Recession Pits Luxe Hotels' Owners Vs. Operators

Dukes in London is most recent to test the idea

(NEWSER) - In the new trend among high-end hotels, men need not apply. The ritzy Dukes in London is the latest to experiment with women-only rooms, notes Katy Holland at Aol . The idea is to cater to single females or women traveling in groups, and the no-boys-allowed rule applies even to the hotel staff that caters to the rooms. The Naumi in Singapore and Premier in New York City have similar offers, though a Denmark government agency recently ordered the Bella Sky in Copenhagen to stop offering women-only floors. More»

Champagne, butlers, and Maybachs, oh my!

(NEWSER) - To stay at the top of NYC's Four Seasons Hotel, you have to fork over $35,000 a night (no matter who you are—no discounts given). The four-room 4,300 square-foot Ty Warner Penthouse (named for the hotel's owner/Beanie Baby mogul) took 7 years to design and $50 million to construct. So what do your mega bucks get you? The Wall Street Journal takes a look:

• a personal butler on-call 24 hours a day
• unlimited room service (unless you want thousands of dollars of caviar; that's extra)
• living room carpet made of white silk, handmade Venetian silk bedspread, bathroom sinks made of rock crystal

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»

They may be cheap, but you really don't want to stay in them

(NEWSER) - Unless you like urine-scented rooms and hairs in the bathtub, you probably won’t want to stay at any of Trip Advisor ’s top 10 dirtiest hotels in the US. Below, a sampling of the user reviews:

1. Heritage Marina Hotel, San Francisco: “The second room ‘appeared’ clean until we realized the next morning that we slept with bed bugs.”
2. Days Inn Eureka/Six Flags, Eureka, Mo: “The smell was horrible. The floors and walls were dirty. There was food and beverage spilled and dried up all over the place.”
3. Tropicana Resort Hotel, Virginia Beach: “The ice machine produces dirty ice and is not fit to use.”
4. Super 8 Virginia Beach/At the Ocean, Virginia Beach: “There were hairs in the bathtub, and bugs on the counter.”

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»