hotels articles

– THE SANTA FE INDIAN MARKET will be Aug.18, 7 a.m.-5 p.m., and AUG. 19, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., at the Santa Fe Plaza. It is free and open to the public. This is one of the most prestigious and longest- running American Indian art shows in the country. Information: www.swaia.org.

– THE VISIT SALT LAKE CONNECT PASS lets locals and visitors alike experience 12 of Salt Lake’s top tourist attractions for one low price. Each person must have a pass and may visit any of the participating attractions one time each throughout the day of activation. The pass is sold online at www.visitsaltlake.com, in the visitors center at the Salt Palace Convention Center and at participating hotels. It comes in the form of a scannable plastic card that may be used at the holder’s leisure. Scannable paper versions of Connect Passes are also downloadable online. A one-day pass is $18 adults, $14 children and $16 seniors
Participating attractions include: Children’s Museum of Utah, Red Butte Garden, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort (scenic foot passenger tram ride only), Thanksgiving Point Gardens and the Museum of Ancient Life, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Utah Museum of Natural History, Utah Olympic Park, Utah’s Hogle Zoo, Lion House Pantry Restaurant, Living Planet Aquarium, Clark Planetarium and This is the Place Heritage Park.
To further entice would-be vacationers, the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, which created the pass, is including two complimentary 3-day Visit Salt Lake Connect Passes with each vacation booking of at least three nights at participating hotel properties. Three-night Salt Lake packages start at $165 per room, double occupancy. The Visit Salt Lake Connect Pass promotion runs through July 31 and travel must be completed by Sept. 30. Promotion packages must be booked online at www.visitsaltlake.com or www.travelocity.com or by calling 877-SLC-4FUN.

– KUDOS FOR AMSTERDAM’S SCHIPHOL AIRPORT. At a ceremony in Zurich, Switz., it was named ACI Europe’s Best Airport for facilities that handle over 25 million passengers per year. The airports were judged on retail, security, facilities, environmental awareness and service, among other things. We can personally vouch for Schiphol’s incredible array of shopping (within the terminals as well as in the mall adjoining the terminals), the on-site hotel, art museum and restaurants. And the chairs. Did we mention the chairs? Unlike most airports, the chairs here are designed to be comfortable enough for dozing.

When I was young and foolish, I more than once threw toast and rice around during movie-hall screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” It seemed like the thing to do at the time. (Anyone so young and ignorant of classical culture as to be puzzled by that statement should ask an old person, that is, anyone of my generation, for elucidation.)

I mention this now because who turned up at a midnight showing in New York last weekend, toast in hand, but Jack Robbins, the son of Susan Sarandon, who was a supernaturally attractive 28-year-old when she starred in the film in 1975. Somebody recognized Jack, who’s 18 now, and, the N.Y. Daily News reports the emcee hauled him up onstage. Jack told the crowd that he was looking forward to seeing the whole movie, because until then his mom had never let him watch “the naughty parts.”
BIEL BOUNCES BACK

Recently I reported that Justin Timberlake sent Jessica Biel home after his Manchester, England, gig, to avoid being distracted. He did his Paris gig without her, but guess who turned up unexpectedly - - at least by me — this week at his Amsterdam and Stockholm hotels. Freakily enough, he also has his mother on tour with him, People mag reports. JT is 26. JB is 25. Mom isn’t saying.

BABY OFF BOARD?

Tom Cruise’s agent denied the rumors that he and Katie Holmes are expecting another TomKitten. The Sun and the Daily Mail both printed pics of Katie looking rather round, and stopped barely short of reporting a pregnancy as a fact. Katie is 28.

Things are turning around for the hotel Do Not Disturb sign.

There’s always been something a little steamy about the signs that hang on a door handle like nylons on a radiator. You feel empowered by shutting out the rest of the world. A road trip is successful if you can achieve this kind of anonymity.

I also hang one these signs on my apartment door.

The most traditional Do Not Disturb signs feature a fat man in pajamas and a night cap with zzzs floating out of his mouth. There’s the generic stuff about maid service, inviting the tired trick of flipping someone’s sign in the middle of the night. And there’s the electronic lock signs that slide in the lock while the guest is indisposed.
But now many signs point to branding and marketing.

A couple years ago, I stayed at the Marriott in downtown Louisville, Ky. The hotel had a colorful “I’m Hittin’ the Hay” sign to honor the city’s horse racing history. Hotel Allegro, 171 W. Randolph, used to have a sign that says “Composing a classic: Quiet Please.” The hotel’s current sign says: “No Autographs Please, Catching Up on Beauty Rest.”

