Extra Room at the Inn as Hotel Biz Slows Down

Socialite's child apparently OD's in failed murder-suicide

(NEWSER) - An 8-year-old boy was found dead today in a luxury hotel in Manhattan after his socialite mother apparently botched a murder-suicide attempt, police say. Gigi Jordan, 49, was taken to Bellevue Hospital after being found "babbling incoherently" in her $600-a-night room at the Peninsula New York on Fifth Avenue. "She lawyers up right away," a source tells the Daily News . "She won't answer any questions." More»

Man in fleece suit will take off the chill for you

(NEWSER) - Do you love it when your bed has that already-slept-in feeling? Then Holiday Inn is the hotel for you, friend. The chain is testing human bed-warmers at three locations in England. Request the service, and “a willing staff-member” will don a one-piece fleece sleeper suit and slip between your sheets, heating them to 68° Farenheit. More»

(NEWSER) - Eliot Spitzer put Washington’s Renaissance Mayflower Hotel on the map with his Ashley Dupre tryst—and before Spitzer, televangelist Jim Bakker did a similar service for Florida’s Sheraton Sand Key Resort with Jessica Hahn. Travel + Leisure takes a look at a few other famous—or infamous—hotels:

• Al Capone ran a speakeasy out of the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla., in the 1920s.

(NEWSER) - The death toll in the suicide attack on a luxury hotel in Pakistan rose to 11 with at least 70 injured, reports the Times of London. At least two foreigners were among the dead at the five-star Pearl Oriental in Peshawar, though no more specific IDs were available. Still no claim of responsibility, but authorities suspect it's a Taliban strike in retaliation for the military offensive in Swat Valley. More»

(NEWSER) - The recession is igniting new hotel wars: not battles for customers, but between owners of luxury hotels and the properties’ operators, the New York Times reports. The owners are often struggling to keep up with big debt payments, hindered by a more than 16% average drop in hotel bookings across the sector. But operators are loathe to cut rates or amenities, saying that doing so will diminish a property’s brand. More»