Embassy Suites Hotels have announced the new launch of its popular “Snap Happy” family vacation photo contest with a “Happiness in Motion” theme, encouraging participants to capture the family travel journey – both physical and emotional - on film. From planning and packing, to activities and discoveries and all the way through to the arrival back home, Embassy Suites wants to see it – in pictures.

Throughout the summer, Embassy Suites Hotels are encouraging families to enter the contest by submitting their favorite summer 2007 photos online to the Snap Happy site where kids and families can also find downloadable travel games, fun travel music and ‘virtual’ photo postcards to send to families and friends around the world.   Read more

The Hampton hotel brand opened 15 new hotels across the country in May, including a 71-room hotel in Woodland.

The Woodland Hampton Inn & Suites is right off Interstate 5 in the Yolo County seat. The hotel is about 15 miles from the wildly popular Cache Creek Casino Resort in the rural Capay Valley.

All of the new Hampton hotels are franchised newly constructed hotels.   Read more

Major hotel chains, big consumers of resources such as power and water, are starting to change their environmentally wasteful ways and design “greener” buildings.

Although most efforts are in their infancy, Hilton, Marriott and Wyndham are encouraging the building of eco-friendly and energy-efficient hotels.

Building green hotels isn’t about fetching higher rates. Hoteliers view it as an advantage at a time when customers want to patronize green businesses, and hotel operators want to cut high bills for electricity and water.  Read more

An industry known for its privacy is flirting with the public, as Japanese love hotel funds look to entice retail investors with attractive returns.

For decades, young Japanese couples and secret lovers have rented love hotel rooms by the hour, the experience enhanced by novelties such as rotating beds, ceiling mirrors and karaoke machines.

Today many of the hotels look somewhat shabby compared with their heyday in the bubble economy of the 1980s, but hold out the promise of sweet returns for investment funds that renovate and securitize them for the debt market.  Read more

Epoque Hotels goes to Italy. The American company continues to excel in establishing the most coveted collection of acclaimed luxury boutique hotels in the world, and is getting ready to introduce itself to the Italian public in Milan. On June 7th, 2007, Epoque Hotels begins the European campaign in the first city of Lombardy at the Hotel Enterprise, offering a conference dedicated to tourist professionals, followed by a cocktail reception open to the public. Attending the conference also the K-West Hotel & Spa - London, Hotel Tourville - Paris, Mirò Hotel - Bilbao, Hotel Gran Central - Barcelona and the 3.14 Hotel - Cannes, some of the finest properties of the collection.  Read more

Who doesn’t love a memorable meal? Especially when on vacation! And while Mexico Boutique Hotels’ entire collection of one-of-a-kind accommodations offers food and drink as exceptional as the venues they are served in, the following epicurean possibilities will be of particular appeal to ardent gastronomes and connoisseurs of the good life.

Celebrating the art, culture and taste of the Mexican table, the luxuriously intimate 16th century Casa de Sierra Nevada in San Miguel de Allende hosts the Sazon school of Cooking. You can opt to immerse yourself or merely dabble in all things gastronomic — taking trips to local mercados (markets) laden with produce from Mexico’s fertile heartland, indulging in wine tastings and gourmet dinners featuring regional cuisine, and learning the tricks of the trade from local and visiting chefs who share fabulous heirloom recipes. Among the names long synonymous with Mexican cuisine are prolific cookbook authors Diana Kennedy and Patricia Quintana.  Read more

In the same week that Paris Hilton hits the headlines with the start of her jail sentence, the Hilton group has announced a major new development, which will see 55 new hotels built by 2012.

The cost of the project will be $1.7 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, with hotels planned in Russia, Britain and Central America.

Eleven major Russian cities will see the 25 new hotels planned for the country, including Moscow and St Petersburg. Read more

Nickelodeon has joined forces with hotel group Marriott to create 20 themed hotels carrying the Viacom children’s channel’s brand.

In what is believed to be a first for children’s television, the Nickelodeon branded hotels will be built in 20 destinations around the world, including the UK, the Caribbean, Australia and the Middle East.

The first is expected to be built in San Diego, America and will open before 2010.

The hotels, called Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott, will be branded on the outside and will cater for families with features including children’s activity areas.

A special feature of each resort will be state-of-the-art pools and water features, plus live entertainment programs featuring popular costumed Nickelodeon characters like Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants.  Read more

Five motels on the Southern California coast recall beach vacations of the past, when stopping at a motor inn was part of the journey.

There aren’t many of these old places, but there are a few — lovingly maintained and still welcoming company the old-fashioned way. Outside, a neon sign flickers whether there is a vacancy. Inside, the lobby is just big enough to accommodate the front desk and perhaps a coffee pot.  Read more

A San Diego hotel where rooms start at $450 a night is setting itself apart with a racy atmosphere featuring group showers and firemen’s poles.

The Ivy Hotel, which also features scantily clad waitresses and bottles of wine for $500 to $600, could put a dent in San Diego’s self-described reputation as “America’s Finest City,” the Los Angeles Times reported.  Read more