“The story of the Allegro is ‘Be a Star,’ so we want to relate back to that,” said Ron Vlasic, director of hotel operations for Kimpton Hotels of Chicago. “We try to capitalize on being in the theater district. We’re also pet friendly, so we have a sign that signals there’s an animal in the room. We encourage people to take the signs. They’re only $1.30 a piece. People who have a pet love the animal one (”Grrrr. Caution, you are entering the temporary habitat of a very special creature”) to let neighbors know the dog is in the house.”
During the millennium New Year’s Eve, I stayed at the House of Blues in Chicago. The Do Not Disturb sign was a tribute to Little Richard’s “You Keep Knockin’ But You Can’t Come In.” I stole it.

Popular Chicago soul vocalist Kelly Hogan collects Do Not Disturb signs and even carries them on the road.

“Some hotels don’t have them,” she said last week after getting off the road with Neko Case and their appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” “And musicians, especially if you’re traveling in a van, will get to the hotel at 3 in the morning. When they see you with guitar cases, it’s automatically, ‘We gotta put them by the maid’s closet.’ That’s where we always end up. When we check in as late as 5, we’ll write little love notes with hearts on them that say ‘Day Sleeper.’ Maybe they should make Do Not Disturb signs that you can customize.

“Sometimes I’m compelled to lie on those notes. They don’t respect musicians sleeping in, but what if you said you were a brain surgeon who works the night shift? Neko collects them, too, and she’s more traveled than I am, especially worldwide. She has some great stylized ones.”

There’s an open door for all kinds of Do Not Disturb messages:

- “Sssssh, Downloading Celine Dion.”

- “Looking for Clues.”

- For baseball road trips: “Cub Fan Mourning” and “White Sox Fan Whining.”

- “Sorry. Mountain Dew still kicking in.”

- “Knocking Up.”

- “Let’s Get Lost” (and Chet Baker fell out of a hotel window in Amsterdam).

I used to collect these signs, but they were lost or tossed in one of my moves. I’ve reawakened to their glory. Each of the signs recalls a specific sundown or sunrise. There was the weird vibe of hearing Bob Dylan sing Warren Zevon and Neil Young covers at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas (although the electronic “Jackpot Winner” lock sign I have was from an evening at the Flamingo). I have a sign from a Bukowski tribute weekend with my pal John Hughes at the Hotel Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif. And there’s deep blue sign from the the funky Ambassador Hotel in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where during carnival my pal Tom and I always seem to be out of the room at sunrise.

On one of my vintage Do Not Disturb signs, I noticed a phone number for American Hotel Register in Northbrook. I tracked down Al Pasternak, whom the receptionist called “The Sign Man.” American Hotel Register is now in Vernon Hills.

American Hotel Register distributes products for hotels and motels in the United States and the Caribbean. “Signs are the only production part of the company,” said Pasternak, who has been with American Hotel Register for 14 years. “We use plastic on all our signs.”

American Hotel Register is to signs what Rand McNally is to maps. In a recent 12-month period the company sold 76,395 door-knob hanger signs and electronic lock signs. That translates to 1,469 a week.

That’s a lot of zzzs.

Pasternak, 59, does not come up with what to put on the Do Not Disturb sign. “We do whatever the customer wants,” he said. “Ours are generic, ‘Housekeeping in Room’, things like that, but we have done ‘Dog in the Room.’ I see how the whole industry is changing. Everything used to be so prim and proper. It’s like everything else today, you can say just about anything you want.”

Pasternak sent me a plastic door number 420 from a Baymont Hotel. He said 420 was the company’s most requested door number. I didn’t get it. I held the door number upside down and sideways to see if I was missing an optical illusion or something. I called Pasternak. He told me that 4:20 p.m. was the time of day the late Jerry Garcia suggested to kick back and light up. Where have I been? This invites another door sign: “Gone Truckin’ “

Britain’s most notorious drugs trafficker, and the only one to feature on The Sunday Times Rich List, has returned to the country a free man.

Curtis “Cocky” Warren amassed a [pound]85m fortune from the drugs trade before he was jailed in Holland in 1996. Last week, he was released after a successful court appeal.

On Thursday evening, Warren, 44, stepped off the ferry at Harwich, in Essex, looking fit and well and every bit as “cocky” as his nickname suggests. He was met by two men. After a 245-mile drive back to Liverpool, Warren popped in to see his mother, who has been unwell, then checked into a city-centre hotel at 3am.
But his journey home had not been plain sailing: Warren had attempted to book on an easyJet flight from Amsterdam to Liverpool, but the budget airline refused to carry him.

