Several major and midprice hotel brands will unveil a number of new properties in New York City in the coming months, even as they plan additional properties for the years ahead. The additional guest rooms and meeting space, developed either by hotel companies themselves or by private developers, will mean more choices and greater options for corporate travel and meeting buyers in a time when limited supply has helped to create the strongest hotel seller’s market in the United States.

According to NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism, marketing and events organization, New York’s guest room inventory currently stands at 72,150, a figure that is expected to rise by nearly 20 percent in the next three years.  Read more

Soon, smoking will no longer be allowed at Walt Disney Company’s 22 Orlando hotels and time-share resorts. The company is imposing the ban effective June 1. It currently permits smoking at designated outdoor areas. The theme park’s spokesman Jacob DiPietre said the transition will allow Disney to better accommodate the increasing number of guests requesting nonsmoking hotel rooms. He said the ban follows a 2000 measure that restricted smoking throughout Disney’s theme and water parks, limiting smoking to designated areas. Guests caught smoking after the ban could face cleaning surcharges up to $500.

There are some great sites out there. One that we like relates to Canadian Hotels and travel. The other is for summer computer camps for your kids or teenagers while you are on vacation. These summer camps are all around the country. If you are on vacation at a hotel in a strange city and are looking for some fun things to do check out these hard to find theater and concert tickets.

It is time for one of our most popular features, HotelChatter’s annual look at hotel brands with the Best and Worst WiFi experiences.

This year, we are going to boldly say that hotel WiFi landscape has reached an impasse. When we first started doing this report, hotels made our best list for offering up free wireless internet access. The next year, hotels made our best list for offering up free wireless internet access with a high degree of consistency across brands and locations. So we assumed that by 2007, more hotels would be offering free wireless and with greater consistency, seeing that guests love, need and want free WiFi. Alas, that is not what we found.� Read more

With 11 new hotels announced last month and its mid-market Centro brand set to debut this year, Rotana Hotels & Resorts has a lot of talk about at the ATM, says the company’s chairman Nasser Al Nowais. SHALU CHANDRAN sits down with him to talk strategy, finances and human resources

With nine new hotels scheduled to open in 2007, how close are you to reaching your target 42 hotels by 2008?
It is no longer, 42 – but we will be 53 hotels now by 2010.� � Read more

Embassy Suites Hotels announces the opening of its first property in Fort Worth, TX as the only upscale, all-suite hotel property in Fort Worth. The new Embassy Suites Fort Worth - Downtown, is owned and operated by Texas-based Pearl Real Estate, the same development and management company of the Embassy Suites Lubbock, which has won the brand’s prestigious “Connie Award,” named in honor of Hilton Hotels Corporation founder, Conrad Hilton, for two consecutive years, in 2005 and 2006.

“We are excited to expand the Embassy Suites brand to Fort Worth with Pearl Real Estate,” said Jim Holthouser senior vice president, brand management, Embassy Suites Hotels. “We are confident the high levels of customer service and satisfaction delivered in the Lubbock property will be brought to Fort Worth, propelling the brand’s commitment to customer satisfaction and loyalty.”� � Read more