The Aloft Hotel chain has invested in a new look for its website promoting the hotel with different features. This new development will allow users and guests to have a completely different online experience when browsing the hotel.

Among some of the new features, people can find themselves in the website with:

-An Insider’s Virtual Tour
-Destination Map and City Guides
-Gaming and Trivia
-Aloft Radio

Mr. Brian McGuinness, Starwood’s Senior Vice President has commented about the website: “Since Aloft’s groundbreaking virtual launch in cyberspace in partnership with Second Life, the brand has been leading the way in providing the most dynamic, high-tech experience for our guests.”

Undoubtedly, the investment will provide more traffic and attention than conventional hotels’ brand.

The IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) has recently announced the development of a six-story full-service Holiday Inn in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The new building will be standing up in Escazu, one of the most sophisticated and residential neighborhoods of San Jose. The new Holiday Inn will be part of the Riverwalk Business & Plaza Shopping Mall of the area and it will have a total of 163 rooms.

This area has a variety of stores, restaurants and a business center where businessmen gather together for meetings and to socialize.

One of the great advantages of this hotel is that it will be just 30 minutes away from San Jose International Airport. The new Holiday Inn in Escazu is scheduled to be ready by 2010.

In a time when recession has seemed to hit the hospitality industry, it is rare to find expansion like the one the Baymont Brand is planning.

The Baymont Brand will open a 59-room Baymont Inn & Suites Hotel by the area of the Falls hotels in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Since 2006, the Baymont Brand operated by PHI Properties Inc., joined the Wyndham Hotel Group family and they have not stopped expanding since they agreed the partnership.

The new hotel in Ontario will feature a host of complimentary amenities including high-speed wireless internet and daily breakfast served at the brand’s style. It will also feature an indoor pool, fitness center, hot tub and meeting facilities.

The Baymont Inn & Suites by the Falls hotel is located at 5234 Ferry Street, just a 10 minute walk from The Falls, the Skylon Tower, local casinos and many other area attractions.

Hotel Owners are extremely concerned about the drastic stock drop in the past days. According to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Wall Street, the FelCor Loding Trust shares went down 13.5% while Host Hotels & Resorts fell almost 9%.

Mr. Patrick Sholes, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets commented: “From a technical trading perspective, the direction of their stock prices seems to be approaching their 200-day moving average. Breaking through the threshold is not a positive for the stock.”

Travelers have not been around as much as they used to with the country in recession. Hopefully, the situation will change and the hospitality industry is positive that this drop will have a turnaround.

The Choice Hotel International Inc. has announced that it will host a conference to be held on July 30th, 2009 in which they will report the revenues for the second quarter of 2009.

They announced that they will give a complete report of its revenues after the market closes on Wednesday July 29th, 2009. The company will hold the conference to discuss its second quarter earnings at 10:00 am EDT on the following day.

There will be a dial-in number to have access to the teleconference 1-800-599-9816 and the access code is 81224116.

If interested in the conference from abroad dial 1-617-847-8705 and enter the following access code: 81224116

Without a doubt, Disneyland’s hotel needed a renovation ten years ago, however, the enthusiastic Disney company called it a “historic” building with no need of restoration at the time.

The hotel located inside the park was built in 1955 and it hasn’t been remodeled since that time, but representatives of the Disneyland firm have finally become aware of the building’s needs for restoration.

The old and outdated hotel will have a major rehab featuring extensive and exterior facelifts and a complete upgrade in its physical structure.

The renovation will take some time, but they are planning to have it done in time for the 2012 debut of Cars Land and Disney’s California Adventure.

The Radisson hotels chain has opened its second Boutique Radisson Blue Property in Paris offering modern design highlights and views of the Eiffel Tower.

According to the Rezidor Hotel Group, the Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan was previously the Haussmanian building that has now been renovated by Francois Champsaur. The hotel’s interior plays with notions of space and perspective in contrast to the 19th century.

The hotel features ten suites, five of them have an unrestricted view of the Eiffel Tower. Its Eiffel suite has private access to the pool and has a floorspace of 430 sq. mts. A truly amazing suite to spend a honeymoon or just relax in the lap luxury, all under the fazing lights of the Eiffel Tower.

In a recent announcement, the director of the Trade Service Division of China’s Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Di Jiankai, has released the information to the media that China expects to build 10,000 green hotels by the end of 2012.

The main idea behind the building of these hotels is to cut down cost of appliances and consumption. According to the release they are planning to open 1,000 hotels in 2009, 2,000 hotels in 2010, 3,000 hotels in 2011 and finally 4,00 hotels in 2012. This gives us a total of 10,000 hotels in a gap of 3 years.

By doing so, the costs of water consumption will be reduced 20% while the electricity will also drop by 20%. The carbon dioxide emission will fall by 45,000 tons over four years.

This is a challenging project in which time will be a key element to accomplish the goal of opening the 10,000 green hotels.

At the recent seminar “A Taste of Spain Travel 2009″ held in London this past week, Mr. Paul Evans, founder of the Lowcost Group, said that the destination country should launch a massive TV advertising campaign, like they do in Egypt.

Egypt is the target of a massive campaign every year that runs from September to March in which TV adverts primarily focus on promoting Spanish beaches.

During the conference, Mr. John McEwan, the chief executive of Advantage Travel Centres, commented: “At a time like this you need to make sure you can get your message across quite clearly to the consumer about what a great destination Spain is, what great value for money it is”

Most of the hotels in Spain are all-inclusive and this is what guides tourists’ bargain-seeking instincts. Mr. Hugo Morgan, director of Monarch operations, commented on this topic that: “Politically, all-inclusive is frowned upon quite strongly in Spain because it is looked upon as putting everybody in the hotel, not spending their money in the local resort.”

The GBCblue stands for Guest Computing Systems and there are currently over 700 systems located in hotels worldwide.

This innovate system started to be popular in 2003 when some hotels began to implement it in the United States. However, it’s becoming more and more popular at hotels worldwide. The system is currently available in the U.S., Canada,Caribbean and in the United Kingdom.

The system is easy to use. Guests can connect to the internet while being in their room and they can download the hotel’s menu. They place their order, which is billed to their rooms, and food is delivered to their room. The system is also used in requests for services such as additional towels, housekeeping and wake-up calls.

The Omni Hotel in Irving, Texas has been testing the online order application since last year, but hotels like the Starwood have already approved the use of GBCblue’s technology.