Warren had been expected to remain in prison until 2012, for organising a [pound]125m drug-smuggling operation. Jailed for 12 years, “Cocky” had an extra four years added to his sentenced for manslaughter after he killed a fellow inmate in a prison yard brawl. “Head-butting Curtis is a bit like head-butting a brick wall,” his solicitor Keith Dyson observed dryly at the time. Warren, brought up in Liverpool’s notorious Toxteth area, pleaded self-defence, but was found to have used excessive force in the fight. He appealed against the extra sentence.
Mr Dyson said yesterday: “The grounds for the appeal was that the evidence that was available didn’t really support the charges.” After speaking to his client as he arrived at Harwich, Mr Dyson said Warren wants to “get on with his life in a positive way”. Peter Walsh, co-author of Warren’s biography, Cocky, said: “News of Warren’s freedom will bring a new and very unwanted headache to a police force already involved in keeping the lid on a highly- volatile situation. Everyone knows how significant Merseyside and its criminals are in not only the national, but the international drugs trade, and here you have one of the most significant narcotics figures of the past 20 years coming home.”

Warren, who moved to the Netherlands in 1995 after a year on remand in Leeds until a drugs case was dropped, invested his ill- gotten gains in many countries in banks, property and casinos, a total believed to be about [pound]85m. He apparently has a photographic memory and can memorise bank account numbers.

He was said at one point to own almost 300 properties in Liverpool, hotels and petrol stations in Turkey, mansions in Merseyside and Holland and a Bulgarian winery.

British financial investigators were able to identify only a small part of his hidden wealth. In 2004, a High Court judge ordered a record [pound]3.5m of drug-smuggling money, which Warren claimed belonged to him, must be confiscated.

A former Customs chief, David Raynes, said: “This is one where you would think the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Inland Revenue and Customs will see what more they can do. Accountants and other people around Warren should be aware that if they sell property or investments on his behalf they may be open to criminal proceedings.”

Business Editors/Travel Writers

SALT LAKE CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 1, 2004

Acquisition of MyCall by STSN Expands Global Network,

Creates Europe’s Largest Provider of Secure Wired

and Wireless Broadband Services

STSN, the world’s leading provider of secure, managed broadband services for the hospitality industry, today announced the acquisition of MyCall, an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based provider of high-speed Internet access to hotels across Europe. The acquisition confirms STSN as the leader in broadband services for business travelers in Europe, and increases the availability of STSN’s iBAHN(TM) wireless connectivity to key venue partners throughout Europe.
With this acquisition, STSN’s secure broadband solutions will be available in approximately 1,000 partner hotels in Europe with a footprint extending across 13 countries including Germany, Benelux and the United Kingdom. STSN installs, supports and manages secure wired and wireless broadband applications, managed conference technology services and secure Internet terminals at 1,900 hotels worldwide.

“In the past 12 months, business travelers’ need for secure managed broadband services in Europe has exploded,” said Graeme Powell, managing director, STSN Europe. “The acquisition of MyCall, with their well-established partner and client base, allows STSN to meet the growing demands of business travelers quickly and effectively by offering secure broadband connectivity, wherever they travel, even if they are not carrying a laptop.”
“Like MyCall, STSN focuses on the needs of business travelers, thus this acquisition is a win for both hoteliers and their guests,” explained Michael Hagens, chairman and CEO of MyCall. “We’re pleased that this acquisition will provide STSN’s unmatched service and reliability to MyCall’s installed base of partner hotels, providing a competitive advantage that will drive business travelers and corporate meeting planners to STSN-supported properties.”

STSN also acquires MyCall’s sales force and technical staff, doubling its number of European-based employees in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain, to serve hotel partners and business travelers.

About STSN

Founded in 1998, STSN is the leading global provider of secure broadband-to-go for business at premium locations such as hotels and conference centers. STSN’s premium iBAHN(TM) wired and wireless solutions provide increased productivity and connectivity options to business travelers and meeting planners worldwide with secure, reliable, easy-to-use, broadband connections in more than 1,900 hotels in North America, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, including more than 265,000 guestrooms and hotel meeting rooms. STSN’s patented, end-to-end IP architecture uniquely delivers network monitoring, management and support capabilities that allow our venue partners to focus on hospitality, not technology. STSN’s worldwide headquarters is located in Salt Lake City.

