been canceled, undermining projected tourism and GDP gains even as FIFA maintains bookings were managed under contract and occupancy may rise closer to kickoff.
A German court ruled a tour operator must refund a family about €986 for sunbed towel reservations, prompting hotels to tighten sunbed allocations and deter the 'dawn dash'; some properties now allocate sunbeds at check-in or remove unattended items, while travelers report varying success in enforcement.
Texas is hosting 16 World Cup games, but hoteliers in Dallas, Arlington and Houston say bookings are lagging behind expectations less than 40 days before kickoff, weighed down by high ticket prices, visa delays and anti-American sentiment abroad. Domestic travel remains stronger, but international visitors and hotel blocks are softer than FIFA-projected boosts, leaving cities to shoulder much of the tournament-related costs even as industry groups warn the gains may be more muted than hoped.
US World Cup host cities are seeing hotel bookings well below projections, blamed on FIFA cancellations and weaker international travel; Miami and Atlanta are the exceptions, raising concerns for local economies.
At the Browns’ groundbreaking for a new stadium, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell floated the possibility of Cleveland hosting a future Super Bowl, but emphasized the event’s infrastructure needs—especially hotel capacity and airport/overall facilities—as major hurdles, noting Cleveland currently has limited hotel space and would need substantial development to absorb the influx.
Experts warn that hotel elevator buttons are among the germiest surfaces in a hotel, capable of carrying viruses like flu and COVID for hours to days; targeted cleaning of high-touch areas and diligent hand hygiene can reduce infection risk for travelers.
At its Go-Get event, Uber unveiled a travel push including hotel bookings via Expedia (with Vrbo coming later), an AI voice booking assistant powered by OpenAI, and an in-app shopping feature via personal shoppers, plus travel perks like international Uber One credits and room-service delivery to broaden its all-in-one app approach.
Pittsburgh’s 19,000 hotel rooms were about 60% full for NFL Draft weekend, a reality check against the league’s 500,000–800,000 attendance hype; daily estimates run 100,000–200,000, but counting methods (three days and re-entries) inflate totals—still a big event, just not as large as the hype implies.
Travel-associated bedbug infestations are rising in the Southern U.S., with Georgia ranking sixth for bedbug service requests and Florida, Texas, and Tennessee also seeing increases tied to lodging with high guest turnover. Experts say budget-friendly accommodations and youth-hostel-style settings attract bedbugs, which spread by hitchhiking on luggage and clothing. Travelers are advised to inspect bags upon return and run exposed clothing in a high-heat dryer for 30–45 minutes to kill any hitchhikers before they spread home.
A Hong Kong couple in Shenzhen were filmed in a hotel room without their consent, with the clip uploaded to social media and streaming sites as part of a broader China-wide spy-cam porn industry exposed by a BBC World Service investigation. Although China has introduced hotel-camera checks, hundreds of hotel-room cams reportedly operate on multiple sites and apps, with thousands of clips circulating on platforms like Telegram. Victims fear exposure and stigma, adopt disguises in public, and NGOs say that tech platforms and regulators share responsibility for removing non-consensual content.
Budget hotels across the U.S. have become a frontline in protests against ICE, with activists staging late-night noise and last-minute bookings to pressure hotels to refuse service to federal agents. Chains face a dilemma between non-discrimination policies and potential backlash, as incidents such as Hilton dropping a Lakeville, Minn. Hampton Inn after a clerk was filmed allegedly refusing to rent to agents illustrate. The actions highlight tensions affecting immigrant-owned franchises and hotel workers during the immigration crackdown, with more protests anticipated in other cities.
Atari’s 2020 plan to open multiple video-game–themed hotels has largely stalled; Las Vegas’ project is officially dead, while a Phoenix location remains in development with renderings released in late 2025 and a projected late-2028 opening for a 72-room, 90,000-square-foot hotel. Other cities were floated but no hotels have progressed to construction.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his daughter Ju Ae, attended the inauguration of five hotels in the Samjiyon tourist zone, showcasing the country's economic development ahead of the upcoming party congress and highlighting the rising status of its people.