The proposed $50 million downtown Birmingham entertainment district will have two hotels rather than one, according to architectural plans unveiled today.

Fred Keith, president of Birmingham’s HKW Associates, told board members of the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex that a second 130- to 150-room hotel will be built as part of the project. It will be adjacent to the Southeastern Conference headquarters building at Richard Arrington Boulevard and 22nd Street.  Read more

Larkspur Hospitality Development and Management Company, LLC, an affiliate of Larkspur Hotels and Restaurants, announced today that a Starwood Capital Group Global, LLC controlled affiliate has acquired its 11 Larkspur Landing extended stay hotels. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The hotels consist of 1,279 guest rooms and stretch from California’s Silicon Valley through the Pacific Northwest. Larkspur Hotels and Restaurants will manage all 11 hotels, which also will continue to operate under the Larkspur Landing brand.  Read more

With millions of Americans heading out on their summer vacations, PETA has been combing the country to find the best accommodations available for travelers who include their four-legged family members in their plans. The good news is that more national chains and independent hotels are welcoming companion animals than ever before, and PETA ranks Best Western, Loews, the Choice family of hotels, Starwood’s W Hotels, and Wyndham Worldwide’s affiliates as the top five most animal-friendly hotels in the nation.  Read more

FOR much of its history, the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan was not considered particularly upscale. Nor was it a prime tourist destination. But like many areas of the city, Chelsea has experienced rapid change — starting with an influx of high-end art galleries in the mid-1990s and continuing today with quick growth of luxury condominiums.

Now, in the midst of New York’s hot hotel market, developers are betting that Chelsea is ready to become a lodging destination for both tourists and business travelers.

According to data from Smith Travel Research in Hendersonville, Tenn., a provider of information to the hotel industry, upward of 2,000 hotel rooms are under construction or in the planning stages in Chelsea, with the more upscale hotels clustering closer to West 23rd Street and midlevel brands opening on the north end of the neighborhood, near 34th Street.   Read more

Lodging real estate investment trust Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. said Monday it completed the sale of six hotels to affiliates of DLJ Real Estate Partners for $150.5 million.

The properties include Hilton Garden Inn in Lake Oswego, Ore., a Courtyard and Residence Inn in Oxnard, Calif., a Courtyard in Riverside, Calif. and a Residence Inn and Hawthorn Suites in Sacramento, Calif.

Proceeds will be used to repay a revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes.

“This transaction will allow management to concentrate its efforts on a core group of large assets, which will more directly impact cash flows,” Sunstone Chief Executive Steve Goldman said in a statement.  Read more

Fifth Avenue shopping sprees. Plush bathrobes. Backstage passes to “The Lion King.” When it comes to staying at the country’s top hotels, kids today have as many luxe options as their parents.

Famous hotels—like the Homestead in Hot Springs, Va., the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, and the Kahala Hotel & Resort in Honolulu—as well as luxury chains like Four Seasons and Peninsula, are catering to families with young children, who are traveling together more than in the past, both to resort destinations and major cities.  Read more

The pioneering San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, which worked its way eastward, is looking west again — this time to Hell’s Kitchen.

An originator of the boutique hotel concept, Kimpton manages two hotels in Manhattan: 70 Park Avenue and the Muse, at 130 West 46th Street. Next spring, it will open a new $125 million hotel with 222 guest rooms at 653 11th Avenue, entering an area of the Far West Side of Manhattan that is distant from any existing hotels.

Converting a 1930’s printing plant on the west side of the avenue between 47th Street and 48th Streets and adding three floors, Kimpton will create the Vu, called that because of its 360-degree unobstructed vistas of the Hudson River and New Jersey, facing west, and the Midtown Manhattan skyline, facing east.  Read more

Innkeeper Elaine Crane defends the kindly spirit in a white nightgown that sometimes greets guests of Crane’s historic Painesville establishment.

“She’s friendly,” insisted Crane. Mistress Suzanne is more Casper than poltergeist.

She isn’t mean like the ghosts who terrify lodgers in the thriller “1408,” which checked into theaters Friday. The movie, based on a Stephen King story, is about the haunted hotel room in which jaded horror writer and ghost debunker Mike Enslin spends one horrific night.  Read more

Mobile in-room work pods, personal robotic butlers, voice-activated smart rooms where curtains are opened and lights turned down on command, air-permeable windows where fresh outdoor air is filtered through a smart window, a room that can morph into different configurations and environments at the touch of a button and virtual video conferencing so you can enjoy dinner with family and friends in other locations from the comfort of your hotel room

Welcome to your room at tomorrow’s inn, at least that’s what those involved in the Hotel of Tomorrow (HOT) project, a US-based group of experts envisioning the future of hotels, say.

An industry-spanning initiative put together by Hospitality Design magazine and Gettys, a Chicago-based design firm, HOT participants says that future hotels “will be multifunctional and intelligent, combining imagination with efficiency”, and that future guests will be able to create the type of room they want according to their wants and needs on the day.  Read more

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to eliminate artificial trans fatty acids from foods and beverages at its hotels in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean by the end of 2007, the White Plains-based company announced today. Its 400-plus hotels include the Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Le Meridien and W brands.  Read more