pounds 153 FOLLOW in the steps of England fans to trendy Tallinn in Estonia for a short break, where two nights from July 17 start at pounds 153pp. Depart from Stansted for B&B at the two-star Stroomi Hotel.
pounds 195 RELAX in four-star luxury in Amsterdam, where two nights from June 22 cost just pounds 195pp including accommodation in a choice of four-star hotels and return flights from Edinburgh.
pounds 199 FLY to Prague with Airline Network, which is offering four nights at the five-star Hilton for pounds 199pp including return flights with Czech Airlines from Stansted between July 14 and August 21.
pounds 289 BAG a real bargain with a seven-night holiday to Orlando departing Manchester on June 14. Price includes return flights and room-only accommodation at the Ramada Inn Eastgate.
pounds 425 HOLIDAY like the stars in Las Vegas, where the blockbuster Ocean’s 13 was filmed. Airline Network have four nights at the three-star Circus Circus hotel and return flights with Northwest Airlines from Heathrow during December for pounds 425pp.
pounds 745 YOU can save pounds 218pp when you book a week’s B&B at the four-star Bandos Resort in the Maldives with Premier Holidays. Price is valid for departures on June 11, 16, 18 or 23 and includes return Sri Lankan Airlines flights from Heathrow and transfers. Bookings must be made by June 15.
pounds 769 BASK in the Barbados sun from just pounds 769 for seven nights, departing July 2. Leave Gatwick with British Airways and stay in the three-star Sea Breeze Apartments room only.
pounds 109 SPEND seven nights selfcatering at Aquasol Village Apartments in Cyprus from pounds 109pp. Flights depart from Bristol on June 20.
pounds 241 SAVE pounds 142pp on a seven-night holiday to Sharm El Sheikh, leaving June 17. Included in the price are return flights from Gatwick, transfers and B&B at the three-star Ocean Bay Hotel.

Financing the Future II–Report 4: Joint Ventures with Physicians and Other Partners touts the success of a particular type of specialty hospital joint venture between a hospital system and physician investors and promotes it as a strategic model of how hospitals can respond to escalating revenue and cost pressures.

There is no question that hospitals face a growing list of challenges. The list is all too familiar to HFMA members: shrinking public financing, increasing numbers of uninsured patients, and preparedness planning to respond to mounting public health threats–from bird flu and natural disasters to terrorism, to name just a few.
The solution, however, is not to encourage the proliferation of physician-owned limited-service hospitals, which research shows to exacerbate these very problems and undermine the fiscal foundation of full-service community hospitals. It is indeed ironic that the joint venture report, highlighting the so-called “Baylor model,” is part of the Financing the Future series. By their very nature, physician-owned specialty hospitals, which deliver only the most highly profitable services, will accelerate a medical arms race and hasten a “bankrupt future” for community hospitals and the networks of care that they provide.

The Core Issue Is Conflict of Interest
The core, and corrosive, issue is the conflict of interest inherent in self-referral. Physician self-referral motivates well-documented abusive behavior, such as cherry-picking patients and increased utilization, which leads to windfall profits for physician owners and weakens classic community hospitals. Conflict of interest also motivates others to get into the game through various schemes, euphemistically labeled “joint ventures,” that in fact, may implicate various anti-kickback and tax laws.

Considering all of the above, we must ask ourselves if a full-service community hospital that enters into a joint venture with a physician-owned limited-service hospital has entered into the healthcare equivalent of a Faustian bargain, which Webster’s dictionary defines as a deal “done for present gain without regard for future cost or consequence.”

This is not to say that specialty hospitals, in and of themselves, are evil. Many community hospitals have responded to community needs and legitimate competition by developing wholly owned units or facilities focusing on cardiac or other limited services. Self-referral is not an issue in these situations because the community hospital, offering a broad spectrum of healthcare services, retains full ownership and operational control.

A recent comment by Robert Meidell, medical director of Harris Methodist Heart Center specialty hospital, wholly owned by the established community hospital Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, illustrates this conflict. Taking the most profitable service away from Harris Methodist and locating it down the block “might be good for me, but it’s not good for Harris hospital or for the community,” he remarks. “You can’t carve out the most financially viable services and expect your community hospital to take care of the rest.” (a)

How did we get here? The growth of physician-owned specialty hospitals emerged more than a decade and a half ago with the enactment of federal laws banning physicians from referring patients to facilities in which the physicians were invested. However, Congress included in these laws an exception allowing physician self-referral to “whole hospitals.”

At the time, lawmakers considered whole hospitals to be what conventional wisdom said they were: traditional, multiservice community hospitals with full-service 24/7 emergency departments that served as the epicenter of the community healthcare delivery network for all citizens, regardless of income, insured status, or medical condition. In such a setting, no individual physician or groups of physicians could realize a sizeable financial gain through a specific referral. Congress did not and could not reasonably foresee the proliferation of today’s physician-owned specialty hospitals that, notwithstanding their state hospital licenses, most closely resemble subdivisions of hospitals, to which Congress explicitly prohibited self-referral. Because of this striking resemblance, arguably, physician-owned specialty hospitals should not be sanctioned, but instead, subjected to enforcement. (b)

Richardson, a sales training and consulting firm, has announced the launch of a new Web-based Consultative Selling Diagnostic Assessment Tool as a part of its sales, service and sales management performance improvement solutions. Richardson’s new Consultative Selling Diagnostic Assessment Tool was created to provide salespeople with insights into their sales approach and effectiveness. It consists of 24 targeted sales performance-based questions drawn from Richardson’s 27 years of experience and research in working with large sales organizations. As salespeople respond to the 24 questions and make sales strategy and skill decisions, each participant receives specific and confidential feedback on his/her strengths and areas for growth. The data provide salespeople with an awareness they can use to maximize their strengths and develop plans to close skill gaps.
The Consultative Selling Diagnostic Assessment Tool can be used stand-alone or integrated with Richardson’s Consultative Selling classroom and/or interactive Richardson QuickSkills e-learning training programs. Developed with Skill Measure, a developer of assessment and diagnostic tools, the Consultative Selling Assessment Tool complements the Developmental Sales Coaching Diagnostic Assessment Tool for Managers.

MEXICO - Barbara Molvar sold her own business last year and then put her experience to use in a new venture selling businesses. Approximately 20 percent of all companies is for sale at any one time, says Molvar, creating a business opportunity for someone who can bring buyers and sellers together.

Molvar opened Amazing Business Broker to connect those looking to open a business with those seeking to exit. She operates the company from her home in the Town of Mexico. Business partner Rebecca Raymond owns half the company The pair spent $7,400 on startup costs, mainly for new office equipment says Molvar.
A successful broker earns a 10-percent fee on the sale of a business, she says. Amazing Business Broker hasn’t closed a sale yet but has two listings on its Web site (www.amazingbusinessbrokers.com).

One listing is for a restaurant and the other is for a Black Angus cattle farm. Molvar is in the process of obtaining her real-estate sales license, because some sales involve real property as well as business assets.

Molvar concentrates her efforts on Central New York businesses. She is also working with buyers who seek a particular business opportunity.

Last fall, she sold DeRegis Walser Monuments, a gravemarker company she created by combining two family-owned businesses in Syracuse. Trained in social work, she put her skills to work for Prudential Insurance before embarking on a career as, an entrepreneur in 1997.
Molvar purchased the Walser monument company in 1997 because she believed that the aging baby-boomer population would soon create a boom in the monument business. She also believed she could implement more efficient practices that could make the business more profitable. In 2000, Molvar purchased the DeRegis monument company and combined the two entities. She bought the businesses with the intention of selling the combined company. Enea Family Funeral Homes purchased the assets of DeRegis Walser in October and added it to its line of monuments businesses.

Molvar advises her clients to follow the same steps she used to prepare her monument company for sale. One of the keys to readying a business for sale is to ensure that every aspect of its operation is written down, she explains. Molvar spent many hours creating an owner’s manual for her company that explained the smallest detail a future owner might need.

“I even wrote down the procedure for starting up our old truck,” says Molvar.

Because many circumstances can force the sale of a business, finding companies for sale is not a problem, she explains. Finding a willing and financially able buyer is more difficult.

Bringing buyer and seller together is only the first step in a successful sale, says Molvar. The parties must agree to a deal and perform due-diligence to ensure each will get what’s expected from the transaction. Details such as whether the sale will involve only the assets or the stock of a business entity must be agreed upon.

The price of the business can also present a point of contention that can scuttle a potential deal.

One of the themes stressed at the recent annual meeting of the American Machine Tool Distributors ‘Association (AMTDA) was developing new sources of revenue by providing customers with products and services that create value over and above the typical equipment transaction. For machine tool buyers, the distributor is likely to become a deeper, broader resource for manufacturing technology.

J. Michael Parks, a principle and managing partner of the Indian River Consulting Group, suggested ways in which members could leverage their core competencies to diversify their revenue streams. He noted the importance of anticipating “critical equipment events”–foreseeable circumstances when a buyer is likely to consider a capital equipment purchase.
This presentation was followed by a panel in which two members discussed their successful experiences with ventures that moved them beyond the traditional role of machine tool sales. For Clark Smith, president of Smith Machinery Co., the venture was partnering with an independent service organization to help buyers get more productivity from equipment purchases. For Michael Tierney, president of Morris TriState, this meant developing fee-based services offered at each of the five “value points” in the purchase cycle (plan, source, implement, operate and dispose). For example, to help buyers find sources for the appropriate technology, his company can facilitate the value stream mapping process, one of several lean manufacturing techniques in which Morris TriState is competent.